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Post by MWGallaher on Nov 30, 2020 21:29:19 GMT -5
It was only much later that we saw the likes of Scalphunter, Jonah Hex and Bat Lash teaming up, which was too bad, because there were plenty of interesting Western types back in the heyday of DC Westerns. DC, though, never applied the Marvel approach of giving its Western characters super-heroic overtones. And by the time that Marvel was doing so, the DC Westerns were on their way out or had vanished. By the time All-Star Western and Jonah Hex came along, the model for DC was the Eastwood/ Leone spaghetti Westerns and their more realistic, violent style. DC did try the superhero western at least once, though, with Super-Chief in the last three issues of All-Star Western (original run), right alongside those Madame 44-focused installments of Johnny Thunder. Super-Chief was, as I recall, the very first DC Western character I was exposed to, via reprint in Superman #245, and heck, as an 11-year-old newly enthralled with superheroes, I have to admit I was fascinated. Those issues, which preceded Marvel's Western Team-Ups, obviously didn't resuscitate DC's Western line, since it looks like they didn't publish another one until 1967 reprints in Showcase #72, (not counting Tomahawk, which I don't consider a Western, though it's obviously akin to one). |
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Post by Prince Hal on Nov 30, 2020 22:12:41 GMT -5
It was only much later that we saw the likes of Scalphunter, Jonah Hex and Bat Lash teaming up, which was too bad, because there were plenty of interesting Western types back in the heyday of DC Westerns. DC, though, never applied the Marvel approach of giving its Western characters super-heroic overtones. And by the time that Marvel was doing so, the DC Westerns were on their way out or had vanished. By the time All-Star Western and Jonah Hex came along, the model for DC was the Eastwood/ Leone spaghetti Westerns and their more realistic, violent style. DC did try the superhero western at least once, though, with Super-Chief in the last three issues of All-Star Western (original run), right alongside those Madame 44-focused installments of Johnny Thunder. Super-Chief was, as I recall, the very first DC Western character I was exposed to, via reprint in Superman #245, and heck, as an 11-year-old newly enthralled with superheroes, I have to admit I was fascinated. Those issues, which preceded Marvel's Western Team-Ups, obviously didn't resuscitate DC's Western line, since it looks like they didn't publish another one until 1967 reprints in Showcase #72, (not counting Tomahawk, which I don't consider a Western, though it's obviously akin to one). Of course! How could I have forgotten Super-Chief?! I remember seeing him for the first time in that 100-pager, too. |
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Post by tarkintino on Dec 1, 2020 8:46:24 GMT -5
By the time All-Star Western and Jonah Hex came along, the model for DC was the Eastwood/ Leone spaghetti Westerns and their more realistic, violent style. A great turn for DC, as it was a style of western character more relatable to readers who spent the previous decade embracing alternatives to the John Wayne & Wayne-esque western characters in film, so darker characters dealing with gritty or tragic situations were a no-brainer. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 1, 2020 10:03:40 GMT -5
By the time All-Star Western and Jonah Hex came along, the model for DC was the Eastwood/ Leone spaghetti Westerns and their more realistic, violent style. A great turn for DC, as it was a style of western character more relatable to readers who spent the previous decade embracing alternatives to the John Wayne & Wayne-esque western characters in film, so darker characters dealing with gritty or tragic situations were a no-brainer. Yes, and Marvel really didn't bother trying to compete in that genre, with the exception of a 1980 try-out in Marvel Premiere called Caleb Hammer. Not too obvious.  |
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 1, 2020 12:14:47 GMT -5
Rawhide Kid #94, December 1971 “Day of the Outcast” by Lieber/Roussos/Kurzrok  To open the tale, Rawhide rides to the aid of a man who’s taking a tumble off of his tripped-up steed. When he turns the man over to check on his well-being, he discovers a Black man, who immediately punches the kid out—he recognizes the notorious outlaw, and assumes he’s being robbed by the Kid! Naturally, a brief fist fight follows, before the fighters take pause to come to an understanding. The Black man explains that he finds it hard to believe that Rawhide intended to help because of the difference in their races. The stranger explains “I’ve been freed—but not from hate, bigotry, and cruelty!” We get the man’s life story in very quick flashback, from racist taunts to developing top-notch shooting skills. “From now on, no one will push me around! From here on out, men will call Rafe Larsen ‘ Mistuh!’”   