By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Ross Andru, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2117-6 (HB) 978-0-7851-8848-3 (TPB)
For the greater part of the 1960s nobody did superheroes better than Marvel Comics. However, even fully acknowledging the stringencies of the Comics Code Authority, the company’s style for producing their staple genre titles for War, Romance and especially Western fans left a lot to be desired. Hints at sex, the venality of authority figures or sticking a proper gun in a character’s hand and boldness and innovation gave way to overwhelming caution and a tone that wouldn’t be amiss in kids’ cartoons or pre-Watershed family TV shows.
Mercifully for revivals of such venerable stars as the Rawhide Kid, the company’s meagre art-pool consisted of such master craftsmen as Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers and others…
Technically the Kid is one of the company’s older icons, having debuted in his own title with a March 1955 cover-date. A stock and standard sagebrush centurion clad in a buckskin jacket, his first adventures were illustrated by jobbing cartoonists such as Bob Brown and Ayers but the comicbook became one of the first casualties when Atlas’ distribution woes forced the company to cut back to 16 titles a month in the autumn of 1957.
With Westerns big on TV and youthful rebellion a hot new societal concept in 1960, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby concocted a brand new six-gun stalwart – little more than a teenager – and launched him in summer of that year, economically continuing the numbering of the failed original.
Reprinting Rawhide Kid #17-25, spanning August 1960 to December1961, these western wonders are available in hardback, trade paperback and digital editions (there’s even a Marvel Essential monochrome tome out there): all offeringan eclectic mix of hoary clichés, astounding genre mash-ups and the occasional nugget of pure cowboy story-gold with some of the King’s most captivating and impressive art as well as significant contributions from a number of other laudable pencil-pushers.
Most important to remember is that these yarns are not even trying to be gritty or authentic: they’re accessing and addressing the vast miasmic morass of wholesome, homogenised Hollywood mythmaking that generations preferred to learning of the grim everyday toil and terror of the real Old West, so sit back, reset your moral compass to “Fair Enough†and relax and revel in simple Black Hats vs. White Hats, delivered with all the bombast and bravura Jack Kirby and his contemporaries could so readily muster…
Following an Introduction from honorary hombre Stan Lee, it all begins with the 17th (but still, quirkily, debut) issue as Lee, Kirby & Ayers introduce adopted teenaged Johnny Bart who teaches all and sundry in cow-town Rawhide to ‘Beware! The Rawhide Kid’
That happened after his retired Texas Ranger Uncle Ben was gunned down by fame-hungry cheat Hawk Brown. After very publicly exercising his right to vengeance, the naive kid fled Rawhide before he could explain, resigned to life as an outlaw…
Following text thriller ‘Dynamite Trail’ the comic marvels resume with ‘Stagecoach to Shotgun Gap!’ as youthful fugitive teaches passengers not to judge an outlaw by appearances, before we pause for a salutary fable in the Don Heckillustrated ‘With Gun in Hand!’ revealing the deadly downside of being the most infamous shootist, after which we return to Kirby and The Kid for a bout of rustler outwitting in ‘When the Rawhide Kid Turned… Outlaw!’
More Lee, Kirby & Ayers magic opens #18 as the lonely outsider joins a real outlaw gang only to find he cannot stomach his new allies and finds himself ‘At the Mercy of Wolf Waco!’ The continued tale concludes in ‘The Rawhide Kid Strikes Back!’ as Rawhide saves a besieged train from the brutes before riding off into the night. Genre prose piece ‘The Brave White Man’ – illustrated by Joe Maneely – brings us to Ross Andru & Mike Esposito’s tale of an old sheriff and ‘The Midnight Raiders!’ before the Kid closes the show by taking down an ignorant bully in ‘A Legend is Born!’
Another extended tale opened Rawhide Kid #19 with ‘Gun Duel in Trigger Gap’ divided into ‘Chapter 1: The Garson Gang Strikes!’ and ‘Chapter 2: Revenge of the Rawhide Kid!’ as the fugitive tries to build a new, peaceful life until fate and marauding outlaws ruin everything…
Text vignette ‘Two-Gun Justice’ leads to Paul Reinman’s pocket précis of Kit Carson in ‘The Rip-Snorter’ before ‘Fight or Crawl, Kid!’ again finds a big man taken to task for bad behaviour by the increasingly impatient Rawhide…
Issue #20’s ‘Shoot-Out with Blackjack Bordon sees the Kid fooled by a canny brute with a fake badge and spurious pardon as ‘Chapter 1: The Treachery of Blackjack Bordon’ leads inevitably to ‘Chapter 2: The Rawhide Kid Strikes Back!’ Text tale ‘Old Mining Town’ precedes Heck’s moral homily ‘Return of the Gunfighter!’ which echoes the Kid’s sacrifice in turning a child’s hero worship into loathing and disgust in ‘The Defeat of the Rawhide Kid!’
