Kansas writer crafts comic-book sequel to “Green Hornet” film

Jai Nitz also will write “Year One” Green Hornet comics.

BY MATTHEW PRICE Oklahoman    Leave a comment

After making nearly $100 million at the box office, “Green Hornet,” which stars Seth Rogen and Jay Chou, will come to DVD in May.

Dynamite Entertainment, which provided a comic-book prequel to the film among its “Green Hornet” line of comics, follows up on the storyline of the film with “Green Hornet: Aftermath,” written by Kansas-based writer Jai Nitz.

The first issue of “Kato: Origins,” written by Jai Nitz. Dynamite Entertainment photo

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The series follows the continuing adventures of Green Hornet and Kato as a power struggle for control over drug trafficking in Los Angeles turns violent. The first issue was released earlier this month.Nitz, 35, interviewed recently at Planet Comicon in Overland Park, Kan., said he got his start at Dynamite through the recommendation of his mentor, Phil Hester.“When ‘Green Hornet’ came about, they were launching multiple titles ... they wanted people they could trust,” he said. Nitz writes “Kato Origins” for the publisher, which spun out from Matt Wagner’s “Green Hornet: Year One.”“Matt was very supportive in helping me get off the ground with the book (“Kato Origins”), from his “Year One,” doing a spinoff of it and being very much on the same page,” he said.Nitz also was named the key writer in the movie continuity for Dynamite. “I was brought on to do the movie-continuity books,” Nitz said. “I got to read the script, and I got to write a prequel to the movie.”It’s not the first movie-based comic written by Nitz, who also wrote the comic-book story “Tron: Betrayal,” that filled the gap between the original “Tron” and last year’s film “Tron: Legacy.”The creative team of the “Green Hornet” prequel, called “Parallel Lives,” was Nitz and artist Nigel Raynor. They’ll reunite on “Aftermath.” The first “Aftermath” issue is priced at $1.99, a dollar less than a typical Dynamite title, to try to hook fans of the movie on following the characters’ continuing adventures.Nitz also will be writing adventures of the Green Hornet in the “Golden Age,” based on the original conception of the character. He’ll follow Wagner, who established the “Green Hornet: Year One” series.“It’s very inspirational working with Matt (Wagner),” Nitz said. “He’s got three Eisner (Awards); he’s an extraordinarily gifted creator.”Each Hornet must accurately reflect its time period — the modern era for the movie-based comics, and the 1930s and 1940s for the “Year One” comics — but Nitz enjoys both assignments. He also has more projects at Dynamite that he expects to be announced soon.“I’m very firmly entrenched in the family of Green Hornet books at Dynamite, but I’m also doing a ton of other stuff at Dynamite,” Nitz said. “It’s a good home to have right now.”

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