Since they’re both heading to Paradise Flats, Rawhide makes the standard offer to ride together, but Larsen refuses, citing his mistrust of white men. In Paradise Flats, the arrival of a Black man toting fire-arms is not welcomed by the all-white townsmen, who immediately order him to disarm. Even in a three-on-one draw, Rafe Larsen shoots the pistols from two of his opponents’ grips and sends the third directly to Boot Hill! The other townsmen affirm that the act was self-defense, but the sheriff strongly recommends that a Black man should think twice about going around town armed, but Rafe keeps ‘em at the ready, ignoring the warning. Rafe next uses one of those pistols to convince the innkeeper to rent him a room. The insulted showdown survivors have a devious and brutal plan: they murder gambler Sam Walker in cold blood and plant the loot in Rafe’s hotel room. That oughtta assure them the chance to see Rafe Larsen going to the gallows, but just to be sure, they report to the sheriff that they were witnesses, and “it was that Black gunslick who did it!” The planted loot is discovered, and Larsen knows he’s been set up. Now it’s a jump through the window and onto his horse for a quick getaway! And he might have gotten away with it if it weren’t for that pesky (Rawhide) Kid! The more experienced Rawhide shoots the guns from Rafe’s hands so that Larsen won’t become a wanted man like Rawhide. I reckon Rawhide figures if Rafe’s innocent, he’ll get a fair shake at trial. But our mob ain’t gonna risk him getting a “not guilty” verdict, and gear up for a lynching. The sheriff tries, but can’t protect Rafe, who gets dragged out and taken to be strung up from a tree. But Rawhide’s having none of that, dissuading the mob with double-handed warning shots that take the hats of their heads. “ Every man, white or black, is entitled to his day in court! It’s just as simple as that!” With Larsen back behind bars, Rawhide shares his theory with the sheriff: Larsen’s been framed by the two survivors of the shootout. But he’ll need proof to convince the sheriff, so he trails one of his suspects back home. Rawhide figures the best way to get the truth is to get the man at gunpoint and refuse to take any answer but the one he wants to hear. After initially sticking to his story, the man’s about to spill the beans, but instead he spills his own blood, shot in the back from someone outside the window!  Rawhide can’t risk shooting the killer, who he is confident can clear Larsen, so instead he tackles him and delivers a full page of knuckles until he beats him all the way down. It’s…  …that one guy we already knew, who, unless I missed it, has gone nameless throughout the story. The guilty man confesses, and the sheriff frees Rafe, who retains a bitter attitude and offers zero gratitude, rejecting Rawhide’s platitude that “it won’t always be like this! Times will change!” “ Sure they will! Long after I’m dead!” Rawhide knows Larson’s right about that, and leaves town. The sheriff tears up the wanted poster with Rawhide’s image on it, having learned that “there’s a lot more to a man…than yuh can write on a sheet of paper!” Comments: Yeah, this is another that diverges from the formal team-up model, since Rafe Larsen isn’t an established solo Western character, but then, neither was the Dakota Kid from Western Team-Up #1. The main difference was that Dakota got his own logo and headshot on the cover and formal billing as co-star. But Rafe Larsen (“Outcast”, as the story title dubs him) had as much—or more--potential to head off on his own, had the market been amenable to such. No, there’s not a lot of teaming up, but that’s never been a disqualifier in the team-ups…you’ll recall Kid Colt doing very little but getting shot and shining the Night Rider’s magic lantern around in their “team-up”! Was this testing the waters for Rafe to get his own slot somewhere? Maybe not, but it feels like it could have been. I can’t find any evidence that Larry Lieber prepared any advance character design work like I did for Dakota, but here’s a sample of the original art from one of the pages:  Early on in this thread, several folks brought up the Black/White cowboy duos that popped up in quite a few films of the 60’s and 70’s. This story is heading in that direction, leading the way for the soon-to-come Gunhawks title, but for my money, Rafe Larsen is a stronger concept than Reno Jones. I can see that this kind of unapologetic Black man with a redwood-sized chip on his shoulder might not fly in the comic market of the day, but you gotta give it to Larry Lieber for not watering things down by having Rawhide inspire more trust for whites; Rafe departs with, I assume, even more distrust after coming so close to a lynching. And that’s really about all I really appreciated about this story, which is all sorts of wrong from a 2020 perspective. Rafe wouldn’t have been let immediately off the hook after killing a white man, even if he was drawn on first. Getting a room by threatening the innkeeper with a bullet to the head would likely have drawn a lynch mob a lot more easily than a murder frame-up. Rawhide’s naïve approach to “helping” Rafe by returning him to the legal system…the same legal system that couldn’t clear Rawhide himself after years of trying?! Is trying to outrun an outlaw’s reputation really worse than being railroaded by racists into a cell awaiting capital punishment? And then Rawhide demonstrates how not to get a trustworthy confession, with a textbook example of why torture doesn’t work, and then Lieber teases us with what seems to be leading to a surprise reveal that’s no surprise at all. And to top it all off, the “lesson” the sheriff learns from this is to trust the Rawhide Kid for all his noble good deeds? I know that’s the standard ending for a Rawhide Kid story, but it feels completely out of place. How about, say, being aware that Black men might be at risk from your townspeople?
