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80-599: Jules Ralph Feiffer (born January 26, 1929) is an American cartoonist and author, who at one time was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for editorial cartooning, and in 2004 he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame . He wrote the animated short Munro , which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961. The Library of Congress has recognized his "remarkable legacy", from 1946 to
160-723: A 1930s descendant of Zorro . It was written by Chris Roberson with art by Alex Ross and Dennis Calero . Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman wrote a crossover title, Batman '66 meets the Green Hornet , released in June 2014. A crossover with Miss Fury was announced in August 2024. In 2018, the Green Hornet appeared in newspaper strips as a guest-star in Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis (script) and Joe Staton (art), continuing
240-572: A 1971 film, Feiffer scripted Robert Altman 's Popeye , Alain Resnais 's I Want to Go Home , and the film adaptation of Little Murders . The original production of Hold Me! was directed by Caymichael Patten and opened at The American Place Theatre, Subplot Cafe, as part of its American Humorist Series on January 13, 1977. The production ran on the Showtime cable network in 1981. Feiffer moved to Shelter Island, New York in 2017. He wrote
320-499: A 3-issue series based on the TV show. In 1989, NOW Comics introduced a line of Green Hornet comics, initially written by Ron Fortier and illustrated by Jeff Butler . It attempted to reconcile the different versions of the character into a multigenerational epic. This took into account the character's ancestral connection to The Lone Ranger , though due to the legal separation of the two properties, his mask covered his entire face (as in
400-672: A Senior Fellow at the Columbia University National Arts Journalism Program. He was in residence at the Arizona State University Barrett Honors College from November 27 to December 2, 2006. In June–August 2009, Feiffer was in residence as a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College , where he taught an undergraduate course on graphic humor in the 20th century. Feiffer has married three times and has three children. His daughter Halley Feiffer
480-570: A dissection of popular social and political neuroses. The success of that collection led to his becoming a regular contributor to the London Observer and Playboy magazine. Director Stanley Kubrick , a fellow Bronx native, invited Feiffer to write a screenplay for Sick, Sick, Sick , although the film was never made. After first becoming aware of Feiffer's work, Kubrick wrote him in 1958: The comic themes you weave are very close to my heart ... I must express unqualified admiration for
560-452: A heart attack, and Kato—given the first name Hayashi, after that of the first actor to play Kato on radio—goes on to become a star of ninja movies. The NOW comics established Hayashi Kato as Ikano Kato's son. Britt Reid's nephew, Paul Reid, a concert pianist, takes on the role of the Hornet after his older brother Alan, who had first taken on the mantle, is killed on his debut mission. Paul Reid
640-481: A limited run of 6000 each. In late 2021, Diamond Select Toys announced the start of a new line of Green Hornet and Kato collectible merchandise in partnership with The Green Hornet Inc. and the Bruce Lee Family. Their line of collectibles include a mini bust of Kato and various action figures of Kato in different outfits. In 2022, Aurora Plastics Corporation , under their Polar Lights brand, reissued
720-521: A low-paying job when he found out that Feiffer "knew more about him than anybody who had ever lived," said Feiffer. "He had no choice but to hire me as a groupie." Eisner considered Feiffer a mediocre artist, but he "liked the kid's spunk and intensity", writes Eisner biographer Michael Schumacher. Eisner was also aware that they both came from similar backgrounds, despite his being twelve years older. They both had fathers who struggled to support their family, and both their mothers were strong figures who held
800-619: A popular actor in the US as well as in Hong Kong . Audience interest even led to Van Williams asking to learn some martial art moves. Williams and Lee's Green Hornet and Kato appear as anti-heroes in the second season of the Batman TV series in the two-part episode "A Piece of the Action" / "Batman's Satisfaction". The episode ended with Batman himself questioning whether or not the Green Hornet
