25 January 2012

Editorials //

Catwoman has never failed to do anything less than captivate or confuse the man who has chased her since the spring of 1940. Her appearances in any title are guaranteed to cause a spike in sales. For more than the last decade she has built a massive audience in her own books. She is one of the fullest and most well-rounded characters in comic history.

Yes, Wonder Woman has more history, a golden lasso, an invisible plane, Etta Candy and Steve Trevor, but The Mighty Amazon is removed from the average person. Through many of her incarnations she has walked with Gods.

Catwoman has never been anything less than an adult and real person. And besides, everyone knows that villains are more fun. Especially when they straddle the thin line between villain and hero with as much skill as Catwoman does. That ambiguity makes her all the more attractive and inviting.

Over the years the story of her origin has grown and become more detailed, but the essence of who she is as a person— the core of her character—was there right from the beginning. Selina Kyle has been by Batman's side since his earliest days. Batman #1 not only holds the first appearance of The Joker, but it also held Catwoman's first appearance as well.

That first story may have lacked a proper name (she was called "The Cat") and it may have lacked a traditional comic book costume, but it truly holds it all holds everything about Catwoman that would make her great. In the story of a jewelry robbery at sea we see her confidence, her skill at deception, a calculating burglary and her willingness to do what it takes to get the job done. The story also makes it very clear that there is an attraction between her and Batman right from the start.

Her next appearance drives home the idea that she is unsure about how she feels for Batman. In Batman #2 (Summer 1940) she is seen with The Joker in a new and untitled story. Still without a proper costume, The Cat steals the jewelry from the Joker but as the Clown Prince threatens the life of Robin, she does the unexpected. She offers up her bounty if The Joker will spare the life of the Boy Wonder. She is last seen diving from the bottom of the rope ladder that hangs from the Bat-Plane. This story is also significant because it is the first time that she is directly referred to as "The Cat-Woman". The hyphen in her name would disappear in Batman #10.

In the space of her first two appearances we are given the entirety of who she is. Batman wants her and she loves jewels but she doesn't want to take them home at the expense of Robin's life. Every detail of her life that has been built up over the next seventy years is only icing.

Bob Kane has said that her character and appearance was inspired by both the famed actress Jean Harlow and Kane's second cousin by marriage, Ruth Steel. Given how much has been documented about Bill Finger's involvement in the origins of Batman, Robin and the Joker, it is more than likely that Finger played a part in Catwoman's evolution as well.

Batman #3 (Winter 1940) features one of the most bizarre costumes that Catwoman has ever worn. The splash panel for "The Batman vs. The Cat-Woman" shows her running across a rooftop wearing the head of a cat. She sports an orange dress and a crimson cape. Near the end as Batman attempts to put her in custody she pulls him in and kisses the obviously startled hero. As soon as she does she pushes him away and makes her escape.

Her history after these first three appearances begins to grow. By 1951 she has become Selina Kyle, a name that would stay with her until the present day. Catwoman was a hit from that first exchange due to her distinct and over-present sexuality. That sexuality was deemed in appropriate by the Comics Code Authority and as a result, Catwoman did not appear in a Batman title from September 1954 until November 1966. While that incredible heat would be toned down as times and the characters change over the next fourteen years, the template had been set. While she disappeared when the Comic Code Authority came along, she came back with a vengeance thanks to television.

It is impossible to discuss any history of Catwoman without bringing up her appearance in television and on screen. The 1966 debut of the Batman TV series changed television and comic history. While the advent of the Silver Age brought back many comic fans as well as making new ones along the way, nothing could have predicted the effect that the Batman TV show would have on the hobby. Since she was essentially absent from the books due to her sex appeal, it is ironic that Julie Newmar's sultry portrayal of her is what brought her back to the page. Newmar's incredible appeal also brought sons and fathers together as they both watched the show for different reasons. As the show went on Catwoman would be played by two other very appealing actress, Eartha Kitt (Season 3) and Lee Merriwether (Batman: The Movie), it is still Newmar that brought the character back into the public's consciousness.

In the eye of the general public Tim Burton's 1989 Batman reminded everyone that the campy nature of the TV series was no longer applicable. Catwoman was such a strong character that Burton made her a very important part of the sequel, Batman Returns. Michelle Pfeiffer's take on the character practically burnt the screen down. The popularity of the film also sparked even more of demand for Catwoman on the printed page. In 1993 she was given her first continuing series and it lasted 96 issues. Since then she has been a prominent part of not only Batman's world but the general DC Universe as well.

Today Catwoman stands to take another big leap in the consciousness of the public as the third Dark Knight movie; The Dark Knight Rises gets ready to debut in May of this year. Anne Hathaway has been cast at Selina and from the publicity and pictures from the set; she is going to remind everyone that Catwoman is the greatest woman in comic history.

