Snipers, Tattoos and Secret Caves

Dell Comics' Roy Rogers #3 (March 1948) was drawn by Al Micale and written by prolific scribe Gaylord Du Bois. Du Bois not only wrote around 3000 comic book and comic strip scripts over the years--I've only read a small fraction of them, but I have yet to run across a bad script. The man was amazing.

This time, he adds to the adventure canon of Roy Rogers. Roy is riding through Montana when he meets Nancy Kirkland and Andy Johnson, whose uncles both own nearby ranches. Roy soon gets a chance to.., well, to be Roy Rogers when he catches Nancy after she's knocked off her horse by several of the mean-spirited Roulette brothers. 

Andy gets to show his backbone as well when he slugs one of the brothers. Later, the three friends find evidence that the Roulettes are doing some rustling.

That's bad enough, but when they ride back to one of the ranches, three of the four local ranch owners (including Nancy's dad and Andy's dad) are shot by a sniper.

That means the only ranch owner left--and the one who will now inherent the surrounding land--is Pa Roulette. That seems suspicious, until it turns out Pa Roulette is also dead. He was killed in what his son's claim was an accident. 

But nothing can be proved about anything. One of the men shot along with Nancy's dad was the owner and his will left the land to the children of the other three now-dead men. Neither Nancy nor Andy had any siblings, so Pa Roulette's ten sons will now inherent most of the land.

But there's a hint of another later will. No one can find this, though Roy helps the sheriff find the rifle used in the triple murder stashed in a small cave. 

Remembering a tattoo needle found on one of the victims, Roy plays a hunch and gets a court order to dig up Pa Roulette. His sons show up to put a stop to this, but all but one of them are killed in the ensuing gun fight. Roy's hunch proves to be a good one--the new will (leaving the land to Nancy and Andy) is tattooed on Pay's back. 

That doesn't quite bring the story to a close. Roy still needs to rescue Nancy from the lone surviving Roulette brother. But Roy does stuff like this three times before breakfast and soon has the situation in hand.

It is a typically strong Du Bois script. The mystery is good, the action scenes help keep the pacing fast and everything flows along logically. And its all given visual backbone by Micale's strong art. 

Gee whiz, that Gaylord Du Bois guy knew how to WRITE!

You can read this comic yourself HERE.

Next week, we'll return to the Avengers and see how they are doing. 

Cover Cavalcade

 JANUARY IS SINGING COWBOYS MONTH!!

A Roy Rogers cover from 1957.

Race with Doom

 

The Roy Rogers Show ran on NBC from 1951 through 1957, so the Roy Rogers comics from that time was keyed off of that.  When Roy was appearing in B-movies, the plots would sometimes be set in the Old West and sometimes in then-contemporary times. The B-movie version of the modern American West still involved horses and six shooters, but were mixed together with cars, planes and telephones.

Roy's TV show was placed in that modern west, so the comics of the time also often featured cars and planes and the occasional submachine gun. But sometimes, a particular comic book story could have easily been set in the Old West without changing a thing about it.

"Race with Doom," for instance, appeared in Roy Rogers Comics #90 (1955) and had an Old West vibe to it. Written by the mind-numbingly prolific Gaylord Du Bois, it's a simple but fun tale greatly enhanced by John Buscema's great artwork.

Roy spots a young lady being pursued by men on horseback. Roy uses a rope strung across the path they are riding along to get the drop on the men, allowing the girl to get away. But Roy doesn't yet know what's going on, so he's got no cause to arrest the men.

He catches up with the girl, learning that her name is Nan and she's the niece of a bank manager. When a teller ran off with some funds, there were rumors the bank was going to go under. Nan is bringing 80 grand in cash to the bank to prevent a run. The guys chasing her want the money.

And, boy, do they ever want the money. When Roy and Nan take a break in a canyon, they stampede a herd of cattle into that canyon. There seems to be no way out.

But Roy can rivel Batman in his ability to think his way out of impossible situations. Since the only way out is off a cliff, he does indeed take Nan off that cliff, making a dangerous climb down to a ledge.

The poor cattle are doomed, but Roy and Nan are safe. The bad guys make the mistake of thinking they are dead before checking for their bodies, which allows Roy to get the drop on them.

The story is indeed simple, but well-told in a very straightforward manner. As I mentioned, Buscema's art (especially the grim sequence in which the cattle are going off the cliff) really elevates it, but Du Bois' script is still strong on its own. Roy's success as a Cowboy Hero was due to his likeable and easy-going personality, something Dell Comics managed to emulate quite nicely as it skillfully dropped him into entertaining adventures.

That's it for now. Next week, we'll return again to Animal Comics.

