Well, this blog entry did not start off too well. I had no ideas to start off with. Gary said since it was tax time I should write about the rich characters in comics. Then later I bought a collection with some old Conan comics in it and I was explaining to Gavin all the other barbarians in comics that are always forgotten. So I had two ideas to choose from. Then I realized that the new Magic the Gathering set that came out is cowboy related. I have been calling it “the Cow Boys of Moo Mesa” just to aggravate Sri, my Magic employee. So here goes Mike’s blog entry about cowboy comics.
I’ll start off with one of the big boys. DC’s Jonah Hex has always been my favorite since my exposure to him in the mid-70s. My dad always liked westerns so if he saw any western comics at a garage sale he would pick them up. I would read anything he bought but the Jonah Hex books really stood out for me for some strange reason. Maybe it was the scar he has from the native American tribe that disfigured him or maybe it was that the stories were the damn good. I even liked the story after Crisis on Infinite Earths where he was in an apocalyptic future world in which he fit in just right. Flash-forward to 2005 in Philadelphia where I was talking to Jimmy Palmiotti. He mentioned he was working on a new DC book but couldn’t talk about it. Yet we then talked about HBO’s Deadwood for a while. A few months later DC announces a new Jonah Hex book written by Jimmy. These by far are my favorite Hex stories. They were a great combination of great writing and art.
DC also had a bunch of other western characters. A lot of them were slightly problematic for today’s standards. If they were to be read today, you would have to remember that they were products of their time. Sometimes you have to remember those times so that we do not repeat the bad behavior. Yet there were some gems in them. The characters I dug the most were El Diablo, Bat Lash, and Cinnamon.
Marvel had quite a few western comic characters. I did not read those as a kid but I started when I began working here at Graham Crackers. They were easier to find. There were many but only three that really stood out for me. Rawhide Kid was one. He was just your basic quick draw shooter who met up with other historical or fictional characters. Just basically standard cowboy fare. Another is Kid Colt. Yet again standard stories. Lastly is Two-Gun Kid who is one of the few to actually wear a mask to hide his identity. I was actually introduced to these characters through Avengers books. If Marvel characters travel back to the Old West, these characters show up. The Two-Gun Kid has been stuck in the present a few times. He has hung out with Hawkeye and worked at the same law firm that She-Hulk worked at.
Lastly, the western books I love seeing in the store and reading are the Dell/Gold Key comics. They published probably the most western comics. They did comics for the western television shows and movies. You could read the further adventures of the guys from Bonanza or more stories of Marshall Dillon. I just loved them even for the movie adaptions. When I was younger the television stations did not show repeats of the old western shows. My dad would explain any of the show and how cool they were when he would pick up a particular Dell/Gold Key. This was one of the few bonding moments. At the time I loved the Rifleman, Have Gun, Will Travel, & Gunsmoke. Sadly, I wish my dad was around nowadays to see the “antenna” television channels play hours of Western shows.
It is funny when elderly people bring in collections with old western comics and try to explain them to me. There are very few that I do not know due to the knowledge that my father and Jamie Graham imparted upon me. So if you want to read some fun comics saddle up and pick up an old western. Now I’ve got to change the Spotify to Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter for Gavin.
Happy Trails Pardner
Mike