THE GREEN HORNET WAS A MORE THAN CAPABLE HERO by Dave Goode

 

There is a myth about The Green Hornet television series that ran on ABC from September 9,1966 to March 17,1967. That in every episode the titled hero Britt Reid, alias the Green Hornet (portrayed by Van Williams) would get his rear end handed to him by the bad guys only to be rescued by his sidekick Kato (played by Bruce Lee). The bio-flick DRAGON:THE BRUCE LEE STORY ( 1993 ) did a great deal to perpetuate this myth and create some new ones. Being one of those Hollywood movies "based on a true life story". Give or take a lie or two.

Actually the Green Hornet was a capable combatant. Sure he usually took out
the bad guys with his gas gun or hornet's sting. But he could hold his own against one or two thugs using a mixture of judo and boxing techniques. And often did. But Lee's Kato was using that new fangled karate ( actually kung fu ) stuff. And the way he was doing it was a lot more impressive than the usual brand of 60s " television karate ". Though if you're of a certain age you will remember lively debates on the playground of who would win in a fight between James West and Kato.

Click here for OTR Green Hornet

After The Green Hornet series premiered I began listening to my dad's recordings of The Green Hornet radio series which told the story of Britt Reid who masqueraded as the criminal mastermind the Green Hornet to fight crime from the inside. Pretty cool stuff. And it also introduced me to the Flight of the Bumblebee written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov that was used as the Green Hornet's theme music.





 

 Later I would discover the serials THE GREEN HORNET (1940) and THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (1941) from Universal. Click here for the first serial >>>HERE<<<  and here for the second serial >>>HERE<<<

 

 If I was ever to hit the lottery one of the things I would try to do is put together a retro Green Hornet movie set in the 1940s. There would be a portrait of a masked man in a white hat on a great white stallion in the office of Dan Reid (Britt Reid's dad) at the Daily Sentinel newspaper. And Kato would be using karate against the bad guys. Though everyone except for Kato and the Hornet would be referring to it as judo or jiu jitsu and his shuto blows as "judo chops".

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GREEN HORNET DOING JUDO

DR. JUDO VS GORILLA

LONE RANGER & TONTO DIVINE INTERVENTION

JUDO

JUDO COMICS by Dave Goode and illustrated by Vance Capley

Alias... Dick Grayson by Dave Goode

I had just started reading Batman and Detective comics a couple of years before the Batman television series premiered. I was introduced to Batman through a crossover story in one of the Superman titles and thought the character was pretty cool. So I started picking up titles that featured this other " caped crusader ". When I did I discovered a character that over the years would become my favorite comic book/comic strip hero. Robin, the Boy Wonder...alias Dick Grayson. Actually I liked him as Robin, Nightwing, or just Dick Grayson. As a kid when playing Batman with friends I got to be Batman because I was the tallest. But I secretly wanted to be Robin.

Honor student, top athlete and wholesome boy next door. Dick Grayson was the ultimate big brother even if there was no Tim Drake or Jason Todd during the Silver Age to look up to him. Seriously I imagined Tony Dow portraying him.

That is until the Batman series premiered.

There is a certain gold standard when it comes to casting comic book /comic strip heroes and heroines. It starts with Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon and continues with Irish McCalla (Sheena of the Jungle) , Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) and Burt Ward as Robin , the Boy Wonder. Actor Burt Ward as Robin looked like artist Carmine Infantino's  Boy Wonder come to life. Burt Ward (born Bert Gervis Jr.) was a sort of " boy wonder " in real life. At age two he was billed as the world's youngest professional figure skater.








The publicity department for the Batman show had put out some press releases describing him as as a brown belt in karate. As part of his audition he demonstrated some ukemi and tameshiwari techniques so these claims might have had some validity.

The funny thing is that in a 3-part story that ran in Batman No.234 (Aug.1971) , Batman No.235 (Sept.1971) and Batman No.236 (Nov.1971) written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano Robin gives a karate demo at a commune where writer Friedrich describes Robin as being a karate brown belt. Hold the phone! Robin was only a brown belt in karate? This was as bad as Barbara " Bat-Girl " Gordon in her first appearance in Detective Comics No.359 (Jan.1967) written by Julius Schwartz and drawn by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson being described as a brown belt in judo.

