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 80th installment in that series.
The Rawhide Kid #94 [December 1971] saw the title drop back down to 36 pages and go up in price to twenty cents. As the issue contains neither a Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page or a letters page, there’s no explanation for the sudden change in size/price.
The cover by Larry Lieber (pencils) and Frank Giacoia (inks) shows a black man shooting at the Kid, who doesn’t want to shoot back at him. Though it would be a slow and sometimes painful process, the comic books were featuring more black characters. It was a start. As for the cover art, Giacoia was a great inker for any penciller and Lieber was no exception.
“Day of the Outcast” (14 pages) is written and drawn by Lieber with inks by George Roussos, who would continue on the series right to the end of the original stories. Roussos was a excellent fit for Lieber’s pencils. He kept the dynamism of the figures while adding an old west grittiness. On occasion, since I shared an office with George and several others, I got to listen in when he would discuss the pencilled pages with Larry and, on rarer occasion, watched him ink a panel here and a panel there. Inking being a skill beyond me, I marveled at how smooth George made the process appear.
Comic books with social relevance were becoming more frequent in the 1970s. This tale is Lieber’s initial foray into that territory. It marks the first time a black man played a major role in one of the Kid’s adventures, but it did not mark the beginning of greater ongoing diversity in the series.
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
When the Rawhide Kid sees a galloping horse stumble and throw his rider, he rushes to help the unconscious man. He’s surprised to see the man - Rafe Larsen - is black. Larsen comes to and, recognizing the Kid, thinks Rawhide is trying to rob him. They exchange punches until Rawhide backs off and asks Larsen why it’s so hard for him to believe the Kid only wanted to help him:
Because you’re white -- and I’m black! The war ended slavery -- not oppression! You whites still treat us like we’re less than human! I’ve been freed -- but not from hate, bigotry and cruelty!
Larsen talks about being bullied by whites, but adds that won’t be happening again. He has guns and he learned how to use them. From now on, no one will push him around:
From here on our, men will call Rafe Larsen “Mistuh!”
The Kid gets it. Learning Larsen is heading to Paradise Flats, just as he is, Rawhide suggests they ride together. Larsen declines. He accepts maybe the Kid was on the level about helping him, but he’s still a white man and Rafe doesn’t trust white man.
A trio of owlhoots take considerable offense to Larsen riding into town wearing guns. They tell him only white men wear irons in this neck of the woods and order Rafe to disarm. Larsen tells them that if they want his guns they will have to take them.
Though it’s three against one, Rafe kills one of the men and wounds the other two. The sheriff arrives and wants Larsen to put up his guns. Rafe says he was called out by the trio and defended himself. A witness backs him up. The sheriff isn’t thrilled:
But when a black man wears guns in a white town, he’s asking for trouble! If I were you, I’d stash those irons away.
Larsen responds:
But you ain’t me, sheriff – not by a long shot!
The two surviving gunman start plotting revenge.
When Larsen go to the town hotel, the desk clerk tells him that he doesn’t rent to black men. Rafe gets the clerk to change his mind by sticking a gun in his face.
The vengeful owlhoots kill and rob the lucky-at-cards Sam Walker. They keep the cash, but plant Walker’s monogrammed watch in Rafe’s room. They then tell the sheriff they saw Larsen gun down the dead gambler. The sheriff finds the watch in Rafe’s room. The framed Larsen jumps out a window to escape.
Apparently having taken the scenic route to town, Rawhide shows up in time to shoot the guns out of Larsen’s hands and turn him over to the sheriff. Rafe is fast. The Kid is faster.
The real killers get a lynch mob going. They knock the sheriff out, but Rawhide sends them packing by shooting the hats off every man in the mob. One of the killers asks the Kid while he’s helping the man he just captured. The Kid says:
Every man, white or black, is entitled to his day in court. It’s just as simple as that.
The sheriff thanks the Kid for his help. He doesn’t know the Kid’s name, but Rawhide says that’s not important. He tells the sheriff he thinks Larsen has been framed. He suspects those two gunman who drew on Rafe and survived. The sheriff needs proof.