880-407: A reboot with Gavin O'Connor as producer and director of the film and Sean O'Keefe as writer. In 2020, Amasia Entertainment gained the rights of the Green Hornet and officially teamed with Universal Pictures for the reboot titled Green Hornet and Kato with David Koepp writing the script. On June 23, 2022, Deadline reported that Leigh Whannell will direct the reboot. The Green Hornet
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#1732790286750960-485: A reporter for the Daily Sentinel , the newspaper that Reid owns and publishes. Ford Beebe directed both serials, partnered by Ray Taylor on The Green Hornet and John Rawlins on The Green Hornet Strikes Again! , with George H. Plympton and Basil Dickey contributing to the screenplays for both serials. The Green Hornet runs for 13 chapters while The Green Hornet Strikes Again! has 15 installments, with
1040-661: A springboard into other projects. He has had retrospectives at the New York Historical Society , the Library of Congress and The School of Visual Arts . His artwork is exhibited at and represented by Chicago's Jean Albano Gallery. In 1996, Feiffer donated his papers and several hundred original cartoons and book illustrations to the Library of Congress. In 2014, Feiffer published Kill My Mother: A Graphic Novel through Liveright Publishing . Kill My Mother
1120-452: A staff cartoonist at The Village Voice where he produced a weekly comic strip. Feiffer's strips ran for 42 years, until 1997, at first titled Sick Sick Sick , then as Feiffer's Fables , and finally as simply Feiffer . After a year with the Voice , Feiffer compiled a collection of many of his satire cartoons into a best-selling book, Sick Sick Sick: A Guide to Non-Confident Living (1958),
1200-439: A two-issue follow-up in 1992, both written by Mike Baron . He also wrote a third, first announced as a two-issue miniseries, then as a graphic novel, but it was never released due to the company's collapse. Tales of the Green Hornet , consisting of nine issues spread out over three volumes (two, four, and three issues, respectively), presented stories of the two previous Hornets. Volume One featured Green Hornet II, and its story
1280-433: A wide variety of media. The Green Hornet appeared in film serials in the 1940s, The Green Hornet television series in the 1960s, (which costarred Bruce Lee in his first adult role), multiple comic book series from the 1940s onwards, and a film in 2011 . The franchise is owned by Green Hornet, Inc., which licenses the property across a wide variety of media that includes comics, films, TV shows, radio and books. As of
1360-592: Is a graphic narrative initially anthologized in Passionella and Other Stories , a variation on the story of Cinderella . The protagonist is Ella, a chimney sweep who is transformed into a Hollywood movie star. Passionella was used as one part of the 1966 Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock Broadway musical The Apple Tree . His cartoons, strips and illustrations have been reprinted by Fantagraphics as Feiffer: The Collected Works . Explainers (2008) reprints all of his strips from 1956 to 1966. David Kamp reviewed
1440-459: Is a television series shown on the ABC U.S. television network. It aired for the 1966–1967 television season and stars Van Williams as both the Green Hornet and Britt Reid, and Bruce Lee as Kato . With his insistence on using his martial arts skills, Bruce Lee stole the show as Kato. This was the first time Asian martial arts fighting was seen on American TV. The show launched Bruce Lee's career as
1520-438: Is accompanied by his loyal and similarly masked partner and confidant, Kato , who drives their technologically advanced car, the "Black Beauty". Though both the police and the general public believe the Hornet to be a wanted criminal, Reid uses that perception to help him infiltrate the underworld, leaving behind for the police the criminals and any incriminating evidence he has found. In the original radio incarnation, Britt Reid
1600-730: Is an actress and playwright. A second daughter, Kate Feiffer, is the author and playwright of "My Mom is Trying to Ruin My Life" and other works. His third marriage took place in September 2016, when he married freelance writer JZ Holden; the ceremony combined Jewish and Buddhist traditions. She is the author of Illusion of Memory (2013). Cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators / artists in that they produce both
1680-757: Is as acute as any that is being written in America today. Dialog aimed at sophisticated minds, usually with the purpose of shaking them out of sophistication into real awareness. Feiffer published the hit Sick, Sick, Sick: A Guide to Non-Confident Living in 1958 (which featured a collection of cartoons from about 1950 to 1956), and followed up with More Sick, Sick, Sick and other strip collections, including The Explainers ; Boy, Girl. Boy, Girl. ; Hold Me! ; Feiffer's Album ; The Unexpurgated Memoirs of Bernard Mergendeiler ; Feiffer on Nixon ; Jules Feiffer's America: From Eisenhower to Reagan ; Marriage Is an Invasion of Privacy ; and Feiffer's Children . Passionella (1957)
