The Green Hornet Casefiles - Edited by Joe Gentile & Win Scott Eckert

Moonstone Books has been putting out some fun and interesting anthologies for quite a while now. After reading the first Green Hornet anthology last year I knew I wanted more of the same, so this second collection has filled my need nicely. There are 18 stories included here as well as a nice introduction by Green Hornet comics writer Ron Fortier.

Authors include both editors, Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert as well as Deborah Chester, Bobby Nash, Bradley Sinor, Paul Storrie, John Everson, Eric Fein, Howard Hopkins (Lance Howard), Joe McKinney and more. Many of these authors are long-time contributors to the comic industry in one form or another but they all share a healthy respect for Green Hornet lore, as evidenced by their work here. Of course, as with most anthologies there were a couple of duds but on the whole, I am very pleased with this collection.

As always, I tend to read one short story between each novel so it will take me a few weeks to go through a volume of this many stories. But it serves well as a palate cleanser and keeps them from being in any way repetitive. Thankfully, there is a third volume out which I already own so I look forward to devouring that as well, sooner rather than later.

The Green Hornet Chronicles, edited by Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert

Contrary to a lot of readers of this book, I was not a Green Hornet fan growing up.  The 60s TV series was before my time and even though I’ve been on a sort of retro kick for the past several years, the character never really entered my orbit.  But a few months ago I listened to a few of the old Green Hornet radio show broadcasts of the late 1930s and really started to get into it.

This book collects a number of stories written by contemporary authors that pay homage to the Green Hornet mythos.  Edited by Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert, these stories are based on the TV show version, with most of the tales taking place in that decade.  Authors include such luminaries as James Reasoner, Win Scott Eckert, Will Murray, and Greg Cox as well as a whole host of others that tackle the character from different angles. There are 18 stories packed in this one volume. Also included is an essay by Harlan Ellison himself explaining the start of a Green Hornet story that he abandoned, and the reasons why.  And finally, we get a nice intro by Van Williams, (the TV actor who played him) and an interview with Dean Jeffries, the man who designed the Black Beauty, (Green Hornet’s car) for the show.

I now feel like I know Britt Reid (editor of the Daily Sentinel and Green Hornet), Kato (masked chauffeur/bodyguard/enforcer, who was also Reid's valet), Britt Reid's secretary Lenore "Casey" Case, reporter Mike Axford, and others.  I tend to get sucked into these sorts of characters and like to experience them in all forms of media, so I’ve already purchased the original two serials from the early 1940s and plan to start watching the TV series at some point too.  Oh, and I also will soon be diving into The Green Hornet: Still at Large, (edited by these same two gentlemen) as well. Sigh…just not enough time in the day.