Weird West MASKED MARVEL "Creeping Death!"

The colorful masked hero who looks like a Dia De Los Muertos Sugar Skull...

...returns in another never-reprinted adventure...this time in a ghost town!

The Masked Marvel appeared in the entire 16-issue run of GunSmoke, but never had the cover, except in the background of one cover as a "Wanted" poster on a wall!

This story is from Youthful's GunSmoke #10 (1950), and, like all the other Masked Marvel tales, we have no idea who the writer, artist, or writer-artist is!

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 good-guy detectives he was...though the audience knew from the beginning who the villain was.

(Usually, a serial audience had to figure out which of several potentially-evil suspects was the mystery villain!)

BTW, you can read the other Masked Marvel tales we've presented HERE.
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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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KITTY CARSON: RUFF RIDIN' GAL SHERIFF "Search for Gold"

For the Ruff Ridin' Gal Sheriff's final appearance on this blog...

...we're dealing with one of the classic situations of Old West stories...robbers attacking an isolated settler!

This never-reprinted tale by Bob Powell from Harvey's Kerry Drake Detective Cases #18 (1950) is definitely set in the late 19th-early 20th Century, not 1949-1950, as the earlier stories were!

The Final Chapters in Our Re-Presentation of Kitty Carson Will be at

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KITTY CARSON: RUFF RIDIN' GAL SHERIFF "Frontier...Justice?"

After Her Previous 4-Page Episodes were Set in the "Present Day" (1949)...

...the "Ruff Ridin' Gal Sheriff" both loses a page per story, and is thrown back to the Old West!

Even with one less page than she previously-had, Kitty proves as ingenious as any lawman in this never-reprinted tale from Harvey's Kerry Drake Detective Cases #16 (1949), illustrated (and likely written) by Bob Powell!

Continue Kitty's Quest Against Crime!

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KITTY CARSON: RUFF RIDIN' GAL SHERIFF "Indian Revenge"

Indians (aka Native Americans or First Americans) are just people, too...

...as demonstrated in this never-reprinted story from Harvey's Kerry Drake Detective Cases #15 (1949)!

Will we see Peter White Wing again?

Only time will tell...

BTW, Though the event is mentioned in the opening panel, the strip never showed Kitty avenging her father's death!

Continue Kitty's Quest Against Crime!
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KITTY CARSON: RUFF RIDIN' GAL SHERIFF "StageCoach Murders"

Let's Begin a Blogathon with a Never-Reprinted Tale of Law Enforcement...

...set in the then-present of 1949, and featuring a time-lost heroine!

Debuting in Harvey's Kerry Drake Detective Cases #12 (1949), this series, illustrated (and likely written) by Bob Powell ran through #20.

BTW, Though the event is mentioned in the opening panel, the strip never showed Kitty avenging her father's death.

Continue Kitty's Quest Against Crime!
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TALES OF THE GHOST RIDER "A Thirst for Blood!"

Besides frightening and apprehending owlhoots and blackguards...

...the original Ghost Rider also narrated a series of supernatural-themed Western tales he didn't actually appear in!

This chapter of the ongoing Tales of the Ghost Rider strip from Magazine Enterprises' Ghost Rider #8 (1953), like almost all of the Tales series, has never been reprinted!

Pity, because it's pretty damned good!

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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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