Matt Savage, Trail Boss

Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier (usually anywhere west of the Mississippi River) and typically set during the late nineteenth century. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published from the late 1940s through the 1950s (though the genre had continuing popularity in Europe, and persists in limited form in American comics today). Western comics of the period typically featured dramatic scripts about cowboys, gunfighters, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, and Native Americans. Accompanying artwork depicted a rural America populated with such iconic images as guns, cowboy hats, vests, horses, saloons, ranches, and deserts, contemporaneous with the setting.

Origins

Western novels, films, and pulp magazines were extremely popular in the United States from the late 1930s to the 1960s.

Western comics first appeared in syndicated newspaper strips in the late 1920s. Harry O'Neill's ''Young Buffalo Bill'' (later changed to ''Buckaroo Bill'' and then, finally, ''Broncho Bill''), distributed by United Feature Syndicate beginning in 1927, and was a pioneering example of the form. Starting in the 1930s, ''Red Ryder'', '' Little Joe'', and ''King of the Royal Mounted'' were syndicated in hundreds of newspapers across the United States. Garrett Price's ''White Boy'' (later changed to ''Skull Valley'') was another syndicated strip from the 1930s.

The first Western stories to appear in the comics were in the mid-1930s: National Allied's ''New Fun Comics'' #1 (Feb. 1935) ran the modern-West feature "Jack Woods" and the Old West feature "Buckskin Jim"; Centaur Publications' ''The Comics Magazine'' #1 (May 1936) ran the feature "Captain Bill of the Rangers"; and David McKay Publications's ''Feature Book'' #1 (May 1937) and a single issue of ''King Comics'' (also 1937) featured ''King of the Royal Mounted'' reprints before Dell took over licensing of the character. Dell Comics' ''The Funnies'' published a run of short adaptations of B-movie Westerns starting in vol. 2, issue #20 (May 1938). Whitman Comics' ''Crackajack Funnies'' ran regular Western features (including Tom Mix stories) beginning with issue #1 in June 1938.

The first stand-alone Western comics titles were published by Centaur Publications. ''Star Ranger'' and ''Western Picture Stories'' both debuted from the publisher in late 1936, cover-dated Feb. 1937. ''Star Ranger'' ran for 12 issues, becoming ''Cowboy Comics'' for a couple of issues, and then becoming ''Star Ranger Funnies''. The series ended in October 1939. ''Western Picture Stories'' ran four issues in 1937. Dell Comics published ''Western Action Thrillers'' #1 shortly thereafter (cover-date Apr. 1937), and began publishing '' Red Ryder Comics'',Schelly, Bill and Keith Dallas. ''American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1950s'' (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2013), p. 17. initially reprinting the long-running comic strip, in 1941.

"Golden Age": 1948–1960

Western comics became popular in the years immediately following World War II, when superheroes went out of style. Adult readership had grown during the war years, and returning servicemen wanted subjects other than superheroes in their books. The popularity of the Western genre in comic strips and other media gave birth to Western comics, many of which began being published around 1948.

Most of the larger publishers of the period jumped headfirst into the Western arena during this period, particularly Marvel Comics and its forerunners Timely Comics and Atlas Comics. ''Kid Colt Outlaw'' debuted in 1948, running until 1979 (though it was primarily a reprint title after 1967). The company soon established itself as the most prolific publisher of Western comics with other notable long-running titles, including ''Rawhide Kid'', ''Two-Gun Kid'', and ''Wild Western''.

The six-issue 1950 Harvey Comics series ''Boys' Ranch'', by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, was a seminal example of the Western comics genre. DC Comics published the long-running series ''All-Star Western'' and ''Western Comics''. Charlton Comics published ''Billy the Kid'', ''Cheyenne Kid'', ''Outlaws of the West'', ''Texas Rangers in Action'', and the unusual title '' Black Fury'', about a horse that roamed the West righting wrongs. Both Dell Comics and Fawcett Comics published a number of Western titles, including ''The Lone Ranger'' (Dell) and ''Hopalong Cassidy'' (Fawcett, later continued by DC after Fawcett folded in 1953). Many issues of Dell's ''Four Color'' featured Western stories during the 1950s. Avon Comics published a number of Western comics, the most notable titles being based on historical figures like Jesse James and Wild Bill Hickok. Youthful published the Western titles ''Gunsmoke'', ''Indian Fighter'', and ''Redskin'' (later known as ''Famous Western Badmen''). And Toby Press published its own ''Billy the Kid Adventure Magazine''.

Characters

The first Western hero to have his adventures published in the comics was the Masked Raider, published by Timely Comics beginning in 1939.

Timely/Atlas/Marvel favored Western characters with the word "Kid" in their name, including the Apache Kid, Kid Colt, the Outlaw Kid, the Rawhide Kid, the Ringo Kid, the Two-Gun Kid, and the Western Kid—as well as the more obscure heroes the Prairie Kid, the Arizona Kid, and the Texas Kid. Other companies followed suit, with DC's Stuff the Chinatown Kid and the Wyoming Kid; Charlton Comics' Billy the Kid and the Cheyenne Kid; and Dell's the Cisco Kid.

Black Rider and Phantom Rider were two other Marvel company characters from the genre's peak. Other early DC Comics Western characters included Johnny Thunder, Nighthawk, Pow Wow Smith, Tomahawk, the Trigger Twins, and Vigilante. Dell Comics featured the Lone Ranger, and Dell's Lobo (debuting in 1965) was the medium's first African-American character to headline his own series.

Cowboy actor comics

The years 1946–1949 saw an explosion of titles "starring" Western film actors and cowboy singers. Almost every star, major or minor, had their own title at some point; and almost every publisher got in on the action: Fawcett published Allan Lane, Monte Hale, Gabby Hayes, Lash LaRue, Tex Ritter, and Tom Mix comics; Dell published Gene Autry, Rex Allen, Roy Rogers, and Wild Bill Elliott comics; Magazine Enterprises published Charles Starrett and Tim Holt comics; Toby Press published a John Wayne title; and DC produced short-lived Dale Evans and Jimmy Wakely titles. (Dale Evans and Reno Browne were the only two Western actresses to have comics based on their characters.) Most of the cowboy actor titles featured photo covers of the stars; most series had been canceled by 1957.

Creators

Since Westerns were such a popular genre in the 1950s, many of the period's notable creators spent at least some time doing Western comics.

Writer Paul S. Newman and artist Tom Gill had an 11-year stretch on Dell's ''The Lone Ranger'', a 107-issue run that marks one of the longest of any writer/artist team on a comic-book series. Larry Lieber spent nine years as writer-artist of Marvel's ''Rawhide Kid''. France Herron and Fred Ray were the long-time writer and artist of DC's ''Tomahawk''. Gaylord DuBois excelled in writing Western comics featuring realistic animals: he wrote the entire run of '' The Lone Ranger's Famous Horse Hi-Yo Silver'', the entire run of ''National Velvet'' under both the Dell and Gold Key imprints, and many other animal stories for a number of publishers.

Carl Pfeufer