Steampunk Lone Ranger

 

In a 1943 story arc, the Lone Ranger radio show did dip into vaguely steampunkish territory when the Ranger and Tonto battled a mad scientist who used electricity-based death traps and a drug to turn hostages into zombie-like minions. But, overall, the Ranger's universe did not allow much in the way of Steampunk or science fiction into its stories. This was also true of the TV show and the long-running Dell/Gold Key comic book series.

That changed, though, in 1966, when a production company called Format Films turned out 26 episodes of a Lone Ranger cartoon for CBS' Saturday morning line-up.

I like to think that someone at Format Films fondly remembered that radio story arc, but it was actually the success of Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon on The Wild, Wild West that dictated the premise for this particular version of the Lone Ranger. The Ranger and Tonto are tossed into a Steampunk universe that includes robot dragons, bad guys using scuba gear, a lost valley populated by neanderthals and dinosaurs, and giant wind-up toys. A reoccuring villain, Tiny Tom, was obviously based on West's arch-enemy Dr. Loveless.

Each half-hour had three stories, each running about 6 1/2 minutes, so each story moved at a furious pace. diving right into the action as yet another supervillain or mad scientist spreads chaos across the Old West. One story each episode was often devoted to a Tonto solo adventure, allowing him to have his own Crowning Moments of Awesome. In fact, this cartoon might have been the strongest example of any Lone Ranger venue in showing that the two heroes had an equal partnership. Tonto out-thought a villain and saved the Ranger as often as the Ranger did the same for Tonto.

The animation was obviously low-budget, but was done with imagination and style. To quote the Wikipedia article about the show: The drawings were produced by chinagraph pencil on cell. Colored papers were cut or torn under or against the lines of the background, producing a dramatic and rich textural effect. 

I loved this show as a kid. Though I watched re-runs of the live-action TV series growing up as well, this version of the Lone Ranger may very well have been my introduction to the character.

Fortunately, many of the episodes are showing up on YouTube. Here's one of them:

And, if you have another 7 minutes to spare, here's a Tonto episode in which I like to think he visits the same Lost Valley that was the setting of the comic book Turok, Son of Stone.