| Comments |
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| Sloppy--in page 66, panel 2, the artist stripes The Zebra's legs, which are bare elsewhere. |
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| Prior to Alfred Harvey getting the license to produce Green Hornet comic books, the first six issues were produced by artist Bert Whitman for Helnit. Even prior to that, in 1941 Whitman had drawn 24 daily Green Hornet strips for a proposed newspaper syndicated version, but the 4-week sample continuity was rejected by George W. Trendle of The Green Hornet Inc. What's baffling in this instance is why Trendle rejected Whitman's samples, but later apparently judged his work good enough to approve for Helnit's comic book version. This was the second time samples had been worked up for a proposed Green Hornet newspaper strip -- the first was in 1939 (artist unidentified), which Trendle had again rejected at that time because he was dissatisfied with the artist's depiction of the Hornet as wearing a mask similar to that of the Lone Ranger. A single example of the 1939 proposed strip, and all 24 dailies of Whitman's 1941 sample continuity, can be viewed here:
http://martingrams.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-green-hornet-newspaper-strip.html |
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| The Lone Ranger's mask is called a Domino mask, as I discovered while I was idly thinking about a redesign for a mask for a character with Domino in his name. Here are some variations.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/162922893/leather-mask-the-spirit-half-domino-mask
But the Mask in the strip on that site, is not a domino Mask,so it can't be the original, the one they objected to. |
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| The actual Green Hornet comics were brilliant, but the rest were mediocre in my opinion. |
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| Interesting that on the Zebra story several panels have obvious pasteovers, e.g. story page 3, panel 5 figure; same page, panel 6 figure; page 4 head in panel 3, figures in panels 5, 7, and 8; page 5, head in panel 2, figure in panel 3; page 6, panel 2 and last panel figures; and so on. So many of these involve the Zebra that I wonder what was going on. Possibility 1: the editor was unhappy with Rice/Cazeneuve's version of the hero and had a third artist redraw him (no other characters seem to have been pasted over). Possibility 2: The story was originally drawn for another format (different page count, for example) and some of those panels were pasted into a different storyline. I'm tempted to choose the latter. The wretched art on "Spirit of 76" hasn't been retouched, suggesting the editor wasn't a stickler for great drawing. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | June 1942 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: bi-monthly |
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| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Green Hornet |
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| PSA | Join American Red Cross (1 page) |
| Credits | Letters:?; typeset |
| Notes | On inside front cover. |
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| Foreword/Afterword | Meet Our Heroes (1 page) |
| Content | Characters: Britt Reid [The Green Hornet]; Kato; Lenore Case; Michael Axford; Ed Lowry |
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| Comic Story | The Case of the Murdering Clown (8 pages) |
| Synopsis | The Clown finds a way to cheat the electric chair and get his revenge. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Green Hornet [Britt Reid]; Kato; Mike Axford; The Clown (villain, Intro); Sgt. Morgan [Moran]; a prison warden (Dies); Lenore Case; Ed Lowry |
| Notes | Pencil credit from Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr. 28-02-2009.
Sergeant Morgan is also identified as Sergeant Moran. |
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| Comic Story | Case of Museum Mummy (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | At the opening of the Tutenkiem exhibit the discoverer of the mummy dies. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Green Hornet [Britt Reid]; Kato; Mike Axford; Victor Corbin (Introduction, Villain); Sneed (Introduction, Death); Barat (Introduction, Death) |
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| Synopsis | Daffy gets a ten-day furlough and he doesn't want to see any soldiers in uniform. |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Military | Characters: Daffy Drafty; Steve |
| Notes | "Daffy Drafty" is a feature that usually appears in the cartoon magazine Army and Navy Fun Parade (Harvey, 1942 Series), but will also appear in Harvey's comic books, seemingly at random. |
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| Synopsis | Gary Blakely learns of a Nazi plot to blow up West Point, dressing up in his great, great grandfather's uniform he calls himself the Spirit of '76 and fights the Nazis. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Spirit of '76 [Gary Blakely]; Major Ralston; Captain Blakely; Tubby; Hoch |
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| Comic Story | Introducing the Blonde Bomber (6 pages) |
| Synopsis | Honey saves Carmen from trying to kill herself. |
| Content | Genre: Detective-mystery | Characters: Honey Blake [the Blonde Bomber] (intro); Jimmy Slapso; Carmen; Nick Nighter (Intro, villain) |
| Notes | Art credit via Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr, 28-02-2009. |
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| Comic Story | Robin Hood Lives Again! (8 pages) |
| Synopsis | Dr. Fairbanks has decided to fight crime dressing up as Robin Hood and assembling a band of Merry Men. With his new recruit they go after a gang running a protection racket on truck drivers. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Robin Hood [Dr. Fairbanks]; Big John [John Sherwood]; Friar Tuck [Tuck]; Elaine Barton; The Ratsel Gang; Trigger Ratsel (villain) |
| Notes | Pencil credit via Jim Vadeboncouer Jr, 28-02-2009. |
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| Synopsis | How the Green Hornet first defeated the Clown. |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Green Hornet [Britt Reid]; The Clown (1st chronological appearance, Villain); Lenore Case |
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| Synopsis | Maisie met a guy who does magic tricks. |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: Maisie; Felix |
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| Credits | Script:? [as Cooper] (signed) | Pencils:? [as Cooper] (signed) | Inks:? [as Cooper] (signed) | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Military | Characters: Cookie; Bill; Buck |
| Notes | Six cartoons (two by Strauss, one by Cooper, one by Richter, one by Al Weine, and one unsigned), and two text only jokes. |
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| Activity | Forgotten Me (2 pages) |
| Featuring | Green Hornet Buzzers |
| Content | Characters: Green Hornet [Britt Reid] |
| Notes | On page 1, rearrange a phrase to get a phrase meaning the opposite, solve a cryptogram, make a three-word sentence from the provided letters, connect the dots, create seven words from the supplied letters, rearrange and remove one latter to create a word that mnatches the definition, and rearrange the letters to spell eight foods.
On page 2, rearrange the letters to form sports, place three sevens together to make 8, number puzzle, letter dropping, and twelve tanks. |
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| Synopsis | Goliath and the Mighty Midgets join the Army. |
| Content | Genre: Humor | Characters: The Mighty Midgets [Foxy; Goofy; Nosey; Smarty; Skinny; Fatty; Sour-puss] (introduction); Sgt. Goliath; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Two Axis spies (villain, introduction) |
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| Comic Story | John Doyle Convicted of Murder (8.66 pages) |
| Synopsis | Sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit by politicians who are protecting the real murderer, John Doyle escapes from prison and turns his convict uniform into a superhero costume as the Zebra. Fearing that Doyle's girl knows something about the murder, Happy Mike and his boys seek her out to shut her up for good. But the Zebra intervenes, saves Mary and learns that Happy Mike is the true killer. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: The Zebra [John Doyle] (origin); Mary Sewell (John's girlfriend); Happy Mike (villain, political boss); Spike (villain); Slug (villain) |
| Notes | Ink credits via Jim Vadeboncoeur 28-02-2009. |
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| Content | Characters: Green Hornet [Britt Reid] |
| Notes | Ad for the radio show. |
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| Featuring | Buglerettes |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Military |
| Notes | Six cartoons about Army buglers.
Only appearance of the "Buglerettes" feature. |
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| Credits | Pencils: various | Inks: various |
| Notes | Back cover. |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
