Number 1626: I squid you not: the Green Hornet underwater

Number two of our theme week, Heroes in Green, presents a popular green guy, the Green Hornet. First popular as a radio program by the same folks who created The Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet spread his fame to comics, television and the movies.

Al Avison, another journeyman artist like Arthur Cazeneuve who drew Monday’s post, also worked in the Simon and Kirby gang. I believe Avison, like Cazeneuve, is a very underrated golden age artist. But there is at least one panel, page 12, panel 1, where either the word “octopus” was changed to “squid,” or maybe Avison didn't know the difference. What he drew in the panel is an octopus, not a squid. Here’s a giant squid:

That complaint observation out of the way, here is the soggy story from Green Hornet #31 (1946):

Here are two more Green Hornet stories. Just click the thumbnails.

Number 1346: Al Avison’s Red Blazer

I need to get this out of the way first. To me the superhero name “Red Blazer” sounds like a sports coat.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, Red Blazer, the superhero — not the jacket — was created in 1941 for Harvey’s Pocket Comics #1. A few years ago Heritage Auctions sold the original art, and I'm presenting the Heritage scans here.

Alfred (Al) Avison (1920-1984) is the artist attributed. Avison was a comic art journeyman, beginning in the very early days of comic books, and working for many years. He had an ability to mimic other cartoonists' styles, especially Chester Gould and Ham Fisher. Avison did most, if not all, of the covers for the Dick Tracy and Joe Palooka reprints Harvey Comics issued over the years. Pocket Comics only lasted four issues. It’s my belief that comics in a smaller format would be easier to overlook on a magazine stand, but also easier for kids to shoplift. They didn't call 'em "pocket comics" for nothing.

Cover for issue #1, drawn by Joe Simon:

The artwork is on 8" x 12.5" paper, smaller than a standard twice-up comic book page.

Number 1047

The Green Hornet and Jolly Roger


A couple of days ago I showed you a Lone Ranger story, so it seems appropriate to show you a Green Hornet story. They came out of the same creative studio, brought to life as radio shows by George W. Trendle and writer Fran Striker. The Lone Ranger pre-dated The Green Hornet by a couple of years, with Green Hornet going on the air in 1936.

The Green Hornet character, Britt Reid, is actually the Lone Ranger's great-nephew, being the grandson of the Lone Ranger's brother. Now that we have the genealogy down, the other particulars are that Britt Reid and his faithful servant, Kato, motor around in a technologically advanced car, the Black Beauty. They are vigilantes by night; Britt is a newspaper publisher by day.

Speaking of genealogy, the Green Hornet has a long history in comics, besides having appeared on radio, in movie serials, a television show and a Seth Rogen movie from 2010. Several companies have published comics about the character. Harvey had a successful run in the 1940s. This issue, #33, which came out in 1947, is the last of the series titled The Green Hornet. The next issue it became The Green Hornet Fights Crime (crime comics having come into their own about that time). That lasted ten issues.

Al Avison, who had worked in the Joe Simon/Jack Kirby studio, drew this story of a modern pirate. In the early 1950s he drew some great early horror comics covers, before Harvey's horror comics became so infamously horrible (horrible-good, not horrible-bad, there's a difference). Throughout the 1950s Avison was busy doing covers and spot illustrations for comics like Dick Tracy Monthly, mimicking Chester Gould, and also Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka comics, where in addition to covers Avison did features like Little Max and Humphrey.