RESOLVED: The Rawhide Kid is my favorite western comics character and one of my favorite comics characters period. This is why I’ve written over a hundred columns about him. Something about his short stature, but large courage, honor and fighting skills speaks to me. After rereading the Kid’s earliest adventures when Marvel reprinted them in a pair of Marvel Masterworks and an Essential Rawhide Kid volume, I decide to reacquire every Rawhide Kid comic, reread them and write about them. We’ve reached the title’s extended twilight. We’ve seen the last new Rawhide Kid story that will appear in the now-bimonthly reprint series. This is the 128th installment of my “Rawhide Kid Wednesday” columns.
The Rawhide Kid #141 [September 1977] has another great new cover pencilled and inked by Gil Kane. Like the previous issue’s cover, it doesn’t illustrate a scene from either of the two Rawhide Kid tales reprinted in this issue.
The first of those stories is “The Deadly Draw of Mr. Lightning!” by Stan Lee and Jack Davis from Rawhide Kid #34 [June 1963] Here’s what I wrote in my bloggy for August 8, 2012:
“The Deadly Draw of Mister Lightning” (10 pages) is a plot-by-the-numbers story. It begins with the Kid fleeing a small posse; this is the only time in the issue his outlaw status is mentioned. He hides out in the crowd at a traveling carnival where he watches the fastest juggler in the world and reckons it’s good the performer is not a gunfighter because no one could out-draw him. Foreshadowing in the days of the Old West.
Mister Lightning is dissatisfied with his meager earnings. Another carnival worker suggests he takes up gun play. The juggler is swift to master that art and becomes a gun-for-hire. Spotting Rawhide in a town where the Kid is apparently not wanted, Lightning calls him out. The Kid doesn’t want to engage in gun play for no reason and that, along with his foe’s speed, allows the former juggler to out-draw and wound our young hero.
Rawhide figures this is his lucky break. Now that he’s no longer the fastest gun around, he thinks people will leave him in peace. Alas, building on his rep at the guy who outdrew the Rawhide Kid, Lightning has turned to crime. With only four pages to go, an old Native American chief and friend of Rawhide tracks him down to tell him of Lightning’s reign of terror. The Kid figures he has to do something about this.
Mister Lightning and the Kid face off at the bottom of page eight. Lightning is still faster, but Rawhide’s steely-eyed courage makes the juggler nervous. He out-draws the Kid, but his shot misses by a mile. He fires a second time, but, this time, the Kid fires as well and aims so expertly that the two bullets collide in mid-air. Mister Lightning soils himself, at least that’s how I see it, and vows never to use a gun again. The local lawman takes the juggler into custody and leads us out of the story with the mini-sermon of the day:
“There are many ways to use a gun, but the Kid’s is best of all - not in anger, not for gain, just to help the cause of justice!”
Mutant gun skill is not new to the Rawhide Kid’s adventures, but I think this pushes it. I’m fairly confident we saw this amazing feat again in other Marvel westerns of the era.
An artistic note: Maybe it’s me, but the horses look pretty tiny in Davis-drawn Rawhide Kid stories. Their human riders appear larger than the steeds in places. Was Davis rushed or was he reacting to the low Marvel rates of this era? Though his storytelling works just fine and his facial expressions and figures are dramatic, the small horses kept taking me out of the stories.
As has been the case with the Marvel comic books of this time, they didn’t attract the most high profile advertisers. Not counting the back cover - which we’ll discuss later today - the biggest names in the paid ads were Daisy (rifles) and Hostess with an ad offering three free baseball cards with specially marked boxes of Suzy Q’s, Twinkies, Cup Cakes and other snacks. In other words, no comic-book style, single-page story in which the Man-Thing defeats the Swamp-Drainer with a delicious treat.
