Wednesday, May 18, 2016

RAWHIDE KID WEDNESDAY 76

The Rawhide Kid is my favorite western comics character and one of my favorite comics characters period.  Something about the short of stature (but big on courage and fighting skills) Johnny Clay spoke to the short of stature (but big on comics-reading skills) teenage Tony Isabella.  After rereading the Kid’s earliest adventures when Marvel Comics reprinted them in a pair of Marvel Masterworks and an Essential Rawhide Kid volume, I wanted to reacquire every Rawhide Kid comic, reread them and write about them in this bloggy thing of mine. This is the 76th installment in that series.

The Rawhide Kid #91 [September 1971] has a dramatic cover penciled and signed by Dick Ayers. According to the Grand Comics Database, the cover was inked by John Tartaglione. This is confirmed by the original art. Action and guns a’blazing were usually the elements of Marvel’s western cover, but this one stands out from most of the covers of the era.

“The Outlaw, the General, and the Little Big Horn” (14 pages) was written by Roy Thomas with art by the Ayers/Tartaglione team. The story has never been reprinted in the U.S.A.

Marvel often played fast and loose with real history in its western comics, but this story is in the realm of possibility, though the Rawhide Kid would’ve been 26 years old if he met Custer just prior to the Battle of the Little Big Horn, which took place on June 25 and June 26 of 1876. Here’s the Kid’s history as chronicled in his Wikipedia entry:

Johnny Clay was born in 1850, and orphaned as an infant, adopted by Ben Bart. In 1868, his "uncle" was murdered and he left the family ranch. In 1869, he became a wanted man. In 1870, he fought the Living Totem. In 1872, he captured the costumed Grizzly with the help of the Two-Gun Kid. He joined Kid Colt to defeat Iron Mask. In 1873, he met the Avengers. In 1874, he met Doc Holliday. In 1875, he helped the Black Panther with Kid Colt and the Two-Gun Kid. In 1876, Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt and Two-Gun Kid faced Red Raven, Iron Mask and the Living Totem with the help of the Avengers. In 1879, he met the Apache Kid. Subsequently, he became a performer for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show where he remained until 1885. In 1897, he took an understudy under his tutelage.

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 The story opens with Rawhide riding toward what sounds like “Injun trouble” and, sad to say, there are many uses of such slurs in the story. I didn’t think twice about them in 1971, but they are very hard to take in 2016.

Link, the Kid’s cousin, is among the cavalry soldiers surrounded by the “loco” Sioux. Thanks to Rawhide, those soldiers escape certain death. It’s revealed Link sent for Johnny, telling him in a letter than General Custer would hire him as a scout. Only Link and his fiancee Linda know Rawhide is a wanted man.

Coloring oddity. The Rawhide Kid’s hair is colored the same shade of blonde (yellow) as Custer’s throughout this story. As all true fans know, Johnny has red hair.

Custer hires Johnny and sends him out with a troop of soldiers to get one final scouting report. Custer is planning to wipe out the Sioux, a genocidal notion which doesn’t seem to bother anybody in this story. Indeed, the only problem anyone has with Custer is that they believe he’s crazy for planning the attack. The Sioux are just too strong.

Johnny and the soldiers are ambushed. Johnny is the sole survivor and only because the Sioux don’t make sure he’s dead. Once the way is clear, our hero rides to warn Custer.

Bad luck there. Another trooper has recognized the Rawhide Kid from  a wanted poster. Custer is furious at Link for recommending he hire Johnny. When Johnny returns, Custer dismisses his report and tosses him behind bars.

The Seventh Calvary...massacred by simple-minded savages?! Not only is he a criminal...he’s also a raving madman!

Fearful for Link’s life, Linda flirts with Johnny’s guard and gets his keys. Johnny escapes and speeds off to do what he can to save his cousin and the other soldiers. Along the way, he reminisces on his origin and how he became a wanted man. The placement of the brief flashback (page 11) is sort of odd, but I figure Roy wanted to drive home that the Kid was not a murderer.

Rawhide arrives too late:

Indians...everywhere! I’ve never seen to many of them in one place and they’ve got Custer and his men surrounded!

Must have the cavalry outnumbered ten to one...and there’s nothing I can do but watch......and pray that somehow, someway...some of the troopers will survive!


Turn the page and there’s a full-page image of the aftermath of the battle. Not one of the troopers is alive. It’s a startling image, one that conveys horror without gore.

Rawhide rides back to the fort to tell Linda what has befallen her fiancé and the soldiers. Angered and grief-stricken, she turns on Johnny:

If you weren’t a criminal...Custer would have listened to you and Link would still be alive.
She tells the Kid to get out of her sight and calls him a murderer. He leaves the fort.

And so once again Johnny Bart rides into the sunset, another personal tragedy behind him...along with the gnawing fear that yet another may lay in waiting around the next bend in the trail...

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The half-page Mighty Marvel Checklist ran after page 6 of the cover story. The highlights of the month were: Amazing Adventures #8 (The Inhumans by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams; Amazing Spider-Man #100;  Avengers #91 with another chapter of the classic Kree-Skrull War by Thomas and Sal Buscema; Captain America #141 with the Falcon, the Grey Gargoyle and incredible art by John Romita and Joe Sinnott; Creatures on the Loose #13 with a werewolf chiller by Len Wein and Reed Crandall; Incredible Hulk #143 (guest-starring Doctor Doom); Kull the Conqueror #2 with gorgeous art by Marie and John Severin; and My Love #13 with a story drawn by Gene Colan and Bill Everett.