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#17327902867501760-522: Is assisted by Mishi Kato, Hayashi's much-younger half-sister who was trained by Ikano Kato. Her being female caused problems between the publishers and the rights-holders, who withdrew approval of that character and mandated the return of "the Bruce Lee Kato". After Mishi's departure—explained as orders from her father to replace an injured automobile designer at the Zürich , Switzerland, facility of
1840-550: Is the son of Dan Reid Jr., the nephew of the Lone Ranger (whose first name is never given, contrary to later articles), making the Green Hornet the great-nephew of the Ranger. The relationship is alluded to at least once in the radio shows, when Dan Reid visits his son to question him on why Britt has never captured the Hornet. On learning the truth behind his son's dual identity, Dan Reid recalls his days riding with his uncle, as
1920-740: The William Tell Overture plays briefly and softly in the background. The character debuted in The Green Hornet , an American radio program that premiered on January 31, 1936, on WXYZ , the same local Detroit station that originated its companion shows The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon . Beginning on April 12, 1938, the station supplied the series to the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and then to NBC Blue and its successors,
2000-584: The Blue Network and ABC , from November 16, 1939, through September 8, 1950. It returned from September 10 to December 5, 1952. It was sponsored by General Mills from January to August 1948, and by Orange Crush in its brief 1952 run. The Green Hornet was adapted into two movie serials , 1940's The Green Hornet and, in 1941, The Green Hornet Strikes Again! Disliking the treatment Republic gave The Lone Ranger in two serials , George W. Trendle took his property to Universal Pictures , and
2080-593: The Los Angeles Times , the London Observer , The New Yorker , Playboy , Esquire , and The Nation . In 1997, he created the first op-ed page comic strip for the New York Times , which ran monthly until 2000. He has written more than 35 books, plays and screenplays. His first of many collections of satirical cartoons, Sick, Sick, Sick, was published in 1958, and his first novel, Harry,
2160-629: The Republic serials ) and he could not be called by name. In this interpretation, the Britt of the radio series had fought crime as the Hornet in the 1930s and 1940s before retiring. In NOW's first story, in Green Hornet #1 (November 1989), set in 1945, the nationality of the original Kato (named in this comic series Ikano Kato) is given as Japanese, but because of the American policy regarding
2240-654: The Republican elephant . Comic strips received widespread distribution to mainstream newspapers by syndicates . Calum MacKenzie, in his preface to the exhibition catalog, The Scottish Cartoonists (Glasgow Print Studio Gallery, 1979) defined the selection criteria: Many strips were the work of two people although only one signature was displayed. Shortly after Frank Willard began Moon Mullins in 1923, he hired Ferd Johnson as his assistant. For decades, Johnson received no credit. Willard and Johnson traveled about Florida , Maine, Los Angeles , and Mexico, drawing
2320-500: The 18th century, poked fun at contemporary politics and customs; illustrations in such style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". Following the work of Hogarth, editorial/political cartoons began to develop in England in the latter part of the 18th century under the direction of its great exponents, James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson , both from London. Gillray explored the use of the medium for lampooning and caricature , calling
2400-452: The 1965 book The Great Comic Book Heroes . I want to write about marriage. I think the most interesting story is how men and women get on with each other, the terms they accept to live together and survive together, the compromises they make, the betrayals of themselves and of each other, and how, despite the fact that over and over again they find that it can't possibly work, it still seems to be preferable to anything else they know about. In
2480-412: The 1990s, with Universal Pictures and Miramax each attempting to develop a film. Sony Pictures announced plans for a feature film of the superhero in 2008. Eventually, Sony Pictures , through its subsidiary Columbia Pictures , released an action-comedy Green Hornet feature on January 14, 2011, starring Jay Chou and Seth Rogen , who co-wrote the script with Superbad co-writer Evan Goldberg . It
