The game is afoot! Who is the mysterious Quack of Death? How does the Green Hornet figure in all this? Please read the ten-page comic strip to find out.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is a character who doesn’t lend himself to irony easily. Like James Bond, or Hercule Poirot for that matter, he comes well equipped with all the needed self-satire, and to try to outhumor him can be like adding too much sugar to a well-balanced recipe. Therefore, the keyword must be homage; gently acknowledging the superiority of the original.
I don’t think there needs to be any absolute way of determining the difference. The film series starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson certainly set the gold standard starting with The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939). Parody comes in to play with the bumbling Watson, who was never as gullible and clueless in the original stories… or was he? Let’s think about it. Watson as the sole narrator had ample opportunity to frame himself in a good light. It’s just possibly he chose to overlook what is obvious to the viewer. Let’s take it from there.
In these comic strip episodes of the misadventures of our super-sleuths, Holmes and Watson meet the Green Hornet and his trusted sidekick Kato. Just which Kato is this, Bruce Lee, or his predecessor Keye Luke? Does Sherlock himself look more like Jeremy Brett than Basil Rathbone…? You get to decide. The main antagonist Professor Moriarty is once again up to his dastardly deeds, but can the Quack of Death be finally defeated, meaning there will be no deadly altercation at the Swiss Alps? At first this story was a one-page gag, then three, growing gradually to ten. I had fun plotting and drawing so here goes!
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