Ringing the Bell

 

Annie Oakley ran for 81 syndicated episodes from 1954 through 1957, giving us a fictionalized version of the young sharpshooter as she lived in the equally fictionalized town of Diablo, Arizona. Dell Comics ran a 15-issue tie-in series featuring photo covers of the pretty actress (Gail Davis) who played Annie.

The 8th issue of the series (July-September 1956) features a story titled "The Ambushers." The writer is unknown and the strong artwork is by Dan Spiegle. Annie, her younger brother Tagg and deputy sheriff Lofty Craig stop at an abandoned mission for some water while returning to town. 

While they are resting, Annie sees someone pointing a rifle at them. She objects strongly, which means she shoots the rifle out of the guy's hands. He claims to be a prospecter who was simply being cautious, since there's a lot of outlaws in the area right now. This is a reasonable claim, since there's been a nearby gold strike. They let the guy go.

But soon after, they stumble across a wounded prospecter who was shot and robbed by two men. From the descriptions he gives, its obvious one of them was the guy from the mission.

A posse loses the trail, so Annie and Tagg take a look. They find indications that the guy backtracked and find him at the mission, frantically searching for something. He draws on Annie, who strongly objects once again.

That puts one outlaw in jail, but another still on the loose. But Annie figures he'll have to come to town to kill the two men who can identify him--the wounded prospecter and the his captured partner. 

She's right, of course.  The second outlaw does come to town, where's he's subsequently chased to the old mission and forts up in the bell tower. Annie shoots at the bell, scaring him into surrendering. Annie also notices that the bell made a THUD sound rather than a ring. It turns out that the stolen gold dust was hidden there.

It's a fun story. Spiegle's art is great from start to finish, with two panels that stand out. When the first outlaw has his pistol shot out of his hand, Spiegle shows it literally flying out of the panel. The panel looking down at Annie from the level of the tower as she shoots the bell is also exceptional.

The story itself unfolds in a logical fashion, though Annie having to think of EVERYTHING makes the actually (and supposedly experienced) lawmen look a bit helpless. But what the heck. It is Annie's comic.

You can read this story online HERE. 

Next week, we'll return to Captain Willy Schultz.