I can't understand why any writer would depict someone fighting a guerrilla war against crime in the streets as being anything less than a 5th dan black belt. Perhaps this was writer Friedrich's way of of paying tribute to Burt Ward's martial arts skills. I wonder if there was some story during the Silver Age where Robin was described as a black belt?

Love the good old days of comics? Then grab JUDO COMICS by Goode & Capley
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Elvis,The King of...Karate! by Dave Goode

Faux poster by Vance Capley

   
 Though you can make the argument pro or con that Elvis Presley was the "King of Rock & Roll. There is no denying that he was a pioneer. Nor should there be any doubt that he was a pioneer of the martial arts in America. Elvis was using karate in his movies long before Bruce Lee became a household name in the United States.

 Elvis was introduced to the martial arts via a judo demo at Ft. Hood , Texas shortly after he was drafted. While stationed in Germany he discovered karate through a book that many believe to have been written by kyokushin karate master Mas Oyama. Tales of Oyama's feats of strength and stamina must have seemed like having super-powers to Presley who had been a member of the first generation of comic book fan-boys. No doubt part of what inspired him to study the martial art.




 

After leaving the service and reentering show business he began incorporating martial arts moves into the fight scenes in his movies. This began in the movie BLUE HAWAII (1961). And still later when he went back to performing on stage he would punctuate a number of his songs with a quick karate kata.

  Though he never starred in a martial arts movie during the era of "kung fu-mania" he was involved in a martial arts movie project during this period. In 1973 he helped to finance a karate documentary titled THE NEW GLADIATORS. Unfortunately it wouldn't be released during his lifetime. And the footage that was filmed was believed to have been lost. In 2001 the footage was found and THE NEW GLADIATORS was released on video in 2002. In 2009 Elvis Presley Enterprises released a version of the film that included footage of Elvis training. If you're a fan of Elvis or the history of American martial arts you should seek this documentary out.

-Dave Goode

Karate....Ju-Jitsu....JUDO! Yes, JUDO!!!! As in JUDO COMICS! Click "link" to grab yours today!! >>>>>>>>

Casting Charlton's Judo Master by Dave Goode

The more things change the more they stay the same.Fan-boys are still arguing about who would prevail in a fight...Batman or Captain America? Of course back in the Silver Age of Comics the argument made a bit more sense.Back then both DC and Marvel described their respective heroes as the "world's greatest athlete" and the "world's greatest human fighting machine". Only back then the super-soldier serum didn't give the Captain the ability to make a fifteen foot standing high jump. Or run a mile in a minute among other things. So a fight between the two seemed a bit more fare. Both Batman and the Captain were just superior physical specimens who were highly skilled in hand-to hand combat. So as a pre-teen I wondered how Charlton Comics' Judo Master would have fared against the Caped Crusader or the Living Legend of WW Two.

 

Judomaster created by Joe Gill and Frank McLaughlin

Judo Master's origin appeared in Special War Series No.4(Nov.1965) a little over a year after Captain America made his first Silver Age appearance in The Avengers No.4(March 1964). In it Steve Rogers lookalike Sgt.Rip Jagger of the U.S. Army rescues the granddaughter of a Pacific island chief known as "Sensei". The islanders are actually Japanese citizens who left their homeland to escape the nation's war-time policies.Jagger himself is rescued by native guerillas after his unit is wiped out. He is then schooled in the martial arts by the islanders and given a colorful costume to fight a guerilla war against the Japanese. Jagger who had been a collegiate boxing champion in turn,under the tutelage of the islanders, masters jiu jitsu,karate,kendo and of course judo. He eventually also gains a kid sidekick in the form of a Japanese-American named "Tiger".

Like all fan-boys I imagined my favorite comic book features turned into movies. And the casting of Rip Jagger in a Judo Master movie seemed like a no-brainer. American karate legend Joe Lewis had been an avid weight-lifter during his days as a high school wrestler. Upon graduation he joined the Marines where he first studied judo and then karate while stationed in Okinawa. After leaving the service after a stint in Viet Nam he began competing in karate tournaments. He won innumerable point karate championships and then became the U.S. Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion and the World Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion.He was twice voted the greatest fighter in karate history. And Bruce Lee regarded him as such. The part of Colt in Return of The Dragon was originally written for him. But after a falling out between Lee and Lewis the role went to fellow karate champion Chuck Norris.Who knows if Lewis had taken the role maybe he would have gone on to B-movie and TV stardom. And we'd be making jokes about "Joe Lewis Facts".

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