Showing posts with label Dell Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dell Comics. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

FRONTIER DOCTOR "Storm Over King City" Part 1

A 1950s Old West TV series about a man who didn't carry a gun?
Yep, and this never-reprinted one-shot comic tale is adapted from one of the episodes!
To Be Concluded Thursday at...

This adaptation of the episode "Storm Over King City" in Dell's Four Color Comics #877 (1958) was illustrated by Alex Toth, whom Old West comics fans remember as the artist on the comics based on Disney's Zorro TV series!
The writer, however, is unknown, 
As for the 1958-59 syndicated TV series' protagonist...
Though he did not carry a gun, Dr Bill Baxter was not a wimp by any measure.
The medical man used his wits, medical knowledge, his fists, and, occasionally, other people's shooting irons, to aid those who needed help.
Rex Allen, who played Baxter, performed as a rodeo rider while in high school.
After graduation, he took up singing, first in vaudeville, then on radio, becoming a popular country/Western singers.
Like most of his contemporaries, he soon was doing Western b-movies as a singing cowboy nicknamed "The Arizona Cowboy", teamed up with comedy-relief sidekicks including Buddy Ebsen and Slim Pickens.
After a couple of dozen films, Rex tried to make the transition to TV with Frontier Doctor, but the show was cancelled after a single season.
But Allen made yet another transition, and became a successful voice-over artist and narrator, primarily for Disney film and tv productions.
TRIVIA:
Besides Frontier Cowboy, Rex had his own self-titled comic book series from Dell Comics that ran for thirty-one issues!
Allen was a cousin of Gunsmoke cast member Glenn Strange, who played bartender Sam Noonan.
Rex's son, Rex Allen, Jr., is a successful singer.
There's a Rex Allen Museum in Willcox, Arizona!
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Frontier Doctor
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Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Do You Know About LOBO...the FIRST Black Character to Star in His Own Mainstream Comic?

In 1966, the year The Black Panther debuted in Marvel's Fantastic Four #52...
...Dell Comics went them one better, introducing the first Black hero to get his own comic!

Other Black characters had their own series (one one-shot features) in anthology titles, but Lobo was the first to have his name AS the comic's title!
Lobo combined a couple of popular plot concepts...
Man on the Run for a Crime He Did NOT Commit
Exemplified by then-hit tv series The Fugitive, Lobo was framed, but couldn't prove his innocence.
Lone Western Hero
A loner wandering the Old West, righting wrongs was an especially popular genre in tv Westerns.
Variations on the theme included gamblers (Maverick) and martial-arts experts (Kung Fu)
Note: the tv series Branded also combined both the Loner and Man Framed themes!
...as well as a new concept:
Prominent Black character
Black characters (except for sterotypes like Amos 'n Andy) were few and far between on tv until the mid-1960s, and even then only as supporting characters (usually servants).
1960s urban dramas like Naked City and East Side, West Side, which dealt with current social themes had Black guest stars including James Earl Jones and Diana Sands, but no Black regulars.
Star Trek (1966) had both a Black regular (Lt. Nyota Uhura) and Black actors in prominent roles as scientists and high-placed officers/officials (admirals, etc,).
But, at that point, there were no tv series with a Black lead or Black title character!
(Diahann Carroll's groundbreaking series Julia didn't debut until 1968, two years later!)
So, Lobo was, to say the least, a daring experiment, albeit one with as many popular themes as possible to maximize sales potential!
Dell writer/editor Don (DJ) Arneson and artist Tony Tallarico felt the time was right, and managed to convince their publisher to take a chance.
You can read Arneson's tale of Lobo's creation HERE.
Unfortunately, it didn't work.
Many vendors refused to put a comic with a Black hero on their racks, and the book had an almost 90% return rate.
Lobo the comic ran only two issues.
It's rumored that a script and unfinished art exist for a third issue, but that's never been confirmed.
You can read both issues of Lobo 
and 

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Asians Out West LONE RANGER "Chinese Gold"

Though infrequent, there were Old West comic book tales involving Chinese who had come to America...

