Memory can be a funny thing when you get to be my age. Many times I have a hard time remembering things that happened just days - or sometimes mere hours - ago, but there are things that happened when I was a small child that I can still recall like they just happened yesterday.

One of my fondest childhood memories is of sitting on my father's knee on Friday nights in late 1966 and early '67, watching the TV series "The Green Hornet." It seems odd even to me that I should remember this, given that I was only three years old at the time, but those Friday night adventures with Van Williams and Bruce Lee (as the Hornet and Kato) were such an important part of that era of my life that I expect the imprint of their impact will forever remain seared into my psyche. I certainly hope so, at any rate.

My mother has often said that my affection for the series was pre-ordained; earlier that year I had fallen in love with another series from the same producer - the classic "Batman" with Adam West and Burt Ward - so I suppose it does seem only natural to have gravitated to another show featuring a team of masked crimefighters. In retrospect, of course, the two shows were worlds apart; "The Green Hornet" for the most part eschewed the campy humor that initially made "Batman" so popular, a fact that many modern critics cite as the reason why the latter series - which lasted only one season to "Batman's" three - has aged better than its better known (and still much loved) predecessor.

Of course there was that infamous two-part episode of "Batman" in which the Hornet and Kato guest-starred to do battle against Colonel Gumm, who in my mind remains second only to Louie The Lilac as the lamest of the original villains the show's writers ever conjured up. Watching these episodes at the time, of course, was something akin to nirvana for young fans like myself; our two favorite heroes together in a single adventure! Wow!!! Only with the wisdom that comes with maturity did some of us eventually realize that that our "dream story" was actually something of a missed opportunity, and that Colonel Gumm would not have been a worthy adversary even for Maxwell Smart. Even so I have a special affection for the Batman-Green Hornet crossover, since it - and my later discovery that the original radio version of the Hornet was shown to be a blood relative of the Lone Ranger - represents my introduction to the larger tapestry of mythology Philip Jose Farmer would later teach me about in his "Wold Newton" cycle of writings, a truly wondrous literary playground in which a number of writers who have never completely grown up (myself included) still enjoy playing today.

As I grew older I became aware of the earlier radio incarnation of the Hornet and managed to collect a number of recordings of some of those episodes, as well as copies of the movie serials and comic books that incarnation spawned. I still have my old ceramic Green Hornet mug with artwork depicting Williams, Lee and their car - the Black Beauty - on one side and the TV logo on the other. Two versions of the Black Beauty grace my collection of die cast metal cars: a Corgi Toys model that was released during the TV show's heyday, and a more recent version that was part of Playing Mantis' "Johnny Lightning" line. I also have the Green Hornet edition of Playing Mantis' Captain Action figure collection - and nearly cried when I found an intact copy of the old Green Hornet Pez dispenser I had as a boy on sale for around $500 (!!!) at a flea market a few years back. And I was a tremendous fan of the Now Comics series of the late 1980s and early '90s, which brought both the radio and TV versions together into a multi-generational epic - complete with references to the Lone Ranger, albeit in such a manner as to not violate copyright considerations. (On the other hand, I am most definitely NOT a fan of the recent Dynamite Comics stories - and I will readily admit to being somewhat frightened that the upcoming film version with Seth Rogan will do to the Hornet what Bo Derek did to Tarzan and SyFy did to Flash Gordon and the Phantom. We shall see...)

But for my money - no doubt because of the part it played in my childhood - the TV series remains the definitive depiction of the Green Hornet. Which is why I was so excited not long ago to get my hands on a copy of "The Green Hornet Chronicles," a collection of stories set within the TV series' milieu published by Moonstone and edited by Joe Gentile and my friend Win Scott Eckert. This is what I've been waiting for since just before my fourth birthday: new stories featuring the Van Williams-Bruce Lee versions of the characters, set during that same fantastic yet turbulent decade and told with all the gusto and imagination those characters deserve.

I'll go ahead and say it: I enjoyed this book so much that, after reading it, I broke out my collection of Hornet TV episodes (video taped off a local station in Chicago that aired the show five nights a week one summer when i still lived in that area back in the late '80s) and spent a weekend watching them all back-to-back - then went back and read the book a second time, this time with my copy of the Billy May-Al Hirt soundtrack album playing in the background. (Few shows of any era have ever had as cool - and as hot - an opening theme.) With a single exception (which I'll discuss in a bit) the stories in this collection represent a marvelous continuation of the Hornet's TV adventures and make me all the more wistful about the possibilities that might have been realized had the show continued into a second season. Reality being what it is, of course, the series would have more likely - and unfortunately - strayed into "Batman"-like campiness. Which makes the stories in this collection all the more meaningful to fans and important to the character's overall legend; they present the characters in situations in a manner that does justice not only to the Hornet's television persona but also to the radio series that inspired it. To put it in the language of the layman: These writers get it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that I cheated a little bit the first time around and read Win Eckert's contribution to these new adventures first, despite the fact it actually appears near the end of the book. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't in part because of my friendship with the talented Mr. Eckert; but it was also because I knew from reading about the book before I obtained my copy that Win's story (entitled "Fang And Sting") tells the tale of how Lenore Case - Britt Reid's devoted secretary at the Daily Sentinel - first learned that her boss and the Green Hornet are one and the same. Not surprisingly, given Win's previous works, it also solidifies the Hornet's place within Farmer's Wold Newton mythos; in fact there's a cute scene, almost a throwaway, that ties the story directly to the marvelously wicked "The Evil In Pemberly House," which Farmer and Eckert co-authored just prior to Farmer's death.