The first instalment of #21’s extended tale ‘The Gunmen of Sundown City!’ finds Rawhide respectfully surrendering to an aging marshal, only to assist the lawman when’s ambushed in ‘The Kid Fights for his Life!’ The drama continues in ‘The Rawhide Kid… Outlaw!’ and spectacularly ends in the traditional manner in a ‘Showdown with Grizzly Younger’. Prose mystery ‘The Ghostly Prints’ then ushers us into lowkey, Heck limned revenge yarn ‘The Gunslinger!’
In the months before Fantastic Four #1 debuted, the former Atlas outfit found that for them aliens ruled. Thus, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Rawhide Kid #22 (June 1961) mashed up Monsters and Indians for ‘Beware!! The Terrible Totem!!’, as restless Rawhide stumbles into a silver mine staffed by slaves just in time for the criminals in charge to incur the wrath of a giant terror.
‘The Totem Strikes!’ and the Kid resists, learning that his incredible foe is an awakened alien who is extremely angry at everyone… and bulletproof. Its rampage leaves Rawhide ‘Trapped by the Totem!’, but still swift and smart enough to engineer ‘The End of the Totem’…
Prose yarn ‘No Guns in Town’ then takes us neatly to Heck’s ‘Slap Leather, Lawman!’ as another well past it lawman faces down his final foe…
A year after his debut, Stan, Jack& Dick – mostly Stan, I suspect – felt it was time for the western wonder to revisit and recap the way it began. Issue #23 delivered a remastered masterpiece with ‘The Origin of the Rawhide Kid!’ for new readers to enjoy, before text tale ‘Golden Trail’ cleared the palate for more action in extended saga ‘A Place to Hide!’ The Kid’s latest shot at peace and romance go south when the gang of Montana Joe hit town and stern steps need to be taken to save civilians in ‘No Place to Hide!’ after which Reinman recounts a tale of mistaken identity in ‘They Called Him Outlaw!’
Kirby & Ayers’ were reaching a peak of artistic excellence when Rawhide Kid #24 proclaimed a ‘Showdown in Silver City!’ with the Kid ambushed and replaced by a cunning imposter who learned too late the folly of his actions, and prose yarn ‘Tie Your Sixgun Low’ segued into an all Ayers affair of ‘The Man Without a Gun’ proving you don’t need firearmsto deal with trouble before rejoining the King for ‘Gunman’s Gamble!’ as the Kid saves a widow’s home from repossession by a small demonstration of shooting skills…
This initial compilation concludes with #25 and a classic clash seeing the Kid ride into a town already plagued by a (masked and costumed) bandit. As much whodunnit as action adventure, ‘The Bat Strikes!’ and text filler ‘Trail of Long Ago’ takes us a brutal battle with outraged Indians and turbulent skies in ‘The Twister!’ After inking Kirby’s epic vistas Ayers illustrates a tale of foolish assumptions in ‘The Man who Robbed the Express!’ before he, Kirby & Lee reveal who ‘Those who Live by the Gun…’ shouldn’t try to bushwhack the Rawhide Kid when he’s sleeping…
Also on view is a bonus cover gallery of Mighty Marvel Western #1-16 by Herb Trimpe, Frank Giacoia, John Verpoorten and John Severin, highlighting the 1968-71 reprint run of Rawhide Kid Classics.
To be frank, unless you’re an old school western buff, the stories here are mostly mediocre, occasionally insensitive, and once or twice borderline offensive. If the social climate and your own conscience trouble you, stay away from here. If however, you can see this stuff in historical context – created by genuine reformers who pioneered diversity in comics and even created the Black Panther together – take a look. Here is work that built the groundwork of the Marvel revolution and some of the very best narrative artwork ever seen.
© 2020 MARVEL.