XOWComics.com

Content Items (10 total)

See-um there, Red Ryder!

Illustration on Cover, Front

Credits

Penciller(s): Fred Harman

Inker(s): Fred Harman

Colorist(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): Red Ryder

Character(s): Red Ryder (cowboy protagonist, rancher, deputy sheriff); Little Beaver (minor child Navajo sidekick); Thunder (Red's black mount)

Synopsis: Cumulus clouds fill distant mountain skies as Little Beaver, perched halfway up a boulder overseeing a vista, right hand braced atop the rock, left arm stretched to forest beyond, digit pointing there, looks an alert at Red arriving fore-right who, carbine in left hand grip while mid-dismount from left of Thunder halting short in clouds of dust alongside face of much taller cliff-like boulder to right, grips the pommel with his right hand, a finger grasping and outwardly rotating the loop of lasso upflung from rope depending from saddle-right while the toe of his right boot reaches earthward.

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

The Bears This Year Have Been Mighty Bad

Text Article on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): Fred Harman

Penciller(s): Fred Harman

Inker(s): Fred Harman

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): News From Red Ryder Ranch

Character(s): Fred; Lois (wife); Fred III (son); Apache Indians (reservation neighbors); Bill Flaugh (Fred's cowboy lifelong friend); Bud Noble (Fred's cowboy lifelong friend); Mrs. Warr (cook); Filberto Lucero (Fred’s Spanish friend); Felipe Martinez (Fred's Spanish friends); Charlie Headlee (cowboy friend, hunting companion)

Synopsis: Fred has a working ranch, family, cowboys, cook, friends and neighbors, and the bears have been mighty bad this year, anecdotes attest.

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

Notes: Newsletter, typeset, duo-tone (pink and red, on white), with illustrated letterhead and six accompanying photos with lettered captions.

Concluding "Della's Silver"; Beginning "Sourdough's Claim"

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Penciller(s): Fred Harman

Inker(s): ?

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): Red Ryder

Character(s): Red Ryder; Little Beaver; Po-ko; Della (damsel); Doc (villain); Doug (henchman); Navajos; Marshal; Auntie Duchess; Beth; Sourdough Dan; Joe (barkeep); Pete

First Line: Ah reckon a little work won't hurt yuh while we're waitin' for Doug to fetch Ryder!

Synopsis: Red and Little Beaver rescue Miss Della from Doc and Doug, dig up her silver, take her to the reservation to buy Navajo rugs, where she learns about Navajo life and ways, a travois takes her blankets [sic] to the railroad, and the culprits are delivered to the marshal; they are both wanted for a dozen crimes. Sourdough Dan back from the Yukon, struck it rich, is haunted by the ghost of his late partner, Pete. Joe saves Red. Beth kisses Little Beaver. Aunty Duchess decides to mortgage her ranch for a half interest in the claim. Red is dubious. A mystery hand steals the pie from the window sill.

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 16

Notes: Reprint from 1943 strip sequences (solely as per copyright year and N.E.A. Service, first panel; dates/type not given), one ending, one beginning, modified for format.

Concluding "Cannery Firebug"; Beginning "Polka-dot Pirate"

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Penciller(s): Jim Gary

Inker(s): Jim Gary

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted

Character(s): King (a Mountie oblivious to feminine desire); Kid (King's sidekick); Betty (pretty sister of Kid, she loves King); Daniels (pusillanimous new cannery manager who professes feelings for Betty); Firebug (revenge-addled salmon seller whose claims against the cannery for its former owner's malfeasance were rejected by Daniels); Pegleg (he brings a hose to douse the flames); Dentist Jim (a friend who offers mountless King, Kid, and Betty passage to Headquarters on his sloop); Sheila (Jim's pretty daughter, she loves King); The Polka-dot Pirate (he left a warning to King to stay off the lake)

First Line: Although the pyromaniac King found is dead, Daniels insists that he saw the same old man setting another blaze in the cannery!

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 10

Little Beaver Changes His Skin

Text Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): Gaylord Du Bois

Penciller(s): Fred Harman

Inker(s): ?

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): Little Beaver

Character(s): Little Beaver (a Navajo youth, friend to Red); Papoose (a pony, Little Beaver's brown mount); Red Ryder (a Deputy Sheriff); Thunder (a horse, Red's black mount); Old She-grizzly (a wild bear); Grizzly Cub (a wild bear); Deuce Dexter (outlaw); Jawbone (outlaw); Bat (outlaw)

Synopsis: The horses, nervous at grizzly scent, start, are dismounted, and led by Red who shoots a mother grizzly lunging at Little Beaver; he reluctantly kills the cub as a mercy. As the boy finishes his skinning, Red is taken by three outlaws. While the henchmen search for the boy, he, clothed in cubskin, bops the leader, and frees Red, who exchanges clothes and gets the drop on the others when they return.

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 3

Notes: Writer credit as per Du Bois Account Books.

Typical of Du Bois are:
1) The horses as characters, and their behavior as plot-pivotal.
2) The grizzlies as plot-pivotal characters.
3) The protagonists' use of clever subterfuge to outwit and overcome the human antagonists.

Young Hawk Changes His Skin

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): Gaylord Du Bois

Penciller(s): ?

Inker(s): ?

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): Young Hawk

Character(s): Young Hawk; Little Buck; Medicine Horse (Young Hawk's pony); Tumbleweed (Little Buck's dog); a coyote; 50 penned Sioux horses; a Sioux (guarding the ponies); two Sioux warriors; two Sioux camp dogs; Lone Cloud (Young Hawk's father and chief of his tribe); a hunting party of Young Hawk's tribe; a warrior of that party; Sioux warriors en masse; Sioux chief; Wolfjaw; Eaglewing; woman #1; women #2; a boy

First Line: Three days of riding brings Young Hawk...

