All-Star Western #7

All-Star Western #7 (On Sale: June 8, 1971), has a beautiful Outlaw, Billy the Kid, cover by Tony DeZuniga.

We begin with Outlaw, Billy the Kid, in "Bullet for a Gambler" by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga. After being saved twice by a man named Ace, from attacking Indians, Billy the Kid agrees to go with Ace to be safe from further attacks. Ace has a case of tuberculosis and is dead set on killing any Indian that happens on his path. However, the two are surrounded soon after Ace indiscriminately kills a hunting party.

However, the Indians let Billy go, as Billy tried to stop Ace from killing the Indian chief's son. Not wishing to be burned alive, Ace demands that Billy pay his debt, and reveals that he was the killer of Billy's father and that he knows that Billy is really a girl. Billy agrees to kill Ace in a draw only, and Ace tricks Billy into shooting him by not drawing when it's time to shoot. Reprinted in Jonah Hex and Other Western Tales #1 (1979) and Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 1 TPB (2006).

Next up is Davy Crockett in "The Challenge of Black Warrior" drawn by John Prentice and reprinted from Frontier Fighters #1 (1955).

That is followed by Buffalo Bill in "The Tenderfoot Caravan" by Dave Wood and Joe Kubert and reprinted from Frontier Fighters #1 (1955).

We end with El Diablo in "The Gypsy Curse" by Robert Kanigher, Alan Weiss, and Dick Giordano. Santano, a gypsy king, is convicted of crimes and sentenced to death by hanging. He issues a curse on those who persecuted him. 

Princess Nurka, Santano's daughter mourns the loss of her father and El Diablo tries to comfort her, but the other gypsies chase him away. Later Santano's curse unfolds, as the judge and sheriff are murdered. El Diablo is accused of the crime and thrown in jail. Nurka rescues him. That night Hutton, the man who hung Santano is killed. El Diablo catches the killer only to discover it is Nurka. She is arrested. As El Diablo rides out of town Nurka lays a curse on him, but El Diablo knows that he is already cursed.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

All-Star Western #5

All-Star Western #5 (On Sale: February 9, 1971), has a classic Outlaw cover by Neal Adams.

We begin with the final tale of Outlaw, "Hangman Never Loses" by Robert Kanigher and Jim Aparo. When Rick Wilson's father Samuel gets the drop on him and arrests him, Rick tries to get away when Samuel's deputy arrives with Stammerin' Sam, one of the Gunpowder Gang. However, the attempt does not work and the two are locked up in the same jail. This is during Founding Day celebrations, where a golden horseshoe is a prize for a shooting contest.

However, they are freed by Gunpowder and his minion Peg-Leg, escaping the law they hide out at Gunpowders hideout, an abandoned train station. When Gunpowder believes that Rick is going to try and take control of the gang, they have him tied up in a train with a bunch of TNT in hopes of using it as a diversion to steal the horseshoe.

Rick frees himself, thanks to his hawk, and stamps out the TNT when the train crashes, Rick and his father team up to stop the gang and kill them all. Samuel reveals Rick to be a Texas Ranger and that the two made up a story that Rick had gone outlaw so that he could infiltrate the gang. Afterward, Rick wins the shooting contest. Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 1 TPB (2006).

In "The Devil Rides for Vengeance" by Robert Kanigher, Alan Weiss, and Dick Giordano, El Diablo comes into a town where a massacre has happened. One man, Arnie Olsen, clings to life. Before dying, Arnie tells El Diablo that the Carpetbagger was responsible. The man was trying to force ranchers off their land. When they refused, he got impatient and killed them.

After Arnie dies El Diablo tracks down the killers. He kills the Carpetbagger's three henchmen, but he is wounded then by the boss. When El Diablo then attempts to help Olsen's family, the Carpetbagger returns with more hired killers. El Diablo beats them all before killing the Carpetbagger which ends the threat to the ranchers. 

Alan Weiss began his professional comics career at Warren Publishing by writing and drawing the story "Gunsmoke Charly!" in Creepy #35 (1970). The western artwork caught the eye of editor Dick Giordano and resulted in this, Alan's first work for the color comics. Alan would do one more El Diablo story, a few horror tales and some Marvel romance work and an inking assist on Neal Adams' pencils for the classic Avengers #96, before becoming the penciler for the Pellucidar strip in DC's Korak, Son of Tarzan and Weird Worlds.

