The Green Hornet Is Coming!

Hello Pulp Friends,

because i have been out of town this weekend for the Charlotte MiniCon (again many thanks to Shelton Drum, Linda, Dustin and everyone else for inviting me and my wife at the show and for gifting us such a lovely time :)) I haven't had time to work on a new Kara Bocek page (which will be back next week).
I did have time, though, to do this little teaser illo to finally make a big annoucement (well, it's big for me being the pulp fan you all know): I was asked by Dynamite and Matt Wagner to be part of the new pulp adventures of Green Hornet Year One, which will be on the shelves this April. While I am not drawing the book (the very talented Aaron Campbell is the artist for the title) I will be coloring it and will be providing alternate covers starting from issue 2 (with Matt's covers, just like we have done on Zorro).
Matt and Dynamite were very happy with my colors on Zorro so they asked me if I was willing to color the GH book, and since I am a big fan of the Green Hornet I couldn't pass on the chance to be involved with such cool project (I have seen the pages and read the script and it IS a cool project).

Can't show the interiors colored yet or the covers yet, so I did the above illo this afternoon to go with the annoucement.
I will make sure to share more as soon as I can (very excited :))

Have a great Pulp Sunday evening everyone :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla

Double Feature: "The Spider's Web" & "The Locked Room Mystery"

Hello Pulp Friends,

Today double feature, like it was used to have a few years back in those matinee movie theaters :)

The above one is a real movie, from 1938, an attempt in putting the Spider in a real action movie. The result is something that reminds a bit the luchadores in the look (full head mask and web-ed cape ;). I decided to tribute that movie since we just recently were talking about the Spider, and that alternate look was cool and inspiring.

The next feature (below) is sadly just fruit of my imagination: I thought it would be cool to have a classic Agatha Christie mystery of the locked room murder with the Green Hornet.

Anyhow, hope you guys enjoy the features and please click on the images if you want to see them bigger :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Pulp Spotlight: The Green Hornet

Well, after last week radio episode dedicated to another pulp icon such as the Green Hornet, this month spotlight should come as no surprise ;)

As for the Shadow, the Green Hornet has been around since the '30s and it has been adapted in many media: radio show, movies, tv series, and novels and comics. Created by Fran Striker, the Green Hornet tells the war against the crime conducted by this vigilante who is often helped by his (expert in martial arts) Asian manservant Kato. The man behind the mask is Britt Reid, a newspaper publisher by day, who uses his investigative reports to hunt down the criminals in the city with also the help of some cool gadgets and the technological equipped car (ala Batman!) known as Black Beauty.


The mask on his face has changed thorough the years (from covering just his lower face as a bandit, to the upper face to a full face mask) but the symbol of the green hornet has been always there to testify that this is indeed a hornet that stings!
In his TV series version, the Green Hornet is famous to have Bruce Lee in the role of Kato. Even if the series was up just for one season, it is still remembered nowadays for Lee's performance (the show was actually re-titled "the Kato show" for the Asian market).

Little interesting trivia: being created by the same writer, the Green Hornet real identity, Britt Reid, is the virtual grandnephew of another famous pulp character born from Striker's pen: the Lone Ranger! (who should appear on this blog at a certain point ;))

That's it for today. Feel free to gimme suggestions on who you would like to see portrayed in the future radio-shows or spotlight: there are so many characters that I don't even know where to start ;)

Have a Pulp Sunday, everyone!

Francesco

Pulp Spotlight is the new monthly feature where I will cover other famous characters that have helped to build the Pulp genre not just on the radio but also in the other media.