That said, I was never much of a fan of the screen cowboys. A uniquely American institution (I can't think of a single British-made cowboy tv show or movie - Carry on Cowboy doesn't count!) the western drama - also known as "oaters" or "horse operas" - was a massively popular genre for much of the 20th century, with its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s. I know that our Saturday Morning matinees would have regularly shown Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy movies, but I can't remember any of them. Neither do I remember seeing any of the huge number of comics that featured these stars during the 1960s, though Dell Comics published hundreds of them.
Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy were staples of the Saturday Morning Matinees when I was a kid. But I couldn't for the life of me name one of their films that I saw at the time. |
- Cheyenne 1955 - 1962
- Gunsmoke 1955 - 1975
- Wagon Train 1957 - 1965
- Maverick 1957 - 1962
- Have Gun Will Travel 1957 - 1963
- Rawhide 1959 - 1965
- Bonanza 1959 - 1972
On the other hand, Charlton produced masses of cowboy comics, their longest-running titles being Billy the Kid (1957–1983), Cheyenne Kid (1957–1973), Outlaws of the West (1957–1980) and Texas Rangers in Action (1956–1970).
But by far the biggest booster of western titles was Marvel Comics in all its guises ...
THE KID WITH TWO GUNS
Marvel's first cowboy hero was Two-Gun Kid, aka Clay Harder, who first appeared in his self-titled comic, cover-dated March 1948. There was an earlier Marvel cowboy, the Masked Raider (Jim Gardley), who appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics 1-12 (1939-1940), but I'm not really counting him as his series was so short-lived.Clay Harder grew up the son of a former sheriff turned farmer in Kansas. One day, young Clay found his father's old Colt and proved to be a natural marksman. But his father caught him and made his swear never to pick up a gun again. A few years later, Harder senior took a job as sheriff in the sleepy town where he lived. When the outlaw family, The Corbetts, start trouble in town, Sheriff Harder is shot. In the melee, Mrs Harder is thrown from a wagon, and also dies. The orphaned Clay promises his father that he will take up the guns and "use them to bring peace to this troubled land". He gained his nickname because of his skill with the two Colts he carried. At least that was the origin given in the much later Two-Gun Kid 36 (Apr 1957). There'd be another, different, origin a year later in issue 41 (Apr 1958).
The stories in these early issues are nothing special - just standard cowboy adventures with a Two-Gun Kid that seems to be able to outdraw anyone he comes up against. There's no sense that the writers - city boys to a man - had any knowledge of what life in the old West might have looked like. It seems certain that their experience of Western life was informed almost exclusively by the movies they saw in New York's picture houses. And there's no sense of continuity from story to story, no suggestion of any ongoing development of the character.
The character couldn't have been a massive hit with readers, as his first series, Two-Gun Kid 1 - 10 (Mar 1948 - Nov 1949) lasted just over a year. Despite Stan's best efforts, featuring The Kid in just about every other Marvel western comic during that period, including:
- Wild West 1 - 2 (Spr - Jul 1948), becomes
- Wild Western 3 - 12, 32 - 37, 39 (Sep 1948 - Sep 1950, Feb 1954 - Dec 1954)
- All-Western Winners 2 - 4 (Win 1948 - Apr 1949), becomes
- Western Winners 5 - 6 (Jun 1949 - Aug 1949)
- Blaze Carson 4 (Mar 1949)
- Best Western 58 - 59 (Jun - Aug 1949)
As I was reading through some of the early Two-Gun Kid stories, I found that certain plots would be re-used. For example, the old chestnut of someone impersonating the hero to frame him for a crime he didn't commit. Another curious example had Two-Gun Kid stepping into a boxing ring to substitute for a wounded boxer, which was the basis for the story "Death in the Ring" in Two Gun Kid 3 (Aug 1948) and the untitled but very similar tale in the revived Two Gun Kid title, issue 11 (Nov 1953).