Synopsis: The boys continue traveling, separated from their people. Young Hawk kills and skins a prairie wolf, discovers evidence of their people being near, then finds sign of Sioux stalking their people's camp. Disguised in coyote skin, he disables the Sioux pony guard. Little Buck stands watch on the Sioux string of ponies to stampede them from their rope corral at the proper moment, while Young Hawk warns the tribe's hunting party. All the Sioux are killed in the battle, and their horses are a great prize for the boys' tribe. Young Hawk and Little Buck are promoted to full adult brave status.

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 11

Notes: Episode 4. First appearance since New Funnies #67 (September 1942). Next appearance in The Lone Ranger #11 (May 1949).

Gaylord Du Bois writer identification by David Porta, August 2018:
•As in the preceding sequence (by Gaylord Du Bois), the Ameican boy feature title character "changes his skin" wearing the skin of a freshly killed predator to escape detection by the enemy.
•As in the preceding sequence, and as in Young Hawk episode 6 (also by Du Bois) in The Lone Ranger #12, the protagonist's horse reacts in fear at scent of a predator ("The wolf smell [off the fresh pelt] makes Medicine Horse rear and snort in fright").
•Little Buck obsesses over food (a wild goose). Eating and food were recurring plot elements and characterizations in Du Bois's earlier juvenile characters, and this food obsession became a running gag of the Little Buck character throughout the Young Hawk feature written by Du Bois.
•Animals abound in, and are integral to, the plot. The animals' behavior personalizes them as characters (as when "Suddenly Tumbleweed bounds forward barking shrilly" with his own word balloons "Yap-yap-yap!" and "Yi-yip-yip-yip!" alerting the boys to the coyote carrying its catch, a wild goose). The animal plotting, the animal personalization, the prose narration and its style, the giving voice to an animal, and doing so with a word balloon: These are identifying characteristics of Du Bois's writing.
•While this story does not appear in the surviving Du Bois Account Books, neither do the next two episodes in the feature, which appear in The Lone Ranger #11,12. His writer credit for those is established as documented by 1949 Copyright Entries, listed among his writer credit for each Young Hawk episode of that year. And while he is not credited as the writer of this story in the 1946 Copyright Entries (the "author of the work" is entered as K.K. Publications), neither are most of the other stories of his that were published that year, e.g. the Little Beaver story which precedes this one, the which are established as his by the Account Books. (The 1946 Copyright Entries list Du Bois as writer only for his work on Roy Rogers Comics, copyright Roy Rogers; and his Uncle Wiggily stories, copyright Howard Garis, which all appeared in Animal Comics.) Why are there no entries in the surviving Account Books of Younk Hawk episodes 4,5,6? They are "surviving" Account Books because his earlier Account Books dating from before about June 1943 were destroyed in a 1950s house fire. The Young Hawk feature began in the revamp (to juvenile characters) of The Funnies #63,64 into New Funnies #65 around the time the Dell Comics line saw a major revamp to juvenile material, both licensed and original, under editor Oskar Lebeck, whose chief writer was friend and collaborator Gaylord Du Bois. The surviving Account Books pick up New Funnies about issue #85, which show he was writing four features for the title at that time (Andy Panda, Oswald the Rabbit, Raggedy Ann, and Andy Panda text stories); and both convention and Copyright Entry corroboration of other titles (Loony Tunes; Our Gang) lead us to extrapolate backwards from the surviving Account Books: Du Bois was the principal contributor of the revamp of The Funnies. Young Hawk was part of that revamp to juvenile characters: it was about two children, but in a reality-based setting, just as Du Bois's Andy Panda episodes were reality-based (with one suspension of disbelief: he was a little boy talking panda). The Young Hawk strip was killed after three episodes. What if Du Bois created Young Hawk, and episodes 4,5,6 were written and even drawn, but remained unpublished in "stock"? It would explain why episodes 5,6 are credited to Du Bois in Copyright Entries but do not appear as entries in the Account Books contemporary to their publication, and why this episode contains so many Du Bois earmarks but likewise does not appear as a 1945 entry. It wasn't! It was an entry recorded in his account books of 1941 or 1942 (along with the entries for the other 5 of those first 6 episodes), the which were consumed by fire! One may reasonably and emphatically declare that this story was written by Gaylord Du Bois.

Granny Shows the Kids How

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Penciller(s): ?

Inker(s): ?

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: humorous

Feature(s): Telecomics

Character(s): Teleboy; Telegirl; Mother Emmy; Granny; Lem; Rube; Doc Winters

First Line: Isn't it amazing how time flies?

Synopsis: In the year 2000 folks travel in flying cars, communicate by television in the home, and telekids turn into teleteens overnight because life in the new era is fast-paced and they don't know how to get outside and have fun. Granny shows them how by enlisting a couple of aged longbeards to come over in their ancient grafittied jet jalopy, who bring Doc with because they think she has gone batty, they grafitti-up the telekids' jetcar and all go for a joyride like Granny did in the bobbysoxer days.

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 4

Exile

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Penciller(s): Fred Harman

Inker(s): ?

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): Little Beaver

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 4

The Cowboy's Outfit

Text Article on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Penciller(s): Fred Harman

Inker(s): ?

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): Cowboys

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

Notes: Inside back cover. Red ink and black on white paper. Halftone screen creates three shades of pink.

Laughs

Story on Interior Page(s)

Credits

Writer(s): ?

Penciller(s): Fred Harman

Inker(s): ?

Colorist(s): ?

Letterer(s): ?

Subject Matter

Genres: western

Feature(s): Little Beaver

Reprinting

Reprint Notes:

Miscellaneous

Pages: 1

Notes: Back cover; full color