Weird West BLACK DIAMOND WESTERN "Bingbang Buster and His Horse Hedy in "Swish!"

The Weird West Encompasses Many Strange Occurrences...

...not all of them supernatural (or even terrestrial) in origin!

This superb example of cross-genre lunacy from Lev Gleason's Black Diamond Western #21 (1950) is the work of legendary writer/artist Basil Wolverton, who never saw a concept he couldn't spoof.
Though better known for his serious sci-fi/horror work, Wolverton loved doing humor, with a lot of fun details and signage filling the panel with what fellow artist Jack Cole called "eyeball kicks", primarily in his long-running Powerhouse Pepper strip!
Interestingly, MAD comics, which really popularized this sort of wild storytelling, didn't debut until 1952, which indicates they imitated Basil, not the other way around!
He later did work for them both in their comic book and magazine incarnations!

The Bingbang Buster strip ran in from #16 to #28, and is Wolverton's only Western comics work!

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STAR RANGER "Trouble Shooters in Dude Ranch Dramatics"

What do cowboys do on Valentine's Day?

Apparently, they dress in women's clothing!

From Chester's Star Ranger #2 (1937), this never-reprinted short, written by George Nagle and illustrated by an unknown artist, is the only one of the series to feature cross-dressing.

Oddly, the strip started as "Trouble Hunters" in the previous issue, and continued after this tale with the name restored!

Why this one tale was labeled "Trouble Shooters" is unknown!

Two trivia notes:

There was no character named "Star Ranger" in Star Ranger!

This book, along with Comics Magazine Company's Western Picture Stories were the first Western comic books, coming out the same month in 1937!

HOW THE WEST WAS FUN! "Sane"

Here's a never-reprinted spoof from Premier's MAD-clone NUTS! #2 (1954)...

...done by an unidentified writer and artist.

Premier Magazines had only 7 titles (including a Western comic, Masked Ranger) over a two-year period in 1953-54, then disappeared into the mists of time.

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SLICK CHICK COMICS: Tiny in "Wild West"

For April Fool's Day, here's a Western tale from a humor comic...

...with a surprisingly-common plot:

• Contemporary heroine visits ranch, falls in love with Westerner!
• Boyfriend develops jealousy over infatuation.
• Hilarity ensues (supposedly).

This short story featuring the title character from Leader's Slick Chick Comics appeared in the third (and final issue) of the series in 1947.

Curiously, the character is never called "Slick Chick" on the inside of the book!

Both writer and artist are unknown.
Leader Publications entered comics in 1946 and left the field the next year, producing only three titles with a combined total of ten issues...at a time when comics were booming!
It was one of several attempts by comic book "packager" S M Iger to do his own comic book line.
None were successful.

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TWO GUN PERCY "Cow-Sheep War"

Besides fighting Indians, cowboys constantly battled each other...

...as they divided into factions of cattlemen and sheepmen who fought over territory for their respective hungry herds!

While the cow-sheep feud is played for laughs here, it was, in fact, one of the bloodiest conflicts of the history of the Old West.

Two Gun Percy was an ongoing feature in DC's All Funny Comics for its' entire 23-issue run, after which it made two more appearances in the back of World's Finest Comics before disappearing into limbo, never to be reprinted.

This tale from  #11(1946) was written by the strip's co-creator Joe Samachson and illustrated by Jimmy Thompson, who also did another Western humor strip, Rodeo Rick, in Western Comics.

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BINGBANG BUSTER "Meets Bulletbean McBlast"

Golden Age legend Basil Wolverton's least-known work was in Westerns...

..even though he produced almost a dozen stories about one particular, peculiar, character...BingBang Buster (and his horse, Hedy)!

 Beginning with this story in Black Diamond Western #16 (1949), BingBang Buster became a regular feature that took Western cliches and turned them on their ears, sometimes mixing in other genres like mystery and science-fiction as well!

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HOW THE WEST WAS FUN! "Timmy Goes West"

Not the first time a tornado threw someone into a strange locale...

...but add time travel and a shy specter into the plot and, as they say, hilarity ensues...

Curiously, this was the only story (out of several tales) in this issue featuring Timmy in the Wild West!

If the storyline continued, it would've been in the next issue, which I don't have.

Timmy was one of numerous Casper the Friendly Ghost clones who materialized during the 1950s.

Almost every comic company had one, even Marvel/Atlas (Homer the Happy Ghost), but not DC, who tended to establish, rather than follow, trends.

Our Western-themed tale appeared in Charlton Comics' Timmy the Timid Ghost #7 (1957), illustrated (and possibly written) by multi-talented (editor/art director/writer/illustrator) Al Fago.

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HOW THE WEST WAS FUN! "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch House!"

After the horrors of the Halloween season, let's have some humor...

...from Charlton Comics' From Here to Insanity #10 (1955)!

Ironically, Westerns were among the cheapest genres to film since there were so many costumes and props already available, along with standing Western sets at all the studios and, of course, many locales available for shooting within a couple of hours' drive from Los Angeles!

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