Much of the art for the first run of Two-Gun Kid was by Syd Shores, with a few drawn by Russ Heath. For some reason, the whole of issue 9 (Aug 1949) was drawn by John Severin, which looks a lot like some kind of deadline foul-up. The identities of the writers have long been lost to history.
Atlas continued to publish cowboy comics through the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, yet there was no sign of the Two-Gun Kid. Then, with little fanfare, the character turned up in the Nov 1953 issue of The Black Rider, in a five-page story drawn by George Tuska. The following month, Two-Gun Kid's own title was restored to the Atlas schedule, with issue 11 (Dec 1953) and would continue for a further eight years until its second cancellation.
Though Stan Lee had been signing the occasional back-up story in Two-Gun Kid, it wasn't until issue 40 (Feb 1958) that he began taking credit the Two-Gun Kid scripts. This would coincide with the first Marvel stories commissioned in the wake of the Great Atlas Implosion of 1957, when Martin Goodman was forced to cancel around 70% of the Atlas titles. In issue 41 (Apr 1958), Stan gave us a new, revised origin of the Two-Gun Kid, drawn by Joe Maneely. This time, The Kid returns to his hometown to visit his father. But the town's been taken over by rancher and thug Bull Yaeger. Harder Senior is killed when Yaeger tries to take over the Harder ranch. Released from his pacifist vow by his father's death, The Kid is freed to defeat Yaeger and turn him over to the sheriff.
From this issue on it looked as though it would be pretty much Lee and his favoured artist Joe Maneely cranking out the Two-Gun Kid stories. But the untimely death of Maneely in June 1958 cut this plan short, and issue 44 was the last drawn by the artist.
WHO THE HECK IS JOE MANEELY?
Joe Maneely was born in Philadelphia, PA on 18 Feb 1926, to Robert and Gertrude Maneely. While at Northeast Catholic High School he created the school's mascot, The Red Falcon, and featured the character in a strip he drew for the school's newspaper. He dropped out of high school before graduating to join the US Navy. He served three years as a specialist, contributing cartoons to ships' newspapers.Once out of the Navy he trained at Hussain School of Art under a G.I. ticket, then entered the advertising department of the Philadelphia Bulletin. In 1948, he began freelancing for Street and Smith on the features Mario Nette and Red Dragon in Red Dragon Comics.
Towards the end of 1948, Maneely began freelancing for Timely, drawing the story "The Kansas Massacre of 1864" for Western Outlaws and Sheriffs 60 (Dec 1949).
Over the next couple of years, Maneely became a favourite of editor Stan Lee, because he could turn his hand to any style and deliver quality work very quickly - he was rumoured to be able to pencil and ink seven pages in a day - war, horror, romance, science fiction, Maneely could draw it all.
The same month that Maneely was drawing Black Knight 1 (Jun 1955), which contained three stories running to 23 comic strip pages, plus the cover, he also drew:
- Annie Oakley 5 - cover
- Apache Kid 14 - cover
- Battle Action 17 - cover
- Cowboy Action 6 - "No Law in Durado" (7pgs) + cover
- Jungle Action 5 - cover
- Lorna the Jungle Girl 13 - cover
- Marines in Action 1 - cover
- Navy Action 6 - "Battleship Burke" (6pgs) + cover
- Navy Combat 1 "Hit and Run" + cover
- Outlaw Kid 5 - cover
- Rawhide Kid 2 - cover
- Ringo Kid Western 6 - cover
- Rugged Action 4 - cover
- Strange Tales 36 - cover
- Western Kid 4 - cover
- Western Outlaws 4 - cover
- Wild Western 43 - Ringo Kid in "Hutch Hammer" (6pgs)
That's 18 covers, plus the 23 pages in Black Knight 1 and a further 19 pages of comic strip art for war and western titles - a total of 60 pages of drawing, surely some kind of record for comic art.