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2560-443: The 2010s, the comic-book rights are licensed to Dynamite Entertainment . Though various incarnations sometimes change details, in most versions the Green Hornet is the alter ego of Britt Reid ( / r iː d / ), the wealthy young publisher of the Daily Sentinel newspaper. By night, clad in a long green overcoat, gloves, green fedora hat and green mask, Reid fights crime as the mysterious vigilante known as "The Green Hornet". He
2640-881: The Disappearing Doctor by Brandon Keith, a tie-in to the television series. At about the same time, Dell Publishing released a mass-market paperback, The Green Hornet in The Infernal Light by Ed Friend , not only derived from the small-screen production as well, but, "allegedly based on one of the TV episodes". In 2009, Moonstone Books gained the prose license and has released three Green Hornet anthologies as part of its "Chronicles" line: The Green Hornet Chronicles , The Green Hornet Casefiles , and The Green Hornet: Still at Large . The Green Hornet and Kato appears in The Green Hornet: Wheels of Justice (2010) for iPhone , based on
2720-638: The Hornet Sting, Gas Gun, and Kato's Dart from the 1960's television series. A plaque signed by Van Williams was included in a limited run of "Signature Edition" replicas. In June 2018, the toy company Funko released a Funko Pop figure of the Green Hornet as a Specialty Series figure. This was later followed up with multiple Funko Pop figures of the Green Hornet and Kato, released as exclusives at San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con . In January 2020, Funko announced Green Hornet and Kato figures as part of their initial SODA vinyl figure offerings with
2800-427: The Hornet and Kato smashing a different racket in each chapter. In each serial, they are all linked to a single major crime syndicate which is itself put out of business in the finale, while the radio program had the various rackets completely independent of each other. A 10-minute 2006 French short film titled Le frelon vert is based on the Green Hornet. A film version of the character had been contemplated since
2880-477: The Japanese minority during World War II, Reid referred to Kato as Filipino in order to prevent Kato's being sent to an American internment camp. The NOW comics considered the 1960s television character as the namesake nephew of the original, 1930s–1940s Britt Reid, referred to as "Britt Reid II" in the genealogy, who took up his uncle's mantle after a friend is assassinated. Britt Reid II eventually retired due to
2960-666: The Kato of that era. Discounting depictions of the cars utilized by the 1940s and 1960s Hornets, there were two versions of the Black Beauty used in the NOW comic series. The first was based on the Pontiac Banshee . The second was a four-door sedan based on the eleventh-generation Oldsmobile 98 Touring Sedan. In March 2009, Dynamite Entertainment acquired the license to produce Green Hornet comic books. Its first release
3040-598: The Rat With Women , in 1963. In 1965, he wrote The Great Comic Book Heroes , the first history of the comic-book superheroes of the late 1930s and early 1940s and a tribute to their creators. In 1979, Feiffer created his first graphic novel, Tantrum . By 1993, he began writing and illustrating books aimed at young readers, with several of them winning awards. Feiffer began writing for the theater and film in 1961, with plays including Little Murders (1967), Feiffer's People (1969), and Knock Knock (1976). He wrote
3120-558: The Rat with Women , 1977's Ackroyd ) and several children's books, including Bark, George ; Henry, The Dog with No Tail ; A Room with a Zoo ; The Daddy Mountain ; and A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears . He partnered with The Walt Disney Company and writer Andrew Lippa to adapt his book The Man in the Ceiling into a musical. He illustrated the children's books The Phantom Tollbooth and The Odious Ogre . His non-fiction includes
3200-581: The book for a musical based on a story he wrote earlier, Man in the Ceiling , about a boy cartoonist who learned to pursue his dream despite pressures to conform. The musical was produced and directed by Jeffrey Seller in 2017 at the Bay Street Theatre in neighboring Sag Harbor, New York . Feiffer is an adjunct professor at Stony Brook Southampton . Previously he taught at the Yale School of Drama and Northwestern University . He has been
3280-604: The book in The New York Times : His strip, usually six to eight borderless panels, initially appeared under the title Sick Sick Sick , with the subtitle 'A Guide to Non-Confident Living'. As the Lenny Bruce -ish language suggests, the earliest strips are very much of their time, the postwar Age of Anxiety in the big city; you can practically smell the espresso, the unfiltered ciggies, the lanolin whiff of woolly jumpers. Feiffer has written two novels (1963's Harry