For Marvel Alan would draw issues here and there of the Avengers, Captain America, Cat, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Dracula, Inhumans, Iron Man, John Carter, King Kull, Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man, and X-Men, but he would only have one Marvel series: Steelgrip Starkey, of which he drew and/or wrote the first six issues. 

For Atlas, he did an issue of the Brute and for Archie, he did an issue of The Shield.  In the 1990s, for Defiant, he drew and or wrote the first six issues of War Dancer. I also recall seeing some sexual comics by Alan signed as "Vice" instead of Weiss.

At DC he did not only El Diablo and Pellucidar, but also issues of Super-Team Family (Supergirl and The Flash), Richard Dragon, Superman Family (Supergirl), Shazam!, Secret Origins, Captain Atom, and Batman. His most enduring DC title was Tom Strong, for which he did 13 issues.

Edited by Joe Orlando, taking over for the departing Dick Giordano.

All-Star Western #4

All-Star Western #4 (On Sale: December 15, 1970), has a nice Outlaw cover by Neal Adams. 

We begin with Outlaw in "No Coffin for a Killer" by Robert Kanigher and Gil Kane. When the Coffin King and his Coffin Gang capture Paolma, the Coffin King is captured. Set to hang, the Coffin King tells Samuel Wilson that if he hangs, so will Paloma, however Samuel will not shirk his duty as a lawman.

However, Rick has other ideas and rides in and rescues the Coffin King under the pretense that he wishes to join up with the Coffin Gang as they have the best hide out in the area and that he needs a place to lay low. However, when Rick is taken to their hide out, he soon drops his cover as a careless criminal when night falls and with the help of his hawk, Rick manages to rescue Paloma, and kills King Coffin in a one-on-one duel. Rick returns Paloma home, however when his father exits the house with a shotgun, Rick, still the Outlaw, leaves. Reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 1 TPB (2006).

Next is "Jumpity!|" a one-page text story with an illustration by Sal Amendola.

We end with El Diablo in "Satan with Spurs" by Robert Kanigher and Gray Morrow. El Diablo stops a group of masked men who are harassing rancher Noah Johnson and his family. However, when El Diablo is distracted, the men abduct Noah's wife. Noah himself is too cowardly to fight despite El Diablo's encouragement. 

He rides to the ranch of Duke Dorrance, the man behind the attacks to plead for his wife. Dorrance laughs at him. Spurred on by El Diablo, Noah finally stands up for himself and fights back. El Diablo handles the gang while Noah and Duke fight with fists. In the end, Noah's wife is rescued, and Dorrance will no longer threaten Noah or his neighbors.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

All-Star Western #3

All-Star Western #3 (On Sale: October 15, 1970), has a gorgeous El Diablo cover by Neal Adams that is only the beginning of a comic art extravaganza. I love every single thing about this cover and grabbed this off the stands immediately. The foreground figures are lifted almost in tact from an interior panel by Gray Morrow, but the addition of El Diablo leaping over the cabin and that unique color palette just adds to the dynamic scene.

This issue begins with Outlaw in "Death Deals the Cards" by Robert Kanigher and Gil Kane. This issue features some beautiful work by Kane, who was really starting to hit his peak about this time. With his father still hot on his trail, Outlaw Rick Wilson joins up with Dix, a train robber who has targeted a train which Rick's Texas Ranger father is traveling on. When Dix's men pull guns on Rick they reveal Dix's plan to kill Rick as well, since Dix does not trust the son of a Texas Ranger With the help of his hawk, Rick manages to to turn the tables on the men taking them out. At the same time, Rick's father is able to get the drop on Dix sending him of the train and to his death. Rick then flees the scene to avoid being captured by his father. This story was reprinted in Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 1 TPB (2006).

Next is a text story, "And the Sun Beat On" by Mike Friedrich, is about a train robber being chased by deputies. The robber is on the wrong horse at the wrong time.

