Wednesday, July 27, 2016

RAWHIDE KID WEDNESDAY 83

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 83rd installment in that series. 
 
The Rawhide Kid #97 [March 1971] has a cover drawn by Larry Lieber with Bill Everett inks. Inside the issue, Lieber’s back writing and penciling “The Young Gun” (14 pages) with inks by George Roussos. With the exception of just one more fill-in story by Gary Friedrich and Dick Ayers, the Lieber/Lieber/Roussos team will be the regular team for all the remaining new Rawhide Kid stories to run in this title.

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The Rawhide Kid is getting a shave in a small town. This moment of relaxation is shattered when inconsiderate outlaws loudly rob the bank across the street.

Grabbing his hat and a towel to wipe off the shaving cream from his face, the Kid manages to unhorse one of the bank robbers and take him prisoner. He is amazed to see his captive is a young boy. The other outlaws stymie a pursuing posse by dynamiting and blocking a mountain pass.  

Back in town, Danny Murdock, the littlest bank robber, refuses to talk to the sheriff. The Kid asks to talk to him alone:

Since I’m a gunhawk who’s wanted in almost every neck of the woods but this, he might open up to me!

No such luck. The defiant Danny is certain the gang, led by brother Clay, won’t let him rot in jail. He says they will bust him out. Just you wait and see. To which Rawhide responds:

If you do escape, you’ll be a fugitive from justice, a wanted man, the target of every tin star and bounty hunter in the territory! And that’s no picnic, boy! I know!

Clay comes up with a plan to get Danny out of jail. The gang takes a nice older couple hostage and send an emissary to town. If Danny isn’t released, the old folks have had it. At the first sign of a posse, they’ll be killed. The sheriff has two hours to comply with Murdock’s demand.

Minutes later, riding alone, “Danny” is on his way to the hostage situation. But it’s really Rawhide wearing the youngster’s clothes. He gets the drop on the outlaws and dispatches two of them before he is shot from behind. Figuring a posse must be right behind the Kid, Clay and his gang take off without killing the old couple or realizing the bullet just grazed Rawhide’s head. The outlaws head for their hide-out so Clay can think of another plan to free Danny.

Danny won’t tell Rawhide and the sheriff where the hide-out is, so the Kid comes up with another plan. An unseen “friend” hands Danny a gun through his cell window and tells the boy his horse will be waiting for him in the alley.

Armed and not asking any questions, Danny forces the sheriff to let him out of the cell. He locks up the sheriff and takes off. Which is when we learn Rawhide’s plan. He’ll give Danny a head start and then set out after him. The sheriff is skeptical:

This better go right or I’ve had it as sheriff! Towns don’t take kindly to lawmen who deliberately let their prisoners escape!

Rawhide’s plan has a psychological side to it:

The only way to straighten Danny out is to let him experience a fugitive’s life! The life of a man hunted like an animal and constantly on the run!

The lesson begins. When Danny takes a lunch break, cooking a meal over a fire, Rawhide shoots the meal out of the boy’s hands. Danny jumps on his horse and flees. He’s not anxious to tangle with the Kid. Miles of relentless pursuit follow with Danny thinking he has lost his pursuer only to have a shot from afar narrowly miss him.

Finally, the exhausted Danny believes he’s lost Rawhide and heads for the gang’s hide-out. Clay figures out that this was the Kid’s plan and sets up an ambush. Which Rawhide was totally expecting on account of you don’t get your own comic book if you’re not thinking several panels ahead of the bad guys. Outlaws tumble from the rocks as Rawhide shoots them down.

Clay drops his guns rather than face the Kid. That’s when Danny’s lesson kicks into high gear.

CLAY: N-no! Don’t shoot! I give up! I’m droppin’ muh gun! There! See?!

KID: Why should that matter to me? You must’ve gunned down scores of unarmed men! But I’ll give you a chance anyway! Pick up your iron! Go on...pick it up!

CLAY: N-no! I won’t fight yuh! Yore too fast! You’ll kill me! I don’t wanna die! (Sob) I wanna live...live...

KID: Say it louder! I want Danny to hear you! I want him to see what a gunslick is really like...when he’s stripped of all his bravado and bluster!

KID (to Danny): Do you want to end up that way...trembling before a gun that’s faster than yours?

DANNY: No! I thought that outlawin’ was great...but yuh sure showed me different! It’s being hunted and on the run and always scared. I’m quittin’ right now! I’m gonna turn myself in to the law and take my medicine!

Okay, technically, Danny is not turning himself in. He and Clay are being brought in by the Kid. But Rawhide lets that slide. He tells Danny the judge will take the boy’s youth into account and go easy on him:

And afterwards, you’ll be a free man for the rest of your life!

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Though “The Young Gun” gets a little wordy in places, it’s still a solid tale. Sort of a Wild West afternoon special. It was reprinted in Rawhide Kid #149 [January 1979] with a new cover by Gene Colan and Bob McLeod. Here’s the cover of the reprint:
                                                                           

The lead story is followed by “The Swap!” (5 pages), a non-series tale by Stan Lee with art by Paul Reinman. This is a reprint from Two Gun Kid #59 [April 1961].

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Old Charlie Duff, prospector and Gabby Hayes cosplayer, runs into town shouting that he struck gold. Con man Cal Yates tells Charlie that his gold strike is chicken feed compared to Cal's own find:

My land’s got oil on it! Enuff to float the whole danged state of Texas!
Charlie is depressed:

I always been unlucky! Even when I make a strike, someone makes a better one, so no own cares about mine!

Charlie asks Yates to swap land with him. Yates says he’d be plump loco to do it. Charlie points out that Yates is already rich, but that Charlie is an old man with his first strike. He’d like it to be the biggest strike anyone ever made.

The “kindly” Yates agrees to the swap as a favor to old Charlie on account of he likes him. The townspeople think Cal is a bigger man than they ever gave him credit for. But...

Yates gloats to his “friend” Hank that this was the biggest swindle of his career. His land is worthless and now he owns a gold mine. Except...

It’s fool’s gold. You see where this is going, right?

Charlie strikes oil on that worthless land. It’s the biggest gusher ever seen in the state. He’s a millionaire.

Some time later, Hank takes Yates to Cal's former property, which has several oil wells reaching to the sky.

There it is, Yates, your old piece of land! Got any more smart swindles you’d like to make?

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There is no letters column, Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page or house ads in this issue. But it does have a second non-series story from The Ringo Kid Western #17 (April 1957].

Drawn by Doug Wildey, “The Payoff!” (4 pages) is so thin of plot it can be summed up in one line, which I have cribbed from the Grand Comics Database entry on the story...

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A sheriff hides in a money chest to surprise stagecoach robbers.

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That’s all for this week’s edition of “Rawhide Kid Wednesday.” I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff. See you then.

© 2016 Tony Isabella

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