Showing posts with label dramatic radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dramatic radio. Show all posts

Monday, October 3, 2022

Russkie-Smashers GREEN HORNET "Proof of Treason" Conclusion

Why does Mayoral candidate Wilkes Sherman hire a criminal to bomb the home of nuclear scientist Professor Baldwin?
When the police track down the bomber, an assassin kills him before he can talk.
The Green Hornet, who followed the police to the bomber, trails the murderer back to Sherman, and discovers the politician is actually a Commie spy!
In addition, he learns Professor Baldwin is a former Communist now working for the US, and the Russkies want him brought back behind the Iron Curtain!
When The Green Hornet enters the meeting, the assassin tries to shoot him, but the Hornet KOs the killer with his gas gun.
The Hornet then makes a deal to grab the professor and turn him over to Sherman for $5,000. (It was 1953, remember?)
As a free bonus to Sherman, he'll "get rid" of the unconscious murderer (whom he turns over to the police along with the murder weapon.)

Curiously, the Green Hornet radio show ended in 1952...but this issue of Dell's Four Color Comics (#496) was published in...wait for it...1953!
Note: The second-to-last page of the tale is black-and-white rather than four-color because it appeared on the inside back cover (Both the front and back inside covers were black and white to save money).
The final page of the story was the comic's back cover...in four-color, of course!
The radio episode the comic story is derived from aired 10/17/52 during the final season of the show.
It's available, digitally-remastered, on the Radio Spirits cd collection Green Hornet: Endpoint (which features the final episodes of the show, yet uses the cover of the Hornet's first comic book as it's cover), which you can order below.
And, you can listen to a un-restored version of the episode...

(Click on the title to open player in a new window)
The Green Hornet and Kato didn't appear again in comics until early 1967, when the first issue of their Gold Key series, based on the tv show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee, was published.
Please Support Hero Histories
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(which includes the radio episode this comic story is adapted from!)

Monday, September 26, 2022

Russkie-Smashers GREEN HORNET "Proof of Treason" Part 1

"He Hunts the Biggest of All Game: Public Enemies Even the G-Men Cannot Reach!"
"With his faithful valet, Kato, Britt Reid, daring young publisher of the Daily Sentinel, matches wits with racketeers and saboteurs, risking his life so that criminals and enemy spies may feel the weight of the law by the sting of...The Green Hornet!"
How will the Hornet do that?
Be Here Next Monday for the Conclusion!
This tale, adapted by writer Paul S Newman from one of the last Green Hornet radio episodes and illustrated by Frank Thorne, appeared in Dell's Four Color Comics #496 (1953), a book that featured one-off appearances of various characters to test their sales potential.
Please Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Order...
(which includes the radio episode this comic story is adapted from!)

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Dynamic Duos in Classic Film Blogathon: LONE RANGER & TONTO "Part 1"

The first movie appearance of the Lone Ranger and Tonto...
...might not qualify as a "Dynamic Duo in Classic Film" entry...
...since it features five Lone Rangers!
Let me explain...
Republic Pictures did a movie serial in 1938 based on the already-legendary radio show.
However, Republic was notorious for using the comics and radio shows they based their serials on more as inspirations than adaptations, playing fast-and-loose with the concepts and characters, sometimes keeping little more than the name and costume.
In this case, while the idea of the Lone Ranger being the sole survivor of a massacre is kept, there are five different Texas Rangers (none of whom are named John Reid) who are now working together to solve this case!
And none of them will admit to being the sole survivor of a massacre!
But only one can be the Lone Ranger!
Which one?
Only Tonto (Chief Thundercloud) knows, because the only times we see him on screen is when the Ranger is in costume...
...and the Lone Ranger wears that odd mask that covers his entire face, making it impossible for the audience to deduce which Texas Ranger he is!
The serial has a "whack-a-mole" feel as one-by-one the Rangers are trapped and killed until only two remain.
One dies at the end of the penultimate chapter, and, while it's shown the Lone Ranger survives until the end, he's not unmasked until the end of the serial and we discover which one he is.
The owners of the character were so pissed at how the Ranger was portayed they ordered all prints and the negative of the serial destroyed!
The current versions on video are composited from prints sent overseas.
And look, you can see it for yourself...