Graveyard of Stagecoaches

Somebody is rustling stagecoaches. Not just robbing them and their passengers, but stealing the entire stagecoach after forcing the rider and passengers to disembark. And the oddest thing is that each stagecoach's tracks simply disappear when a posse tries to trail the stolen vehicle.

This is the situation Roy Rogers rides into in the tale "Graveyard of Stagecoaches," which appeared in Dell's Western Roundup #2 (1953). The art is by Mike Arens and the writer is uncredited.

Roy is briefly mistaken for one of the outlaws, but soon establishes himself as a good guy. He meets the owner of the stagecoach line--pretty young Maggie Temple who has run the business since her dad died. Maggie is now up to 20 missing stagecoaches and her business is--not surprisingly--in trouble.

Roy, of course, sticks around to help. This leads to a couple of attempts on his life, but he soon begins to harbor some suspicions as to what is actually going on.

The villain is a thug with the highly appropriate name of Hog Garber, who was sent to prison by Maggie's dad. He's arranging to hijack the stagecoaches and then uses a hand-car on an old railroad spur to transport them to an abandoned mine. His henchmen go along with it for a share in the profits of the loot taken from the coaches. 

Hog's motive? "I've watched these coaches slowly rotting month after month...just like I rotted in jail! Sometimes I come here at night an' prowl among th' dead coaches. I get a funny feelin'... a good feelin'."

In other words, Hog is Crazy Pants. But don't tell him that to his face. One of his henchmen does that and gets shot for it.

In the end, Roy tracks Hog to the graveyard of stagecoaches. There's a brief but nifty chase over the tops of the coaches (I would have loved to see this scene in one of Roy's movies), then Hog crashes through the rotted roof of a coach, into a nest of rattlesnakes. Ouch.

This is a fun story. Like many B-movie cowboy tales, it effectively combines elements from the detective genre with Western elements, making for a strong plot. And Hog is an unusual and effective villain.

You can read this one online HERE.  Or you can read it while its set to music:

Next week, we'll visit with the Justice League as they follow Adam Strange into the 73rd Century.

A Home for Retired Outlaws

Western Round-Up was published by Dell Comics from 1952 to 1959, featuring stories about Western B-Movie stars (some of whom, such as Roy and Gene, had moved to TV by then) and eventually also including stories based on TV Westerns such as Wagon Train and Tales of Wells Fargo. Many of these guys had books of their own as well, but in the 1950s, people could not get enough Westerns. Printing a western-themed comic book with good quality stories and recognizable stars was essentially the same as printing money.

The first issue (cover-dated June 1952) starts out with a nifty Roy Rogers story titled "Gunfighter's Retreat." The writer is unknown, but the solid artwork is by Pete Alvarado.

Roy has been asked for help by Ma Stebbins, who has bought an old, abandoned fort and opened a sort of retirement home. The old coots living there are all aging gunfighters--many of them former outlaws. But all have done their jail time and now they have a good, clean home, allowing them to swap tall tales and re-live old battles using blanks. (No one is allowed to have live ammo.)

Ma Stebbins has done this out of the goodness of her heart and now has the cash to pay off the last of the loan she had taken to buy and set-up the home. But the man to whom she owes the money--Toothpick Tolin--would rather foreclose than collect the money. He plans to use the fort as a base for an outlaw gang.



Roy is asked to deliver the money. This proves to be no easy task, but with the help of Trigger (who twice alerts Roy to ambush) and Pa Stebbins (a former quick-draw who now has an artificial arm), they fight their way past some thugs, deliver the money and force Tolin to give them a receipt. All this includes a wonderful scene in which Pa Stebbins, despite now being short a right arm, forcing a frightened Tolin to back down rather than draw on him.

Tolin isn't giving up, though, sending a small army of outlaws to stop kill Roy and get back the receipt. This forces Roy to stage a last stand, holding off the outlaws while Pa and Trigger make it back to the fort. Pa then forms the ageing gunmen living there into a kick-butt posse that saves Roy and sends the outlaws packing.

This is a fun story--a great example of just why Westerns were so popular. Clear storytelling, interesting characters and solid action scenes all combine to give us a very entertaining tale. I love the idea of the old gunmen bringing a gang of young whippersnappers a well-deserved comeuppance. Our culture has lost touch with the idea that our elders have wisdom and experience to share with us. This story--and especially Pa's confrontation with Tolin--reminds us of how important it is to recognize that wisdom does indeed come with age.

You can read this one online HERE.

Next week, we return once more to the Micronauts.

Calamity Jane Can Sure Carry a Tune!

It's difficult to think of Roy Rogers without Dale Evans, but Roy did make a number of B-movies before Dale joined him. My favorite of his pre-Dale films is perhaps 1940's Young Bill Hickok.