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 1, 2020 20:09:15 GMT -5
Western Gunfighters #1, August, 1970  “The Coming of Gunhawk”, 10 pages Stan Lee, Editor Jerry Siegel, Writer Werner Roth, Artist Sal Buscema, Inker The initial installment of Gunhawk’s feature in this series opens with a striking splash, a pin-up style drawing with powerfully-rendered title lettering beneath a shot that establishes the lead’s look, in a simple black outfit with a yellow tie knotted in a thin bow, a pair of pistols in his hands and the traditional low-slung holsters fastened to his thighs. He’s dark-haired and sports a prominent scar down his right cheek.  The story proper begins with Gunhawk entering the town of Brimstone on horseback, where the townspeople freeze at his grim glare. His reputation has preceded him. The next morning, he receives callers at his hotel room: the law-abiding of Brimstone have collected funds and want to hire him to take out the “sheriff”, an outlaw named Luke Tuttle who has recently murdered the real sheriff and assumed his star and authority. Gunhawk negotiates a hike in his charges, from $200 to $300, and heads to the saloon, where he easily disarms Tuttle and brings him to the jail. To the townsfolks’ obvious discomfort, Gunhawk plans to stick around rather than take off to spend his bounty in the big city. Seems there’s more employment opportunities for Gunhawk in Brimstone, as Boss Scragg’s men try to hire him to extract the location of a secret gold mine from geezer Jeb Hawkins, who keeps the location secret between himself and his daughter Daisy. Gunhawk invites the potential employers to step outside where, instead of starting on the job, Gunhawk beats the tar outta the polecats and sends ‘em on their way back to Scragg, who has confirmed Gunhawk’s previous impression that he was a “low-down snake!” Scragg has alternate plans, plans which Gunhawk, secreted on the roof above Scragg’s window, overhears. Gunhawk now begins keeping an eye on Hawkins and Daisy, who are drinking it up in the saloon, teasing the other drinkers as to the location of his mine. When they become aggressively insistent, Gunhawk steps in, but Daisy is more than capable of mounting a defense of her Pa. None of which will prevent Scragg’s men from tailing the father and daughter when they leave to return to their mine. By the next morning, the Hawkins think they are eluding their pursuers, having led their horsed down a stream to stony ground where they won’t leave tracks. But one person has managed to follow, namely Gunhawk, who got ahead of them on the trail. When the Hawkins arrive at the mine, Daisy discovers that a carrier pigeon has been planted in their supplies, and its mate is circling above them. Scragg and company have outwitted them, with the bird providing a clear marker of the Hawkins’ current location! Scragg is playing for keeps—when the Hawkins take refuge in the mine, from where they can hold off attackers, Scraggs prepares to dynamite the opening, figuring to dig it back open after the prospecting family expires from suffocation! Pa and Daisy manage to keep them away from the mine entrance with gunfire until darkness falls.  Then it’s time for Gunhawk to advance on them, but Daisy’s doing just the same! With her as hostage, Scragg grabs the young woman to use as a human shield, even as Gunhawk mows down the others of the gang. Scragg’s got a bead on Gunhawk, but Daisy makes some unexpected moves with a stomping foot and an elbow to Scragg’s ribs, causing him to miss Gunhawk and wound one of his own men. Gunhawk manages to shoot the heels off of Scragg’s boots, and the Hawkins are safe. But not grateful enough to pay the man Hawkins knows to be a hired gun. Gunhawk had no intention of charging them one red cent, but Pa still advises his daughter that a hired gun is as low as a man can get. Scragg’s men are all at worst wounded, and Gunhawk marches them off. Unfortunately, the location of their secret mine is about to be common knowledge. Scragg’s thoughts reveal an inauthentic expression of regret: “Sometime only the damned…like me…can understand…and implacably hate…nobility like