The Green Hornet: Year One: The Sting of Justice - Matt Wagner

I’ve written here before about listening to the syndicated reruns of THE GREEN HORNET radio show when I was a kid during the early Sixties, watching the Green Hornet TV series later that same decade, and writing a Green Hornet story of my own for the anthology published last year by Moonstone. So you know about my fondness for the character.


I recently picked up a trade paperback reprinting of the first six issues of the comic book series THE GREEN HORNET: YEAR ONE, published by Dynamite Entertainment. This volume is entitled THE STING OF JUSTICE and employs flashbacks to tell the story of The Green Hornet and Kato beginning their battle against the criminal underworld in Chicago in 1938, as well as fleshing in their backgrounds and explaining how they met. The script is by Matt Wagner, author of the great SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE comics series, and the art is by Aaron Campbell.


I really like the fact that the main story is set in the Thirties, as it should be. This is clearly the radio character, and Wagner’s script and Campbell’s art do a fine job of capturing the era and staying true (for the most part) to the continuity and atmosphere of the radio show, while telling a more hardboiled story than most of the broadcasts from that era. Also, without ever coming right out and saying it, there are a couple of things eagle-eyed readers will spot that are nods to the fact the Lone Ranger was the original Green Hornet’s great-uncle.


My only complaints are minor ones. The story is set in Chicago, and while I don’t believe the city was ever identified in the radio show, I thought it was understood to be Detroit, home of the radio station where the Green Hornet originated. Also, I can’t believe six entire issues went by without one scene of a newsboy yelling, “Extry! Extry! Green Hornet still at large!” I know, I know, the guys on the rebooted HAWAII FIVE-O don’t like saying “Book ’em, Danno”, either (and the snarky comments they made about it in interviews before the show ever aired sort of prejudiced me against it). Sometimes you can just be too post-modern and ironic for your own good, damn it. Anyway, I plan to read future collections from this Green Hornet series, and that newsboy better show up sooner or later.


In the meantime, I liked this one a great deal and thought that overall it was a faithful adaptation and expansion of the original. If you’re a Green Hornet fan, you really should read it.

The Green Hornet Chronicles

I hold in my hand (well, not literally, but they're right here beside me) my contributor's copies of THE GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES, the new anthology of Green Hornet stories from Moonstone Books.  As a long-time fan of the radio show and a faithful viewer of the TV show when it ran, I loved writing my story in this one.  The rest of the line-up of authors is spectacular, and I'm really looking forward to reading the other stories.  Highly recommended!

New Interview on All Pulp

There's a new interview with me on the All Pulp Website, as part of their "Moonstone Monday" which spotlights new projects coming up from Moonstone Books.  I have a story in THE GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES, which will be out soon.  You can find the interview here, and check out the rest of the All Pulp site while you're there.  It's a great site, packed with news, interviews, and reviews of all things pulp.

Green Hornet Covers

Here are the covers for the first volume of THE GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES, published by Moonstone Books.  My story "The Cold Cash Kill" appears in this volume, and I've got to tell you, it was great fun to be able to write a Green Hornet story.  I watched the TV show during the Sixties, of course, but my memories of the character go back even farther than that.  I may have talked about this before, in which my apologies for repeating myself, but during the early Sixties one of the local radio stations (KRLD, 1080AM -- which still exists) ran a syndicated package of old radio show reruns every night between 10 o'clock and midnight.  The series were The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Gangbusters, and The Green Hornet, in that order.  I was in elementary school and had to go to bed at 10 o'clock, but I had a radio right next to my bed and could get away with listening to those OTR shows if I kept the volume turned low enough.  I nearly always made it through The Lone Ranger and The Shadow, and about half the time I was able to stay awake long enough to listen to Gangbusters and The Green Hornet.  I loved the shows and never forgot the old "Extry!  Extry!  Green Hornet still at large!" ending.  Wonderful stuff.  Getting the chance to spin a yarn featuring the character nearly fifty years later . . . well, that's one of the great perks of being a writer, I guess.  I'm really looking forward to seeing this book.  It's at the printers now and should be out soon.