Data courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under Creative Commons license.

Issue Details

Issue #2
Published December 1992
Cover Price 2.50 USD
Pages 36
Editing Tony Caputo (Editor in chief); Joan Weis (Editor)

Cover Details

Characters Ned Karthage; Hayashi Kato; Faye Ripien
Genre Martial arts
Pencils Val Mayerik (signed) (painting)
Inks Val Mayerik (signed) (painting)
Colors Val Mayerik (signed) (painting)

24 page Kato of the Green Hornet story "Karthage Must Be Destroyed"

Characters Hayashi Kato; Paul Reid; Sandy Sragow; Ned Karthage; Spitting Cobras (villains); Faye Ripien (villain); Rex (villian)
Synopsis Concluded from last issue: Kato spots the archer and catches the arrow. The bowman, dressed like a ninja, escapes easily. Hayashi gets Sragow and two more playmates back into the hotel, but a room service deliverer turns out to be another assassin, joined by three others coming through the window from the balcony above. They all fail. Kato takes an unenthusiastic Sragow to a rural monastery, then travels to Ned Karthage's country home. The big man doesn't like his property being invaded, but convinces Kato that Faye Ripien would frame him. Late at night, Hayashi sneaks into her office and finds documents that explain everything, but she and Rex, who was the archer, walk in on him. He defeats Rex and turns both over to the authorities. At the monastery, Sragow announces that with the help of acupuncture treatments he is clean and feeling great. Kato tells him the truth: a routine but contractually required physical examination had revealed the rock star to be HIV positive. His dying slowly in a hospital would not have released Faye from legal obligations that would have cost her a fortune, but his being murdered would have. Kato goes home, and both he and Paul decide to get tested.
Genre Martial arts; crime
Script Mike Baron
Pencils Val Mayerik
Inks James Sherman
Colors Suzanne Dechnik
Letters Andrea Albert
Notes A third Kato solo adventure ("Kato III") was prepared, written again by Mike Baron and with fully painted interior art by Anthony "Bob" Bilau, announced first as a two-issue miniseries, then as a graphic novel (this subtitled "Dragons in Eden"); however, it was left unpublished when NOW ceased operations after January 1995 cover date releases.

2 page What NOW? promo (ad from the publisher)

Characters Various
Synopsis Listings for sixteen NOW Comics releases, including cover repros for fifteen, three 3-D specials without covers, two versions of two others (the alternates have their own covers), creative talent credits for all, and also a listing for a Speed Racer video, with cover repro.
Letters Typeset; ? (for logos)
Notes This feature, a centerspread between pages 13 & 14 of Sequence 1, appeared in most NOW releases cover dated October 1992-May 1993, usually but not always in the center.

1 page letters page "Kato II Letters"

Synopsis Letters from readers Delmo (the Saint) Walters, Jr., Jacob Gilbert and Dave Evans, commenting on issue #1 of this series, with editorial replies.
Script Joan Weis
Colors ?
Letters Typeset; ? (for logos)
Notes There is no explanation as to how NOW received letters about last month's issue in time for them to see print here; the feature has a yellow background, with black and red used for the logo.

1 page photo story "Show Stoppers"

Synopsis Photos of NOW Comics creative talent, Mr. T (then the subject of a NOW comic), TV's Green Hornet Van Williams and fans at various then-recent comic conventions, with captions. There is also a boxed list of NOW's regular staff.
Pencils ? (photos)
Inks ? (photos)
Colors ? (photos)
Letters Typeset; ? (for logos)
Notes This feature appeared on the last interior page of most NOW releases cover dated October 1992-March 1993.