If you are a certain age, you cannot listen to Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee without thinking of the Green Hornet.
The Green Hornet debuted on January 31, 1936 on Detroit radio station WXYZ -- the same station that had debuted The Lone Ranger. It was created by writer Fran Striker and station co-owner George Trendle; Striker had previously created The Lone Ranger while working for Trendle; Striker would go on to create Challenge of the Yukon, aka Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, for WXYZ in 1939. The Green Hornet was the crime-fighting alter ego of Britt Reid, a young crusading newspaper publisher. The conceit of the series was that Britt Reid was the son of Dan Reid, Jr., the nephew of the Lone Ranger. Reid is aided in his battles against crime and corruption by his valet, Kato.
The Green Hornet very popular and soon moved to, first, the Mutual Broadcasting Network, then to NBC Blue, the Blue Network, and ABC Radio, ending its run in 1950, then returning briefly for a near-three-month run in 1952. It spawned two movie serials, a short French film, and a 2011 film. A reboot has apparently been in development hell since 2016. Van Williams and Bruce Lee starred in The Green Hornet television series in 1966-67. A proposed animated, updated series has been in development since 2020. The character also appeared in three Big Little Books (1940-1942) and in two television tie-in novels (1966); in addition, the character has appeared in at least three Green Hornet anthologies from Moonstone Press since 2009.
Two early proposed comic strips were rejected by Trendel, who finally approved a comic book line from Helnit Comics. Green Hornet Comics ran for six issues beginning in December 1940. The Helnit comics adapted storylines from the radio shows. The comic book was taken over by Harvey Comics with issue #7. Harvey's Green Hornet Comics were anthologies, and included stories about other characters, rather than focusing strictly on the Green Hornet as the Helnit comics had. The Harvey series lasted until 1949 with issue #47. The Green Hornet also made guest appearances kin several of Harvey's other comic books. Dell Comics published a one-shot issue about the character (Four Color #496) in 1953, and Gold Key put out three issues tied to the television series in 1957. NOW Comics began a line of Green Hornet comics in 1989. and Dynamite Entertainment acquired the comic book license to the character in 2009; several of their comics featured the son of Britt Reid as the new Green Hornet, aided by Mulan Kato, the daughter of the original Kato -- who would become the Green hornet herself after Britt Reid, Jr. disappeared.
There has also been a Green Hornet video game and numerous merchandising toys and collectables.
The influence of the Green Hornet on popular culture has remained with us for ninety years now.
Back to Harvey Comics:
Issue #7 featured to original Green Hornet stories, plus a three-page text story about the character. "The Case of the Murdering Clown" pits the Hornet against the villainous Clown, who manages to escape the electric chair and vows his revenge. "Case of the Museum Mummy" has the discoverer of the mummy dying at the opening of the Tutenkiem exhibit. The text story details how the Green Hornet first defeated the murderous Clown.
Also included in this issue are adventures of the Spirit of '76 (Gary Blakely, the great grandson of George Washington's aide-de-camp, dons his ancestor's uniform to battle Nazis), Robin Hood (Dr. Fairbanks fights crime by dressing up as Robin Hood and assembling his own band of Merry Men; here he goes after a protection racket against truck drivers), the Mighty Midgets (Foxy, Goofy, Nosey, Smarty, Skinny, Fatty, and Sour-Puss join the Army with Sergeant Goliath and meet two Axis spies), the Zebra (John Doyle, sentence to death for a crime he did not commit, escapes from prison and uses his prison uniform to become the Zebra, as he attempts to solve the crime he was accused of and to rescue his from a powerful political boss), and The Blonde Bomber (Honey Blake, ace news cameramanwoman in her first -- of 21 -- public domain appearance, tries to save a friend from killing herself; the character was created by Barbara Hall, who had an impressive five-year career in comics before marrying and starting what some consider to be the first hippie commune in America in 1946). Also included are a number of gag comic pages (including Art Helfant's Daffy Drafty from Army and Navy Fun Parade), and two pages of puzzles presented by the Green Hornet.
Check it out.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=31005
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