his…that might have been mine—if--I hadn’t gone wrong!” Siegel closes the story with a summary of the feature’s premise: Gunhawk is a “man willing to fight alone— though every hand be turned against him—so that the spark of goodness which separates man from beast—will live!" Comments Why am I reviewing the opening installment of a solo feature in the Western Team-Ups thread? Well, we need to get acquainted with this newcomer to Marvel’s Western line since he’ll be encountering a couple of other Marvel cowboy stars in the days to come. Western Gunfighters signaled the start of a new wave of Westerns at Marvel, although this lead-off story retains plenty from the earlier approach, particularly with the hoary Comics Code-friendly avoidance of serious violence via the highly unlikely ability to shoot pistols out of his opponents’ hands rather than shooting them outright. It probably stood out on the stands, at 25 cents, it wasn't alone as many of the Marvels of that month went to a larger page count, but WG continued as a giant, even while most other Marvels reverted back to a shorter and cheaper format. At the time, Marvel was also publishing Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt Outlaw, Mighty Marvel Western, Outlaw Kid, Two-Gun Kid and Ringo Kid...seven titles, a significant portion of their early 1970's output that would be expanded with even more reprint series like Gunslinger and The Western Kid, and new series Red Wolf and Gunhawks, before bringing us back to Western Team-Up! Gunhawk’s not a misunderstood and wrongly-proclaimed outlaw, he’s just a representative of the kind of presumably amoral gun for hire that both the good and the bad folk find repugnant. He’s clearly a straight-shooter, aiming only to do good with his guns, but accepting that he’s not likely to be making friends even when he’s performing a good service. Way back at the start of this thread, we noted Marvel’s original “Gunhawk” character, who in the early days of the Atlas Western usurped a series previously headlined by cowboy movie star Whip Wilson (who himself had ousted “Your favorite Western Star” Rex Hart, who had replaced marvels early creation Blaze Carson, “the Fighting Sheriff”, later known as “outlaw buster”!). Somebody at Marvel was quite taken with the “Gunhawk” monicker, since this guy would be followed up almost immediately with the unrelated Gunhawks series. I’m especially impressed with the art team of Werner Roth and Sal Buscema here! Roth seems way more at home here than he was on X-Men, and Sal B. does a fine job on the inks. Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel does a creditable job here in his brief tenure at Marvel, with a story that, while it hews reasonably close to the familiar Marvel approach to Westerns, has a unique enough vibe to feel like something at least a little special. As for Gunhawk himself, I’m a sucker for the genuine mystery-men, who swoop into a story with ambiguous motivations and no clues to their past. And it’s refreshing that for once, the character’s not an outlaw, but instead has an aura of ambiguity that makes him feel a little more threatening than the usual unjustly-accused “outlaws” who always demonstrated their purity. Siegel and Roth and Buscema do nothing to paint this guy as anything but an ice-cold operator, with limited dialog, minimal expressiveness beyond a sneer, and, in surprising anticipation of trends that would take hold in comics years later, no thought balloons revealing his inner monologues! With the sanitized violence, Gunhawk doesn’t hold up to the new breed of Western star taking hold in the cinema of the era, but in attitude, he’s in his era. Coming Attractions: Western Gunfighters #1 included two more brand-new feature debuts, “Tales of Fort Rango” and “The Renegades”, as well as the return of Ghost Rider, which will present at least one story that was originally prepared for his solo series, before it was cancelled, a familiar turn of events in the territory we’ve been riding in! We’ll be looking at all four of these new features, as they will all prove relevant in our further consideration of Western Team-Ups at Marvel.
