Laredo Crockett Again

Both Bob Schoenke’s Jack Armstrong and its successor Laredo Crockett were extremely violent comic strips. The two strips ran a total of 21 years from 26 May 1947 to January 27 1968. Laredo Crockett was a bit more adult than Jack Armstrong with the added spice of sex to the plots. It’s a wonder the strips survived so long since they flourished during the period when the crusade against comic books was at its height. The comic strips enlisted the aid of Milt Caniff and Al Capp to defend and distance the strips from the comic books. As Caniff pointed out the comics already had their censors in syndicates, editors, advertisers and readers, anyone of which could reject anything they found offensive. Somehow, perhaps because it was a western, Laredo Crockett avoided censorship, even when he introduced what looked like a cat-house into the background. These selections are from various times in 1950, 1951, and 1952.

Jack Armstrong to Laredo Crockett

Jack Armstrong, the globetrotting “All American Boy”, as played by Don Ameche, was a hero of radio serials for 14 years. Bob Schoenke wrote and drew the comic strip from 26 May 1947 (in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette at least). Jack Armstrong was joined by his sidekick Billy Fairfield and Vic Hardy, from the radio program. There were 13 issues of the Jack Armstrong comic book drawn by Bob Schoenke. The strip Jack Armstrong ended with a neat sidestep into a new title, “Laredo Crockett”, on 12 June 1950.

A sequence of Jack Armstrong strips in a storyline about uranium thieves and the ghost of Billy the Kid appear below. Dates are, June 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26 and 27 of 1947.

Laredo Crockett

The Laredo Crockett comic strip opened with the perfectly drawn cinematic sequence at top and was deservedly popular with audiences for the next eighteen years. Both script and art were always top-notch and if he was not a seminal influence on the style of Alex Toth I’ll eat my Stetson. Bob Schoenke wrote and drew Laredo Crocket from June 12 1950 to January 27 1968. He had no assistants so the strip was discontinued after his death from the flu on January 13 1968. Between 1965 and 1967 Schoenke was drawing the long-running Jane Arden comic strip -- in a wild west locale. It was simply Laredo Crockett with a female heroine. Before beginning Laredo Schoenke was the artist/writer of the Jack Armstrong strip which also featured western themes.

Laredo Crockett

Laredo Crockett (1954-1967) by Bob Schoenke. One of my favourite western comic strips with a sample from 1954 and one from 1957. Crockett would make a great reprint project. The style makes me wonder if Alex Toth assisted on the artwork. In 1947 Schoenke illustrated the Jack Armstrong All American Boy comic strip.