Captain's Theatre THE GREEN HORNET "Frog is a Deadly Weapon"

 The Green Hornet faces off against The Shadow!

Well, sorta...
The villain of this episode, gangster Glen Connors, is played by Victor Jory, who portrayed The Shadow in the 1940 movie serial based on both the pulp magazine and radio show!
Connors is impersonating millionaire recluse Charles Delaclare, and slowly draining the dead millionaire's assets.
Britt Reid wants to expose Connors/Delaclare, not only because Connors evaded the law by faking his own death and replacing Delaclare, but Connors was part of a conspiracy that framed Reid's father years ago!
Side notes:
The frame-up of Reid's father is never pursued beyond this episode.
Was dear old Dad the 1940s Green Hornet? We'll never know...

The concept of the villain replacing a reclusive millionaire and utilizing the the deceased Plutarch's empire for evil is later used in the film version of Diamonds are Forever.

The idea of fighting a flock of frogmen (say that five times fast) was probably inspired by the box-office success of the then-current James Bond flick Thunderball!
You'll also note the Hornet performing gymnastics like swinging on poles for the only time in the series.

(It is more difficult to do that stuff in an overcoat than in leotards...) 

Lenore "Casey" Case, played by the lovely Wende Wagner, finally gets serious screen time in this episode as she does some investigating for Reid, but gets caught by Connors' henchmen. As clever as she is beautiful, she keeps herself alive by bluffing the criminals until The Hornet can rescue her!

For the first time we see The Hornet change from his costume to civilian garb in the back seat of the Black Beauty.
He does this several times during the show's run (or from civilian garb to costume) to appear as both Reid and The Hornet to criminals within a short time-frame.

This is the first appearance of Barbara Babcock (Hill Street Blues) as Elaine Carey, a competitor with Casey for Britt Reid's affections.
Barbara performed on the original Star Trek five times (twice on-screen, three times doing voiceovers), each time as a different character!
From October 7th, 1966...."The Frog is a Deadly Weapon"!

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Captain's Library: THE SHADOW "Vampire Hall"

This story of The Shadow vs a vampire was so popular it was done three times...

...first as a Shadow pulp novel by Walter Gibson in 1942, then as the 1943 comic story you're about to read which combines elements of both the pulp and radio show versions of Lamont Cranston and his alter-ego...

...and to complete the cycle, this story was adapted into the September 1946 season opener of The Shadow radio show, entitled "Vampires Prowl at Night"!

(BTW, you can read the pulp novel "Vampire Murders" and the script for "Vampires Prowl at Night" in a recent reprint available HERE.

Unfortunately, there's no surviving recordings of the actual radio episode.)
This never-reprinted story from Shadow Comics V3#4 (1943) is written by Gibson and illustrated by Jack Binder.

The character of Varney Haldrew is named after Varney the Vampire, who was featured in the 1845 Gothic-horror story, Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood by James Malcolm Rymer.

"Varney" was a major influence on fictional vampires, including Dracula (1897), by Bram Stoker.

Many of the basic concepts about vampires including fangs, punctured necks, and hypnotic powers, originated from the popular Varney "penny dreadfuls" published from 1845 to 1847.

(Here's a LINK to Project: Gutenberg's page.)

We're hope you're enjoying our Countdown to Halloween 2013 contributions about tv/movie/radio-based comics featuring monsters (or in this case, someone pretending to be a monster)!

Captain's Library: THE SHADOW "Shadow in Danger" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

A number of people, including police Sgt Cardona, Lamont Cranston, and Margo Lane, are targeted by a mugger who hypnotizes his victims so they don't remember being robbed!

Police Commissioner Weston suspects The Shadow (who can cloud mens' minds), but Cranston knows The Shadow is innocent, since he's The Shadow (but can't tell Weston)!

When the mugger's moll demands a bigger cut of the loot, or she'll go blab to the police, the criminal silences her...permanently!

This never-reprinted cover story from Shadow Comics V8N7 (1948) was adapted from the 09/09/45 Shadow radioplay of the same title by Stedman Coles.
Regrettably, there are no surviving recordings of this episode. 

While Bob Powell (with aid from his comic studio assistants) did the artwork, the script adaptor is unknown, but believed to be either Bruce Elliot (who had taken over the "Maxwell Grant" byline from Walter Gibson on the Shadow pulp stories) or Powell himself.

You'll note the "color hold" technique, taking artwork that normally would be black-line and making it one of the color plates (in this case, blue) to show The Shadow while he's invisible.

It was a very tricky thing to do back in those days since the interior pages were almost never proofed due to time and cost restraints.

But, Powell does some amazing things with the holds, making them line up exactly almost all the time!

He also uses "color holds" to great effect on the cover at top, but that, at least, was proofed (and, if needed, corrected) before printing.

This entry is part of our Retroblogs™ Masks Marathon, celebrating the new Dynamite comic series Masks which combines, for the first time, the major masked mystery men of pulps and comics including The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, and Miss Fury (ok, a masked mystery woman), among others.

We'll be presenting more never-reprinted stories featuring these characters throughout the month of December.

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Captain's Library: "The Shadower"

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

Not this guy...

...as demonstrated in this never-reprinted tale from Atlas Comics' MAD clone, Riot #1 (1954)!

Though the writer of this satire of The Shadow radio show is unknown, odds are it was Stan Lee, who was writing almost everything at this point.

The illustrator is extremely well-known...Gene Colan!

This was not the first time The Shadow had been spoofed, since MAD ran their own take on the character in #4 (1953) as shown HERE.

You'll note in this tale "The Shadower" doesn't have the usual cloak, slouch hat, and aquiline nose we associate with the character...

Art by Frank Robbins

In fact, he looks a lot like the Archie Comics version from a decade later...1964...

Art by John Rosenberger

...who, at least initially, was primarily based on the radio show, but updated to the spy-oriented Sixties!

BTW, if you want more The Shadow stuff, have a look at...

the never-reprinted 1994 Alec Baldwin movie adaptation right HERE on this blog!

The Shadow's never-reprinted Bronze Age adventures with The Batman and The Avenger as well as Frank Robbins-illustrated stories HERE!

The Shadow's never-reprinted, campy costumed Silver Age adventures HERE!

Captain's Library: THE SHADOW Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Shiwan Khan plans to destroy most of New York City with a prototype nuclear bomb while the President of the USA and several other high-ranking foreign dignitaries are in town for a conference.

Once they are dead, Khan will order his mind-controlled minions to rise up and seize control of the dead politicians' countries, reestablishing the Mongol Empire!

However, The Shadow has tracked Khan to his hidden lair, and is about to show the Last Descendant of Genghis Khan that the Weed of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit...

You did know the bartender was Cranston, right?

(go back to part 1, page 1 and look carefully.)

Next week, another never-reprinted comic book/graphic novel adaptation of a TV series, movie or radio show...

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Captain's Library: THE SHADOW Part 3

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Well, that covered the major points pretty well.  

Let's just go along for the ride...

We'll wait, but only until tomorrow, when we present the cataclysmic conclusion!

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