Pacific Comics of San Diego took out a half-page ad offering their 100-page catalogue for a buck. There were two pages of “classified” ads, down from the usual three. On those pages, we got ads for 19 mail-order comics outfits, down from last issue’s 24. Also on one of the pages was an ad for John Buscema’s New York class in comic-book art and a new course on comics writing with Stan Lee as guest lecturer.
Superhero Merchandise of Dover, New Jersey had its usual full page advertisement, offering “Mighty Marvel Book Specials!” The only new book was The Superhero Cookbook which sold for $4.45 including the usual postage and handling.
Next up was “Shoot-Out with Rock Rorick!” from The Rawhide Kid #31 [December 1962]. The seven-page story was written by Stan Lee with art by Jack Kirby and inking by Dick Ayers. I wrote about the tale in my bloggy thing for June 20, 2012:
Rorick is a rancher who has blocked the water to other ranchers to force them to sell their land to him. When Rorick’s thugs harass the ranchers in the saloon, Rawhide sends the bullies packing. A highlight of the fight is when one thug exclaims in disbelief: “You can’t be the Rawhide Kid! From what I heerd tell of ‘im, he must be most ten feet tall and wide as a barn!”
The ranchers beseech the Kid to help them against Rorick, but he’s busy enough just keeping one step ahead of the law. But when his path out of town takes him past the ranch of an elderly couple who have been targeted by Rorick, Rawhide sees red. He takes the fight - and what a wild fight it is - to Rorick’s spread and takes down the rancher and all his thugs. He forces Rorick to sell all of his land to the Kid, who promptly restores it to its rightful owners. Rorick’s pleas to the townspeople fall on deaf ears. The tale ends with Rawhide relaxing in the saloon. Obviously, the Kid can’t stay there for long, but he gets a momentary respite from the life of a wanted man.
In the middle of the above story, we got a half-page ad for a trio of Marvel annuals - Amazing Spider-Man, Invaders, Howard the Duck - topping the usual subscription ad.
This issue’s Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page leads with a long “Stan Lee’s Soapbox” in which the Man talks about his recent appearance at the University of Alabama, heralds the return of the legendary Carmine Infantino to Marvel (which is a stretch given Infantino had not drawn anything for Marvel since the 1950s), and announces the debut of the Howard the Duck newspaper strip. This was followed bu the usual news items.
ITEM! Marvel would publish bonus-size, one-issue movie adaptations of movies, timed to hit the newsstands about the same time as the movies. First up was The Island of Dr. Moreau by Doug Moench with artist Larry Hama.
ITEM! Other movie adaptations in the world included The Deep, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also hinted at: a James Bond adaptation.
ITEM! Jack Kirby was developing an exciting new feature. Was that really news? I mean, the King was always developing new features!
ITEM! Summer annuals! Besides the already-announced Amazing Spider-Man, Invaders and Howard the Duck, there would be annuals for Thor, The Eternals, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. Many of these would feature short back-up stories said to showcase new Marvel talents.
ITEM! The final item announced the premiere of The Human Fly, based on a real-life daredevil, and a Conan Treasury Edition filled with stories by editor/writer Roy Thomas that had never previously appeared in color. Artists included John Buscema, Barry Smith, Neal Adams and Gil Kane.
There was one more editorial page in this issue and came as quite a surprise. It was a pin-up of the Rawhide Kid by Gil Kane that is thought to have been an original illustration. Cool.
The back cover of this issues advertised Dino De Laurentiis’ Orca. An angry thunderbolt of terror explodes out of the ocean’s depths! In the 1977 movie, a hunter battles a killer whale seeking revenge for the death of its mate and child. Starring Richard Harris and Charlotte Rampling, the film was originally panned by critics and fans due to both its crass similarities to Jaws and its less than stellar performances. Oddly enough, it has attained something of a cult following in more recent times.
That’s it for this edition of “Rawhide Kid Wednesday.” We’ll have another for you next Wednesday.