Rawhide tracks one of his suspects to a shack outside town. He has the frightened man ready to talk when the other gunman shoots his own partner in the back to keep him from talking.
Rawhide chases and takes down the remaining killer. He gives him a righteous beating and the killer confesses everything. The sheriff tells Larsen he’s free to go.
RAFE: Yeh, free...but only until the next town and the next passle of haters!
KID: It won’t always be like this. Times will change!
RAFE: Sure they will! Long after I’m dead!
As Larsen gets on his horse to leave, the Kid thinks to himself. He sadly admits:
He’s right! Bigotry and hate will end, but not in our lifetime!
Given the Republicans have chosen a stone racist (and worse) to be their presidential candidate, there are times I despair it will not end in my lifetime either.
We close with the sheriff watching Rawhide ride out of town. He’s tearing up a wanted poster. He figures there’s a lot more to a man that you can write on a sheet of paper.
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
I like this story a lot, but I can’t recall if Lieber ever used the Rafe Larsen character again. I hope he did.
This story was reprinted in The Rawhide Kid #146, which was cover-dated July, 1978. Tony DeZuniga drew the cover for the issue.
Marvel went to the 1950s for the pair of four-page reprints filling out this issue. Both tales were originally published in Rawhide Kid #10 [September 1956]. The title hero of that title is not the same Rawhide Kid of this current series, though Marvel’s production department attempted to make the readers think they were the same.
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
“Man On the Run” was written by Stan Lee with art by Vic Carrabotta (pencils) and Joe Giella (inks). Stagecoach robbers Hunk Grogan and Clem Mace have stolen a thousand dollars in bonds. This was when a thousand dollars was real money.
Hunk is the alpha male and slaps Clem around and makes the weaker man angry enough to steal the bonds. Nothing goes right for Clem. Hunk wakes up and comes after him. He runs into a posse searching for them. He gets attacked by Apaches. He surrenders to the posse, which didn’t know he was one of the stagecoach robbers until Clem babbled on about the bonds.
Fate’s final trick on the hapless Clem and Hunk? They couldn’t have cashed in the bonds because they are non-negotiable.
Did the young readers of 1956 understand what bonds, non-negotiable or otherwise, were. I wouldn’t have.
The original Rawhide Kid then appears in “Blind Justice,” which was penciled, inked and lettered by Dick Ayers. His clothes have been redrawn to look like the more famous Kid’s garb. His blonde hair is now red. But it’s still not convincing.
In a town with a lawman, an owlhoot tries to steal the Kid’s horse out of sheer cussedness. The Kid has his stallion throw the man, and shoots the man’s guns out of his hands before dragging him to the vacant sheriff’s office. The townspeople laugh at the notion of the man being arrested, but direct the Kid to “old Judge Parker,” who I want to consider an ancestor of the comic-strip judge of the same name. Just because.
Judge Parker confirms what the Kid has been told as he releases the would-be horse thief. There’s no law save for the district marshal who visits twice a year.
The judge is morose. His son, who was back East studying to be a lawyer, is arriving in town today. The judge is ashamed at what his town has become.
Rawhide offers to break the news to the judge’s son. The son dumps his law books in his case and pulls out a pair of guns. He says he will explain the guns to the Kid later.
In a handful of panels, the Kid and the judge’s son stroll through the town taking out criminals. The owlhoots surrender.
The judge’s son quit studying law and was, instead, appointed to be the town’s new lawman. He felt he was better suited to enforce the law. Father and son are now a team. Says the Rawhide Kid who isn’t our Rawhide Kid:
The judge will dispense law and you will back it up. Justice isn’t blind after all.
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
I am often amazed and impressed by how much story Stan Lee and his other writers were able to fit into these four-page stories. One of these years, I think I’d like to write an entire issue of four-page genre stories just to see if I can master that skill.
That’s all for this week’s edition of “Rawhide Kid Wednesday.” I’ll be back tomorrow with am Indy Pop Con update before I take several days off to travel to and attend the convention. I’d be thrilled to see some of my bloggy thing readers at the event.
