Video Fridays: THE GREEN HORNET in "The Silent Gun"

We're introducing a new weekly feature "Video Friday"

Followers of this blog are well aware of how much of a fan I am of The Green Hornet (and Kato, natch) in his various incarnations.
While the 60s tv series is not yet available on official dvd, it is available on YouTube.
Here's the first broadcast episode "The Silent Gun" (but NOT the pilot, "Programmed for Death", which was the third episode aired) in three segments.
Enjoy!



Next week: "Give 'Em Enough Rope"

The Silver Age Green Hornet by Gil Kane

As The Green Hornet tv series went into production in June, 1966, the producers realized that there was no existing art showing the title character or his sidekick, Kato.
Actually, there was plenty of art, but it was of the previous, differently-costumed, 1940s version...

So, the producers commissioned new "key art" for promo and licensing purposes.
They chose noted comic book artist Gil Kane to produce the new graphics.

Using early costume-test photos (above: showing different masks used only in the pilot episode "Programmed for Death" and no gloves) as reference, Kane did several pieces which became the basis of almost all the merchandising art on various tie-in products including the Captain Action costume, playing and trading cards, and the sole paperback novel based on the tv show, Green Hornet in the Infernal Light (used on the back cover as seen below).

We've acquired 1966 original posters of the primary key art piece and digitally-remastered and restored them both on collectibles in our Icons line and as limited-edition posters Pop-Art #5 (Hornet) & Pop-Art #6 (Kato)!

With a new feature film set for January, now's the time to get the latest Secret Chic items to wear to screenings (or to class) or put on your bedroom, dorm room, or den wall!

Frankly, It's Frankie! (Frankenstein, that is!)

As Halloween approaches, we thought we'd take a look back at one of the best horror comics series of all time (and toss in a free plug while we're at it!)
Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein began life in Prize Comics #7 (the same issue that introduced The Green Lama to comics) and continued over several years going from a relatively-straight sequel to the Mary Shelley novel to all-out comedy, all drawn by the same artist, Dick Briefer (who also created the series The Target & the Targeteers.) and continuing to the point when Prize Comics became Prize Western Comics.
By then, he had his own title, also played for laughs, which ran for 17 issues.
Of particular note was Prize Comics #24, where The Green Lama, Yank & Doodle, The Black Owl, and other Prize Comics heroes teamed up as "The Prize Fighters" to deal with the assumed threat of the Monster, much as various Marvel heroes tend to team up to try to tame the presumed threat of The Incredible Hulk!

By the mid-1950s, with horror comics a hot genre, The Monster was revived as a straight horror title with #18 and running thru #33, with Dick Briefer still at the artistic helm.
This is the period Golden Age fans still speak of in respectful hushed tones (although technically, it's not the Golden Age).

Old-timers may also note the logo was adapted for the first (and only) issue of Calvin Beck's Journal of Frankenstein, a b/w magazine which was retitled Castle of Frankenstein for the remainder of it's run. (It was one of the better competitors to Forrest J. Ackerman's long-running Famous Monsters of Filmland).
There have been several reprints of the Briefer material including Ray Zone's 3-D Zone, Michael T. Gilbert's Mr Monster's Hi-Shock Schlock, and AC Comics' Men of Mystery, and most recently, Idea Men Productions' trade paperback (ISBN-10 1419640178, ISBN-13 978-1419640179)
AC Comics also did an updated, villainous version of the character, called "Frightenstein"* in a number of their titles, and Dynamite Entertainment's Project SuperPowers has incorporated him as the conceptual basis of the "F-Troop" reanimated-corpse soldiers.

Knowing you can't keep a good monster down, Atomic Kommie Comics™ has revived The Monster as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ collectibles line just in time for Halloween with six classic covers (including #18, his first horror-era appearance) adorning such items as tote bags (perfect as trick-or-treat bags), mousepads, blank sketchbooks, mugs, and, of course, shirts.
In addition, we now have a Frankenstein 12-Month calendar featuring the a dozen of the best of both the humor and horror versions!

Personally, I'm gonna be wearing one of them on Halloween.
Only question is, which one? ;-)

*"Frightenstein" was also the name of a short-lived 1970s syndicated tv series called The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Vincent Price did a number of intros to segments.

Salute the Fighting Yank!