John Romita told Roy Thomas a story in an interview for Alter Ego magazine that indicates Stan Lee was getting Maneely to help other Atlas artists the way he would with Jack Kirby ten years later on the Marvel books. "Stan calls up Joe Maneely and tells him, 'I'm going to send this guy out to spend a day with you. Give him as many pointers as possible.' And the next day, I went out to Flushing, probably from 10:30 in the morning until about 4:30 in the afternoon. I watched Maneely; and while he's talking to me, giving me pointers, he turned out like two or three pages, one double-spread with an entire pioneer fort in Indian country with Indians attacking from the outside, and guys shooting from the inside.
An example of Maneely's finely detailed inking work, for Battle Action 23 (Jun 1956). Hard to believe he worked from the simplest of pencils. Click on the image to enlarge. |
Marvel artist Herb Trimpe also reported that Marie Severin had described Maneely's pencil work as, "almost nonexistent; they were like rough, lightly done layouts with no features on the faces ... It was just like ovals and sticks and stuff, and he inked from that. He drew when he inked. That's when he did the work, in the inking!"
Maneely is chiefly remembered for co-creating The Black Knight, with Stan Lee and The Yellow Claw, with writer Al Feldstein. He also created The Ringo Kid, and drew every issue from 1-21 (Aug 1954 - Sep 1957).
Interviewed in 2002, longtime Marvel colourist Stan Goldberg remembered Joe Maneely as, "the best artist that ever drew comics. Joe wasn't just a great craftsman; he worked so fast and he was one of the few artists who could go from drawing the Black Knight to drawing Petey the Pest, or a war story. He had an unbelievable knack and he was just one sweet, nice guy."
When the Great Atlas Crash of 1957 came along, Maneely along with the rest of the Atlas staff was let go. He'd continue to draw Mrs Lyons' Cubs for the Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate strip, along with some work for DC's House of Secrets and Tales of the Unexpected, as well as Charlton and Crestwood.
On the night of 7 June 1958, Maneely had supper with fellow Atlas alumni John Severin and George Ward in Manhattan. Somewhere along the way, he'd lost his glasses and, while trying to move between moving railway carriages, slipped, fell and was killed on the tracks.
"Joe [told] me that he'd been in the city the week before and had lost his glasses," recalled Stan Goldberg. "He didn't even know how he'd gotten home that day. So this day came and he went out drinking and went out to get some air between the trains, and he fell off the train. When they found him, he was still clutching his portfolio. I remember Danny Crespi calling me on Saturday morning to break the news. The family had a rough time after he died. The Maneelys had daughters and a lot of bills. They had just bought a big house, too, and didn't have any money put away."
His last published story was a five-page Ringo Kid story for Gunsmoke Western 53 (Jul 1959).
Joe Maneely: 18 Feb 1926 - 7 Jun 1958 |
BACK TO THE TWO-GUN KID
After Maneely's last issue, Two-Gun Kid 44 (Oct 1958), there were a couple of fill-in issues by Jack Davis, one by Matt Baker and another by Al Hartley, then John Severin took over as the regular penciller on the Two-Gun Kid stories, from issues 49 - 57 (Aug 1959 - Dec 1960), working from Stan Lee scripts.There's no published sales figures for Two-Gun Kid, but I suspect readers were finding the title a bit stale, compared to stablemate Kid Colt Outlaw. Severin's art was very slick, if not quite up to the standard of his EC work. That Stan paid a good deal less than Bill Gaines might have been a factor. So, in an effort to goose the sales, Stan first took John Severin off the cover art chores and assigned Jack Kirby instead. And when this didn't seem to have the desired effect, Stan took the unprecedented step of firing Severin from the title entirely and replacing him with Kirby on the interior art as well. Severin wouldn't work for Marvel again for five years.
Kirby had been providing covers for many of the fledgling Marvel's titles since he'd arrived at the company at the end of 1958, a few weeks after the death of Joe Maneely. Because of Marvel's lower rates, Kirby was drawing everything Stan offered him, sometimes just knocking out the art for the money. But not even Jack Kirby could save the title and Two-Gun Kid was cancelled just two issues later, with issue 59 (Apr 1961).