© 2016 Tony Isabella
The cover by Larry Lieber (pencils) and Frank Giacoia (inks) shows a black man shooting at the Kid, who doesn’t want to shoot back at him. Though it would be a slow and sometimes painful process, the comic books were featuring more black characters. It was a start. As for the cover art, Giacoia was a great inker for any penciller and Lieber was no exception.
“Day of the Outcast” (14 pages) is written and drawn by Lieber with inks by George Roussos, who would continue on the series right to the end of the original stories. Roussos was a excellent fit for Lieber’s pencils. He kept the dynamism of the figures while adding an old west grittiness. On occasion, since I shared an office with George and several others, I got to listen in when he would discuss the pencilled pages with Larry and, on rarer occasion, watched him ink a panel here and a panel there. Inking being a skill beyond me, I marveled at how smooth George made the process appear.
Comic books with social relevance were becoming more frequent in the 1970s. This tale is Lieber’s initial foray into that territory. It marks the first time a black man played a major role in one of the Kid’s adventures, but it did not mark the beginning of greater ongoing diversity in the series.
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
When the Rawhide Kid sees a galloping horse stumble and throw his rider, he rushes to help the unconscious man. He’s surprised to see the man - Rafe Larsen - is black. Larsen comes to and, recognizing the Kid, thinks Rawhide is trying to rob him. They exchange punches until Rawhide backs off and asks Larsen why it’s so hard for him to believe the Kid only wanted to help him:
Because you’re white -- and I’m black! The war ended slavery -- not oppression! You whites still treat us like we’re less than human! I’ve been freed -- but not from hate, bigotry and cruelty!
Larsen talks about being bullied by whites, but adds that won’t be happening again. He has guns and he learned how to use them. From now on, no one will push him around:
From here on our, men will call Rafe Larsen “Mistuh!”
The Kid gets it. Learning Larsen is heading to Paradise Flats, just as he is, Rawhide suggests they ride together. Larsen declines. He accepts maybe the Kid was on the level about helping him, but he’s still a white man and Rafe doesn’t trust white man.
A trio of owlhoots take considerable offense to Larsen riding into town wearing guns. They tell him only white men wear irons in this neck of the woods and order Rafe to disarm. Larsen tells them that if they want his guns they will have to take them.
Though it’s three against one, Rafe kills one of the men and wounds the other two. The sheriff arrives and wants Larsen to put up his guns. Rafe says he was called out by the trio and defended himself. A witness backs him up. The sheriff isn’t thrilled:
But when a black man wears guns in a white town, he’s asking for trouble! If I were you, I’d stash those irons away.
Larsen responds:
But you ain’t me, sheriff – not by a long shot!
The two surviving gunman start plotting revenge.
When Larsen go to the town hotel, the desk clerk tells him that he doesn’t rent to black men. Rafe gets the clerk to change his mind by sticking a gun in his face.
The vengeful owlhoots kill and rob the lucky-at-cards Sam Walker. They keep the cash, but plant Walker’s monogrammed watch in Rafe’s room. They then tell the sheriff they saw Larsen gun down the dead gambler. The sheriff finds the watch in Rafe’s room. The framed Larsen jumps out a window to escape.
Apparently having taken the scenic route to town, Rawhide shows up in time to shoot the guns out of Larsen’s hands and turn him over to the sheriff. Rafe is fast. The Kid is faster.
The real killers get a lynch mob going. They knock the sheriff out, but Rawhide sends them packing by shooting the hats off every man in the mob. One of the killers asks the Kid while he’s helping the man he just captured. The Kid says:
Every man, white or black, is entitled to his day in court. It’s just as simple as that.
The sheriff thanks the Kid for his help. He doesn’t know the Kid’s name, but Rawhide says that’s not important. He tells the sheriff he thinks Larsen has been framed. He suspects those two gunman who drew on Rafe and survived. The sheriff needs proof.
