WESTERN TALES: DAVY CROCKETT "Devil Rapids"

Let's leap into the adventures of the "Hero of the Wild Frontier"...

...(note: not "King of the Wild Frontier"!
Disney had that trademarked!

The cover-featured story from Harvey Comics' Western Tales #31 (1955)...

...was penciled and inked by Jack Kirby, a rarity since he usually didn't have time to ink his own work!
The writer is unknown, but could be either Kirby or partner Joe Simon.
BTW, you may wonder why Harvey didn't just name a comic "Davy Crockett".
It's because Charlton Comics beat them to it, putting out a Davy Crockett #1 several months earlier!
Who says comics aren't educational?

Be here tomorrow for more action with "the West's Greatest Hero"!

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Davy Crocket: the Complete Television Series

WESTERN TALES: DAVY CROCKETT Mini-Marathon!

In the mid-1950s, thanks to Walt Disney, Davy Crockett became a pop-culture phenomenon...

...and, because he was a folk hero in the public domain, almost everybody jumped on the Crockett bandwagon with their own version (as long as it didn't use any of the unique characters or story elements created for the Disney version)!

Harvey Comics turned over one of their Western titles to him, using the Simon & Kirby Studios to produce the stories!

If you're going to portray someone in larger-than-life style, you couldn't do better than Jack Kirby, eh?

Oddly, these two issues have never been reprinted, so we're going to present these tales, unseen for over 60 years, to an audience that probably didn't even know they existed!

(Splash page from Western Tales #31 penciled and inked by Jack Kirby)

You might ask, is Daniel, the kid sidekick, Daniel Boone?

We don't know if Joe Simon and/or Jack Kirby had that in mind.

But, in reality, Daniel Boone (1734-1820) was born well before Davy Crockett (1786-1836)!

Here's a taste of what you'll see the rest of the week...

(From Western Tales #31, penciled by Jack Kirby, writer and inker are unknown)

Be here tomorrow for more action with "the West's Greatest Hero"!

(Disney trademarked "King of the Wild Frontier"!)

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Davy Crocket: the Complete Television Series

50 Years Ago: LOBO, the FIRST Black Character to Star in His Own Comic!

In 1966, the year the Black Panther debuted in Marvel's Fantastic Four...

...Dell Comics went them one better, introducing the first Black hero to get his own comic!

Other Black characters had their own series 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 character (Lt. Nyota Uhura) and Black actors in prominent roles as scientists and high-placed officers (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 only ran 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 HERE and HERE.

WESTERN OUTLAWS & SHERIFFS "El Sombro! Mexico's Ghost of Chapel Hill"

We're doing a combo Halloween / Dia de los Muertos post...

 ...featuring a Ghost Rider/Masked Marvel-style hero with a Mexican twist!

Despite the references, there was no real-life El Sombro!
The unknown writer for this tale from Atlas' Western Outlaws and Sheriffs #62 (1950) made the tale up!
The art's a bit problematic.
The splash page is by Joe Maneely, and the rest of the tale is attributed to penciler John Buscema and an unknown inker.
Personally, I have my doubts.

When the tale was reprinted in Marvel's Rawhide Kid #100 (1972), El Sombro received a makeover...

...with a revision of his color scheme (or original lack therof)!

In the interim, Marvel had produced a rebooted version of the 1950s Ghost Rider (including his all-white color scheme)...

 ... who was still appearing as a guest-star in various Marvel Old West titles.

Perhaps the editors thought the audience would confuse the two characters!

Clayton Moore IS the Lone Ranger...

...just as Sean Connery IS James Bond, and Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes.

Like Connery and Rathbone, Clayton Moore wasn't the first to play the character, but he was the best.

Hi-Yo Silver...Away!

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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ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER "Coffin of Snow"

Did you know the original Ghost Rider was as adept using skis as he was riding a horse?

Me neither!

But it just goes to show you what you'll find out when the Polar Vortex inspires you to look for a Western comic story set in a frigid envrioment!

As shown in this Dick Ayers-illustrated tale from Magazine Enterprises' Best of the West #3 (1952). the Ghost Rider was ideally-suited to operating in snow-bound enviroments thanks to his all-white costume!
Of course, if you're a historical nit-picker seriously-concerned with accuracy, you'd note that skiers of the era used only one pole, not two!
Nonetheless, this story's a kool change of pace for our favorite Western Wraith.

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Original Ghost Rider

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Put a Woman Outlaw Under Your Christmas Tree, Pardner!

The tradition of Old West-themed Christmas presents dates back to the late 1800s, and was immortalized in the modern Xmas film A Christmas Story written (and narrated) by the late, great, Jean Shepherd.
Ralphie's quest for a Red Ryder BB Gun was mirrored by countless little boys (and probably more than a few girls) of the 1930s-1950s!
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ believe the tradition should be upheld...but with a twist!
As part of our ongoing Christmas List of Pop Culture Stuff, we suggest...Women Outlaws, one of the coolest lines in our Western Comics Adventures™ section!These AIN'T no ladies!Think Barbara Stanwyck or Jane Russell in comic book form!
We're talkin' Horses! Leather! High-heeled boots! ShootOuts! Dominant females who don't take no sh!t! And...CatFights! Wah-HOO!
(And it's all rated PG-13 or PG!)
Besides the usual t-shirts, mugs, and other collectibles, these kool retro images also adorn women's duds! Jersey Tees, Spaghetti tanks! Thongs!

If women who can ride and shoot as well as any man ain't yer cup of prairie coffee, we also have Real-Life Westerners, Broncho Bill, The Cisco Kid & Pancho, Kid Cowboy, Masked Heroes, Native Americans, A Wealth of Westerners, and even Western Love!
Think of how they'll look under the Christmas Tree! (And they're safer than a Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle! You won't shoot your eye out!)