Weird West BLACK DIAMOND WESTERN "Bingbang Buster and His Horse Hedy in "Swish!"

The Weird West Encompasses Many Strange Occurrences...

...not all of them supernatural (or even terrestrial) in origin!

This superb example of cross-genre lunacy from Lev Gleason's Black Diamond Western #21 (1950) is the work of legendary writer/artist Basil Wolverton, who never saw a concept he couldn't spoof.
Though better known for his serious sci-fi/horror work, Wolverton loved doing humor, with a lot of fun details and signage filling the panel with what fellow artist Jack Cole called "eyeball kicks", primarily in his long-running Powerhouse Pepper strip!
Interestingly, MAD comics, which really popularized this sort of wild storytelling, didn't debut until 1952, which indicates they imitated Basil, not the other way around!
He later did work for them both in their comic book and magazine incarnations!

The Bingbang Buster strip ran in from #16 to #28, and is Wolverton's only Western comics work!

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Weird West ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER "Claws of Horror!"

No More Fake Ghost Riders!
Here's the Real Deal...

...in hand-to-claw action against a flying demon..or is that demoness?

Penciled by Dick Ayers, inked by Ernie Bache and likely scripted by Gardner Fox, this never-reprinted story from Magazine Enterprises' Tim Holt #30 (1952) was typical of the "Haunted Horseman's" exploits, though there were a couple of tales involving the supernatural, which we already ran HERE and HERE!

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Weird West JIMMY WAKELY "Phantom Brander"

What if the Original Ghost Rider was evil instead of good?

Art by Gil Kane

Well, he'd probably be a lot like this hombre, who appeared in the final issue of DC's Jimmy Wakely!

The "Phantom Brander" was a near-exact clone of the Original Ghost Rider...

...down to the use of phosphorescent paint and misdirection to convey a "supernatural" effect against his opponents.

Jimmy Wakely was one of numerous "singing cowboys" (like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers) popular during the 1930-1950s in b-movies and radio.

Like many other Western stars, Jimmy had a comic book featuring himself in action against various menaces, but in a clearly present-day Western setting.

This particular story, illustrated by Gil Kane and Bob Lander, was from Wakely's final issue, #18, in 1952.

Gil Kane would later do numerous covers in the 1970s featuring Marvel's version of the Old West Ghost Rider aka Night Rider aka Phantom Rider.

(Marvel kept changing the Western character's name to avoid confusion with the more-popular motorcycle-riding hero!)

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