BUSTER CRABBE COMICS "Maid of Mars"

The new movie, Cowboys and Aliens, opens today...

 ...but extraterrestrials have been popping up in Western comics since the 1950s!

The amazing art for this tale from 1952's Buster Crabbe Comics #5 was by Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel, who were astonishing comics fans with similar quality work at EC Comics on Weird Science and Weird Fantasy!

The cover was by fellow EC artist Frank Frazetta, who was also doing covers featuring Buck Rogers (whom Buster had played in the movies) for Famous Funnies, as well as illustrating the White Indian strip and covers for Ghost Rider! so he had handled both sci-fi and Western genres before doing this mixed-genre piece!

Enjoy Cowboys and Aliens, the newest version of a long-standing Western tradition!

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BUSTER CRABBE COMICS "Invaders from Beyond"

Though Buster Crabbe starred in more Westerns than any other genre, he's best-known to the public at large as the movie serial Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers!

As we mentioned earlier,  his comic book adventures included sci-fi and high adventure tales as well as Western stories.

This story, cover-featured in Buster Crabbe Comics #9, combined sci-fi and Western action, though set in the "present" (1953), like Space Western Comics, which was being published at the same time.

The writer is unknown, but the art on both the cover and story is by Mike Roy, who worked steadily in comics from the beginning of the Golden Age in 1941 until 1980!

Note that Buster is Buster Crabbe, not "Buster Crabbe as a character like Billy West" or somesuch in the tale, and it's assumed that he's actually able to do anything he's been shown doing in his films.

There was one other mixed-genre tale in Buster Crabbe Comics, and we'll be presenting it in a special posting this Friday to celebrate the opening of Cowboys & Aliens!

We've taken the art from the cover of this issue, digitally-remastered and restored it, and emblazoned it on a variety of kool komic kollectibles!

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Captain America in the Old West

A Western-themed Captain America pin-up from Captain America's Bicentennial Battles (1976)

Jack Kirby had done covers and stories for numerous Western-based characters including Bull's Eye, Lone Rider, and Marvel Comics' Western titles including Kid Colt, Two-Gun Kid, Wyatt Earp, etc., as well as co-creating Captain America with Joe Simon.
So this was an almost-inevitable combination of the super-hero and Western genres by a creative genius in both!

(My wife bet that I couldn't find a way to put Captain America, whose big budget movie opens today, into my Western blog!  If I couldn't, we were going Italian.  Since I won, we're eating Tex-Mex!)

KIT CARSON "Guns of Death"

Leaving space aliens behind (for now), let's look at another Real-Life Westerner...

...in a tale from Blazing Six Guns #1!

Kit Carson was one of the most famous of real Westerners to be adapted to popular culture.
He was among the first to be immortalized in dime novels and "blood and thunder" pulps.

Besides a movie serial and several feature films, Kit was portrayed in a long-running 1950s tv series starring Bill Williams.
Oddly enough, there was no tie-in comic to the tv series, in an era when almost every Western tv series had a comic book spin-off!

In addition, the same publisher (Avon) who ran this tale in Blazing SixGuns, published Kit in his own title.

The story's artist, Gerald McCann, did a little of everything from Westerns to horror to romance, but eventually specialized in illustrating movie/tv tie-ins because of his ability to render accurate likenesses.

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SPACE WESTERN: Strong Bow in "Return of the Aztecs"

Another of the "Space Vigilantes" takes center stage...

...as Strong Bow meets up with Aztecs from the stars in this tale from Space Western Comics #42 that could've inspired Chariots of the Gods!

Like The Lone Ranger's partner, Tonto, Spurs' associates can certainly handle themselves against aliens, or Commies, or any other threat when the boss is out of town!
Penciled and inked by versatile artist John Belfi, who did a little of everything for almost every comic publisher in the 40s-50s before moving over to newspaper syndicate work both on strips and editorial illustration.

We're offering a line of Space Western collectibles, perfect for summer wear at the beach, or the movie theatre when you go see Cowboys & Aliens. (C'mon, you know you're going!)

Check out the

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and have a look below at some Cowboys and Aliens movie tie-ins from Amazon!

SPACE WESTERN: Spurs Jackson in "Outlaws of Mars"

You just can't get enough of Space Western Comics...

...so here's another tale from #42, featuring the return of Queen Thula and the Martians!

Politics is the same, no matter what planet you're on...
While the writer is unknown, the artist is Stan Jackson, who did almost all the stories (both Spurs' and his Space Vigilantes' solo tales).

We're offering a line of Space Western collectibles, perfect for summer wear at the beach, or the movie theatre when you go see Cowboys & Aliens. (C'mon, you know you're going!)

Check out the

Comics Collectibles Store

and have a look below at some Cowboys and Aliens movie tie-ins from Amazon!