Tales of the Pony Express, Part 3

After resting for a tad over a year, Pony Express rider Craig Garrett appeared in one more issue of Dell's Four Color.  FC #942 (October 1958) recounted two more of Craig's adventures before he faded into Pop Culture Limbo.

This time around, we know who wrote the issue: Eric Freiwald and Robert Schaefer were writing partners at Western Publishing (which created the comics distributed by Dell) throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Most of their scripts were Westerns (at least the ones we know for sure they wrote) and most of those were TV show adaptations such as Gunsmoke and Wagon Train. But here they prove they were equally adept at crafting adventures for original characters as well. It's very possible--perhaps probably--that they had created the character of Craig Garrett in Four Color #829. If not, they certainly formed a solid grasp of the character when writing for him in this later issue.

Nicholas Firfires drew, inked and lettered this issue. He does an excellent job, but I do have a quibble. In FC #829, Dan Spiegle drew Craig with a sligthly over-sized nose and a vaguely "I ain't that good-lookin'" face. Firfires, though, gives us a more conventionally handsome Craig. That's really my only quibble with Firfires art. The less tradional look to Craig in the first issue made him more unique.

Well, whether handsome or butt-ugly, Craig manages to have some pretty exciting adventures. "War Paint," the first story in FC #942, opens with him being chased by Indians, depending on his superior Pony Express horse to keep him ahead of his pursuers.

The Indians would love to have one of those horses. So far, all they've done is give chase to passing Express riders. But tensions are high and a more serious incident might bring on a war.

Sadly, that incident happens when Craig is sent to an Express station named Thirty-Mile. Gold has been delivered there and Craig is supposed to meet a horse dealer at the station, using the gold to buy good animals for the Express.

But word about the gold has leaked out and something happens before Craitg even reaches Thirty-Mile. Three white men, using flaming arrows and keeping out of sight, attack the station. They leave one man dead and another unconscious before grabbing the gold and making a getaway.

I like the way this fight is laid out. First, we get several panels that make it clear the stable is a seperate building from the Express office, which helps with a plot point a little bit later. Also, a shifting "camera" from panel to panel and layouts that allow us to logically follow the action generate both tension and excitement.

When Craig arrives, he realizes that Indians would have taken the much-envied Pony Express horses rather than the gold. He correctly deduces that the culprits must be white men who are framing the Indians to allow themselves to make a clean getaway with the gold.

With that idea in mind, Craig eventually traces the three outlaws to an Indian village. But one of the outlaws is a good friend of the chief, who at first refuses to believe he's being betrayed.

The otherwise well-constructed story hits a bit of a snag here. In a scene that can't help but seem contrived, the chief walks in on his "friends" just as they are musing aloud to each other about how thoroughly they've fooled the whole tribe.

Since the jig is now up, the outlaws slug the chief and make a run for it.

But Craig had brought a couple of extra Pony Express horses along as gifts for the Indians, so he and his friends have no trouble running down the bad guys.

The gold is recovered and war with the Indians is averted. But we have one more Craig Garrett adventure to look at as he deals with yet another gang of outlaws. We'll return to the Wild West for that in a couple of weeks.

Next week, though, we'll visit with Iron Man while he visits with the Champions.