Essential Rawhide Kid Vol. 1

Following the announcement of Essential Sgt. Fury Vol. 1, now we get this! I'm really excited about this, seeing more Kirby art I've never seen before. Some people, including, I believe, our own Dave Blanchard, consider this series to be the first "real" comic book of the Marvel Age.

Hoy

ESSENTIAL RAWHIDE KID VOL. 1 TPB
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, DON HECK, DICK AYERS, PAUL REINMAN, JOE SINNOTT, AL HARTLEY, JACK DAVIS, SOL BRODSKY & GENE COLAN
Cover by JACK KIRBY Take a trip back in time to Marvel’s Wild West! Relive those  thrilling tales of yesteryear in which courageous young Johnny Bart from the town of Rawhide took on the task of taming the unruliest badlands this side of Willow Flats! Watch as the Kid — armed with his two trusty Colt six-shooters — encounters such villainous varmints as the Bat, Mister Lightning and Wolf Wacko! Hop on board the wagon train, and follow along as the Rawhide Kid delivers thrills faster than Willy Lumpkin’s Pony Express!

Collecting RAWHIDE KID (1955) #17-35.
496 PGS./All Ages ...$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6394-7

The 1955 date given in the description is misleading. I went and checked the GCD, because of the Captain's remark above, thinking that perhaps the book introducing the character just picked up the numbering from a previous book, as was pretty common in those days, and would explain the reprints - and theoretically the series - starting with #17.

However it appears that a Rawhide Kid #1 did indeed come out in 1955. This series lasted 16 issues till 1957 and was revived in 1960 continuing the numbering from the earlier run. This second incarnation of the character (no Kirby in the first run) is what is being reprinted here. For what it's worth, the cover of #17 calls it the "great first issue". If we go by that, then Dave's remark (whether he made it or not) may indeed be true after all.

By the way, what I found a bit odd was that while the cover of #17 is signed by Kirby and Ayres, the Kid's face looks to me like a Wally Wood drawing. Anybody else see this?

Andy

Replies

Luke Blanchard September 27, 2011 at 2:40pm

Marvel's original Rawhide Kid series appeared in 1955-57. The Silver Age title continued the original's numbering. It started in 1960, with issue #17, and featured a different Rawhide Kid. Kirby drew the feature from ##17-32, and Jack Davis did the Rawhide Kid stories in ##33-35. In this period the stories weren't usually book-length and the comics often carried a short non-Rawhide Kid story: hence the other pencillers listed. ##17-35 are all in Marvel's online digital library.

At the start of the year I did some research on Marvel's Silver Age westerns, and wrote down what I found here.
Dave Blanchard September 27, 2011 at 4:45pm

My pal Hoy wrote: Some people, including, I believe, our own Dave Blanchard, consider this series to be the first "real" comic book of the Marvel Age.

I can't remember ever saying that; I might have said that it was one of Marvel's first comic books of the Silver Age, based on when it first appeared, although if it debuted in 1955 as Luke suggests, then it would've predated Showcase # 4 and thus wouldn't have been a Silver Age comic book at all.

As best as I can determine, the first comic book of the Marvel Age, which is mostly just a marketing term to indicate when Marvel started consciously imitating DC's superhero franchises, was Amazing Adventures # 1, with the first appearance of Dr. Droom.
Captain Comics September 27, 2011 at 5:35pm

So we'll never get to see the first 16 issues? Curses!
Luke Blanchard September 28, 2011 at 3:39am

The solicitation says 1955, since the 1960 series continued the first one's numbering, but it was really a new comic, with a new star. The Silver Age Rawhide Kid was Marvel's first successful new adventure hero of the Silver Age. Marvel published new Rawhide Kid stories until 1973, and continued Rawhide Kid as a reprint title until 1979.

I changed "first successful new character" to "first successful new adventure hero" because the 1959 Kathy title lasted 27 issues.
Andrew Horn September 28, 2011 at 3:54am

The 1955 date given in the description is misleading. I went and checked the GCD, because of the Captain's remark above, thinking that perhaps the book introducing the character just picked up the numbering from a previous book, as was pretty common in those days, and would explain the reprints - and theoretically the series - starting with #17.

However it appears that a Rawhide Kid #1 did indeed come out in 1955. This series lasted 16 issues till 1957 and was revived in 1960 continuing the numbering from the earlier run. This second incarnation of the character (no Kirby in the first run) is what is being reprinted here. For what it's worth, the cover of #17 calls it the "great first issue". If we go by that, then Dave's remark (whether he made it or not) may indeed be true after all.

By the way, what I found a bit odd was that while the cover of #17 is signed by Kirby and Ayres, the Kid's face looks to me like a Wally Wood drawing. Anybody else see this?

Andy
Andrew Horn September 28, 2011 at 4:28am

oops! here's the issue in question. What do you think?
Luke Blanchard September 28, 2011 at 4:31am

I see what you mean. The way the lips are done has a particularly Wood-ish look. I don't find it strange that a change might be made to a face on a cover - I can think of other examples of this being done (compare the changes to Captain America #100 discussed here) - but it's surprising that the face should look like one of Wood's, because as far as I can tell he wasn't otherwise working for Marvel at the time (apparently he did ink a Kirby story in Journey into Mystery #51, but that appeared over a year earlier). I can't say if there's some alternative possibility who was regularly working for Marvel at the time.
Andrew Horn September 28, 2011 at 4:45am

Wood was working with Kirby on the Challs up till the previous summer so maybe they were still somehow working together or hanging out or whatever and he just did a bit of touch-up.

Andy
Luke Blanchard September 28, 2011 at 4:52am

The touch-up (assuming we're right) might have been done after the page was inked, which would be after the page was out of Kirby's hands (unless he was working at the Marvel offices; I don't know what his working arrangements were at the time).
Ron M. July 14, 2014 at 7:12pm

I've been thinking about buying this. Is it worth it for a fan of Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger?

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