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 1, 2020 23:39:16 GMT -5
Add a mustache to Gunhawk and you have the legendary Paladin.  |
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Post by brutalis on Dec 2, 2020 6:42:23 GMT -5
Add a mustache to Gunhawk and you have the legendary Paladin. Gunhawk needs a lot more than a 'stache to fill Paladin's boots. He may wear the black but that's as close as it gets. There is nobody quite like my man Paladin in western comics! |
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 2, 2020 6:58:21 GMT -5
It should have struck me that this Gunhawk does indeed appear to be a shameless lift of Paladin from TV's Have Gun Will Travel, a traveling mercenary in black who hires his gun to those who can pay but provides his services gratis to those in need. A scar instead of a mustache and the addition of a little yellow tie and the lack of a memorable calling card are about all that distinguish Gunhawk from Richard Boone's character. The show was long gone from the airwaves, although it was probably well-syndicated, although it wasn't airing in my locale at the time, so I wouldn't have noticed.
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 2, 2020 10:01:59 GMT -5
Renegades: “Renegades” was a feature that debuted in the premier issue of Western Gunfighters, and although the first installment promised a continuation in the following issue, it wouldn’t be until issue 4 and 5 that the second and third installment appeared, with the third concluding the series. This is yet another flavor of “Western Team-Up”, this one mimicking the superhero team format Marvel had successfully mined with the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and X-Men, where there was no specific lead character, but rather a quartet adventuring together in the Old West.
Western Gunfighters #1 “Call Them…Renegades” by Roy Thomas and Mike Friedrich, writers, and Tom Sutton, artist, 10 pgs. We first enter the world of The Renegades following a rider racing towards the Alamo:  Inside, among the desperate defenders of the decrepit mission amidst its legendary assault by the forces of Santa Ana, the rider is found to be a Mexican himself, who greets the defenders claiming to be an ally against the dictator. When the Mexican is greeted with unwelcoming threats, his partners, already inside, come to his defense. One is a tough, conventional Western hero type, and there’s “The Kid”, a youthful gunslinger whose spray of bullets interrupt the developing brawl, and, breaking from the mission’s jail with a huge wooden beam for a battering ram is “Little Flower”, a French-Canadian giant of a man. The free-for-all is halted by Col. Travis, Davy Crockett, and Jim Bowie, who order the four to Travis’s headquarters for an explanation. All of them, including Carlos Cortez, the newly-arrived Mexican, have come to offer their services in defense of Texas, not yet appreciating the suicidal prospects of defending against 5000 Mexican soldiers with only 150 men. Our quartet disagrees on whether to fight for the Alamo, and begin instead to fight each other! The team’s leader (whose name we have yet to learn) takes responsibility for getting his boys back in line, going so far as to trade blows with Little Flower, who shows his considerable advantage in strength by bending an iron bar ripped from the window. This kind of fracas is all good fun to the fellows, it turns out. They elect to do what they can to defend the Alamo, and Col. Travis assigns them a critical task: break through the Mexican lines with a request to General Sam Houston, seeking reinforcements. Rather than alarming the soldiers over the dire straits the Alamo is in, Travis instead stages a show by which the Renegades will paint themselves as cowardly deserters, and they leave the mission in secretly heroic humiliation to seek aid for the ill-fated fort. Carlos has been secretly gifted one of Jim Bowie’s legendary knives, and Little Flower knows that Davy Crockett is also aware of their secret mission, as they leave behind a tragedy they will not be witness to:  Western Gunfighters #4 “Call Them…Renegades” by Mike Friedrich, writer, and Tom Sutton, artist, 10 pgs The second installment opens with the Renegades on the trail, branded traitors and threatened not just by nature but also by man:  Their stalker hits “The Kid”, and the quartet draw their irons to fight back. The leader—I don’t know what else to call him yet!—runs for their assailant, who doesn’t react to the noise he is making running through dry leaves: their attacker is deaf. By the time the deaf man has reloaded his rifle and spotted the man running toward him, it’s too late to shoot, and he’s tackled head on. This is “Deaf Smith”, who claims he fired because he thought they were Mexicans. He’s here on a mission of sabotage, planning to blow up a bridge to prevent Santa Ana’s retreat. Little Giant can take care of that easily enough, using brute strength to destroy the bridge supports bare-handed. Smith agrees to escort the Renegades to Sam Houston, and shares the bad news our boys have not yet heard: the Alamo has fallen. Under that cloud of failure, the boys report to the General, who welcomes them to the cause. Before you know it, they’re accompanying the Texas Army against the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto under the hallowed cry “Remember the Alamo!” The victory is quick, marred only by the escape of Santa Ana, but in its aftermath, The Kid is attacked by soldiers who know him as one of the supposed deserters. The General, grateful for their aid in the battle, allows them to ride out, branded now even wider as deserters and cowards. As they depart, they find and apprehend one final fleeing Mexican: 