(The current versions on video are composited from prints sent overseas.)
However, Republic's contract gave them the option to do a second serial if the first one did a certain level of box-office sales.
It did very well, so Republic went ahead with a second serial a year later, but since the original Ranger, Lee Powell, was in trouble with both the movie studio and radio show for making personal appearances as the Lone Ranger (see poster above), he was replaced by Robert Livingston as the Ranger, now disguised as "Bill Andrews".
Chief Thundercloud (Victor Daniels who was half-Native American) returned as Tonto.
It was a typical Western serial, well-done, but not really as good as the first Ranger production.
But then, you can judge for yourself, here...

When next the greatest duo in Western fiction appeared on the big screen, it was in the form of the definitive Lone Ranger and Tonto from the small screen, as you'll see at our "brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™, later today!
And see many, many other "Dynamic Duos in Classic Film" at this LINK to the blogathon participants!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Reading Room: GREEN HORNET FIGHTS CRIME "Flirt with Death"

While breaking up a racket, The Green Hornet inadvertently reveals his secret identity to Linda Travers, a Daily Sentinel reporter secretly working for Britt's father, Dan Reid...
(Don't worry, you didn't miss a Hero Histories™ blog entry!
The previous entry was at our brother blog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™.)
The secret identity exposure storyline took place over four episodes of the radio show...
"Exposed" 10/28/47 (which we covered HERE.)
"Graft Crosses a Bridge" 11/4/47
"Too Hot to Handle" 11/11/47
"The Man on the Top" 11/18/47
...which were condensed into two eight-page stories in Green Hornet Fights Crime #43.
You can hear the Green Hornet radio episode, "Too Hot to Handle", that contributed primary story elements to the comic tale, HERE.
The art on this final (and never-reprinted) tale from Green Hornet Fights Crime #43 (1949) is presumed to be by Al Avison, but I believe he only did the pencils.
The inking looks a lot like Lee Elias, who was doing, among other things, The Black Cat for Harvey.
The writer of the comic adaptation is unknown.

This entry is part of our Retroblogs™ Masks Marathon, celebrating the new Dynamite comic series Masks which combines, for the first time, the major masked mystery men of pulps and comics including The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, and Miss Fury (ok, a masked mystery woman), among others.
We'll be presenting more never-reprinted stories featuring these characters throughout the month of December.

And don't forget to visit...

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Shiwan Khan's House of Horrors" Conclusion

...why do I even need to show up?
The comic itself does the work for me!
See you at the end of the story...
As of this story from Archie's The Shadow #3 (1964), Jerry Siegel replaced Robert Bernstein as scripter.
Paul Reinman had taken over from John Rosenberger as artist for the remainder of the run, as well as assuming art chores for most of Radio Comics (renamed Mighty Comics' shortly after) line of books including The Mighty Crusaders, and Fly-Man.
for goodies featuring other Silver Age heroes, besides The Shadow!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Shiwan Khan's House of Horrors" Part 1

In the 1960s, many classic comic and pulp heroes were revived...
...some not quite as successfully as others!
Be here tomorrow for the campy conclusion,
and, as they used to say on Batman...
Penned by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Paul Reinman, this tale from Radio Comics' The Shadow #3 (1964) is easily one of the low points of the career of He Who Knows What Evil...!
Apparently seeing The Shadow adapted to a high-adventure/spy format was not selling in comics as well as it did in paperbacks like this...
...the staff at Radio Comics (Archie Comics' 1960s superhero line) decided to go into full campy superhero mode instead, dumping the cloak and slouch hat and giving him a hideous costume and some gimmicks, while retaining the ability to "cloud mens' minds".
Unfortunately, we still remember these never-reprinted stories...

for goodies featuring other Silver Age heroes, besides The Shadow!