Credits
Writer(s):
Gaylord Du Bois
Penciller(s):
Mo Gullub
Inker(s):
Mo Gullub
Colorist(s):
?
Letterer(s):
?
Subject Matter
Genres:
adventure, drama, fantasy, nature, religious, teen, war, western
Feature(s):
Dancing Crane
Character(s):
Dancing Crane; dogs; playmates; elders; grizzly bear; golden eagle; tribesman; nurse; tribesmen; tribe; fox; doe; puma; Cheyenne war party; Cheyenne chief; Crow chief
First Line:
Many moons ago in the Crow tribe of the Black Foot nation, there lived a sturdy boy called "Dancing Crane."
Synopsis:
On a Crow rite of passage, Dancing Crane fasted until the Spirits spoke. A grizzly appeared and he killed it, and from the skin an eagle appeared which carried him aloft until he fell and awakened from the vision. Forest ablaze from a lightning strike, he fled and fell into a stream, his leg crushed by a falling tree. Found, and nursed to health, but a cripple, he is socially ostracized because superstition. He devotes himself to helping animals. His prayers for each animal's gift are granted: eagle eye, fox-like cunning, fleet of foot. He warns the tribe of an invasion, and becomes a big man.
Reprinting
Reprint Notes:
Miscellaneous
Pages:
11
Notes:
Writer and artist identification by David Porta, July 2019.
•Story text is in panel captions (as with many early comic strips, and Prince Valiant), which method Du Bois employed the entire 32 pages of Adventure Bound (Four Color 239, on-sale 28 June 1949) as well as in his first comics work (Popular Comics' Tom Mix feature, beginning from the first strip).
•Plot heavily involves both animals and the spiritual life of the American Indian, both of which are markers of Du Bois's writing. (Animals appeared in most of his stories; and American Indian spirituality was featured regularly in his stories in The Chief/Indian Chief; Young Hawk, his long-running feature in Dell's Lone Ranger series; and directly or obliquely in his other Native American characters, such as Little Beaver in Red Ryder Comics, and Keenay in Hi-Yo Silver. Native spirituality also showed up throughout his other work, such as Jungle Jim, Tarzan, Fighting Yanks, Omar, Elephant Boy, Korak, etc.)
•Du Bois used the device of the spirits speaking through dreams and visions in a variety of stories: Tarzan circa 1958-1962 helps an African tribe fulfill the vision of its elder, a Moses archetype, to deliver them to a promised land. In the Tarzan series' Brothers of the Spear feature, Dan-El's sweetheart, Tavane, prophesies from a dream vision. In "White Wolf Rides East" (March of Comics 110 Indian Chief), White Wolf embarks because "My dream told me I should try."
•Of the plot focus on physical disability; social shunning because disability is believed to reflect disapproval by the spirits; and the protagonist's redemption by helping the tribe. Du Bois recycled these elements in his comics story "White Owl--Black Fish," which appeared as the lead story in Indian Chief #4, on sale September 1951.
•Mo Gollub illustrated other Du Bois scripts, e.g. Lassie #1, Gene Autry's Champion, etc. Editor Oskar Lebeck started Gollub both drawing and writing his own stories, but Mo preferred to specialize in illustration (writing wasn't for him). His illustration style improved over time, then he graduated from story illustration to cover painting. This story exhibits a somewhat jejune level in his development.
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