Come back tomorrow for either a special Thanksgiving bloggy thing or some other stuff. It’s hard for me to be thankful for the many blessings of my own life when so many people are being harmed and persecuted by the Dumpster and its vile allies in the Republican Party and the alt-right Nazi movements. Which alt-right movements are Nazis? All of them. So you can see where I might have a little difficultly with the whole “thankful” business.
See you tomorrow.
© 2017 Tony Isabella
The Rawhide Kid #141 [September 1977] has another great new cover pencilled and inked by Gil Kane. Like the previous issue’s cover, it doesn’t illustrate a scene from either of the two Rawhide Kid tales reprinted in this issue.
The first of those stories is “The Deadly Draw of Mr. Lightning!” by Stan Lee and Jack Davis from Rawhide Kid #34 [June 1963] Here’s what I wrote in my bloggy for August 8, 2012:
“The Deadly Draw of Mister Lightning” (10 pages) is a plot-by-the-numbers story. It begins with the Kid fleeing a small posse; this is the only time in the issue his outlaw status is mentioned. He hides out in the crowd at a traveling carnival where he watches the fastest juggler in the world and reckons it’s good the performer is not a gunfighter because no one could out-draw him. Foreshadowing in the days of the Old West.
Mister Lightning is dissatisfied with his meager earnings. Another carnival worker suggests he takes up gun play. The juggler is swift to master that art and becomes a gun-for-hire. Spotting Rawhide in a town where the Kid is apparently not wanted, Lightning calls him out. The Kid doesn’t want to engage in gun play for no reason and that, along with his foe’s speed, allows the former juggler to out-draw and wound our young hero.
Rawhide figures this is his lucky break. Now that he’s no longer the fastest gun around, he thinks people will leave him in peace. Alas, building on his rep at the guy who outdrew the Rawhide Kid, Lightning has turned to crime. With only four pages to go, an old Native American chief and friend of Rawhide tracks him down to tell him of Lightning’s reign of terror. The Kid figures he has to do something about this.
Mister Lightning and the Kid face off at the bottom of page eight. Lightning is still faster, but Rawhide’s steely-eyed courage makes the juggler nervous. He out-draws the Kid, but his shot misses by a mile. He fires a second time, but, this time, the Kid fires as well and aims so expertly that the two bullets collide in mid-air. Mister Lightning soils himself, at least that’s how I see it, and vows never to use a gun again. The local lawman takes the juggler into custody and leads us out of the story with the mini-sermon of the day:
“There are many ways to use a gun, but the Kid’s is best of all - not in anger, not for gain, just to help the cause of justice!”
Mutant gun skill is not new to the Rawhide Kid’s adventures, but I think this pushes it. I’m fairly confident we saw this amazing feat again in other Marvel westerns of the era.
An artistic note: Maybe it’s me, but the horses look pretty tiny in Davis-drawn Rawhide Kid stories. Their human riders appear larger than the steeds in places. Was Davis rushed or was he reacting to the low Marvel rates of this era? Though his storytelling works just fine and his facial expressions and figures are dramatic, the small horses kept taking me out of the stories.
As has been the case with the Marvel comic books of this time, they didn’t attract the most high profile advertisers. Not counting the back cover - which we’ll discuss later today - the biggest names in the paid ads were Daisy (rifles) and Hostess with an ad offering three free baseball cards with specially marked boxes of Suzy Q’s, Twinkies, Cup Cakes and other snacks. In other words, no comic-book style, single-page story in which the Man-Thing defeats the Swamp-Drainer with a delicious treat.
Pacific Comics of San Diego took out a half-page ad offering their 100-page catalogue for a buck. There were two pages of “classified” ads, down from the usual three. On those pages, we got ads for 19 mail-order comics outfits, down from last issue’s 24. Also on one of the pages was an ad for John Buscema’s New York class in comic-book art and a new course on comics writing with Stan Lee as guest lecturer.
