Dynamite Comic Books Explores the Common Heritage of The Lone Ranger & The Green Hornet

I've always appreciated that two of America's earliest masked super heroes originated from my hometown of Detroit.  While the Lone Ranger may have been battling outlaws in the Old Wild West his stories were being produced and played out in the downtown Detroit studio of radio station WXYZ which created the character for a show it began broadcasting in 1933.  The success of The Lone Ranger led WXYZ to create a spin-off of the show in 1936 called The Green Hornet which featured a masked crusader taking on criminal elements in gangster era Chicago.  While these two radio programs were set in different time periods and locations, The Lone Ranger and the The Green Lantern had similar themes in their stories and actually shared a common heritage.

The Lone Ranger story begins with John Reid being a member of a Texas Rangers law enforcement posse led by his brother Daniel who are chasing after a band of outlaws known as the Cavendish Gang.  The Texas Rangers are ambushed and the Cavendish Gang rides off from the bloody scene believing they've left all their pursuers dead.  John Reid is found though clinging to life by a Native American named Tonto who nurses him back to health.  John becomes The Lone Ranger by creating a black mask from his fallen brother's Texas Rangers leather vest and vowing to stop the Cavendish Gang along with any other outlaws he may encounter in the Wild West under his new secret identity.

In the 1942 season of WXYZ's The Lone Ranger radio series, a character was introduced to demonstrate the common heritage the shows' creators had meant for the characters in it and The Green Hornet.  They introduced the son of the Lone Ranger's deceased brother Daniel to the show making Dan Reid Jr. a juvenile sidekick complete with his own horse Victor.  The Lone Ranger eventually sends his nephew Dan is eventually sent East to get an education and eventually becomes a successful and wealthy newspaper publisher in Chicago.  Dan's son Britt eventually takes over running the Daily Sentinel newspaper by day and the wealthy young publisher transforms into a masked vigilante known as the Green Hornet who takes to the streets to tackle crime at night in his own WXYZ radio show.  The police, general public and criminal underworld all believe the Green Hornet to a crook in his own right; a perception Reid uses to his advantage in infiltrating evil doers plans and turn them over to the police along with any incriminating evidence he has found.  As the black masked Lone Ranger has a loyal partner in Tonto and his famous steed Silver, Britt Reed donned in a green mask is accompanied by his trusted confidant Kato and has a ride more fitting of the times, a tricked out car called "Black Beauty."

WXYZ eventually brought the family connection between the two shows full circle in a 1947 episode of The Green Hornet called "Too Hot to Handle" in which Britt reveals to his father, Dan, that the young man is the Green Hornet.  In their discussion, Dan tells Britt of their family relationship with the Lone Ranger and talks of riding alongside him in Texas taking on outlaws.  As their conversation comes to a conclusion The Lone Ranger theme song plays in the background.  Another interesting tie-in between the two shows is that John Todd who played Tonto on The Lone Ranger radio series also has the role of Dan Reid Jr. in The Green Hornet.

The popularity of these two radio shows led to their leading characters becoming iconic heroes of American lore with their stories being expanded into comic books, television shows, and movies over the years.  In the 1950s, WXYZ sold the rights to both The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger to two different owners.  With that move the family connection between The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet was lost into history as each franchise now didn't have the rights to reference the other.  That was until Dynamite Entertainment obtained the license to both properties and discovered in researching its comic book stories the secret heritage of The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet.

In its mini-series THE LONE RANGER / THE GREEN HORNET, Dynamite Entertainment explores the common heritage of these two classic American heroes.  Britt's great uncle, John Reid, has retired to Chicago where he spends his days at a local park telling tales of his Lone Ranger adventures to children.  When Dan Reid Jr. suddenly dies of a heart attack, Britt must return home from traveling around exploring the globe to take over running The Daily Sentinel with his great uncle keeping a watchful eye over his grand nephew.  When Eliot Ness, leader of the U.S. federal law enforcement agents know as the Untouchables, uses Britt to set up a meeting with John to ask for the Lone Ranger's assistance with taking on a Nazi threat within the United States it creates the spark for a new member of the Reid family to become a masked hero.

