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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Halloween on the Prairie GUNSMOKE "The Thing!"

While this comic's backup series Masked Marvel, featured a costumed hero pretending to be a ghost...

...the title strip's protagonist faced an actual supernatural threat, albeit, not the one shown on this purely-symbolic cover by H C Kiefer!

Bet you didn't see that plot-twist coming, did ya?

Illustrated by Doug (Jonny Quest) Wildey, this never-reprinted tale appeared in Youthful's Gunsmoke #16 (1952), the final issue of the series.

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Wicked West

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Halloween on the Prairie BULLSEYE "Devil Bird"

They just don't make comics like this anymore!

Masked cowboy hero vs pterodactyl!

It's the sort of concept a nine-year old would come up with while playing with his (or her) brand-new action figures under the Christmas tree, mixing the dinosaurs with superheroes and cowboys!

But, damnit, writer/artist Jack Kirby makes this cross-genre tale from BullsEye #4 (and Blazing SixGuns #12) work for both genres!

Believe it or not, this wasn't the cover story for it's first appearance (even though it was the lead story)...

Art by Jack Kirby

...but it was the cover-feature for the Super/IW reprint!

Art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito. Note that BullsEye is miscolored!

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Halloween on the Prairie TALES OF HORROR "Vampire Goes West!"

You'd think the American West would be the most unlikely place to find a vampire...

...and you'd be wrong...dead wrong!

"Silver bullets work on vampires as well as werewolves?" you ask?

Yep!

There are many methods to kill vampires in the folklore of Europe and Asia.

One of the lesser-known is the use of silver instead of wood to penetrate the vampire's vital organs.
This vampire/Western story is not from a Western comic, but the final issue of Tales of Horror (#13 from 1954)
The writer is unknown, but the penciler is Medio Iorio and inker is Sal Trapani.
Oddly, every comic story Iorio penciled, Trapani inked!
Weird, eh?

What's really weird is that there are several Western vampire films, all quite dissimilar to each other!

The earliest one is 1959's Curse of the Undead, starring Eric Fleming of Rawhide fame as a vampire hunter!

(There might have been an earlier flick had Bela Lugosi lived longer!

Ed Wood had a script entitled The Ghoul Goes West in preparation when Bella died!)

The 1960s gave us the ultra-low budget Billy the Kid vs Dracula, starring John Carradine as the Lord of Vampires.

Though there wasn't a 1970s vampire Western, the 1980s had a contemporary take on the concept with Near Dark, starring Aliens cast members Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton as vampires wandering the Southwest in a van.

But my personal favorite, from 1988, is Sundown: the Vampire in Retreat, a tongue-in-cheek flick starring a host of genre vets including David Carradine, Bruce Campbell, M Emmett Wash, Elizabeth Gracen, Dabs Greer, and John Ireland.

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Dick Ayers' THE ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER Original "Origin"

We mourn the passing of Dick Ayers, one of the unsung heroes of comics' Silver and Bronze Ages (who actually started at the tail-end of the Golden Age)...

Insert from the cover to Tim Holt #11. Art by Dick Ayers

...but celebrate his life and art, including the premiere of Dick's most famous co-creation, from the very first appearance in Magazine Entertainment's Tim Holt #11 (1949).

You'll note that when the origin was retold in the first issue of Ghost Rider's own title, supernatural elements were added.

But, oddly, the later version  of the origin doesn't show Rex Fury tracking down Bart Lasher, though that particular villain is shown in both versions to be responsible for Fury and Sing-Song's near-deaths!
You can read that retcon HERE.

While the full-face mask wasn't initially part of the origin, it was incorporated into the revised version along with an explanation for the new, white, horse the Ghost Rider was now using.

Written by Ray Krank with art by Dick Ayers.

For you completists, here's the full cover from that issue...

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