Superhero Merchandise of Dover, New Jersey had its usual full page advertisement, offering “Mighty Marvel Book Specials!” The only new book was The Superhero Cookbook which sold for $4.45 including the usual postage and handling.
Next up was “Shoot-Out with Rock Rorick!” from The Rawhide Kid #31 [December 1962]. The seven-page story was written by Stan Lee with art by Jack Kirby and inking by Dick Ayers. I wrote about the tale in my bloggy thing for June 20, 2012:
Rorick is a rancher who has blocked the water to other ranchers to force them to sell their land to him. When Rorick’s thugs harass the ranchers in the saloon, Rawhide sends the bullies packing. A highlight of the fight is when one thug exclaims in disbelief: “You can’t be the Rawhide Kid! From what I heerd tell of ‘im, he must be most ten feet tall and wide as a barn!”
The ranchers beseech the Kid to help them against Rorick, but he’s busy enough just keeping one step ahead of the law. But when his path out of town takes him past the ranch of an elderly couple who have been targeted by Rorick, Rawhide sees red. He takes the fight - and what a wild fight it is - to Rorick’s spread and takes down the rancher and all his thugs. He forces Rorick to sell all of his land to the Kid, who promptly restores it to its rightful owners. Rorick’s pleas to the townspeople fall on deaf ears. The tale ends with Rawhide relaxing in the saloon. Obviously, the Kid can’t stay there for long, but he gets a momentary respite from the life of a wanted man.
In the middle of the above story, we got a half-page ad for a trio of Marvel annuals - Amazing Spider-Man, Invaders, Howard the Duck - topping the usual subscription ad.
This issue’s Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page leads with a long “Stan Lee’s Soapbox” in which the Man talks about his recent appearance at the University of Alabama, heralds the return of the legendary Carmine Infantino to Marvel (which is a stretch given Infantino had not drawn anything for Marvel since the 1950s), and announces the debut of the Howard the Duck newspaper strip. This was followed bu the usual news items.
ITEM! Marvel would publish bonus-size, one-issue movie adaptations of movies, timed to hit the newsstands about the same time as the movies. First up was The Island of Dr. Moreau by Doug Moench with artist Larry Hama.
ITEM! Other movie adaptations in the world included The Deep, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also hinted at: a James Bond adaptation.
ITEM! Jack Kirby was developing an exciting new feature. Was that really news? I mean, the King was always developing new features!
ITEM! Summer annuals! Besides the already-announced Amazing Spider-Man, Invaders and Howard the Duck, there would be annuals for Thor, The Eternals, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. Many of these would feature short back-up stories said to showcase new Marvel talents.
ITEM! The final item announced the premiere of The Human Fly, based on a real-life daredevil, and a Conan Treasury Edition filled with stories by editor/writer Roy Thomas that had never previously appeared in color. Artists included John Buscema, Barry Smith, Neal Adams and Gil Kane.
There was one more editorial page in this issue and came as quite a surprise. It was a pin-up of the Rawhide Kid by Gil Kane that is thought to have been an original illustration. Cool.
The back cover of this issues advertised Dino De Laurentiis’ Orca. An angry thunderbolt of terror explodes out of the ocean’s depths! In the 1977 movie, a hunter battles a killer whale seeking revenge for the death of its mate and child. Starring Richard Harris and Charlotte Rampling, the film was originally panned by critics and fans due to both its crass similarities to Jaws and its less than stellar performances. Oddly enough, it has attained something of a cult following in more recent times.
That’s it for this edition of “Rawhide Kid Wednesday.” We’ll have another for you next Wednesday.
Come back tomorrow for either a special Thanksgiving bloggy thing or some other stuff. It’s hard for me to be thankful for the many blessings of my own life when so many people are being harmed and persecuted by the Dumpster and its vile allies in the Republican Party and the alt-right Nazi movements. Which alt-right movements are Nazis? All of them. So you can see where I might have a little difficultly with the whole “thankful” business.
See you tomorrow.
© 2017 Tony Isabella
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