Christmas on the Prairie TARGET COMICS "Bull's Eye Bill"

 Yes, they celebrated the Yuletide in the Old West...

...although technically, this tale's about the contemporary (1940s) West!

Though the series started with a standard late-1800s Old West setting, after creator/writer/illustrator Bill Everett left, new writer, Bea Holmes, and artist L. Kennerly, began inserting contemporary references and technology.

By the time of this tale from Novelty's Target Comics #12, the series was firmly-set in the present-day.

In fact, in the very next issue, Bull's-Eye Bill was recruited by the Army for special duty to prevent sabotage at Western bases!

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year!

Baker's Western Tales COWGIRL ROMANCES "Stars Fell on Arizona" / MOVIE COMICS "Mitzi in Hollywood Meets Sonny Sagebrush"

You Didn't Think We Wouldn't Run a Romance Tale...

...with a Western theme like this one from Fiction House's CowGirl Romances #10 (1952) during our Matt Baker tribute, did you?

OK, pretty straightforward tale of a starry-eyed girl living near a movie location, getting to appear in the movie, meeting her screen idol, and not finding true love, right?

But, that's not how it started out!

This is actually a re-use of lovely Matt Baker art for an earlier ongoing series, Mitzi in Hollywood, about a struggling actress looking for her big break in Hollywood!

This particular episode from Fiction House's Movie Comics #4 (1947) was about working as an extra on a Western movie set...and though the art is the same, the original script was quite different...

Sadly, this was the final issue of Movie Comics, so no more Mitzi adventures ever appeared...except as heavily-modified reprints like our lead story!
Though Matt Baker is best-known as a cheesecake/glamour girl artist, he was, in fact, quite proficient in other genres, such as Westerns, as well as sci-fi, war, adventure, and even horror!

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Baker's Western Tales QUICK-TRIGGER WESTERN "Trail of the Owlhoot!"

Here's Everything You Want in a Western Yarn...

...a stalwart hero, a sneering villain, a confused kid, and a beautiful woman caught in the middle, all illustrated by a guy noted for...wait for it...romance comics and cheesecake/good-girl art!

This never-reprinted rootin'-tootin' action-packed adventure from Atlas' Quick-Trigger Western #18 (1957) was penciled and inked by pioneering Black artist Matt Baker!

Though many associate him only with beautiful women like the voluptuous Phantom Lady

or the protagonists of love stories

...the guy could produce high-adventure, kick-butt material when given the chance!

And we're giving him the chance, this month!

Watch for it!

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Cowboys vs Nazis SPACE WESTERN COMICS "Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes in 'Tomorrow the Universe' "

We Have Already Seen...

Note: Curiously, there's no mention of the Martians, including their (of course) beautiful princess, Spurs and the Space Vigilantes had already encountered in previous stories!

Yeah, it's just business as usual for Spurs and his crew!

Written by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and illustrated by Stan Campbell, this never-reprinted, beyond bonkers, tale from Charlton's Space Western Comics #45 (1953) was part of a pop culture trend in sci-fi fantasy that included movies like They Saved Hitler's Brain, and even a Twilight Zone episode, "He Lives!"

Cowboys vs Nazis SPACE WESTERN COMICS "Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes in 'Madman of Mars' "

You've seen Cowboys and Indians, Even Cowboys and Aliens...

...but cowboys and Nazis...in outer space???

To Be Concluded (appropriately enough)...Tomorrow!

Written by Walter (The Shadow) Gibson and illustrated by Stan Campbell, this never-reprinted, beyond bonkers, tale from Charlton's Space Western Comics #44 (1953) was part of a pop culture trend in sci-fi fantasy that included movies like They Saved Hitler's Brain, and even a Twilight Zone episode, "He Lives!"
The comic itself, a mashup of Western cliches and the flying saucer fad of the 1950s set in the then-present, ran only six wacky issues before reverting to its' original title, Cowboy Western Comics!
As for how cowboy rancher (and US government vendor) Spurs Jackson ended up in outer space, well, you can read the beginning of his stellar saga HERE!

(You know you want to!)

Weird West DURANGO KID "Curse of the Bakala!"

We Conclude Our Contribution to CountDown to Halloween 2024...

...with a with a never-reprinted story that may, or may not, have happened!

You be the judge!

Illustrated by Joe Certa, this tale from Magazine Enterprise's Charles Starrett as The Durango Kid (yes, that's the comic's full title) #15 (1952) was part of a brief trend at the publisher putting horror elements into all the non-humor/romance comics!
ME also published the original Ghost Rider, which had such aspects already included.

As to the ongoing movie character the comic adapted...

The Durango Kid (1940) was the already-existing identity of a famous vigilante assumed by Bill Lowry to track down a killer.
(We never saw the original user of the name.)

In the subsequent 65-film b-movie series, while actor Charles Starrett always played the character, the secret identity had various names including Bill Blayden, Kip Allen, Steve Lindsay, Steve Williams, Jeff Waring, Steve Ranson, and Steve Brand, among others.
By the time the comic adaptation started in 1949, the publisher decided to use "Steve Brand" as the character's secret identity, though the movies continued to change the secret identity to the end of the film series in 1952.
The comic continued to 1955, when the publisher began scaling back as comics entered a downturn due to the "Seduction of the Innocent" mania created by Dr Fredrik Wertham.

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