Due to Google forcing us to use a new, and extremely-buggy version of the Blogger interface and new problems with Google's usually-reliable Picasa photo-editing software, we're unable to post our scheduled story today.
Sorry.
Tales of the Old West in pictorial form, whether you call them comic books or graphic novels. Return with us now to The Thrilling Days of Yesteryear, when men were REAL men, women were REAL women, and EVERYBODY carried guns!
Monday, September 24, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
MASKED MARVEL "Avenges Murder from Hiding"
The Ghost Rider was successful enough to receive his own title...
...inspiring several imitators who weren't quite as popular, like this guy.
I realize they wanted to make him as different from the already-extant all-white Ghost Rider as possible, but that costume color scheme is probably the worst I've seen since the Golden Age Green Lantern...
This premiere story of the skull-masked vigilante from Youthful Publications' GunSmoke #1 (1949) was illustrated by Graham Ingels, who would go on to do far more terrifying work several years later for EC Comics' horror titles.
The writer is unknown.
(BTW, there was never an actual origin story to explain why he adopted the costume or acquired his moniker.)
While The Masked Marvel appeared in the entire 16-issue run of GunSmoke, he never had the cover slot, except in the background of one cover as a "Wanted" poster on a wall!
Trivia: This Masked Marvel was the fourth hero to have the name, but only the third comic book character!
The first was a Golden Age masked mystery-man in Centaur's Keen Detective Funnies as well as his own short-lived title.
The second was another mystery-man who battled Prize Comics' Frankenstein Monster in several stories before disappearing.
The third was a Republic Pictures 1943 movie serial hero with the gimmick that the audience didn't know which of several characters he was, though the audience knew from the beginning who the villain was.
(Usually, the audience had to figure out which of several suspects was the mystery villain!)
Monday, September 10, 2012
HOW THE WEST WAS FUN! "Crisco Keed"
Probably the last place you'd find a Western story would be a Three Stooges comic...
...yet here it is, from St John's Three Stooges #7 (1954)!
This never-reprinted spoof of the Cisco Kid was written and illustrated by William Overgard in a funky Harvey Kurtzman/Will Elder style and was probably meant for St John's MAD-clone title WHACK!.
But, WHACK! had been canceled in May, 1954.
So the story ended up in the final issue of Three Stooges, published in October, 1954!
Monday, September 3, 2012
COWBOY SAHIB "Origin"
Now here's something you don't see everyday...
...I mean besides a a six-gun-shooting cowboy astride a tiger!
It's a cover featuring a character who isn't even in the comic book!
When he premiered in the next issue, it was under a different cover...
Here's his debut appearance (and origin) from ACG's Hooded Horseman #26 (1952) in a decidedly-different take on cowboys and Indians. (ahem)
It seems the skill-set for being a cowboy is transferable to almost any environment!
Written by Richard Hughes and illustrated by Leonard Starr, best known for his own newspaper comic strip Mary Perkins, On Stage, becoming the writer/artist of Little Orphan Annie after it was revived due to the success of the Broadway musical adaptation, and co-creating the animated series ThunderCats.
Written by Richard Hughes and illustrated by Leonard Starr, best known for his own newspaper comic strip Mary Perkins, On Stage, becoming the writer/artist of Little Orphan Annie after it was revived due to the success of the Broadway musical adaptation, and co-creating the animated series ThunderCats.
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