We end this issue with a real gem, We are to learn the origin of El Diablo in "Call Him Satan--Call Him Saint!" by Robert Kanigher and Gray Morrow. Morrow's artwork on this entire series is just stunning and this issue is no exception. When an old prospector, Pop Woods, is bushwhacked on night, he is rescued by the masked rider, El Diablo. Pop says that he recognized the men as being members of the Hanged Man's Gang, who made his daughter, Ellie,  a widow and his grandson an orphan. Like a shadow, El Diablo disappears.

We go back 33 days to the town of Puerta Del Sol in Southern California, where we witness bank teller Lazarus Lane being humiliated in the streets by a group of men accosting Nora Hayes. A few hours later the same men come into the bank in masks and kill fellow teller Albert before making away with a month's payroll. Later Albert's wife calls out Lazarus in front of the town for being a coward and doing nothing to stop Albert's murder. Ashamed and saddened, Lazarus rides out to his hacienda where he is met by Wise Owl, an old native medicine man taken in by Lazarus after he was shunned by his own people. While Lazarus explains what happened in town , Wise Owl tells him that all men are "given a chance to even accounts...sometimes in mysterious ways."

A week later, Nora has visited Lazarus and talked him into taking her for a buggy ride. However, they are stopped by the Hanged Man Gang and this time Lazarus is determined to protect Nora, But he is lassoes and drug into a river. When a soaking wet Lazarus stands up to the men, he is struck by lightning and before the gang can react, a barrage of bullets erupts from the other side of the river and they hightail it out of there. Wise Owl emerges from the trees and ride across the river. He takes Lazarus to the hacienda while Nora heads off to retrieve her father, the town doctor.

When they return, they hear Wise Owl singing an Apache chant for the dead and fear they are too late, but inside they find Lazarus sitting in a chair. Though his heart is still beating, he appears to be in a waking coma of some sort. Wise Owl explains that "Paleface medicine is useless here, It is best that you leave us alone. I will look after him." As they leave they hear Wise Owl taking up the chant of the dead once more. For days and nights Wise Owl looks after Lazarus, administering herbs and root drugs till finally, he opens his eyes.  Lazarus speaks of strange dreams and how is now living on borrowed time, how the lightning which should have killed him instead split his soul asunder. He is now two men, the husk of Lazarus Lane and someone else, "a shadow...a phantom...a devil of a man with a task to be done before I can rest. Tonight the part of the man that is Lazarus Land sleeps, while his other self rides as...El Diablo."

Meanwhile, at Pop Woods' ranch, The Hanged Man and his gang have broken in and are eyeing the widow Ellie. The Hanged Man explains that it was Ellie's husband who was the foreman of the jury that found him guilty and that it was only by freak accident that he did not die when he went through the trap door. When his men cut him down and revived him, he swore revenge on her husband and his whole family. When one of his men go to the well for water he is attacked by El Diablo's bolo and a few minutes later the cabin starts to fill with smoke. The Hanged Man sends one of his men to see what has happened but he is gunned down by El Diablo, up on the roof. 

The Hanged Man comes out holding a gun to Ellie's head and tells El Diablo to drop his gun, which he does. HE chides El Diablo for being a fool but is silenced when el Diablo's bolo strikes him in the neck, hanging him once again, this time from a porch post. El Diablo rides off, returning to the Lane Hacienda where he removes his costume and returns to his chair by the fire. "The watchful moon listens..." as Wise Owl once again takes up the Apache chant of the dead. This classic DC western has been reprinted in Weird Secret Origins #1 (2004), DC Universe: Secret Origins HC (2012) and DC Universe: Secret Origins TPB (2013).

Edited by Dick Giordano. 

All-Star Western #2

All-Star Western #2 (On Sale: August 13, 1970) has a wonderful cover by Neal Adams. Finally this month, something to crow about! I remember the day I bought this book and brought it home. That cover is just a classic: the foreshortened hands ready for action, the billowing shirt, that wonderful back-lighting. I was hooked before I opened the cover.

This is a month of change for DC and nowhere is it more evident than here. DC is back in the western business and this time (unlike with Bat Lash), they mean it.

We open with the new series Outlaw by Robert Kanigher and Tony DeZuniga. Though some may have missed Tony's American penciling debut in House of Mystery last month, it was hard to miss him here. Little did we know that very shortly we would be inundated with Filipino comic talent, that Tony was only the first of many to come.

In "Draw Death" when Rick Wilson was a young boy he wanted to be a Texas Ranger just like his father, Samuel Wilson. During their time together they rescued and took in a young Mexican girl named Paloma. As Rick grew older, he soon became resentful of his father who would deny his requests to join the Texas Rangers. He befriended an eagle, which he keep as a pet. 

Eventually Rick's resentment of being treated as a boy caused him to run away from his father. He started hanging out with shady characters, like the Fenton Gang. Rick agrees to help the Fentons rob a stagecoach with the understanding that nobody will be hurt. However the Fentons kill some of the coach riders and Rick is recognized. His father has no choice but to hunt down his son.

Sam finally catches up to Rick, but in a showdown Rick shoots his own father, wounding him and making his escape. Rick is conflicted and decides to bring in the Fentons. On the way back to their hideout Rick is confronted by a masked rider, El Diablo, who warns Rick that the Fentons intend to betray him.

Thanks to El Diablo's warning, Rick manages to get the drop on the Fenton Gang and in a massive shootout is the only one to come out alive. Still wanted for the stagecoach robbery Rick is forced to flee, determined to prove himself a man in his own way. The story ends with Sam Wilson putting up wanted poster for his own son, the Outlaw. 

For my money, the real prize in this book is the introduction of El Diablo. Some think of him as DC's answer to Zorro, but El Diablo is a much more layered character than Zorro, though I will admit that there are some striking similarities in the appearance of both characters.

Up till this point, Gray Morrow had been relegated to horror and romance stories at DC, so this was our first opportunity to see Gray strut his stuff in an action story, and "The Devil Has Two Faces!"  by Robert Kanigher and Gray Morrow has a lot of action. It begins in the middle of a stagecoach robbery (apparently Kanigher was very big on stagecoach robberies) and the appearance of "A satanic figure in black on a horse with eyes like blazing coals."

You have to check out Morrow's bandits in panel three, from front to back we have Dick Giordano, Angelo Torres and Al Williamson! Fun if you knew who these guy were.

El Diablo kills one of the men (looks like Al Williamson to me), and the others run off. El Diablo returns to the coach to find a beautiful woman (does Gray know of any other kind?), a woman about to give birth, and a reluctant doctor played by the dashing Gil Kane.

The woman and the doctor are traveling together, running from an unhappy past and looking for a new beginning. The doctor had lost his wife and child in childbirth due, he thinks, to his lack of skill. The woman is a prostitute, looking for a new beginning with a man she could care for, but fate has dealt her a different hand.

El Diablo extols the doctor to redeem himself, "Use those same hands to bring life into this world! You have sworn a sacred oath as a physician! You can do it." But while El Diablo checks on the pregnant woman, the doctor takes one of the bandits horses (most likely Al's) and rides off, unable to face his demons and his doubt.

El Diablo tells the prostitute that she must now step up and do the doctor's job, "Pride and prejudice have no place here! Two lives are at stake!" Hours later the cry of a baby fills the night.

El Diablo takes the reigns of the stagecoach and drives it into town, but on their way the rest of the bandits return for another shot at the stagecoach. El Diablo jumps on his horse and once again becomes a dealer of death.

Once the gang is killed they find the body of the doctor, who had apparently run right into the gang in his break from duty. "Poor Doc! Poor, lonely Doc. Now he won't have to run away."

Later in town the sheriff (played by Phil Seuling) asks the woman who the stranger was, that the mother might want to name her child after him.

"She's grateful, yes, but she wouldn't use his name--the name of El Diablo!"

Man, I was hooked. Really just stunning artwork with some amazingly moody coloring, some inside jokes int he form of character references, and a hint of something supernatural. The story ends with a promise that next issue, we will learn who, or what, this strange masked man really is.

What a great book. Two new series and two artists doing their first action work for DC. I was so waiting for the next issue, and disappointment was not an option.

Edited by the head bandito, Dick Giordano.