(oh, you'll groan in a second)
I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on two DC series from the 70's and early 80's - Weird War Tales and Weird Western Tales. I don't much about either, except that "Western" for a time starred Jonah Hex before he graduated into his own series, and "War", in the early 80's, featured the Creature Commandoes. I've had a look at the covers at Mike's Amazing World (great site, btw) and a lot of the covers look interesting ... so can any of you fill me in on the comics themselves? I know a lot of you rave about Jonah Hex and I'm guessing these stories are in his Showcase Presents volume - how did you like this early stuff?
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Oh crivvens, I only read Seventies Jonah Hex when he'd gotten his own book, and it wasn't weird, just fantastic. I think the weirdest one was the Spectacular, with its sad ending.
I liked Weird Western Tales quite a bit. The initial idea was to make it anthology of horror/mystery/occult/magic tales, like The Unexpected or The Witching Hour, but along the way it became less of that as it began to carry regular features such as "Jonah Hex," "El Diablo," and "Billy the Kid." "El Diablo," If you're not familiar, tells the adventures of Lazarus Lane, a bank teller who froze during a robbery (I think; I've never actually seen his origin story) and, in times of danger, is possessed by El Diablo, who metes out punishment to the unjust. The stories are no great shakes, but they have the great advantage of being drawn by Neal Adams. "Billy the Kid" isn't about William H. Bonney, but a made-up character out to avenge the murder of his father. But in every story, there's a Great Reveal -- which I won't reveal here unless asked. There also was a series called "Outlaw," written by Bob Kanigher, about a desperado on the run and the U.S. Marshal who is continually on his trail. The thing is, the Marshal is the outlaw's father, so there's a lot of badly written angst about that from both of them.
As for Weird War Tales, I've never read any of the Creature Commandoes stuff ... the earlier stuff, though, is halfway decent, done in the same horror/mystery/occult/magic vein as the other books mentioned here.
I devoured those books like popcorn when I first started collecting comics, along with Marvel's reprints of stuff from the '50s. But the DC books had new stories and fresh art. Some of it was slightly-better-than-amateur work from up-and-coming artists who needed some seasoning, and DC would have them work on these kinds of titles to sharpen their skills before letting them graduate, so to speak, to mainstream titles. But a lot of them were drawn by professional artists in the Phillippines who cranked out pages by the hundreds ... guys like Fred Carillo, Ruben Yandoc, Ric Estrada (who died last year), Gerry Talaoc, and others. Good stuff. I think you'll enjoy what you see.
Oh, and a lot of the Western stuff, including Jonah Hex and Billy the Kid, was drawn by Tony de Zuñiga, and it looked great. As I once put it, it was like putting spaghetti Westerns on paper.
If you're thinking of collecting the titles, don't forget there was a period in the later 70s when DC titles usually had 17 pages.
I don't think I ever read Weird Western Tales. The title started out as All-Star Western. When the name was changed it was still an anthology, but Jonah Hex's feature later took over. When he received his own title the feature series became "Scalphunter", about a Caucasian raised as an Indian. In 1978 "Cinnamon", about a lady gunfighter, appeared as a back-up series in a couple of issues.
I associated Weird War Tales with DC's horror anthology comics of the period. I used to think of these as featuring lower-level product to DC's superhero books, but as Clark says they did often feature work by DC's Philippine artists (most of whom I fear I didn't appreciate as a kid). The instalments I saw of Kanigher's series work from the latter part of the run - "The War That Time Forgot", "G.I. Robot" - were slack and repetitive. I remember an decent story about a trapped astronaut watching the evolution of an ant society which may have have appeared in WWT.
As for what the BIG TWIST in "Billy the Kid" was: my bet is (cue the Scarpia theme from Tosca) his father was evil - and alive.
I was always disappointed that the issues of Weird Western that I've stumbled onto didn't seem to have anthology stories at all- when did they stop running them? Maybe if I pick up some older issues I'd like them better.
The only Weird Western I have read is the Jonah Hex stuff in one of those Showcase trades.
Now, Weird War Tales I love. I pick up beat up copies from time and I think they are great. Heck I would buy the issues for the Joe Kubert covers alone. Plus, Alfredo Alcala did quite a bit of work in this series, and I love his art. It seemed every time I enjoyed the art in a story I would go back to see who did it, and it almost every time it was Alfredo Alcala. The later stuff with the Creature Commandos and G.I. Robot were okay but didn't have the ambiance of the earlier issues. I also liked how in the earlier issues especially it didn't just focus on WWII. You would get stories from other past wars, and future wars as well.
Yeah, the WW2-centricity turned me off too, and the running strips were a weak point, although I will always have a soft spot for even the worst "War that Time Forgot" tale.
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As for Weird War Tales, I've never read any of the Creature Commandoes stuff ... the earlier stuff, though, is halfway decent, done in the same horror/mystery/occult/magic vein as the other books mentioned here.
I devoured those books like popcorn when I first started collecting comics, along with Marvel's reprints of stuff from the '50s. But the DC books had new stories and fresh art. Some of it was slightly-better-than-amateur work from up-and-coming artists who needed some seasoning, and DC would have them work on these kinds of titles to sharpen their skills before letting them graduate, so to speak, to mainstream titles. But a lot of them were drawn by professional artists in the Phillippines who cranked out pages by the hundreds ... guys like Fred Carillo, Ruben Yandoc, Ric Estrada (who died last year), Gerry Talaoc, and others. Good stuff. I think you'll enjoy what you see.
Oh, and a lot of the Western stuff, including Jonah Hex and Billy the Kid, was drawn by Tony de Zuñiga, and it looked great. As I once put it, it was like putting spaghetti Westerns on paper.
Consider yourself axed!
I don't think I ever read Weird Western Tales. The title started out as All-Star Western. When the name was changed it was still an anthology, but Jonah Hex's feature later took over. When he received his own title the feature series became "Scalphunter", about a Caucasian raised as an Indian. In 1978 "Cinnamon", about a lady gunfighter, appeared as a back-up series in a couple of issues.
I associated Weird War Tales with DC's horror anthology comics of the period. I used to think of these as featuring lower-level product to DC's superhero books, but as Clark says they did often feature work by DC's Philippine artists (most of whom I fear I didn't appreciate as a kid). The instalments I saw of Kanigher's series work from the latter part of the run - "The War That Time Forgot", "G.I. Robot" - were slack and repetitive. I remember an decent story about a trapped astronaut watching the evolution of an ant society which may have have appeared in WWT.
As for what the BIG TWIST in "Billy the Kid" was: my bet is (cue the Scarpia theme from Tosca) his father was evil - and alive.
In every Billy the Kid story I read, we learn that Billy is really "Billie Jo" -- that is, he's a girl.
Not a bad premise for a western, actually.
Now, Weird War Tales I love. I pick up beat up copies from time and I think they are great. Heck I would buy the issues for the Joe Kubert covers alone. Plus, Alfredo Alcala did quite a bit of work in this series, and I love his art. It seemed every time I enjoyed the art in a story I would go back to see who did it, and it almost every time it was Alfredo Alcala. The later stuff with the Creature Commandos and G.I. Robot were okay but didn't have the ambiance of the earlier issues. I also liked how in the earlier issues especially it didn't just focus on WWII. You would get stories from other past wars, and future wars as well.
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