Reading Room Annex: THE GREEN HORNET in "Masquerade"

For a change of pace, here's a short from the third and final issue of the Silver Age Green Hornet's short-lived title based on the TV series.
Script by Paul Newman.
Art by Dan Spiegle, who illustrated all the tales during the Gold Key run*.

*It should be noted that Gold Key comic books rotated artists, basically using anyone who had time in their schedules, so it wasn't unusual for an ongoing series to use, for example, Mike Sekowsky on one issue, Don Heck the next, and Dan Spiegle, the one after that.
It resulted in some wildly-varying "looks" for licensed characters especially ones based on live actors and actresses, since some of the artists were better caricaturists than others...

And don't forget to check out...

The Classic Green Hornet Store
or the kool Green Hornet stuff below from Amazon

Reading Room Annex: THE GREEN HORNET in "Crime at Floodtime" Conclusion

The original art for the cover for this issue

When last we left our hero...

The Boy Heroes were watching a TV broadcast of The Green Hornet's latest adventure as he battles a group of criminals using a captured Japanese mini-sub to loot a flooded town.
Lenore Case, assisting Britt Reid in covering the flood for his newspaper, The Daily Sentinel, was captured after she inadvertently stumbled upon the crooks' base of operations in an abandoned lighthouse.
Casey manages to activate the lighthouse's lantern, in the hopes of signaling help...

You'll note at this point in time, Casey doesn't know her boss, Britt Reid, is The Hornet.
She admires The Hornet and believes he's a misunderstood "good guy", not a notorious criminal.
Within a year she'll learn her boss' secret identity both in the comics and on the radio show.
Speaking of which, most of The Green Hornet comic stories were based on radio show scripts.
This one, from All-New Comics #13, was not.
The scriptwriter is unknown, but the artist is Al Avison.

The Boy Heroes were a group of non-superpowered teens who battled everything from spies to ghosts.
Every comics company had at least one such group during the Golden Age, almost all of them created by the team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, including DC's Newsboy Legion and Boy Commandos and Timely/Marvel's Tough Kid Squad. and, as we see here, Harvey's Boy Heroes!

Since Dynamite's Green Hornet Golden Age Remastered title is cancelled as of #8, we'll be "filling in the gaps", presenting the GH stories they didn't get around to printing, which will pretty much be the Harvey and Gold Key runs as well as the Dell one-shot.

We hope you've enjoyed your first visit to our new Reading Room Annex.
Bookmark us and visit often.

And don't forget to check out...

The Classic Green Hornet Store

or the kool Green Hornet stuff below from Amazon

Reading Room Annex: THE GREEN HORNET in "Crime at Floodtime"

Welcome to The Atomic Kommie Comics™ Reading Room Annex*!

We're starting off with a never-reprinted Golden Age story from All-New Comics #13 featuring The Green Hornet...on TV...in 1946!
Commercial TV broadcasting did begin in 1946, but coast-to-coast transmission wasn't a reality until 1951, and color broadcasting was over a decade away!
Yet Simon & Kirby's Boy Heroes not only have a device that receives "coast-to-coast" signals, but it's in color as well!
Enough about the technical side! Let's see what a Green Hornet TV show might've looked like in The Golden Age of Television...

Will The Green Hornet rescue Casey?

Can he foil the submarine bandits?

Is that TV set cable-ready or high-def-enabled?

The answers to some of these questions will be found right here...tomorrow!

Same Blog-Time!

Same Blog-Feed!

*Our "parent" blog, Atomic Kommie Comics™presents these tales in their Reading Room, but since many of you who link to us don't link there, we're re-presenting these tales several days after their initial appearance. (Of course, if you linked to ATC, you'd see these stories several days earlier...hint, hint!)

And don't forget to check out...

The Classic Green Hornet Store

or the kool Green Hornet stuff below from Amazon

Video Fridays: CAPTAIN NICE: Pilot Episode

Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

Yes, this promo art was by Jack (King) Kirby!

In January 1966, Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward debuted on ABC.
This set off a wave of Bat-Mania, and all three TV networks scrambled to add superhero programming to schedules already crowded with science fiction and fantasy programming ranging from Man from U.N.C.L.E. to My Favorite Martian!
While one or two, like The Green Hornet, were done seriously, most of the new shows were not even campy tongue-in-cheek like Batman, but flat-out comedies!
The best of the new shows was the brainchild of Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry, who was asked to to to superheroes what he had done to spies, hopefully with similar ratings.

"My mom made my costume!"

Broadway actor William Daniels was cast as police chemist/mamma's-boy Carter Nash who gained short-term super-powers by drinking a formula he accidentally created.
Along with veteran performers Alice Ghostly (Carter's overbearing mother), Liam Dunn (annoyed Mayor Finney), Bill Zuckert (inept Police Chief Segal) and newcomer Ann Prentess (police Sgt/Carter's dense-but-cute girlfriend Candy Kane), the show tried it's best to capture the style and flavor that made Get Smart a hit.
It didn't.

It was amusing, and Daniels tried his best, but a limited budget caused a lot of the super-stuntwork to misfire, ruining the jokes.

After only 15 episodes, Captain Nice was cancelled.
Maybe if they had done a crossover with Get Smart...

There was some merchandising including a one-shot comic book, a novel written by the same author who did the Get Smart books, and a limited-distribution batch of trading cards, all of which are HTF.
It's not out on DVD, and unless you videotaped it when it ran on Comedy Channel around 1993-94 (like I did), the only place you'll find it is on bootleg dvds or YouTube.
Here's the pilot/origin episode "The Man Who Flies Like a Pigeon".
Enjoy!

Criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot...

"...so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts."

Radio announcer Tony Trent, decided to fight crime after witnessing a murder committed by gangsters disguised as cops.

But what could he do with no evidence and criminals who have an unshakable (albeit phony) alibi?
Since a bat didn't fly thru his window, he decided to use a fright mask and pretend to be a creature of the night to scare the criminals into confessing.
The tactic proved so successful, Tony managed to use it for over 60 issues of Big Shot Comics as The Face, as well as two issues of his own title before discarding it, and continuing until Big Shot Comics ended as just a hard-hitting investigative reporter, operating without unusual garb or gimmicks.

He's been revived a couple of time since then...
In the 1980s, Ace Comics' What is...The Face?, drawn by comics legends Steve Ditko and Alex Toth ran four issues.
In 2007, as part of Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers series, The Face (now called Mister Face) was one of the heroes trapped in a mystic urn in the 1940s, but released in the present day with enhanced powers, and is unable to remove the mask!
Now, he can force people who look at him to experience their greatest fears!

And, of course, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have revived The Face as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line, including three of his best 1940s covers on t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs and other kool kollectibles!
But that's not all!
His unique cover logo is included in our Comic Cover LogoWear line, where the best of Golden Age cover lettering ends up on your chest or bookbag!
Plus, he'll soon be part of our Icons of the Golden Age of Comics series!
So, if you're looking for a comic hero who's scary, or a hero who's visually-kool, or a hero who kicks butt, go with The Face! He's all that...and MORE!

And don't forget to buy Project SuperPowers Volume 2, featuring The Face, I mean MISTER Face!