The bottom half of the page was a Marvelmania ad for “never before seen unpublished art portfolios by John Romita and Herb Trimpe. For $2.50 each ($4 for both), you would receive unpublished art pieces, (sketches, drawings, doodles), the artist’s photo, a self-portrait of the artist, and the artist’s bio. If you ordered both sets, you would get 24 villain drawings free. I found no listing for these on eBay, so I don’t know if they were actually produced and shipped to the fans who ordered them.

There were two new “classified” ads this month. Steranko’s History of the Comics Volume 2 was available from Jim’s Supergraphics at a price of $4.25 (including a quarter postage). I keep hoping these volumes turn up in my Vast Accumulation of Stuff because they were terrific.

The other new ad was from ComicService of Long Beach:

ComicService will collect your favorite comics and send them to you unfolded in very good to mint condition. Get five popular comics for one full year in top condition for only $5.00 plus newsstand cost of each mag desired. A great gift idea!

Sorry, no old comics collected. We deal only with fresh printed new Marvel, DC, Archie & Gold Key. Add $1 plus cost for each additional title (over 5) wanted.  

This issue’s non-series reprint tale was “The Pecos Kid” (5 pages) by Stan Lee, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. It comes from Frontier Western #1 [February 1956].

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This twisted story - you’ll see why I describe it that way when you get to the shock ending - starts with a cowboy named Juke getting his drink on and shooting up the town saloon. The old sheriff goes into the saloon to arrest Juke, even though everyone knows Juke can outdraw the sheriff “nine ways to Sunday.” This doesn’t scare the old man because it’s his sworn duty and because he wants his son to be proud of him.

Juke points his guns at the sheriff. But, before the rowdy cowboy can fire, his guns are shot out of his hands by a dressed-in-black gunslinger. The sheriff thanks the stranger and tells the man he’s a good shot...just like the lawman’s son.

STRANGER: You’re welcome, sheriff. And it’s a good thing yuh got a son who’s handy with irons, cause a man your age can’t draw as fast as a frisky careless shaver

The bartender tells the stranger not to pay the sheriff any heed. The old man hasn’t seen his son in 15 years, but talks about him as if he were still there.

The sheriff knows he’s seen the stranger somewhere before. In his office, he spots a wanted poster. The stranger is the Pecos Kid, an outlaw wanted dead or alive. The sheriff is going to bring the Kid in and make his son proud of him.

The sheriff sends a warning to the Pecos Kid. Even though the Kid helped him with Juke, he’s got to take him in. The Pecos Kid says:

He figures the law is the law, eh? And I reckon he’s right!

A townsman pleads with the Pecos Kid not to kill the best sheriff the town has ever had. But the Kid says to tell the sheriff he is not leaving. If the lawman wants the Kid, he’s got to take him with his gun in his hand.

The townsman tries to talk the sheriff out of this fight, but the sheriff isn’t having any of that:

Y’uh think I want my boy to think his father’s yellow?

The two men face each other. They draw their guns. But, amazingly, it’s the Pecos Kid who loses the gunfight.  The sheriff speaks to his absent son:

Someday, boy...you’ll hear of this...you’ll know your old father downed the Pecos Kid single-handed!


The townsman goes to the side of the dying outlaw. He asks the Kid why he did it when he could have taken the sheriff easy.

Nobody believed his son was still alive...gasp...but he is! Don’t ever tell him...gasp...that his son was really...gasp...the Pecos Kid!

See what I mean about this tale being twisted?

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The “Marvel Bullpen Bulletins” page is chocked full of fun items. Emerson College in Boston is hosting a “mildly magnificent” Marvel art display. Barry Smith is on his way back from England where he’s been drawing Conan. Joan Lee, Stan’s lovely British wife, caught up with Barry in London and brought back some of Barry’s pages and a selection of music from the group Icarus, which was completing “a far-out Marvel album.”

Wally Wood will be inking Syd Shores on the new Red Wolf title. Sal Amendola has joined Marvel as a proofreader and production worker. Gerry Conway has just returned from the West Coast where he huddled with Harlan Ellison over a secret project. Johnny Romita has a new Mercedes. The magazine Scholastic ran an article about Spider-Man’s recent issues. Other favorable press came from ABC-TV’s Eyewitness News, Look Magazine and The New York Times.

This month’s “Stan Soapbox” was a celebration of Spider-Man hitting his 100th issue. Stan thanked Martin Goodman, Steve Ditko, Romita, John Buscema, Larry Lieber, Gil Kane, Jim Mooney, Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Sal Buscema, Artie Simek and Sam Rosen.

The “Ridin’ the Trail with Rawhide” letters page was missing this issue. It won’t return until issue #93.

Wrapping up the issue is a full-page ad for the 68-page Rawhide Kid Special. I’ll be writing about it in next Wednesday’s “Rawhide Kid Wednesday.”

I’ll be back tomorrow with another installment of the “July 1963" series. See you then.

© 2016 Tony Isabella

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