[MarkWarner]

I think it is fair to say (barring a little bit of dissension). that last week's Walt Kelly fest could be marked down as one of our better reads.

But let us not dwell too much on our success and move swiftly on to this week's book. It features a character who is well overdue a reading group visit. Star of the silver screen, television, radio and of course comic books, I give you The Green Hornet (and of course his trusted servant Kato).

I chose the earliest issue from Harvey's Green Hornet Comics title. The story we will concentrate on is "The Case of the Murdering Clown" The book (scanned by our very own Narfstar) can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=31005.

[SuperScrounge]

The Case of the Murdering Clown - Not bad.

Case of Museum Mummy - Again not bad.

Daffy Drafty - Eh, okay.

Spirit of '76 - Soooo... students at Oxford only learned of the war in 1940? Like some origin stories it tended to drag until the guy finally took on his secret identity and kicked butt.

Introducing the Blonde Bomber - The story had its problems, but was otherwise entertaining.

Robin Hood Lives Again - Uhhhhhh... yeah... you decide to go against criminals armed with guns, so, of course, you'd arm yourself with a bow and arrow...    it's just common sense    Presumably sharing a name with an actor known for playing Robin Hood led to Dr. Fairbanks taking on the Robin Hood ID, I can even accept the possibility that he may have had a valet named Tuck purely by coincidence, but running into a guy named Sherwood to round out the group just stretched believability past the breaking point. I'm surprised the writer didn't have the nurse be named Marian or give the Dr. a maid named Marian. Otherwise it was okay, but nothing special.

The Story Behind The Cover- I always figured this feature explained how the cover was made, not told another story. Okay.

Getting Maisie Married - Eh.

The Mighty Midgets - Not that mighty.

The Zebra - Not bad.

[crashryan]

This is an interesting comic. It's labeled issue #7 but it seems like #1. All the features except The Green Hornet are origin stories.

"The Case of the Murdering Clown" is paced like a GH radio show. It's more strongly structured than the typical Golden Age story and I like it. Even considering the greater tolerance for mayhem in GA comics, I was surprised that they allowed the poor warden be sent to the electric chair. The rest of the cast takes it rather casually, too. The art isn't great, but it's competent.

"The Case of the Museum Mummy" is more typical Golden Age stuff. It doesn't do much for me.

"Daffy Drafty": Stylistically Art Helfant is the poor man's Segar. It takes forever to set up a lame payoff. I wonder what it means, "Ad Mans Post American Legion." Was there a special Post for advertising men?

"The Spirit of '76": Not good. The backstory is much too long and the artist goes out of his way not to draw anything. Don't believe me? Check out the car and the house in the last panel of page 25. The writer is just as sloppy. Captain Hoch of the Luftwaffe just happens to stroll by? Bah.

"Introducing the Blonde Bomber": I enjoy stories about newsreel cameramen. It would have been an interesting job. Honey Blake is a good character, clever and plucky. The story is okay. Though the artist skimps on backgrounds, she has an appealing style.

"Robin Hood": SuperScrounge has already pointed out how silly it is to fight armed modern crooks with bows and arrows. The art is pretty good. I thought a page was missing after Robin escapes the trap on page 40.  The story jumps forward suddenly. But no, the next page numbers follow as they should. Sloppy writing, I guess.

Surprise...the text story is a prequel to the lead story about The Clown.

"Getting Maisie Married": Strike Two against Mr Helfant.

"Army & Navy Laughs": Mr Helfant's weak jokes are prime time compared to these. What's the point of the first cartoon on Page 48? Is the joke supposed to be that he's a big guy assigned to a tiny boat?

"Mighty Midgets": Another laugh-free outing for Art Helfant. It annoys me that the heroes all look the same, especially in uniform. It is extremely odd that the heavily caricatured villains speak standard bad-guy talk instead of stereotype accents to match their appearance.

"The Zebra": Grade Z non-super superhero.

Overall a good read, with the first Green Hornet story taking the prize.

[Morgus]

this would have been one of my proudest possessions if I had a copy of this as a kid, and probably would have totally blown my mind if I had lived when it was published. The first story was a lot of fun and I was thinking in my mind that the 'influence of Simon and Kirby was already really big even back in the dim dark past'. Sure it was. Especially when it was Simon and Kirby doing the work in the first place! My uncle always told me how to date the GREEN HORNET material by the nationality of Cato, and the story DID remind me of the old radio show. Hey, anybody else ever notice that Harvey cover advertisements always looked great? In fact, better the actual Harvey covers themselves? I used to drool as a kid over their cover ads, even back in the silver age 60's, and then thinking they somehow weren't just special when I finally saw them on the newsstand. Not everything worked, but the puzzles reminded me of UNCLE ART'S FUNLAND, and can YOU resist a nurse on the inside cover that looks like Joan Crawford?

[narfstar]

I guess I am the odd man out on the GH story. I thought the art OK but the story not so much. They gave too much away at the start so I immediately knew what the Clown was going to do to the warden. Then the warden goes quietly to his death without no one knowing. The Clown blaming Reid and his paper not the cops, why. I leave a lot of believably behind to read and enjoy comics but sometimes things just don't work for me.

[crashryan]

Narf: to be fair to the writer, he does give us a panel in which we learn the warden "fought the guards and the warden" before going to the chair. No one notices that the real warden--and the fake one, for that matter--is wearing makeup,  but that's standard procedure in comic books.

[Morgus]

it could have been MORE fun if The Clown had created a Crime Empire like Django did in one of my favorite spaghetti westerns, VIVA DJANGO...he just used guys who were supposed to be hung and put them in his new gang.
By the way, you have to love that nurse on the inside page that looks like Joan Crawford.

[crashryan]

That Red Cross poster was painted by Bradshaw Crandell in 1941. Crandell was a successful magazine illustrator of the 30s and 40s. He painted a lot of Hollywood stars and was known for using screen actresses as models. So who knows?

[MarkWarner]

Although I have watched the Green Hornet in old films and listened to him in OTR shows, I don't think I have ever read him in print! So here goes ...

We start with The Case of the Murdering Clown, Well, I did rather enjoy it, BUT the Governor being made up to be the clown and then being sparked was just too unbelievable. Even in comic book land!

I did however like the clown's frankness (you are a gonna but ...):

"Make no outcry or your death will be unpleasant"

Next up is the Case of Museum Mummy. Strange that they actually understate the age and only make the mummy 1,000 years old. I think it would have been double that and then some. This story was marginally more believable. But not by much!

After this comes Daffy Drafty, which I wish had skipped, The same goes for the rest of the book apart from Introducing the Blonde Bomber which was rather enjoyable.

Verdict: A hit (just). The Green Hornet was really just too unbelievable, but the Blonde Bomber helped scrape the book a pass mark.