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3360-585: The character in the public-service one-shot War Victory Comics in 1942, and gave him one adventure in each of two issues of All-New Comics , #13 (where he was also featured on the cover) and #14, in 1946. In 1953, several months after the radio series ended, Dell Comics published a one-shot with the character (officially entitled Four Color #496). Both stories therein share titles with late-era radio episodes ("The Freightyard Robberies", June 23, 1949; and "[The] Proof of Treason", October 17, 1952) and might be adaptations. In 1967, Gold Key Comics produced
3440-401: The comics industry rival Michael Chabon 's Pulitzer Prize–winning fictional portrait. Two years in the military gave Feiffer fodder for the trenchant Munro (about a child who is drafted). Such satirical social and political commentary became the turning point in his lust for fame, which finally happened, after many rejections, when acclaim for his anxiety-ridden Village Voice strips served as
3520-425: The costumed identity of her father, he brings Britt Jr. to China for training and safekeeping as he becomes the new Green Hornet. Writer Jai Nitz also wrote Green Hornet: Parallel Lives , a miniseries prequel to the 2011 Green Hornet feature film . In 2013, an eight-issue miniseries called Masks brought together famous heroes from the pulp era. It starred The Shadow , The Green Hornet and Kato, The Spider and
3600-401: The end, it becomes rather heroic. —Jules Feiffer, Playboy interview Feiffer also wrote and drew one of the earliest graphic novels , the hardcover Tantrum ( Alfred A. Knopf , 1979), described on its dustjacket as a "novel-in-pictures". Like the trade paperback The Silver Surfer ( Simon & Schuster/Fireside Books , August 1978), by Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and Jack Kirby , and
3680-601: The family corporation, Nippon Today—Hayashi Kato returned to crime fighting alongside the Paul Reid Green Hornet. Mishi Kato returned in volume two as the Crimson Wasp, following the death of her Swiss police-officer fiancé, on orders of a criminal leader. In NOW's final two issues, vol. 2, #39–40, a fourth Kato—Kono Kato, grandson of Ikano and nephew of Hayashi and Mishi—took over as Paul Reid's fellow masked vigilante. The comics also introduced Diana Reid,
3760-646: The family together through hardships. "He had a hunger for comics that Eisner rarely saw in artists", notes Schumacher. "Eisner decided that there was something to this wisecracking kid." When Feiffer later asked for a raise, Eisner instead gave him his own page in The Spirit section, and let him do his own coloring. As Eisner recalled in 1978: He began working as just a studio man – he would do erasing, cleanup ... Gradually it became very clear that he could write better than he could draw and preferred it, indeed – so he wound up doing balloons [i.e., dialog]. First he
3840-400: The field with a more serious intent than my opiate-minded contemporaries. While they, in those pre-super days, were eating up "Cosmo, Master of Disguise"; "Speed Saunders"; and "Bart Regan Spy", I was counting up how many panels there were to a page, how many pages there were to a story – learning how to form, for my own use, phrases like: @X#?/; marking for future reference which comic book hero
3920-556: The film. Few examples of Green Hornet merchandise have appeared since the 1960s. To coincide with the 2011 movie, Factory Entertainment produced six-inch action figures and a die cast Black Beauty, among other collectibles. Hollywood Collectibles has made a full-size prop gas gun replica. Mezco Toyz has made a set of 12-inch action figures, with the prototypes donated to the Museum of the Moving Image . CKE Restaurants, Inc. ,
4000-652: The hardcover and trade paperback versions of Will Eisner 's A Contract with God , and Other Tenement Stories (Baronet Books, October 1978), this was published by a traditional book publisher and distributed through bookstores, whereas other early graphic novels, such as Sabre ( Eclipse Books , August 1978), were distributed through some of the first comic-book stores. His autobiography, Backing into Forward: A Memoir (Doubleday, 2010), received positive reviews from The New York Times and Publishers Weekly , which wrote: His account of hitchhiking cross-country invades Kerouac territory, while his ink-stained memories of
