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

Who Was That Masked Man's Injun Companion?- Tonto #19

Yep, that's right. Tonto had his own series. And really, out of all the partners and sidekicks of western heroes, who is more deserving? Red Ryder's kid sidekick Little Beaver? Well, okay, Dell gave him a comic, too. Of course Beav's comic only lasted 6 issues. Tonto's lasted 33. Which is pretty good for a spin-off. Sadly, Dell's comic about "The Lone Ranger's Famous Horse, Hi-Yo Silver!" lasted 34 issues. Sorry Tonto.

Here we have the cover story (although the cover art has nothing to do with it) from The Lone Ranger's Companion TONTO #19 from May-July 1955. Oh! and when you get to page 16, no need to adjust your sets, that page IS black and white. Dell made use of the inside and outside back cover to finish the story.

Silver Age Gold: Hangin' Tough. Tonto -Everyone's First Suspect.

Publish Post

Since it's more or less Lone Ranger week here at OUATITW-IC, I thought I'd fill in my Tuesday gap with a link to a previous post I did at one of my other comics blogs:

Silver Age Gold: Hangin' Tough. Tonto -Everyone's First Suspect.

THE Masked Rider of the Plains- Accept No Substitutes!

The Lone Ranger debuted on the radio in January of 1933. He would gain a syndicated comic strip in 1938 and make his first appearance in a comic book in 1939. Most of his early comic book adventures were simply color reprints of the daily comic strip. In 1948, Dell comic began publishing a regular Lone Ranger comics series (again, mostly reprints at first) which would come and go as the company became first Gold Key and then Whitman.

Today's offering is Gold Key's Lone Ranger #23 from 1975. Notice that by this time the appearance of the Lone Ranger and Tonto are very deliberately modeled on Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels from the Lone Ranger TV show, still in syndicated re-runs at the time.














Update! I just found out that Pappy, over ta Pappy's Golden-Age Comics Blog, just posted a far cooler Dell Lone Ranger by Tom Gill. Be sure to check it out :



http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2010/06/number-754-tom-gills-lone-ranger.html