Western Gunfighters #5 “Renegades” by Mike Friedrich, writer, and Tom Sutton, artist, 10 pgs Thanks to the final splash, I can finally pin a handle on that one guy: “Dude”. If they mentioned it before, it passed me by as a casual reference, not a nickname.  The story gets underway with the Renegades heading into a new town, three of ‘em heading to the bar while Carlos visits the General Store. Little Flower gets the barkeeper to allow the apparently underage Kid into the drinking establishment, but the giant only allows him a glass of milk, to the laughter of the patrons. Reports come in that “Sam Houston has captured Santa Ana”, but a barroom brawl breaks out when the Renegades are recognized by a soldier from San Jacinto. Things get even worse when Carlos finally makes his way into the saloon, and it’s not until page 6 of 10 that our boys make it out of the bar alive, only to be fired on in the street! The Renegades are outnumbered, but The Kid demonstrates his shootin’ skills and disarms them all with well-aimed shots, hurled pistols, kicks to the jaw, and gun-butts to the back of the head! He’s not taking well to being branded a coward, but Dude knows that fighting won’t win them over. They help mend the injured and hit the trail again. At camp, The Kid discovers what Carlos picked up at the General Store…evidently, he’s a secret intellectual: 
Comments: A nice change of pace from Marvel’s typical Western fare, The Renegades shows a clear influence of the new wave of Westerns in 60’s and 70’s cinema, with its band of unseemly and unruly troublemakers. Like any good superhero team, they’ve got a Tank in “Little Flower”, a hot-head in “The Kid”, a leader in “Dude”, and, I guess, a smart guy in Carlos. The gimmick of being branded as cowards is nothing new (I was a big fan of the tv show Branded, and the scenes of Chuck Connors being dishonorably discharged in the opening credits really haunted me), but I find it more powerful than the undeserved “outlaw” status Marvel overused with so many of its Western characters. Tom Sutton’s work makes this short run really stand out. He’s channeling Harvey Kurtzman on many pages with a cartoony but still gritty look. The Renegades packed more action scenes in its brief 30 pages than 30 issues of a typical 60’s Marvel Western, and Sutton didn’t shy away from crowded scenes of mayhem, making this more of a visual treat than readers were accustomed to. So far as I can determine, The Renegades never showed up again. Kind of a pity, but even if they had appeared in an imaginary Western Team-Up #5 or so, I think that under the pen of a Larry Lieber or Gary Friedrich, and without the manic art of Tom Sutton, they’d have been watered down too much to be as much fun as they were here.
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 3, 2020 11:24:39 GMT -5
Sneaky Varmints: Marvel wasn't above misleading potential purchasers (or internet researchers several decades in the future!) into thinking a collection of reprints might actually be a team-up of Western characters. Exhibit 1:  From that curious period in the early 70's when Marvel recruited superstar artist Jim Steranko back, not to provide new SHIELD or Captain America adventures, but covers to pump up the sales of low performing or unestablished new titles, including a few reprints, like this one. The Black Rider, Apache Kid, and Matt (a.k.a. "Kid") Slade, alas, did not team up to bring justice to "Outlaw Town", despite the cover's implication. Instead, the reader got a quartet of shorts, the longest at 6 pages. The art on the Black Rider story is by Syd Shores, an artist I absolutely love, whose top-notch work will be on display in my next installment. There's also a story called "The End of the Rio Kid", that reminds me of "The Dakota Kid Rides Again", the story from Quick-Trigger Western that I discussed early in this thread, in that it's not actually a continuation of a "Rio Kid" feature as the name might imply. It tells the story of a "Rio Kid" and how he retires from gun-slinging. Interestingly, there's another reprint I ran across in one of Marvel's Western comics called "Sky Pilot", in which a new minister that comes to town turns out to have a past reputation as the gunslinger "the Rio Kid", but they don't appear to have been intentionally connected with each other. Exhibit 2:  Maybe sales spiked on the Steranko trickery shown above, because a year or two later, Larry Lieber and Frank Giacoia were assigned to suggest yet another team-up in the same all-reprint comic, this time depicting Kid Colt, Apache Kid, and the Western Kid (a.k.a. "Gunslinger") riding together into a canyon ambush. Nope, more reprints, all 5-pagers. Outside of Western Gun-Fighters, Marvel tried twice in the 70's to reuse the "Gun-Slinger" reprints, first under its originally published title, "The Western Kid":  ...and trying again under the more exciting title "Tex Dawson, Gun-Slinger", shortened with the second issue to just "Gun-Slinger". Again, juicing sales with another Steranko cover!  Exhibit 3:  At least the cover art doesn't promise us that the Black Rider will be encountering Kid Colt directly, but "special guest appearance", to me, suggests more than "reprint back-up story". But that's what it was. Coming Attractions: Next up, Syd Shores draws the one-and-only installment of a feature starring a character who will return in a later-published Western comic starring someone else!
