Mood:
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Topic: Comic Book History
The Rawhide Kid.... ...has had two incarnations. He first debuted in a 16-issue series, (March 1955-Sept. 1957), from the 1950s Publisher, Atlas Comics, (the predecessor of today's Marvel Comics). Most of this series' covers were by highly acclaimed artists of the time, usually either Joe Maneely or John Severin, but at times had Russ Heath and Fred Kida doing the cover honors. Interior art for the first five issues was by Bob Brown, with Dick Ayers taking over on the remainder of the series. I had missed those earlier issues when they first came out, as comics were bought for me then, and did not include westerns. It appears I saw enough of those on TV, (Roy Rogers and the like), so this genre was not bought for me. After a short hiatus, the Rawhide Kid was revamped by writer Stan Lee and penciler Jack Kirby and inker Ayers. The publisher continued the Atlas numbering with issue #17 (Aug. 1960), as at the time there was no 'imprint' identifying the publisher. 'Marvel' comics had not come into existence as of yet, and the publisher was limited to the total number of books that he could print each month by his distributor. The title was among the more popular of the western comic books that Marvel Comics printed during the early 1960's as westerns were still a popular mainstream genre in books, tv and comics. I enjoyed this series, but my personal favorite was Kid Colt, Outlaw. The Big Three Western Comics for Marvel at the time were Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, and the Two-Gun Kid. At times Marvel had two or three of the Kids meet up in each others' books.... those were great cross-overs!! However, as superheroes become increasingly ascendant in comics and sales of all companies' Western titles dropped, the Rawhide Kid comic book became primarily a reprint title. The only thing new would be covers by such recognized artists as Gene Colan, Gil Kane and Paul Gulacy. The series ended publication with issue #151 (May 1979). The Rawhide Kid would later appear as a more middle-aged character in a four-issue limited comic book series, (Aug.-Nov. 1985), by writer Bill Mantlo with penciler Herb Trimpe. In 2003 a controversial limited series from the Marvel MAX imprint, the five-issue Rawhide Kid, revealed him to be gay in this Marvel alternate universe. The only problem was, that it wasn't clearly defined to be an alternate universe, and I personally hate most retcons, as the character that I grew up with would be almost totally changed! The series has been a good seller for us, possibly due to the re-emergence lately of western comic books. There is a market for this genre, not everyone wants to read superheroes! For those interested in western comic books, we have them listed in our eBay Featured Store. Thanks for reading this pop culture / comic book blog post, and feel free to comment below! Michael
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