The Green Hornet and How He Got to 2011

by Mark Squirek

17 January 2011

Editorials // Tags: green hornet, gold key, dell, the lone ranger //

The Green Hornet certainly has some longevity. After all he has now lasted, in one form or another, for over 60 years. This weekend the Green Hornet film opened to a strong box office (and mixed reviews), but what many don't realize is that his first appearance was on a radio show in 1936.

It's 1936 in Detroit and radio is king. George W. Trendell is a managing partner and co-owner of station WXYZ. He already has a major hit with a show he helped develop called The Lone Ranger.

Just like TV, he has a major hit and so he decides to go to the well to find something really close in feel to The Lone Ranger but not so close that everyone will know that it's a rip-off. Gathering the people who helped him create The Lone Ranger, Trendell works closely with writer Fran Striker, and director James Jewell and eventually they decide Green is a great color, that the hero should be somehow dealing with political corruption and that he should have a sidekick. Settling on "The Green Hornet" for the name of the main character, they create a civilian identity as a newspaper publisher. Britt Reid is a newspaper publisher by day, but at night he takes off into the night armed with a gas gun and wearing a cool trench coat and hat.

Next they add a sidekick who can double as the hero's valet when they are working in their secret identities. For the first few years Kato is identified as the Japanese Valet, but with the attack on Pearl Harbor, that has to change. For a long time Kato is identified as the "Faithfull Valet." During wartime it is made clear that Kato is of Filipino origin. Oddly enough, even though Trendell has a lot of input into the two movie serials of The Green Hornet that were made by Universal in 1940 and 1941, Kato is identified as Korean in those serial. This is just one of the many inconsistencies that build up between the different publishers and across the mediums over the years.

The Hornet is a hit on radio and, using the experience they had with The Lone Rangeras a template, management moves the hero into comics to increase exposure. He first appears in December 1940 for six issues under the publishing banner of Helnit. The company then changes names to Holyoke. This name change can cause some confusion among new collectors when looking for the first six issues. Also adding to the confusion is the way the publisher is listed in the indicia. The first issue says Helnit, but numbers 2-6 are listed as The Green Hornet Publishing Company. The final issue (#6) is cover dated August 1941.

With issue #7, cover dated June 1942, The Hornet moves over to Harvey where he spends the rest of the Golden Age. The title lasts until 1947 when, with issue #34, the name changes to The Green Hornet Fights Crime. The name change is easily understood when you look around at what is being published at the time and see that the best sellers usually have the word “crime” in the title. For the last four issues Harvey goes one step further and changes the name to Green Hornet Racket Buster. The last issues to appear is #47 August September 1949. Harvey also used the Hornet in All-New Comics where he was the cover feature on #13.

One of the hidden books in The Hornet's history is an appearance in 1953 over in Dell with Four Color #496. The book features a beautiful painted cover and is a really enjoyable read. By now the radio show is off the air and the stories in that issue of Four Color seem to have been adapted from scripts.

The Hornet is gone for another decade until 1966 when, fueled by the success of the new TV show Batman, William Dozier and Greenway Productions quickly go looking for a second character to put on the air (kind of like George Trendell and The Lone Ranger back in 1936). The Green Hornet was similar enough to Batman, but different enough to fill the bill.

The TV series debuted in 1966 and lasted 26 episodes. Staring Van Williams and Bruce Lee, the show never got to the heights of Batman and is canceled in March 1967. Nowhere near as campy as Batman, the show was a lot better than most people give it credit for. In anticipation of the recent 2011 movie the SYFY channel recently devoted 12 straight hours to repeats. Many of the plots border on ludicrous and some of the people on screen were wooden, but the sets, the actors and the fights looked great.

Gold Key published three issues devoted to the TV show and they are all pretty easy to find in any condition. Given the network TV connection the print run on those three is assumed to have been pretty high.

Three things you should know about the TV show A) When the show was marketed to Hong Kong is was called The Kato Show; B) The theme music is an orchestral interlude to Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]s Flight of the Bumblebee which was rearranged by Billy May, conducted by Lionel Newman and the trumpet solo was played by Al Hirt; C) The Black Beauty was a 1966 Imperial Crown. Only two are known to exist and the primary car used for filming on the series sold for $10,000.

In 1989 NOW Comics brought The Hornet back to comics with great success. They did a great job of building a “comic-fan friendly” continuity into the series.The series beat its golden age run by lasting over fifty issues until it saw cancelation in 1995. They also did several Kato mini-series as well as several Green Hornet series during the run of the main title.

Today the Hornet is enjoying a new life. Dynamite Entertainment is running several series featuring both The Hornet and Kato and the issues feature an exciting take on the long history of the character. They have attracted some of the best in the comic industry, including Matt Wagner and Kevin Smith to contribute to the character's long history. It is a testament to the strength of the character that he has been able to jump between so many mediums for so long and do so well.