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Post by brutalis on Dec 3, 2020 13:02:43 GMT -5
I really love the Renegades for the superb Sutton art and also the truly fab 70's kitsch going on. Very much taste the spaghetti in this western. Would have been great seeing it last longer, but at least there are these few stories to savor.
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 3, 2020 19:10:50 GMT -5
Western Gunfighters #1 “Tales of Fort Rango!”, 10 pgs Gary Friedrich, writer Syd Shores, artist Jean Simek Izzo, letterer The opening caption establishes our story’s setting: a fort in the Dakotas shortly after the Civil War. Cavalry troopers Jake and Clem are trying to escape a band of Indians who object to the white men’s trespass on their lands:  The pair ride under a barrage of arrows to Fort Rango, at which point the Indians fall back. The guard at the top of the fence directs the boys to the rear entrance, informing them that their new commanding officer has arrived. And what has the C.O. arrived to? A scene of drinking, gambling, and slacking; the men of Fort Rango are clearly an undisciplined and unruly lot! Major Brett Sabre, a young officer with long blond hair, disrupts the ruckus with a shot fired into the air, with stern warnings that he intends to shape this installation up, starting by having the men dig a trench and march through it in full uniform. The next arrival to the fort is the civilian scout Ned Hacker, who knocks the new C.O. off of his horse and into the trenches. Sabre doesn’t react well to Hacker’s literal horseplay, and ejects Hacker from the fort under threat of arrest should he return. Sabre’s not gaining much favor among the enlisted men, dining on steak with his officers while the soldiers make do with bread and water. Sabre, a West Point graduate, finds the attitudes of the men of Fort Rango worse than he’d expected, but intends to make proper soldiers of them. Outside the fort, Ned observes the Sioux preparing a night-time attack, but the Indians are convinced to call it off by Crazy Dog, who has received the word of the great spirit Manitou: the white men’s new leader will defeat them if they attempt an assault. Ned, ignoring the Major’s warning, climbs the fence and re-enters, passing the dozing and irresponsible guard. Ned foments rebellion among the dissatisfied men; rather than warn the C.O. of the Indians’ plans, he wants to rid the fort of Major Sabre entirely, by staging a phony Indian attack in the officer’s quarters, along side several mutinous troopers! Sabre is far more capable than they had expected, and he escapes the would-be murderers, only to find himself caught between the mutineers and the Indians, who have changed their minds about attacking, and are now inside the fort! This puts the rebels and the Major on the same side of a battle against the invading Sioux, and Sabre directs the defense of the fort as casualties begin to pile up on both sides. From outside the fort, we learn that Chief Crazy Dog “called off the attack” only to fool Ned Hacker, and is waiting with his army of braves, expecting his men to open the gates to allow them in. The fighting is fast and furious inside, with Syd’s art sufficing to tell all that needs telling…so of course the panel has to be spoiled with corny captions to that effect:  Sabre pushes his men to defend the gate, as another falls with a spear to the chest. Crazy Dog has lost patience, and abandons his braves to the men of Fort Rango, who, despite the valor shown, will still stand trial for their actions against hardnosed Major Brett Sabre. And with that, the reader is invited to let the editor know if they want to see more tales of Fort Rango! Comments: No more installments were forthcoming, but this would not be the last we see of the men of Fort Rango. Western Team-Ups lie ahead! Man, do I love this Syd Shores art! When I began reading Marvel comics in the early 70’s, Shores work on the stuff that I remember seeing, such as the Frankenstein strip in Monsters Unleashed, didn’t impress me at all. But looking at it now…wow! It reminds me a lot of the work of Bill Everett and of Wally Wood and of Marie Severin, full of character and animation, and humor and expression. He does strong, convincing figure work, effective staging, convincing sets and horses, elegant inking. Even the uncredited coloring is excellent on this tale! Shores died shortly after I began reading comics, and it was a long time before I realized what good work I’d missed out on. He’s represented in a lot of the Western reprints that