Halloween on the Prairie VALLEY OF GWANGI Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

Art by Frank McCarthy from the American release poster.

It's 1910, and a palentologist, along with members of a traveling rodeo, have stumbled on a lost valley in the American Southwest that harbors presumed-extinct prehistoric creatures who do not take kindly to strangers!

(You want more? Go reread the previous chapters!)

Let the mayhem ensue...

Though the comic adaptation writer is unknown, the art is by Jack Sparling, who handled everything from Westerns to romance to sci-fi/fantasy, so he was well suited to a movie adaptation with all three elements!

The last half of the movie is a real showcase for Ray Harryhausen's classic stop-motion animation techniques as he handles both real and imaginary creatures with equal aplomb, making them really come alive!
Here's an early Halloween TREAT (NO Trick!): The Whole Darn Movie HERE!

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Valley of Gwangi
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Halloween on the Prairie THE VALLEY OF GWANGI Part 1

What happens when you combine cowboys and dinosaurs?

In comics you end up with this, which we presented HERE!

In movies, especially ones with SFX by Ray Harryhausen, you get...

A prehistoric creature alive today?
Impossible!
Tomorrow, more  impossible things at Our "Brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!

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Valley of Gwangi
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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...

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!

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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FESS PARKER: DANIEL BOONE "Murderer's Cave"

Yes, the cover title actually was Fess Parker: Daniel Boone...

...because, by the time this TV show debuted in 1964, there had been several other comic book series about the legendary frontiersman and the comic's publishers wanted readers to know this comic was based on the TV series starring the guy who previously-played Davy Crockett!

As this never-reprinted tale from Gold Key's Fess Parker: Daniel Boone #2 (1965) demonstrates, racism was a part of the fabric of America from the very beginning!

Admittedly, the authorities are British, since the story takes place before the American Revolution, but even our Declaration of Independence calls Native Americans “the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.”
So it's not surprising the judges take the word of disreputable, uneducated White settlers instead of the sworn testimony of an Oxford University graduate who was half-Cherokee/half-British!
It's rumored that this story, written and illustrated by Fred Fredricks, was based on an unused TV series plot.
It certainly reads as more sophisticated than the usual comic based on a movie or TV show.
Note: writer-artist Fredricks had produced all the stories in issues 1 and 2 (including this one).
Issue #3 had one story by him...which was partially-redrawn, and then he was gone from the series which ran another twelve issues.

Coincidence?

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Daniel Boone

50th Anniversary Complete Series

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Confederate Comics THE REBEL "Bad Medicine" Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

...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