4080-533: The home. Feiffer began drawing at the age of 3. "My mother always encouraged me to draw", he says. When he was 13, his mother gave him a drawing table for his bedroom. She also enrolled him in the Art Students League of New York to study anatomy. He graduated from James Monroe High School in 1947. He won a John Wanamaker Art Contest medal for a crayon drawing of the radio Western hero Tom Mix . He wrote in 1965 about his childhood: I came to
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#17327902867504160-719: The king ( George III ), prime ministers and generals to account, and has been referred to as the father of the political cartoon. While never a professional cartoonist, Benjamin Franklin is credited with the first cartoon published in The Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754: Join, or Die , depicting the American colonies as segments of a snake. In the 19th century, professional cartoonists such as Thomas Nast , whose work appeared in Harper's Weekly , introduced other familiar American political symbols, such as
4240-585: The literary and graphic components of the work as part of their practice. Cartoonists may work in a variety of formats, including booklets , comic strips , comic books , editorial cartoons , graphic novels , manuals , gag cartoons , storyboards , posters , shirts , books , advertisements , greeting cards , magazines , newspapers , webcomics , and video game packaging . A cartoonist's discipline encompasses both authorial and drafting disciplines (see interdisciplinary arts ). The terms "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or "comic book artist" refer to
4320-642: The nation, including magazines, and were published regularly in major publications such as the Los Angeles Times , The New Yorker , Esquire , Playboy and The Nation . He was commissioned in 1997 by The New York Times to create its first op-ed page comic strip, which ran monthly until 2000. Feiffer's cartoons were typically mini satires , where he portrayed ordinary people's thoughts about subjects such as sex, marriage, violence and politics. Writer Larry DuBois describes Feiffer's cartoon style: Feiffer had no stories to tell. His main concern
4400-458: The office of one of his favorite cartoonists, Will Eisner . Eisner was sympathetic to young Feiffer, as Eisner had been in a similar situation when he first started out. He asked Feiffer, "What can you do?" He answered, "I'll do anything. I'll do coloring, or clean-up, or anything, and I'd like to work for nothing." However, Eisner was unimpressed by Feiffer's art abilities and did not know how he could employ him. Eisner ultimately decided to give him
4480-406: The original Britt Reid's daughter, who had become district attorney after the TV series' Frank Scanlon had retired. A romantic relationship eventually formed between her and Hayashi Kato. NOW's first series began in 1989 and lasted 14 issues. Volume Two began in 1991 and lasted 40 issues, ending in 1995 when the publisher went out of business. Kato starred solo in a four-issue miniseries in 1991, and
4560-469: The parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's , teamed with the studio on a promotional marketing partnership that included commercials featuring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou in character as the Green Hornet and Kato; a beverage promotion with Dr. Pepper ; The Green Hornet food items, kids' meal toys, and employee uniforms; and a contest with the grand prize of the Black Beauty car from the film. In 2012, Factory Entertainment released screen accurate replicas of
4640-475: The picture-making portion of the discipline of cartooning (see illustrator ). While every "cartoonist" might be considered a "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or a "comic book artist", not every "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or a "comic book artist" is a "cartoonist". Ambiguity might arise when illustrators and writers share each other's duties in authoring a work. The English satirist and editorial cartoonist William Hogarth , who emerged in
4720-540: The present, as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, adult and children's book author, illustrator, and art instructor. When Feiffer was 17 (in the mid-1940s) he became assistant to cartoonist Will Eisner . There he helped Eisner write and illustrate his comic strips, including The Spirit . In 1956, he became a staff cartoonist at The Village Voice , where he produced the weekly comic strip titled Feiffer until 1997. His cartoons became nationally syndicated in 1959 and then appeared regularly in publications including
4800-594: The scenic structure of your "strips" and the eminently speakable and funny dialog ... I should be most interested in furthering our contact with an eye toward doing a film along the moods and themes you have so brilliantly accomplished. By April 1959, Feiffer was distributed nationally by the Hall Syndicate , initially in The Boston Globe , Minneapolis Star Tribune , Newark Star-Ledger and Long Island Press . Eventually, his strips covered
