COWBOY IN AFRICA #1, Gold Key (Western), March 1968:
Some comics fans love ‘em, apparently—those Gold Key photo covers where they cut up some studio publicity stills, slap them against a geometric background of random solid colors in that distinctive Western Publishing printing ink that just looked indescribably
different from what fans of comics published out of Sparta, Illinois were accustomed to, frequently (but thankfully not in this instance) relying heavily on lots of unnatural-looking magenta, tagging the actors and topping the cover with a boring logo that looked like it belonged on 1960’s toy packaging. As you might have guessed, I’m not a fan.
The sole issue of COWBOY IN AFRICA was produced by the prolific scripter Paul S. Newman and illustrated by the Italian art team of penciler Giovanni Ticci and inker Alberto Giolitti. It’s based on an hour-long TV series that ran on ABC in the 1967-1968 season on Monday nights. The series starred Chuck Connors, better known for his two Western tv series The Rifleman and Branded, and was another production from Ivan Tors, who had a long career of producing kid-friendly film and television products, including Daktari, Flipper, Sea Hunt, Primus, and Gentle Ben, all of which had comic book adaptations published.
As with Daktari, Cowboy In Africa came to the television screens from a prior film release, in this case 1967’s Africa: Texas Style!, in which Hugh O’Brian portrayed Jim Sinclair, a 1960’s-era American cowboy hired to work on a ranch in Africa. For the small screen, the role was taken over by Connors, supported by Tom Nardini as Jim’s Navajo friend, John Henry, who accompanied him to the job, and Gerald Edwards as the native boy Samson, who is informally adopted by Jim Sinclair. Ronald Howard takes over the role of Commander Hayes, owner of the ranch where Jim is hired, from the film’s John Mills.
I never watched the show, which faced stiff competition from Gunsmoke and The Monkees airing at the same time on rival networks. If you’d like a taste of the series, here are the opening credits:
There is only one long story in this issue, “Roundup of Danger”:
(I’m pretty confident that Samson never rode a zebra on the tv series, as the attempt would probably have resulted in Gerald’s Edwards’ quick demise. Such a fate would have deprived us of the voice of Weird Harold on Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, which seems to have been Edwards’ most memorable acting job.)
“Roundup of Danger” has Jim & co. heading to a local watering hole with governmental permission to capture some rhinos for their preserve. When Samson runs ahead to scout out the situation, he’s attacked by a charging rhino with a…green face?!
Indeed, it’s not just the rhinos, but
all the animals that are now sick, crazed, and green:
The men soon find that the watering hole is polluted with some sort of green chemical, streaming in from the hills. They have to block off the watering hole and find the source before more animals are poisoned.
Jim traces the chemical to a canyon, from which he and John Henry are attacked by gunfire. We’re out of the usual jungle fare and squarely into Western trope territory now:
The culprits are fugitive German Nazis storing counterfeiting equipment, and it’s a tank of green ink leaking into the water supply which is responsible. Jim is interfering with their plans, and is targeted for death.
As the men are herding the runaway animals back to the ranch, the Nazis make their first strike, bombing Commander Hayes’ plane as the second chapter opens:
In the debris of the explosion, Jim finds evidence of a German land mine, putting him on the trail of local Germans. In town, he profiles all the Germans, and settles on the one wearing a monocle as the likely responsible party—always a good bet!—but the Germans take Samson as hostage to make their escape. They left behind a map, though, which reveals their destination: a mountain cave. Reaching that hideaway is challenging, but Jim’s cowboy skills allow him and the now-recovered John Henry to breach the villains’ lair and come to Samson’s rescue, capturing the counterfeiters.
At the story’s conclusion, the poisoned animals have been healed and are set free to return to the purified watering hole.
Well, I can’t rag on this one too much. It’s nothing special, but it’s competently done, with some decent likenesses of Chuck Connors, authentic wildlife, and a little more suspense and action than we saw in DAKTARI. As a genre blend, this strikes me as heavier on the Western element than on the jungle; the wildlife is mostly dressing on a familiar cowboy manhunt tale. Neither gem nor junk, I’m sure some kids got their dime and two cents’ worth out of this purchase.