I found the first issue of THE LONE RANGER / THE GREEN HORNET to be a very enjoyable read with a nice vintage vibe to it with artwork that pays homage to the style of old newspaper comic strips plus well placed references to both the original radio series and historical events of the time when this story is set.  When John Reid gets angry he uses the phrase "I'm mad as a hornet" which is a nice segue into Britt Reid taking up the identity of the Green Hornet.  John also brings Britt his grandfather's vest which had Tonto used to make the Lone Ranger mask.  Descendants of the Cavendish Gang make a return to lead the Bund, which was a real life group of trouble making Nazi sympathizers in the 1930s and 40s, in a new threat that brings together two different generations of Reid family heroes.  The addition of historical figures of the time including Eliot Ness and Jesse Owens is also an interesting touch adding to the stories classic radio era dynamic.  A band even opens up the story playing the "William Tell Overture" which was the theme song for WXYZ's The Lone Ranger radio show and stuck with the character through his television show and movie appearances.  It's said that George W. Trendle, owner of the WXYZ-Detroit radio station, didn't want to spend money on an original theme song so selected the "William Tell Overture" as it was royalty free in the public domain.  That move tied together the "William Tell Overture" with The Lone Ranger as two things that will always be associated with one another.

My dad loved The Lone Ranger when he was a kid and during my childhood we watched the black and white television reruns together every Sunday morning before going to church.  So I've always had an affinity for the character plus with Bruce Lee as Kato you know I've watched my fair share of The Green Hornet TV episodes as well.  With a retro feel this modern take on these two franchises from Dynamite Entertainment is well worth your time and money to pick up.  Stop by your local comic book shop or order issues of THE LONE RANGER / THE GREEN HORNET directly from Dynamite.com.

I've been a fan of the offerings of comic book publisher Dynamite for a few years now because they take the popular stories and characters of past generations ranging from early 20th Century works like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, John Carter: Warlord of Mars, Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan to more recent fare from the 70s such as The Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactiva portraying them in updated adventures for modern audiences to enjoy while maintaining many of their classic elements. Dynamite Entertainment gets A Geek Daddy nod of approval for THE LONE RANGER / THE GREEN HORNET because it reintroduces the Green Hornet the way the character was originally meant to be portrayed through a well done comic book that pays homage to two of America's first masked super heroes.

ComicsFix - Monthly Subscription Service for Digital Comic Books

**  I received complimentary access to ComicsFix for this review.  The opinions are my own and I did not receive any financial compensation for this post **

If you appreciate and enjoy reading comic books, but find yourself reading an issue once than normally never picking it up again a new digital subscription service called ComicsFix may be perfect for you. For $8.99 a month subscribers have unlimited access to a catalog of hundreds of digital comic books from nearly 200 self-published authors and small publishing companies that are accessible via PC or apps for Android and Apple devices. The service is anchored by Dynamite Comics and Valiant Comics two of the Top Ten publishers in the comic book industry.  As long as you subscribe to the service you have access to the whole available catalog of offerings but cancellation cuts off your access to the publications.  ComicsFix is bringing a cable/internet television approach to viewing comic books.  Most people will view an episode of The Walking Dead on AMC or Daredevil on Netflix and than that is it ... they've paid their subscription to the media channel to watch its shows but don't expect to own or keep the program after they've viewed it.  ComicsFix is now taking that same approach with distributing comic books to fans.

I tried out ComicsFix for a month and the digital quality of the comic books was excellent.  The website and app also have some great features to ensure accessibility, customization and ease in the  reading experience.  Subscribers can download comic books and read them whenever they want without having to be online at the time.  That is especially nice if you want to read some selections when you are on the go and don't have access to wifi or a mobile data service.  During our recent Up North Michigan vacation we were out of our service area for our mobile phones and the wifi at the condo we rented was horribly slow but during some downtime I read a bunch of titles downloaded from ComicsFix onto my iPad so I really appreciated the accessibility and convenience of this option.

ComicFix also has parental controls so you can make sure your kids don't start getting into material that may not be age appropriate for them.  The service also provides other features to allow you to customize it for your own convenience including creating a personalized reading list of selections you may want to read in the future, a history of what you've read using the service with suggestions on other selections to read based upon your reading trends, and bookmarking comic books so you won't lose your spot if your reading is interrupted. Some selections even provide hands-free reading where the panels automatically flip through the story.

