Favorite/Wildest Westerns (of Filmland)

From the publisher who brought you FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, this short lived mag from 1960 was originally edited by MAD's Harvey Kurtzman!

Dale Evans-The Decoy Robbery-Russ Manning-1956

Roy Rogers' wife Dale had her own comic several times, notably from DC and, here, Dell. The series had all the trappings of the mega-popular TV show she shared with her husband--Pat Brady, Nellybelle, Bullet. The only thing missing was Roy himself, or any mention of him! This gave the whole thing a surreal feeling. The art here is by Russ Manning, later a longtime artist on TARZAN and the original artist on the STAR WARS newspaper strip. 

The Duke-Bigger Than Life?

My Favorite B Movie Cowboys

Originally posted in 2013 at BOOKSTEVE GOES TO THE MOVIES

My Dad loved cowboy pictures and I was born in the heyday of the TV western so it was inevitable that I would become a cowboy fan. I was 12 years old, though, before I saw my first of the traditional low budget B Westerns. That was when one local station picked up a package that included a bunch of them. I already had been a big fan of ROY ROGERS form his television series which ran in reruns inti the early seventies!

TEX RITTER was a country and western singing star as well as a most engaging presence in films. His son, John, was alreadya  favorite of mine by the time I discovered him.

TIM HOLT, above, was the first B western star whose movies I saw. They were shown weekly for about a year.

I was already a JOHN WAYNE fan as well since he was still around then and my dad had taken me to see nearly all of his new films throughout my life. 

My first exposure to GENE AUTRY was his science-fiction serial, THE PHANTOM EMPIRE, It would be years later before I would catch his flicks when TNN offered a regular slot with Gene and his former sidekick Pat Buttram introducing them.

BUCK JONES, perhaps these days more famous for his 1940's nightclub fire death, jumped straight into my Top 5 when I first saw one of his films!

Johnny Mack Brown was a former football star groomed for major stardom by MGM and then tossed aside where he became a popular B movie cowboy star. His popularity persists even today as his are the most popular sellers by far at the DVD site I share!

Col. Tim McCoy was a real cowboy who drifted into early films and remained until the forties. He was still around into the mid-seventies when he guested on Tom Snyder's TOMORROW show.

Roy Rogers' Style

Roy Rogers was one of my personal heroes growing up, what with his 1950s TV series being rerun regularly for at least 15 years past its final episodes! No real cowboy ever dressed quite like Roy, though, but YOU could!

The Over the Hill Gang

THE OVER-THE-HILL GANG was probably a pilot. It aired as a TV movie in 1969 and teamed veteran western actors--but not stars--Walter Brennan, Chill Wills and Edgar Buchanan as aged Texas Rangers re-called into action by their former commanding officer, Pat O'Brien. With Andy Devine and Jack Elam amongst the bad guys, and the vivacious Gypsy Rose Lee along for the ride with Rick and Kris Nelson, this was so  much fun! It didn't sell as a series, possibly due to the age of its stars, but it was too good not to do more.

THE OVER-THE-HILL GANG RIDES AGAIN presented the core group back again along with a reformed Andy Devine, this time to sober up a former colleague played by--of all people--Fred Astaire! His only western!

In turns funny, poignant, and action-filled, both movies are enjoyable and one wishes there had been more. Somehow, they apparently drifted into the public domain so they're readily available everywhere.

The White Rider and Super Horse-1941

At their peak, western comic books were as prevalent as horror or romance comics and much more so throughout the 1950s than the mostly dormant superhero genre. The stories were rarely all that much but sometimes the art or the characters were interesting or fun.