4880-605: The screenplay for Carnal Knowledge (1971), directed by Mike Nichols , and Popeye (1980), directed by Robert Altman . He was recently given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dramatist's Guild. He lives in upstate New York with his wife JZ Holden and their three cats, Mimi, Jackson and Dezzdemona. He is currently working on a visual memoir. Feiffer was born in The Bronx , New York City, on January 26, 1929. His parents were David Feiffer and Rhoda ( née Davis), and Feiffer
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#17327902867504960-461: The sentimental naturalism of Abbie an' Slats , the [Preston] Sturges -like characters and plots of others, with cadenced dialogue. He recalls that Will Eisner 's Spirit rivaled them in structure. And no strip, except [Milton] Caniff 's Terry [and the Pirates] , rivaled it in atmosphere." After Feiffer graduated from high school at 16, he was desperate for a job, and went unannounced to
5040-432: The series, The Ghost Script: A Graphic Novel , was published by Liveright in 2018. Feiffer's picture book for young readers, Rupert Can Dance , was published by FSG in 2014. Feiffer's plays include Little Murders (1967), Feiffer's People (1969), Knock Knock (1976), Elliot Loves (1990), The White House Murder Case , and Grown Ups . After Mike Nichols adapted Feiffer's unproduced play Carnal Knowledge as
5120-478: The strip while living in hotels, apartments and farmhouses. At its peak of popularity during the 1940s and 1950s, the strip ran in 350 newspapers. According to Johnson, he had been doing the strip solo for at least a decade before Willard's death in 1958: "They put my name on it then. I had been doing it about 10 years before that because Willard had heart attacks and strokes and all that stuff. The minute my name went on that thing and his name went off, 25 papers dropped
5200-420: The strip. That shows you that, although I had been doing it ten years, the name means a lot." Societies and organizations Societies and organizations The Green Hornet The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker , with input from radio director James Jewell . Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in
5280-534: The trend of Tracy stories reviving characters from defunct strips. Western Publishing subsidiary Whitman Books released four works of text fiction based on the character, targeting younger readers. There were three entries in the children's line of profusely illustrated Big Little Books , The Green Hornet Strikes! , The Green Hornet Returns , and The Green Hornet Cracks Down , in 1940, 1941 and 1942, respectively, all attributed to Fran Striker . In 1966, their line for older juveniles included Green Hornet: Case of
5360-429: The way people talked, without using contrived dialogue. Eisner recalls that Feiffer "had a real ear for writing characters that lived and breathed. Jules was always attentive to nuances, such as sounds and expressions" which made stories seem more real. After working with Eisner for nearly a decade, he chose to start creating his own comic strips. In 1956, after again first proving his talent by working for free, he became
5440-457: The writing attributed to Fran Striker . The stories were loosely based on episodes of the radio show. This series ended after six issues. Several months later, Harvey Comics launched its own version, beginning with issue #7. This series lasted until issue #47 in 1949; during that time it also changed its title twice: first to Green Hornet Fights Crime (issue #34) and later to Green Hornet, Racket Buster (issue #44). Harvey additionally used
5520-533: Was a miniseries written by Kevin Smith with pencils by Jonathan Lau. Revamped in 2010 as an ongoing series set in modern times, the new Green Hornet stars Britt Reid Jr., the rebellious and spoiled son of Britt Reid Sr., now a retired industrial and family man. When Britt Sr. is slain by the Black Hornet, a yakuza mobster whose family was shamed by the original Green Hornet, the aging but still fit Kato returns. With his daughter, Mulan Kato, who has taken over
5600-567: Was always amazed by what he let me get away with. It shows how close and tight the relationship was, that he let me do that parody. He had great generosity of soul. —Jules Feiffer They collaborated well on The Spirit , sharing ideas, arguing points, and making changes when they agreed. In 1947, Feiffer also attended the Pratt Institute for a year to improve his art style. Over time, Eisner valued Feiffer's opinions and judgments more often, appreciating his "uncanny knack" for capturing