Unfortunately, enjoying comic books as a leisurely reading activity or hobby is starting to become somewhat prohibitive for many people as the cost of publications continue to rise.  Buying new issues at a comic book store now average $3 to $5 dollars each.  If I wanted to buy every issue that interested me that hit comic book store shelves, I'd be spending a few hundred dollars each month.  Sorry that is not going to happen.  $8.99 per month to be able to read a large number of selections is much more reasonable and opens up comic books that I would previously never have though about purchasing.

Dynamite Comics has a large selection of comic books that I've been wanting to read but just haven't been willing to invest the money into purchasing them in print from a local comic book store or in a digital format from a service like Comixology.  Dynamite takes a lot of "old school" super hero characters like The Bionic Man, Flash Gordon, John Carter - The Warlord of Mars, Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet,and Zorro and creates stories with 21st Century styling and spins to them. So I read through a few of these titles that I've been eying but not flipped through for a read up to now on ComicsFix.

Through ComicsFix I read 12 issues of  Dynamite's Classic Battlestar Galactica which would all be included in the monthly $8.99 subscription price for the service.  To have purchased print versions of these comic books from Dynamite I'd have needed to buy the two graphic novels that compiled issues 1-5 and 6-12 at $14.99 each for a total of $29.98.  If I'd purchased digital versions of these comic books through Comixology each issue would have cost $1.99 for a grand total of $23.88.  Now to be fair maintaining a year of ComicsFix would cost someone more than $100 and once you end your subscription you would no longer have access to your comic book selections while with the print version it is yours forever and for Comixology you own it as long as you live or that service stays in business, whichever is longer.  Of course with ComicFix you can continue to read new titles for its monthly subscription fee rather than paying for each individual item you want to read.  $1.99 per issue starts to add up quickly.  To be honest, I enjoyed Dynamite's Battlestar Galactica series but I probably won't be going back to read those issues over again so reading them through ComicsFix made a lot of sense.

During the last month, in addition to Classic Battlestar Galactica I also read several other Dynamite titles including sixteen issues of Kevin Smith's The Bionic Man (aka The Six Million Dollar Man from television), four issues of Monster War which pits Tomb Raider's Lara Croft versus Dracula, six issues of The Green Hornet, and six issues of Zorro.  Next month I'm also looking forward to spending some time reading some issues from Dynamites' Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, The Shadow, and Warlord of Mars series.  While perusing ComicsFix, I also read a few issues from a publisher named Arcana whose titles I don't read that often and probably would normally not have picked out if they hadn't  caught my eye while browsing and were included in the unlimited reading package.  The Steam Engines of Oz is a steampunk interpretation of adventures in the world of the Wizard of Oz and was quite an impressive read.  I also enjoyed a title called Dead Men Tell No Tales which story is somewhat a merger of two of my favorite pirate shows, History Channel's Curse  of Oak Island and Starz's Black Sails with a little bit of inspiration from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean added into the mix.

When you click on the image of a title you are interested in reading an overview screen appears.  It provides an option to add the title to a reading list so you can come back to it later, the amount of pages for the issue, the year it was originally published, and its content rating so you know if the material is age appropriate for the reader. The screen also provides an option for readers to rate the comic book's story, artwork, and overall appeal.  A synopsis of the comic book and some preview screen shots of its artwork are also included as well as credits for its script and art.

ComicsFix allows you to search for comic books by title or publisher.  You can also scroll through recommendations that ComicsFix lists on its homepage under categories such as Book of the Day, New Arrivals, Science Fiction, and For Young Readers.  Some other categories include For The Little Ones, Manga, The Super Hero's Journey, The Worlds of Fantasy and Tickle Your Funny Bone.  This feature on the home screen makes it really easy and enjoyable to browse through ComicsFix selections.  I like how the issue covers pop out at you like walking through the shelves at a comic book store.  Tag featuring a little circle with a play button on it highlight that those titles have the automated reading option that allow for hands-free viewing of a comic book.

With Marvel and DC controlling more than 65% of the comic book industry's market share, ComicsFix is a nice way for everyone all the other publishers to gain exposure and readership and an affordable option for the average consumer who enjoys reading comic books but doesn't have an unlimited budget to purchase them.  I enjoyed the ComicsFix experience so it gets A Geek Daddy nod of approval.