Kudos, then, to Win for a worthy addition to the Hornet annals. But kudos, too, to most of the other writers who contributed stories for this collection. I particularly liked the opening tale, Will Murray's "The Night Car," which features appearances by characters from the original radio series not previously seen in the TV version; Greg Cox's "I Had The Green Hornet's Love Child," a story which I think would have made a very good episode were it not for TV taboos and sensibilities of the time; and "Eyes Of The Madonna," a top-notch caper penned by Ron Fortier, the mastermind behind the aforementioned Now Comics series.

Other stand-outs include "The Inside Man" by another writing chum (and fellow Zorro fan), Matthew Baugh; Howard Hopkins' "Flight Of The Yellowjacket," which introduces a female adversary this fan would LOVE to see more of in the future; and Patricia Weakley's "Stormy Weather," which introduces another memorable character in the form of its titular narrator/heroine and stands as ample evidence that women can write solid slam-bang action-adventure, too. Add to the mix an introduction by TV Hornet Van Williams - who I had the good fortune to meet and interview at a comic book convention in Chicago back in the late '80s - and an afterward by Dean Jeffries, the custom car legend who brought the Hornet's Black Beauty to life for television - and the end result is a volume that falls just short of perfection in the eyes of this fan-slash-reviewer.

The only genuine stinker in the bunch, I'm sorry to say, is that contributed by the writer whose name is likely to be most familiar to most readers: "The Soul of Solomon," an incomplete story fragment by the famed (or infamous, depending on one's point of view) Harlan Ellison. It's a disappointment on so many levels that it's hard to know where to begin. For one thing, the idea for the story - a team-up between the Green Hornet and another famed costumed adventurer, the Phantom - SHOULD have been the masterpiece of the collection. Instead Ellison gives us an incoherent piece of unfinished drek - the worst fanboy fan fiction writer I ever ran across on the Internet could cough up something so much better than this - book-ended fore and aft by one of Ellison's by-now obligatory rants about how he had this great idea and the powers-that-be screwed him over and wouldn't allow him to create ART. You know, the same pile of manure he's been serving up ever since Gene Roddenberry took his script for what might have been at best a fair "Star Trek" episode and turned it into the masterpiece that many fans recognize as that series' high water mark. (I read your original script for "City On The Edge Of Forever" when you released it in book form a few years back, Mr. Ellison. I was NOT impressed.)

There was a time when I held Harlan Ellison in high regard, both as a writer and as a social activist. I still respect him for the latter and always will; he's spoken out on a number of issues and causes dear to my own heart, and in doing so helped me find the voice to do likewise within the confines of my newspaper column. But I'm afraid his work as a writer has been diminished in my sight by his constant need (on display yet again in his Hornet contribution) to always be right, always be the center of attention, always be HARLAN ELLISON, GOD'S GIFT TO THE UNIVERSE. Let's face it: anybody who goes to all the trouble of making his own name a registered trademark has either got the biggest ego in the history of mankind or one heck of a screw loose. Or both.

I can't help wishing that Gentile, Eckert and Moonstone had thought twice before including Ellison's waste of space. It really is the only thing keeping "The Green Hornet Chronicles" from being the single best entry in Moonstone's series of anthologies featuring great pulp and comic heroes of the past (such as The Avenger, and The Phantom). The odd thing, to me, is that Moonstone has released a couple of different editions of this book: both book market and trade paperback editions, each sporting different cover art; a book market hardback edition; and a deluxe slipcased hardcover edition that includes one additional story, a prose retelling of the radio program's Hornet origin story penned by Dennis O'Neil. Personally I think most fans would have been better served by reserving Ellison's piece to the deluxe edition and including the O'Neil story in the other editions. But nobody asked my opinion beforehand, so...

The good news is that the reader does have the option of skipping over Ellison's story if they choose (or reading it and making up their own minds, which in fact I actually hope they do in spite of my own reaction to the piece; I've never in my life claimed or believed that my opinion is the only one that counts). The better news is that Moonstone is reportedly planning a second volume of Hornet stories, so there's plenty more action and adventure to come. I, for one, can't wait. There's a part of me that even hopes they manage to continue into a third volume; I had a couple of ideas for Hornet adventures back in the day that I always dreamed of eventually writing myself. Hey, stranger things have happened...

In the meantime, whether you're a long-time fan of the Green Hornet like myself, a newcomer who's just getting introduced to the character or simply someone who enjoys what I've always liked to call ripping good yarns, "The Green Hornet Chronicles" will make a worthy addition to your personal library and is mandatory reading for anyone who enjoys adventure fiction in the pulp tradition. You can order the book from Amazon.com or directly from Moonstone, or through your favorite comic book store if that's your preference. So what are you waiting for?

Let's roll, Kato...

(Copyright 2010 by John A. Small)