5680-555: Was directed by Michel Gondry . Jay Chou co-starred as Kato. Also starring were Cameron Diaz as Lenore Case, Edward James Olmos as Mike Axford, David Harbour as Frank Scanlon, Christoph Waltz as the main villain Benjamin Chudnofsky, and Tom Wilkinson as James Reid. In 2016, Paramount Pictures and Chernin Entertainment acquired the rights to The Green Hornet and started preliminary work on developing
5760-507: Was doing balloons based on stories that I'd create. I would start a story off and say, 'Now here I want the Spirit to do the following things – you do the balloons, Jules.' Gradually, he would take over and do stories entirely on his own, generally based on ideas we'd talked about. I'd come in generally with the first page, then he would pick it up and carry it from there. Our fights were always collegial. Never once did [Eisner] pull rank on me. I
5840-470: Was mostly attracted to the way they told stories. "What I loved best about these comics was that they created a very personal world in which almost anything could take place", Feiffer says. "And readers would accept it even if it had nothing to do with any other kind of world. It was the fantasy world I loved." Among his favorite cartoons were Our Boarding House , Alley Oop and Wash Tubbs . He began to decipher features of different cartoonists, such as
5920-570: Was much happier with the results. The first serial, titled simply The Green Hornet (1940), stars Gordon Jones in the title role, albeit dubbed by original radio Hornet Al Hodge whenever the hero's mask was in place, while The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941) stars Warren Hull . Keye Luke , who played the "Number One Son" in the Charlie Chan films, plays Kato in both. Also starring in both serials are Anne Nagel as Lenore Case, Britt Reid's secretary, and Wade Boteler as Mike Axford,
6000-676: Was named a Vanity Fair Best Book of 2014 and a Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2014. In 2016, Feiffer published Cousin Joseph: A Graphic Novel , a prequel to Kill My Mother . Cousin Joseph was also published through Liveright Publishing, and was a New York Times Bestseller, named one of The Washington Post 's Best Graphic Novels of the Year, and was nominated for the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize. A third book in
6080-420: Was plotted by Van Williams , star of the 1960s TV series, and scripted by Bob Ingersoll . The follow-ups were written by James Van Hise . Other miniseries included the three-issue The Green Hornet: Solitary Sentinel ; the four-issue Sting of the Green Hornet , set during World War II and Clint McElroy 's three-issue Dark Tomorrow (June–August 1993), featuring a criminal Green Hornet in 2080 being fought by
6160-566: Was raised in a Jewish household with a younger and an older sister. His father was usually unemployed in his work as a salesman due to the Depression. His mother was a fashion designer who made watercolor drawings of her designs which she sold to various clothing manufacturers in New York. "She'd go door to door selling her designs for $ 3," recalls Feiffer. The fact that she was the breadwinner, however, created an "atmosphere of silent blame" in
6240-607: Was really a criminal. Unlike the "campy" version of Batman , this version of The Green Hornet was played more seriously. In July 2020, Kevin Smith and WildBrain announced plans to develop a Green Hornet animated series set in the present day and focused on a reimagined Green Hornet and female Kato. On February 28, 2023, Smith confirmed in an episode of Fatman Beyond that the series would be 10 episodes. Green Hornet comic books began in December 1940. The series, titled Green Hornet Comics published by Helnit Comics with
6320-590: Was swiped from which radio hero: Buck Marshall from Tom Mix; the Crimson Avenger from The Green Hornet ... Feiffer says that cartoons were his first interest when young, "what I loved the most." He states that because he couldn't write well enough to be a writer, or draw well enough to be an artist, he realized that the best way to succeed would be to combine his limited talents in each of those fields to create something unique. He read comic strips from various newspapers which his father brought home, and
6400-445: Was to explore character. In a series of a dozen or so pictures, he would show the shifts of mood that flickered across the faces of men and women as they tried, often vainly, to explain themselves to the world, to their husbands and wives, to their mistresses and lovers, to their employers, to their rulers, or simply to the unseen adversaries at the other end of the telephone wires ... It would be no exaggeration to say that his dialog
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