call myself a herogeek, instead of a comic book geek, in part because my interest goes well outside comics. I’ve done my share of research on comic book characters, sure, but also on some of the ones that came before. The heroes before comics got their starts in books, or, as the popular medium of the time, radio. The Lone Ranger, who most people probably think of as a tv character (or the truly wretched Disney movie a few years ago), first popped up on a radio show in 1933. Later, the Green Hornet was created as a spinoff of sorts.