BUTCH CASSIDY "Thunder Across the Border"

The fictional adventures of Real-Life Westerners...

...tend to take them far from their usual stomping grounds, as seen in this tale from Butch Cassidy #1 (1971).

Writer Gary Friedrich also handled the 1960s Marvel version of the 1950s Western hero The Ghost Rider a couple of years earlier.
He later co-created the motorcycle-riding mystical Ghost Rider with Mike Ploog.
Penciler Tom Sutton had done several Western stories for Marvel, including a Wyatt Earp tale, before taking on this series, but he's best known for his horror and humor art.
Though John Tartaglione did the majority of the inking, John Severin retouched several panels to keep characters "on-model".

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"Tombstone"

In the Golden Age, you could find Western tales in the unlikeliest of comics...

...like the crime/mystery title Suspense Comics, whose fourth issue in 1944 had this never-reprinted tale inside!

He may have stayed in Tombstone, but Jeff never made another comic book appearance!

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PRESTO KID "Birth of the Presto Kid"

A gunslinger without a gun...

...that was the premise of the short-lived (only four stories) series The Presto Kid!

After the Ghost Rider series was cancelled, artist Dick Ayers teamed up with writer Carl Memling on a new strip about a character who used gimmicks, like Ghost Rider, but without the scarier aspects.

While this story from Red Mask #52 details Presto Kid's origin, it's actually his second appearance!

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WILMA WEST "Bully's Vengeance"

Women were a major part of Western comics in more than just romance tales.

In fact, one title, Western Crime Busters, featured two series starring cowgirls in each issue!

Besides Wilma West in the entire ten-issue run, Western Crime Busters featured K-Bar Kate in issues 1 thru 8 as well as Lariat Lucy in 9 and 10.

We'll be presenting their tales as well.

The name "Don Tallant" is probably a pen-name.

It's only used on the Wilma West stories in issues 1 thru 3, then never reappears anywhere ever again.

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MOVIE COMICS "Stagecoach"

Nobody personified Western movies like John Wayne, and this was his breakout film...

...immortalized in print with a unique fumetti-style adaptation in DC Comics' Movie Comics #2 (1939)

Using photographs was certainly one way around the problem of getting an exact likeness of the actors!

The design/compositing/additional art was done by Jack Adler, a production artist/illustrator who rose thru the ranks and eventually became DC Comics'  Production Manager/Vice President of Production, innovating a number of production techniques that became standard comics practices.

Movie Comics ran for six issues, adapting everything from Westerns to romances to science fiction.

(Our "brother" blog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™re-presented the adaptation of Phantom Creeps starring Bela Lugosi which used the same fumetti-format HERE.)

Here's a fascinating piece from a feature called Screen Scoops featuring tidbits about the actors from the various movies adapted in that issue...

Art and script by Walter Galli

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LOBO "Old 'Friend'" and "Sad Ending"

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Landing a job as a "drover" with a cattle drive, an ex-Union soldier tries to be accepted as just another cowboy.

But a cruel Fate has other plans for him, as he is framed for murder.

Now known as "Lobo",  he seeks to clear his name...

Thus ends the first chapter in The Saga of Lobo.

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BTW, the preceding tale  was written by Don "DJ" Arneson and illustrated by Tony Tallarico, two guys who were well ahead of their time!