Rawhide tracks one of his suspects to a shack outside town. He has the frightened man ready to talk when the other gunman shoots his own partner in the back to keep him from talking.
Rawhide chases and takes down the remaining killer. He gives him a righteous beating and the killer confesses everything. The sheriff tells Larsen he’s free to go.
RAFE: Yeh, free...but only until the next town and the next passle of haters!
KID: It won’t always be like this. Times will change!
RAFE: Sure they will! Long after I’m dead!
As Larsen gets on his horse to leave, the Kid thinks to himself. He sadly admits:
He’s right! Bigotry and hate will end, but not in our lifetime!
Given the Republicans have chosen a stone racist (and worse) to be their presidential candidate, there are times I despair it will not end in my lifetime either.
We close with the sheriff watching Rawhide ride out of town. He’s tearing up a wanted poster. He figures there’s a lot more to a man that you can write on a sheet of paper.
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
I like this story a lot, but I can’t recall if Lieber ever used the Rafe Larsen character again. I hope he did.
This story was reprinted in The Rawhide Kid #146, which was cover-dated July, 1978. Tony DeZuniga drew the cover for the issue.
Marvel went to the 1950s for the pair of four-page reprints filling out this issue. Both tales were originally published in Rawhide Kid #10 [September 1956]. The title hero of that title is not the same Rawhide Kid of this current series, though Marvel’s production department attempted to make the readers think they were the same.
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
“Man On the Run” was written by Stan Lee with art by Vic Carrabotta (pencils) and Joe Giella (inks). Stagecoach robbers Hunk Grogan and Clem Mace have stolen a thousand dollars in bonds. This was when a thousand dollars was real money.
Hunk is the alpha male and slaps Clem around and makes the weaker man angry enough to steal the bonds. Nothing goes right for Clem. Hunk wakes up and comes after him. He runs into a posse searching for them. He gets attacked by Apaches. He surrenders to the posse, which didn’t know he was one of the stagecoach robbers until Clem babbled on about the bonds.
Fate’s final trick on the hapless Clem and Hunk? They couldn’t have cashed in the bonds because they are non-negotiable.
Did the young readers of 1956 understand what bonds, non-negotiable or otherwise, were. I wouldn’t have.
The original Rawhide Kid then appears in “Blind Justice,” which was penciled, inked and lettered by Dick Ayers. His clothes have been redrawn to look like the more famous Kid’s garb. His blonde hair is now red. But it’s still not convincing.
In a town with a lawman, an owlhoot tries to steal the Kid’s horse out of sheer cussedness. The Kid has his stallion throw the man, and shoots the man’s guns out of his hands before dragging him to the vacant sheriff’s office. The townspeople laugh at the notion of the man being arrested, but direct the Kid to “old Judge Parker,” who I want to consider an ancestor of the comic-strip judge of the same name. Just because.
Judge Parker confirms what the Kid has been told as he releases the would-be horse thief. There’s no law save for the district marshal who visits twice a year.
The judge is morose. His son, who was back East studying to be a lawyer, is arriving in town today. The judge is ashamed at what his town has become.
Rawhide offers to break the news to the judge’s son. The son dumps his law books in his case and pulls out a pair of guns. He says he will explain the guns to the Kid later.
In a handful of panels, the Kid and the judge’s son stroll through the town taking out criminals. The owlhoots surrender.
The judge’s son quit studying law and was, instead, appointed to be the town’s new lawman. He felt he was better suited to enforce the law. Father and son are now a team. Says the Rawhide Kid who isn’t our Rawhide Kid:
The judge will dispense law and you will back it up. Justice isn’t blind after all.
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
I am often amazed and impressed by how much story Stan Lee and his other writers were able to fit into these four-page stories. One of these years, I think I’d like to write an entire issue of four-page genre stories just to see if I can master that skill.
That’s all for this week’s edition of “Rawhide Kid Wednesday.” I’ll be back tomorrow with am Indy Pop Con update before I take several days off to travel to and attend the convention. I’d be thrilled to see some of my bloggy thing readers at the event.
© 2016 Tony Isabella
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