were running around this time at Marvel, as well, and his earlier work always stands out there. According to the intro caption, this is “a new adult-look in comic mag westerns”. Like its co-feature The Renegades, this was taking inspiration from the rowdier class of Westerns in vogue at the time, with brutality, resentfulness, and lethal violence; none of these guys were going to be shooting the pistols out of someone’s hands! Fun though it is, I couldn’t quite buy that the men would outright attempt to murder Sabre on the say-so of the scout, nor that Sabre wouldn’t outright execute the rebels immediately for their actions, but given the page count constraints, I can fill in the gaps with imagined additional developments that would make the events a little more plausible. Fact is, I’d have been up for more Tales of Fort Rango if I’d been reading this mag in 1970. I’ve got a fondness for series constrained to a specific facility, something you don’t see enough of in the comics. Coming Attractions: We're gonna have to take a detour into superhero territory next, to prepare for the return of Brett Sabre and the men of Fort Rango down the trail a bit.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 3, 2020 23:05:29 GMT -5
Add a mustache to Gunhawk and you have the legendary Paladin. Grow out the mustache a bit, whiten it, bleach out the hat and cut off half the barrel and you have Hec Ramsey!  |
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 4, 2020 9:39:28 GMT -5
The Coming of Red Wolf!
Avengers #80, “The Coming of Red Wolf”, September 1970, by Thomas/Buscema/Palmer/Rosen  Cover by John Buscema and Tom Palmer I’m not going to summarize this pair of Avengers issues in exhaustive detail, but the first installment devotes a significant portion of its page count to the debut and origin of Marvel’s first modern-day Native American hero, Red Wolf, opening with this dramatic shot of the new hero stalking his pray in the streets of 1970 New York City, accompanied by his wolf, Lobo:  Red Wolf’s attempt to assassinate his prey is foiled by The Vision, who brings the Indian back to Avengers HQ, where, under interrogation, he reveals his origin:       As you can see from the (abbreviated!) sampling above, this issue was very heavy on introducing this new character, so much so that readers of the time must have concluded he was being groomed as the next inductee into the ranks of the Avengers. Cornelius Van Lunt was responsible for the death of Red Wolf’s parents, and he has taken on the mantle and costume of his people’s legendary hero, Red Wolf, blessed by a “herald of the spirit world” and gifted with a wolf cub whom he raises as his faithful animal aide. The Avengers, who have dealt with Van Lunt previously, send a contingent with Red Wolf to deal with Van Lunt in the next issue. Avengers #81, “When Dies a Legend”, October 1970, by Thomas/Buscema/Palmer/Rosen  Cover by John Buscema and Tom Palmer “The End of a superhero??” Not The Vision nor The Scarlet Witch, the legend that dies is Red Wolf, who is apparently killed alongside Van Lunt. But the final page reveals that Will Talltrees still lives, and he returns to his homelands with his aged uncle:  And with this, we arrive at yet another flavor of Western Team-Up at Marvel, in which a Western-themed superhero debuts alongside Marvel’s premier superhero team in the modern day. By establishing this Red Wolf as a new incarnation of an Indian legend, it links to the Old West, and points to the path back to the 19th century, where we’ll next see Marvel’s newest superhero. I find a lot to appreciate about Red Wolf, first off being that this hero was a full-blooded Native American (unlike half white characters such as The Apache Kid, who appeared in so many reprints in the 70’s, or Outcast, an early Barry Smith effort with Steve Parkhouse that sat in inventory for a couple of years before finally seeing print in Western Gunfighters). The visual design is a strong one, although today it would come under criticism for entertaining familiar stereotypes like the bare-chested costume, and I dig the mystical/spiritual angle to the character. And I’ve always enjoyed heroes paired with animals, like Ka-Zar and the Black Knight, the only two I can think of in Marvel’s Silver Age. As we’ll see, this Red Wolf was a teaser not for a new superhero, but a new addition to Marvel’s Western line, as fans who responded positively to this debut would have to head back to the 19th century to see more. At least for the time being…
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