But that wasn't the end of The Two-Gun Kid, at least not of that nom-de-guerre. A year and a half later, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would revive the character, though not the Clay Harder version, in the all-new Two-Gun Kid. But that's a story for next time ...
Next: The Return of the Two-Gun Kid
Interestingly, Gunsmoke (the TV show) was renamed Gunlaw when it was shown in Britain. Don't remember ever seeing the show under either name. I doubt that Joe Maneely, good artist that he was, would have had the same beneficial effect on Marvel that Jack Kirby did. Still, it would have been interesting to see.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Mr R ... I'd forgotten that the Matt Dillon show was called Gunlaw in the UK. I do remember seeing it on tv back then, but that's because I am very old :-) ...
DeleteBriefly... as a kid born in 1960 in Chicago I never met a kid or kids parents who watched westerns. However grand parents seemed to like them so we are talking about folks born in the 1900 to 1920s from my perspective. On the other hand Rifleman and Josh Randall Bounty Hunter were enjoyed by all. But these were not typical Bonanza fare. Rifleman is still in syndication here on Me TV stations!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, Charlie Horse ... I remember The Rifleman too. He had a signature trick of twirling his rifle the same way other cowboys would spin their Colts around their trigger fingers. Haven't thought about that show in years ...
DeleteI may be getting the timing wrong on this, but was this the title that was dropped from Timely's "only 8 titles a month" line up to make room for that speciaL project that publisher Goodman wanted Stan to come up with that would be an imitation of DC's line up of hero teams: Sea Devils, Challengers of the Unknown, Blackhawk, the Legion of Super Heroes, and that update of All American Comics' Justice Society? They couldn't just add a new title back then and had to drop an existing one to make room on their limited line up to get it distributed.
ReplyDeleteHi, Matthew ... The same month that Two-Gun Kid was cancelled (Apr 1961) the teen humour title My Girl Pearl was axed. Two months later, Goodman launched Amazing Adventures, presumably because monster books were selling well. Then in Sep 1961, debuted Linda Carter, a romance title. Fantastic Four made its first appearance cover-dated Nov 1961, so I don't think the cancellation of TGK can be directly linked to the launch of FF. But you're right, Goodman was restricted, under the terms of his contract with DC's Independent News Distribution, to eight titles a month, and was forced to cancel one title before he could another.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Severin being ousted by Lee, It's possible Severin left on his own, since at the time he was busy producing lots of art and covers for Cracked and his accounts at both Marvel and Charlton ended around the same period. Severin did little work for comics in the early 1960s aside from work for Harvey and IW Publications (covers).
ReplyDeleteBy the way I really, really enjoy your column! I mean I've thought of printing it because who knows, It could all disappear from the internet one day? But my kids would scold me for being so "old"'in my thinking.LOL.
ReplyDeleteHa-ha ... nothing to worry about, Charlie. I have the whole blog backed up. If need be, I could always repost the lot to my own website. But really happy that you're enjoying my random scribblings ...
DeleteYour random scribblings are anything but. Well presented, well researched... more fun than digging out my Steranko's History of Comics! Well, he never did complete his intended 7 volumes, stopping with the 1940s so you are finishing his project!
DeleteWow, to be mentioned in the same sentence as Steranko's project is enough. SHOC is my all-time favourite book(s) on the subject and like Jim's project, I think I've only scratched the surface so far ...
DeleteI first met Maneely's work in the B&W reprints by Alan Class and L. Miller in the UK. The detail was phenomenal. I could always identify his work. Imagine, as you say, Make Mine Marvel Maneely! Where did the photo of him appear because that surprised me. I had him down as an older man even though I knew he tragically died early?
ReplyDeleteIncredibly, Maneely was only 32 when he died. I'm not sure when the picture of him was taken. I found it with a Google search and the original image was titled "Joe Maneely-1945", which could be possible, as it does look like an editorial cartoon he's working on in the picture, rather than an Atlas comic page or cover.
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