Sunday, August 29, 2010

Attention All Trail Hands! Ten Cent Dreams is Back!


One of my favorite scan blogs, Ten Cent Dreams is back ! And , just to make it even better, ol' Lysdexicus is runnin' a Western in honor o' Jack "King" Kirby's birthday. Be sure to check it out at:

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2010/08/jack-kirbys-birthday-boys-ranch-2.html

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

"King of Stolen Valley"



Kid Montana was created at Charlton by Paul Masulli and Rocke Mastroserio back in 1957. I guess Pat Morisi felt that 13 years on the trail should age a guy, because he gave "Kid" Montana graying temples for this story from 1970.

I often wonder why "Kid" is such a common gunfighter monniker. Even in reality, ther was Billy The Kid, The Cherokee Kid, The Apache Kid and The Sundance Kid.

Anyway, here's Kid Montana in "King of Stolen Valley" from Outlaws of the West #81, May 1970.









Monday, August 23, 2010

This Hombre's on the Wrong Track! "The Man Who Robbed the Express!"



I love back-up features in comics. Even better, I love when the back-up takes the form of a short story; when it's just a short, one-off tale with no recurring characters featured.

Today, I bring you such a tale, masterfully rendered by Dick Ayers with a script crafted by some unknown fella by the name of Stan Lee. From Rawhide Kid #25 -December 1961, here's "The Man Who Robbed the Express!"





Friday, August 20, 2010

If It Ain't the Injun, It's The Horse!


Cover painting by Hank Hartman

Maybe it's just coincidence. Maybe it's just the The Ranger never sets foot in town until he's ready to round up the bad guy, or less'n he's disguised as an old prospector, but whatever the reason, it seems like none of the Masked Man's faithful companions can get anywhere near a town without one of 'em is gettin' lynched.

This time, it's the horse. From Lone Ranger #19,











This story originally appeared in Dell's Lone Ranger #111 September, 1957 (where it was 2 pages longer!)


Cover painting by Hank Hartman


Cover painting by Hank Hartman as it originally appeared on Dell's Lone Ranger #110

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Those About Turok, We Salute You!


This cover art was originally used for issue #30, December 1962, the first Gold Key issue

Well, the people have spoken! By an overwhelming majority, y'all voted in favor of having Turok, Son of Stone added to the mix here at OUATITWIC. Apologies to the one reader who voted no.

I was raised on dinosaur books and Marx plastic cowboys. So a comic book that combined dinosaurs and Indians completely blew my mind- even after having seen Star Wars !

Turok, for those of you who've been living in a cave (yeah, I said it) is a frontier-era plains Indian. He and his young companion Andar took a wrong turn one day while hunting and ended up in a "lost valley" full of dinosaurs and cave men. Of course, Turok and Andar have never heard of dinosaurs, so y0u'll have to forgive them for naming them things like "honkers".

Turok fisrt appeared in Dell's Four Color Comics #596 in a story by Gaylord DuBois and drawn by Rex Maxon (bonus points to reader Elias Montakis for his spot-on knowledge of Turok history) . Apparently, DuBois had re-worked the story from a discarded script for Red Hawk.

And now, "A Vision of Home" written by Paul Newman (race cars, salad dressing and comics??) and drawn by Alberto Giolitti.









This story originally appeared in issue #42, November 1964:

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Today In History... Sort Of.

On August 17, 1863, Naval troops under the command of Union Admirals DuPont and Dahlgren, in combination with ground forces under Brigadier General Quincy A. Gilmore, laid siege to Ft. Sumter, SC. The fort had been in the hands of Confederate troops since April of 1861.

The following 4-page tale is about the loss of Fort Sumter to the Confederacy in what would later turn out to be the first shots fired in the American Civil War.







Script by Raymond Marais, art by Jeff Jones- from The Phantom#25, September,1967.

Okay, so what does all that have to do with Westerns? Didn't that happen on the East Coast?

Well, yes, but the repercussions of that encounter in 1861 shaped the West in a myriad of ways.

The American Civil War saw the development of Railroads, revolvers, repeater rifles (the three R's of the Wild West) . Generals Philip Sheridan and George Armstrong Custer were celebrated commanders of the Civil War before turning their attention West to an all-out campaign against the indigenous peoples of this continent. Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok were both scouts for the Union Army.

When the war ended, it left a lot of men with no jobs and a Hell of a lot of training with guns. Just like the rise of Caribbean piracy at the end of the 17th century, the West had an abundance of violent men looking for work. Some became cowboys. Others lawmen. Still others, such as the James Gang, used their knowledge of commando tactics to knock over banks and rob trains.

So, without the attack on Fort Sumter, the West would probably have been a very different place.

Monday, August 16, 2010

A Promise To Clarissa- Texas Rangers In Action #72



At the request of an anonymous reader (Who was that masked commenter?) I'm presenting the cover story of Texas Rangers In Action #72 "A Promise To Clarissa".

The cover was done by Jim Aparo. The interior art for this story is uncredited and the GCD doesn't shed any light on it either. Was it Aparo? The young Ranger's ears and eyes look like some of Aparo's work, but the level of finish is far below that of the cover art.

I had previously assumed the story was drawn by Aparo... but now, I'm not so sure.

Well, y'all can judge fer yerselves: