posted May 17, 2003 12:29 PM               

It was stated there that Vigilante, despite its beautiful art is still a long way off archiving. Well how about if its redefined as Western instead of GA Hero.

posted May 17, 2003 12:32 PM               

To start:

posted May 17, 2003 12:48 PM               

Bat Lash--1 volume. Most of the art is by Nick Cardy, but there are also a few nice Dan Spiegle stories that shouldn't be left out.

posted May 17, 2003 01:04 PM               

Johnny Thunder - 3 volumes
Trigger Twins - 2 volumes
Bat Lash - 1 volume
Frontier Fighters - 1 volume anthology.

how about:

Nighthawk
Jonah Hex
Pow Wow Smith
Wyoming Kid

thats all i can think of offhand although there is Cinnamon, Madame .44, Scalphunter and Matt Savage Trail Boss. did Matt have his own stories? Scalphunter did but they're more bronze age i think.

add Vigilante to the list and lets split them up into Gold, Silver and Bronze.

posted May 17, 2003 07:38 PM               

So in my eyes any character started at a certain time i.e Johnny Thunder could be classified as Golden Age or Early DC Western while Bat Lash for instance is Silver/Bronze or later Western.

hmmmm, in fact thinking on it i'd like to reclassify if i may.

Early heroes had Gold/Silver Age stories.

Late Western (lets call them Spaghetti Westerns)had distinct change of style to them - Jonah Hex was definately more 'man with no name' than 'lonesome cowboy'

Gentlemen for your approval, i submit the following names for the eras involved.

Gold/Silver/Early - i define this as 'The Roy Rogers Age.'

posted May 18, 2003 12:02 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by BlueTracer:

ok, thats:

Johnny Thunder - 3 volumes
Trigger Twins - 2 volumes
Bat Lash - 1 volume
Frontier Fighters - 1 volume anthology.

how about:

Nighthawk
Jonah Hex
Pow Wow Smith
Wyoming Kid

thats all i can think of offhand although there is Cinnamon, Madame .44, Scalphunter and Matt Savage Trail Boss. did Matt have his own stories? Scalphunter did but they're more bronze age i think.

add Vigilante to the list and lets split them up into Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Any more features i've missed? Oh and we could have a pre old west category/frontier with Tomahawk, Super Chief, Strongbow, Firehair etc

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posted May 19, 2003 06:26 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by BlueTracer:

I just had the following thought after reading the Meskin thread on the new boards.

It was stated there that Vigilante, despite its beautiful art is still a long way off archiving. Well how about if its redefined as Western instead of GA Hero.

To my mind that would, given the launch of a Western line, propel Vigilante to a higher place on a shorter list.

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Vigilante is like Tomahawk.

Both were "variations" on a Western theme that were adaptable enough to survive outside their original metier. To me, they are a lot more interesting that other "wester" characters (with the possible exception of Jonah Hex) but that's just an opinion obviously.

Golden Arrow is sort of interesting because he was clearly set IN THE PRESENT just like Vigilante for the first handful of issues of Whiz Comics. He fought one battle royale on top of the Hoover Dam and his father had invented a dirigible.

On the other hand, later adventures of Golden Arrow are clearly set in the Old West of the 1880's. My solution? Two Golden Arrows. the first appearing Golden Arrow was supposedly raised by an old "prospector" who called himself Nugget Ned. I propose that the original Golden Arrow raised the boy he found in the wrecked dirigible as "Nugget Ned" and just as he had been raised to keep the legend of the Golden Arrow alive for a new generation.

Two Golden Arrows. One great Fawcett legacy. And a possible team up between the Seven Soldiers of Victory and the Golden Arrow!!

posted May 19, 2003 07:40 PM               

Vigilante is a notable exception to my rule and perhaps Golden Arrow and i'm iffy on the Whip.

Just to clarify - and drawing back on a project done at uni a good few years back (although that was mainly to do with film although the general principles/media crossover stands)the western as a genre takes off in the late 40's - 48 seems to be the defining year. Although western characters existed before this time both in comics and film, they were mostly relegated to back up status.

In film and soon duplicated in the pages of comic books, from 1948 onwards was the era of the clean, clean cut square jawed cowboy hero - the Roy Rogers. (remember the scene in the Back to the Future film series where 50's Doc Brown supplies Marty with a fringed rawhide cowboy outfit that looked woefully out of place in the real west and 80's Doc says to him 'what idiot gave you that to wear?')

By the late 60's we had entered the era of the grim n gritty, moody atmospheric and more realistic 'Spaghetti Western' - so named because a lot of them were shot cheaply in Italy or Spain.

This second era brought us Bat Lash early on, but the prime example has got to be Jonah Hex - the Spaghetti era ran through the seventies, dying out more slowly in comics and not seeing any significant revival until Tombstone.

but i digress, the list i am after would contain a few significant pre 1948 characters and archivable feature or western back up characters of the Roy Rogers and Spaghetti Ages.

posted May 19, 2003 08:47 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by BlueTracer:
hmmm, another thought. Who was the last archivable DC Western feature created and how late in the game did he come along?

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posted May 20, 2003 06:54 PM            

At first you start off thinking--oh I know what Crime comics are: CRIME Does Not Pay that kind of thing--but then it gradually dawns on you that Wertham has stretched the genre to include almost every comic ever published. Because every comic on some level is about good vs. evil (or in the case of Tom and Jerry or Fox and Crow, cunning vs dumb) and an act of evil can loosely be classified as a crime.