...such as this never-reprinted one from Dell's Lone Ranger #70 (1954).
"If you don't fight to preserve the rights of all Americans, someday you may find your race or your religion the object of some mob's prejudice!"
As John Wayne would say..."Words to live by, pilgrim!"
You'll note the Chinese miners are supporting characters and told to not bear arms in their own defense.
Yet, if they were Irish, Italian, or any White ethnicity, they'd be side by side with the Ranger and the townspeople!
If the story seems a bit "talky"/dialogue heavy, that's because it was adapted from a script for the May 31, 1952 episode of the Lone Ranger radio show which you'll be able to find HERE, at our "brother" RetroBlog Secret Sanctum of Captain Video tomorrow!
The writer who adapted the script to comics is unknown, but the illustrator (pencils and inks) is longtime Ranger renderer Tom Gill.
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Thursday, July 23, 2020

Confederate Comics GRAY GHOST "Point of Honor" Part 1

A Civil War Confederate Guerilla with His Own TV Series?
Yep, it happened...
...and here's a story from the two-issue comic book based on it!
To be Concluded
FRIDAY
at our 'brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!
The series portrayed Mosby as a Robin Hood-type rogue who just happened to serve the Confederacy.
He's shown to be a man of honor and moral conviction, and the matter of the actual reasons for the Civil War is never addressed!
This never-reprinted tale from Dell's Four Color Comics #911 (1958) is illustrated by Ray Bailey and George Woodbridge, who later became a regular contributor to MAD Magazine.
The adaptation's writer, however, is unknown...
The story is adapted from Ep 3 of the 39-episode TV series!
Sadly, little physical evidence exists of the 1957 all-but-forgotten syndicated show besides the two issues of Dell's Four Color Comics!
Trivia: the best-known performer (to the contemporary audience) in this episode was Angie Dickenson as Edie!
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Gray Ghost
Life of Colonel John Singleton Mosby

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Confederate Comics THE REBEL "Bad Medicine" Part 2

...returning to his home town after the end of the Civil War and avenging the death of his father, former Confederate soldier Johnny Yuma feels there's no reason to stay...
Will Johnny Yuma rescue Dr Holcomb?
Will Little Buffalo Calf foul up the attempt?
Find Out...
...FRIDAY
at 
Secret Sanctum of Captain Video
Written by Gardner DuBois, penciled by Mike Sekowsky, and inked by Mike Peppe, this section of this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Four Color Comics #1076 (1960) shows Johnny Yuma as a rather typical noble hero wandering the Old West, without any reference to his Confederate past, an element usually played up in the live-action series!
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The Rebel
Season 2

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

CoronaVirusComics ROY ROGERS COMICS "Trigger and the Race of Life and Death"

Can you tell us what's weird about the first page of this tale of Roy Rogers' horse,Trigger?
Roy, though he appears in the story, isn't named!
Only referred to as "Trigger's owner" or, later, "Trigger's master"!
Writer Gaylord DuBois and artist Harry Parkhurst treated this never-reprinted short feature from Dell's Roy Rogers Comics #26 (1950) more like an illustrated prose story than a normal comic tale, heavy on narrative captions with minimal word balloons!
The bacteria Diphtheria is still a lethal threat to this day. but standardized vaccination keeps outbreaks at a minimum.
Besides a strip in Roy Rogers Comics, Trigger (like Gene Autry's Champion and the Lone Ranger's Silver) had his own comic, which ran 16 issues!
In his own title, Trigger was shown in his re-Roy Rogers days as a wild horse traveling with a herd, but the Roy Rogers Comics strip showed him in the care of "Uncle" Mike Hanford, who told stories of Roy and Trigger in the past tense.
Was Roy (the character, not the actual Western performer) retired or deceased at the time of the "Uncle Mike" atrips?
There's never a clear answer...
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