I would note that this is a new service and most of the comic books featured only have the first five to twelves issue of their run available and don't have extensive collections available just yet.  Also you shouldn't expect brand new material to be available through this service as publisher's put a premium price on first run comic books and ComicsFix should be viewed more as a source for back issues. I'm assuming and hoping that as the service gains subscribers and has been in business for a longer period of time that the publishers will extend and expand upon the offerings. Hopefully a few other members of the comics industry top ten publishers who are trying to gain ground on Marvel and DC like Boom! and IDW will start participating in ComicsFix too in an effort to build their fan bases.  Just like Dynamite there are a bunch of comics from those two publishers that I've wanted to read in the past but haven't because of the family budget.  Adding them would really add to appeal of this service.

For more information, visit www.comicsfix.com

DISCLAIMER:  I received complimentary access to ComicsFix for this review.  The opinions are my own and I did not receive any financial compensation for this post.

Get a Dynamite Comic Book Deal on Groupees

I've been a fan of the offerings of comic book publisher Dynamite for a few years now because they take pulp fiction and retro stories like Battlestar Galactica, Flash Gordan, The Green Hornet, John Carter: Warlord of Mars, The Lone Ranger, The Six Million Dollar Man and Sherlock Holmes portraying them in updated adventures for modern audiences to enjoy while maintaining many of their classic elements.  Dynamite is offering for a limited time a digital deal on the website Groupees that will allow purchasers to sample a large number of their comic book series while also supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund with a percentage of the proceeds.

The Groupees web site is an alternate service similar to the Humble Bundles I've posted about several times before.  Instead of choosing your price though, consumers select how much they want to spend from designated levels of benefits.  20% of the purchase price in this Dynamite deal goes to the Comic Book Defense Fund.  Spend a minimum of $1 and you'll receive 34 comic books that include selections from Project Superpowers, The Spider, Sherlock Holmes, and Red Sonja.  Spend $5 or more and you will receive a selection of comic books from additional series that include Games of Thrones, Army of Darkness, Dresden Files, the Green Hornet, and Django/Zorro.  $10 will get you a variety of issues from Dreadstar, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, and Legenderry plus the Dynamite Art of Alex Ross picture book. Alex Ross has really become recognized as one of the best artists in the comic book industry so that book in itself makes this package worthwhile.  Additionally, for every 1,000 purchases, an additional bonus item is added to everyone's package.  Since most of the titles in this deal are ones I actually haven't read yet, I spent $10 to check them out and to show some support for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  My $10 purchased 101 digital comic book issues that normally cost from .99 cents to $3.99 each.  For example to demonstrate the savings, Kevin Smith's Green Hornet digital issues included in my Groupee deal on the Comixology website/app are priced at $1.99 each which would have cost me $20 just for those 10 issues if I bought them there.

Since 1986, when Michael Correa, the store manager for a Lansing, Illinois comic book shop called FRIENDLY FRANK'S was arrested for the possession and sale of comic books as obscene material, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) has provided legal assistance to protect the First Amendment rights of the readers, creators, retailers, publishers, and librarians of comic books, manga, and graphic novels.  Twenty-eight years later the CBLDF is still tackling censorship issues and standing up for First Amendment rights, including its recent efforts to have a Utah law that censored Internet speech and a California law that eliminated First Amendment protections for violent images declared unconstitutional by Federal Courts. In additional to legal advocacy, the CBLDF also provides educational outreach regarding citizens rights in regard to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. For more information about the COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, visit www.cbldf.org

The digital comic books are stored on your Groupee website profile and can be downloaded from there to your PC in DRM-free files which means that you don't have to view them through a particular website or app like Comixology; but you'll need a good unzip program, like Express Reader, and a pdf reader compatible with your phone, tablet or whatever device you wish to read with to access and enjoy the comics. You can also use Torrents to access your digital files from Groupee.

Payments can be made with a Paypal account or you can use Paypal without an account to process a credit card payment.  Groupees also accepts payments via Amazon and Bitcoins.

Don't hesitate if you are interested in this comic book deal though because it will be gone in a week. For more information, visit Groupees.com