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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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!)

MASKED RANGER COMICS "Frontier Killer"

Sometimes the line between "good" guy and "bad" guy is blurred...

...as we see in this never-reprinted one-shot tale from Premier's Masked Ranger Comics #4 (1954)

Future MAD Magazine artist George Woodbridge shows his versatility in penciling this tale of moral ambiguity in the Old West.

It's believed that Sid Check provided the inking, but there's no authoritative source for a writer's credit.

And now for a sad announcement.

Because of lack of readers, we're taking this blog off it's once-a-week frequency.

The blog will still be around, and there will be new posts, usually linked to something Western-themed occuring in movies or TV, or to note the passing of a Western media celebrity.

At that point, I'll gauge if there's enough interest to go back to weekly posting.

So it's "Happy Trails to you...until we meet again..."

Visit the
Western Comics online store...

 ...for duds and provisions!

ALERT: VALLEY OF GWANGI, LETTERBOX, UNCUT, AND COMMERCIAL-FREE !!!

We interrupt this blog to alert you!!!

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) on Saturday Morning!
November 9th, 6:45 AM (Eastern)

NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD!

Heat up the DVRs or DVD recorders!

PLUS, you can read the comic book adaptation of the movie HERE!

DEATH VALLEY "Deadly Double Cross"

Here's a never-reprinted tale of six-gun justice deferred...

...by the talented team of then-up and comers, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito!

Anthologies without ongoing characters were a popular format for Western comics, allowing for life-or-death situations that sometimes actually resulted in a tale's feature characters ending up on Boot Hill!

The first issue of Comic Media's Death Valley (1953) was a showpiece for Andru and Esposito to demonstrate their storytelling prowess in all four stories.
While there's no author listed on any of the indexes for this issue, it's not unreasonable to believe Ross and Mike also wrote these four tales!
Besides the one we're running today, we presented the other stories HERE, HERE and HERE.

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MASKED MARVEL "Beasts of Horror"

We end October as we began, with the hero who looks like a Dia de los Muertos sugar skull...

...in his final, never-reprinted appearance in Youthful's GunSmoke #16 (1952)!

Most of the time, the Masked Marvel, like the Ghost Rider, faced threats that appeared supernatural, but actually were people pretending to be ghosts or monsters, like the heroes themselves.
The writer is unknown, but the artist is Tony Tallarico, who went on to co-create Lobo, comics' first Black cowboy (and the first Black character to get his own comic book) in 1966!

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