Mood:
a-okTopic: Comic Book History
Lance Temple... The Outlaw Kid! In a previous blog post I had stated that my early childhood period was during the late 1950's to early 1960's, when westerns on TV and in comics were part of my everyday life. Today as Tina and I are going to an 80th Birthday Brunch for my Dad, I am reflecting on those earlier simplier times when I was a kid in his household and watched those TV Shows and read those western comics... In that earlier blog post I also mentioned that of the 'Big Three Westerns' that Marvel Comics printed in the 1960's, (Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, and Two-Gun Kid), it was Kid Colt Outlaw that was my personal favorite western character! All three of the above characters were also in earlier comic book series besides their own title. Before taking the name 'Marvel Comics' in the early 1960's, the company that Stan Lee worked at had been called 'Atlas Comics' during the 1950's. That was a 'boom time' for western comics for several comic book companies! Among Atlas Comics' western line of comics was the character 'The Outlaw Kid'. His own title lasted for 19 issues from September 1954 to September 1957. Today I enjoy reading these and the other Atlas western comics for the artwork. However there were so many western comics being published at the time in the 1950's, that the ones with photo covers from the TV Western Shows were the ones that drew me to collect them! Unfortunately Atlas Comics didn't have any of those licensed properties. Matter of fact their own Wyatt Earp Comics were not the TV Show's licensed comics and so I read the Dell Comics with the Hugh O'Brian photo covers instead! Funny thing was... When Marvel Comics started flooding the newstands in the early 1970's with their comics expansion, The Outlaw Kid was brought back in both new and old stories. His second series ran from #1 in August 1970 to #30 in October of 1975. It was then that I read all the old stories that I missed as a young kid. So the reprint westerns were actually a good thing for readers that found it hard to find the originals. We didn't have eBay or LCBS back then to find copies. Mail order and comic cons were the main way to find them! However the westerns basically saw an end at the 1970's when the genre simply rode away into the Old West folklore... Today I find that westerns are seeing a resurgence both in film and in the comics field. With the Jonah Hex western comic book movie to be released, this genre should show even more collectability in the next few years. Actually the majority of our western comics have been sold overseas to international buyers the last couple of years... Thanks for reading this blog post today, and please join us again! And... Happy 80th Birthday Dad! Thanks for the memories! ~ Michael P.S. My Dad who said he would never have a computer, has his own craft store on his web site, a blog, and an eBay Store! You can see his eBay Store where he sells cartoon whirlis and other models of whirligigs by clicking this link here. He says hand crafting whirlibirds "keeps him off the streets", LOL! He has over 170 different models that he hand crafts so that definitely keeps him busy sawing and painting!
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