Our story starts in June of 1941...and in 1775.
At a critical point of the American Revolution, George Washington himself entrusted messenger Bruce Carter with vital information.
Carter was captured, tortured, and killed by the British, taking his military secrets to the grave, and vowing to return when danger threatened the Colonies.
Flash-forward to 1941, Carter's great-great-grandson Bruce Carter III, a rich idler obsessed with history sees patterns forming that will lead to the USA soon becoming involved in the World War raging in Europe and Asia! But what to do? He's only one man, albeit an extremely rich layabout!
The ghost of his ancestor appears and leads him to a trunk in the attic of the Carter estate, where Carter III discovers his ancestor's personal effects, including his cape!
Donning the cloak, Carter III is granted amazing powers including super-strength and limited invulnerability. (He can't be killed, but he can be stunned.)
Wanting to disguise himself, Carter rummages thru the attic and dons a tricorn hat, breeches, buckled shoes, a domino mask, and a shirt which he sews an American flag decal to!
Thus garbed, the newly-christened Fighting Yank takes on local saboteurs for "unnamed foreign powers" until December 1941, at which point, the "unnamed" spies became German and Japanese operatives!
In a twist, besides giving Carter III his powers, the Revolutionary War ghost pops up to warn or advise his decendant about danger, and even occasionally transport the Fighting Yank garb to the non-costumed (and thus helpless) Carter III, who apparently didn't wear his costume under his street clothes like most superheroes!

Fighting Yank fought the Good Fight, first in Startling Comics, then his own title and the anthology America's Best Comics, until 1949, when superheroes gave way to an explosion of horror, crime, and Western comics.
He was revived in 2001, when Alan Moore brought him back, but quickly killed him off, so he could introduce a NEW Fighting Yank; Bruce Carter III's daughter, while Carter III took over his ancestor's role of ghostly aide to the present Fighting Yank!
In 2007, Alex Ross revived the Fighting Yank as the lynchpin for the new Project SuperPowers line of comics which incorporates numerous characters from defunct comic companies into a cohesive universe!

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have also revived Fighting Yank, taking the best of his classic 1940s cover art (including his first and last appearances), and emblazoning it on t-shirts, mugs, 12-month calendar, and other kool kollectibles in our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line!
If you want to "fly the flag" in a kitchy (yet kool) way, check out The Fighting Yank!

And don't forget Project SuperPowers, the best Golden Age revival on the stands!

Blazing Action with...the Blue Bolt!

In the 1940s, comic books were the equivalent of videogames today.
Everybody was publishing them, even the staid Saturday Evening Post!
Their comics line was Novelty Press, and to create the lead character, they commissioned young up-and-coming writer/artist Joe Simon.
Simon came up with the concept, plot, and character designs and produced the first issue.
But, by the second issue, his workload between this and other projects was so overwhelming, that to stay on deadline (Yes, there was a time when comics artists actually MET deadlines!), he partnered with another young up-and-comer, Jacob Kurtzburg.
You know him as...Jack Kirby!
(In the '60s he would, with Stan Lee, co-create The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor...basically 95% of Marvel Comics' Silver Age line-up, almost all of whom are still going strong today! Yeah, THAT Jack Kirby!)
Thus, with The Blue Bolt, the legendary Golden Age team of Simon and Kirby born!

As to the character himself...he was a football star who was struck by lightning (twice), recovered, flew his private plane to get help, crashed it so hard that it fell thru to the center of the Earth where the inhabitants of an advanced civilization used radiation to save and improve him, was given a costume and weapon, and sent to battle the local super-villain, The Green Sorceress.
And that was just the origin story!
Then things really got busy!
It took a year for Blue to both fall in love with, and finally defeat, Greenie.
Then realizing World War II was under way, he went to the surface to battle the Axis.

Simon & Kirby moved on to create other, even higher-profile, projects (Captain America, Newsboy Legion, Young Romance, etc.) but Blue Bolt chugged on, surviving until the early 50s, when, after changing from a superhero to horror title, it was laid to rest as a result of a public outcry against comics led by Dr. Frederic Wertham.

We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have resurrected the Blue Bolt, including his first appearance, his (in our opinion) BEST cover, and his final Golden Age cover appearance!
For a fan of the Golden Age of Comics, Jack Kirby, or the Blue Bolt himself, any of our shirts, mugs, mousepads or other goodies would make great back-to-school, birthday, or holiday gifts (espeically combined with one of the kool books below)!
Show the fanboy (or fangirl) in your life you know what they like!