Almost 50 years ago, Batman and Robin crossed paths with the Green Hornet and Kato during a special two part episode of the ‘60s Batman TV series.
With DC Comics currently reviving the classic Adam West Batman in Batman ‘66, director Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman (“Family Guy”) are bringing the Green Hornet and Kato back to Gotham City for a new adventure.
Co-published by DC Comics and Dynamite Entertainment, Batman ’66 Meets The Green Hornet is a 12 part Digital first miniseries, with the first chapter available online this week. The first issue of the six part print edition of this storyline will hit comic book stores on Wednesday, June 4.
CraveOnline recently spoke to Smith and Garman about their plans for the Dynamic Duo and the crime fighters from a city that can never be named, as they shared the genesis of this project, their first exposure to the characters and the crazy team ups they want to write in the future.
CraveOnline: How did this project come together?
Kevin Smith: I worked on Batman at DC Comics a few times. I did Green Arrow there first and then from there I ended up doing Batman: The Widening Gyre and prior to that, Batman: Cacophony. I’d also done Green Hornet miniseries. I had written a script for a Green Hornet movie at Miramax that never went anywhere and Dynamite (the people from Dynamic Forces) they were into the idea of turning it into a comic book miniseries.
And it was very successful for them. The guy, Nick (Barrucci) who runs Dynamite was like “do you want to do a Batman and Green Hornet crossover?” And I was way into it, assuming that it was the modern Green Hornet that I had written and the modern Batman that I had written.
But it turned out that they were talking about Batman ’66 and old Green Hornet. And I said, “if I’m going to do that, can I please bring along this guy that I do this podcast (Hollywood Babble-On) with? This guy, Ralph Garman knows so much about the world of Batman ’66… which they’ve only started calling it Batman ’66. We always just called it Batman… or later on in life, TV Batman.
But once I got Ralph on board that was the key to the whole damn thing because of his passion for these characters. He’s loved them for his whole life. I believe he rode the Batmobile to his wedding. Is that correct?
Ralph Garman: That is correct sir.
Ralph, have you worked on comics before?
Ralph Garman: No! I had written a lot of different things: screenplays, stuff for the radio, stuff for television… but I’ve never written for a comic book before. I tell you, if there was gonna be one comic book that I was gonna have the shot to write, this would be the one.
This came into my life and I was like “I know I can do this” because I’ve lived and loved these characters for so long. I knew I had this story in me, but it was so great to have Kevin be there as my mentor on the project because of vast background.
We had a great editor over at DC named Jim Chadwick, who also held our hand through the project. And then you’ve got these amazing artist like Ty Templeton and Alex Ross doing our covers… I was surrounded by these amazing pros who had been around forever. It was such a great safety net. I knew that I could contribute something and I would be in good hands.
There’s also a variant cover for # 1 that’s being done by Michael Allred.
Well, that’s the right choice to do that cover then.
Ralph Garman: For sure.