The movie is towards the end of the Civil War. A villain representing a never-named foreign country wants to cause chaos and violence in hopes of destabilizing the West and eventually snatching up gold-rich California.

The villain is played by John Miljan, who was particularly good at playing oily, smooth-talking bad guys. He hits all the right notes here--you can believe he is smooth enough to fool everyone into thinking he's an honest businessman, but he still makes you want to punch him in the mouth every time he talks. He gives us a villain you love to hate--which is always a lot of fun.

Roy plays young Bill Hickok. Calamity Jane (played by pretty and personable Sally Payne) is also in the film. Neither Hickok or Calamity bear any resemblance at all to their real life counterpoints (a picture of the real Calamity next to Sally-as-Calamity is below), either in appearance or personality. Young Bill Hickok may borrow a few historical persons for characters, but this is done purely for name recognition. The story itself is complete fiction.

But that's okay, because it's a good story. And besides, if Calamity Jane wasn't anything like Sally Payne, she by golly SHOULD have been! I'll bet the real Calamity couldn't have distracted a saloon full of thugs with an entertaining song as effectively as Sally does.

In the movie, Bill is an agent for Wells Fargo. When a gang of raiders working for the villain begin to rob and burn, Bill earns his nickname "Wild Bill" by defending a stagecoach station against ten outlaws.

So when a large shipment of gold needs to be taken East to fund the war effort, Bill is given the job. His plan is to lead a heavily-guarded fake shipment east to draw out the raiders. In the meantime, Calamity and her uncle (played by the ubiquitous Gabby Hayes) sneak east with the real gold shipment.








But Bill's girlfriend inadvertently gives the plan away to the bad guys. The gold is stolen and the
villain manages to frame Bill for the crime. Naturally, this forces Bill to go on the run until he can find the gold and prove his innocence.

It's amazing how often B-movie cowboys are framed for crimes or mistaken for criminals. Just about all of them have the worst luck in this regard.





Young Bill Hickok has a strong plot, a great villain, the typically beautiful location photography found in most B-westerns and several strong action scenes. Gabby and Calamity provide some fun comic relief and prove to be resourceful allies as well. The versions of Hickok and Calamity Jane here are so far from reality that it's amazing the real-life versions don't rise from their graves in response to this just to start drinking heavily again. But for those of us who enjoy good storytelling, the fictional Bill and Jane we find here will suit us just fine.

Cover Cavalcade

I've always preferred Dell/Gold Key's painted covers, but I'm becoming more and more appreciative of their effective photo covers.

Well, he had ME fooled!

I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed or not. Sure, Roy had the bad guys and the miners fooled. But did he fool most readers the way he fooled me?

 Roy Rogers and Trigger #117 (September 1957) has Roy and his horse riding into the mining town of Roaring Fork, where there's no law and everyone seems to be punching out or shooting at everyone else.

The trouble is a proliferation of claim jumpers--but most particularly two guys who are trying to jump claims in one particular area. This is despite the fact that only an insignificant amount of gold is being found on those claims.

Roy befriends an old prospector and helps drive off the claim jumpers. But he wonders what their motivation is. If the claims aren't worth that much, why work so hard to get them?

Perhaps the answer lies in the apparently worthless blue clay that runs through the claims. Roy and his friend take this to the assay office in Roaring Fork, but the assayer tells them it's worthless.

Roy has doubts, though. When the assayer is out of the office, he enters and tries to remember enough chemistry to run some tests himself. The assayer returns and catches him.

But not before Roy announces he's found the reason for the claim jumping. He escapes from the assayer, then manages to round him up along with the claim jumpers, forcing them to confess that the blue clay contains rich silver deposits.

It's a perfectly good story, written with his usual skill by Gaylord Dubois. But the twist at the end is where it turns out I was fooled as completely as were the bad guys.. Because Roy actually could not remember enough chemistry to properly test the clay. He simply pretended he did to fool the bad guys into confessing.

I fell into the same trap that Dubois would have led his young readers into when this was first published 58 years ago. Roy is the hero--we would naturally think that he can do pretty much anything. So why couldn't he do complex chemistry despite the fact that he's a cowboy and not a chemist?

After all, Roy would have been a mentor/father figure to many of his young fans during the 1950s. From a kid's perspective, dads, cool teachers and older brothers can do anything, can't they?

But I'm a grown-up. I should have seen this darn plot twist coming. But I didn't. I simply accepted the idea of Roy Rogers, Master Chemist without question. If I'd been a bad guy, Roy would have nailed me as well.

Gee whiz, I should be embarrassed, shouldn't I?