Weird Western Tales #42 "Death Stalk!"

Weird Western Tales #42 Oct 1977
"Death Stalk!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Dick Ayers and George Evans, art - Alan Weiss, cover

Cantwell, Missouri, 1865. We last saw the town of Cantwell two issues ago, ya know, back in 1862.  Now, three years later, six men on horseback ride into town. They pull up in front of the bank and tell Brandy to keep watch. They go inside and rob the bank and the patrons, gunning down one old farmer. The bandana slips off of Red's face and a woman recognizes him as the younger brother of Sheriff Brett Harley.

The robbers are left with no choice but to kill the teller and the other three patrons. They run from the bank, mount up and ride off into the growing snowstorm.

Meanwhile in the snowy hills above town, Ke-Woh-No-Tay is teaching Little Bear how to hunt for food using only a bow and arrow. Little Bear wishes that Scalphunter had brought his rifle but gets a lesson on Kiowa preparedness instead. While Scalphunter cleans the deer, Little Bear chases down a fox and while trailing the fox, he comes to a cave where Bart and his gang of robbers are holed up. The robbers spot him and give chase, thinking that he heard something and can snitch on them.

Little Bear is running away but is soon surrounded by the six men on horseback. Little Bear panics and fires an arrow at Pete, who in turn get angry and shoots Little Bear. The shots alert Scalphunter and he arrives on a hillside overlooking the scene. As he draws back his bow, the robbers fire on him, grazing his head and the men ride off.

Hours later, Scalphunter comes to and rushes to Little Bear. He picks him up and sings his Death Song. Much later Scalphunter walks into the village with the body of Little Bear. He tells the story and Little Bear's mother is distraught. Another brave, Sixteen Hands Horse berates Ke-Woh-No-Tay as being a coward, afraid of the white man. Scalphunter responds..

Sixteen Hands pulls a tomahawk and rushes Scalphunter but is quickly cooled off by being thrown into the lake. The Chief finally shows up to see the ruckus and tells Scalphunter that there is only one way to remove the dishonor that he has brought upon himself. Scalpy must track down these six men and count coup with only a tomahawk and a knife and he has only two weeks (the Chief states that the moon is hiding and he has until the moon is full. That's two weeks, isn't it?) to complete this mission, otherwise, Scalphunter will die at the stake in place of the killers of Little Bear.

Scalphunter rides off and the Chief tasks Sixteen Hands Horse with following Scalphunter and if Scalpy wavers in his task, Sixteen Hands is to bring him back to the village. However, Sixteen Hands plans on exacting revenge upon Scalpy himself.

Five days later, the robbers are riding through a narrow pass and Scalphunter is hiding in the snow above them. Brandy, the alcoholic of the bunch, falls behind to take a snort on his flask and it's true that liquor will kill ya....

After a while, one of the men rides back to see Scalphunter holding up Brandy's bloody dripping scalp. Scalpy rushes him and plunges his knife into the man's ribs.

Up above, in the hills, Sixteen Hands is taking aim with his rifle in order to kill Scalphunter. Just then a grizzly bear (Seemingly possessed, as indicated by the red glowing eyes) rushes Sixteen Hands. Scalphunter hears the screams and realizes that Sixteen Hands is in danger. He grabs a rope from the dead man's horse and lasso's an outcrop and scales the cliff. He then rushes into the arms of Wa-Noh-Nah (the bear) and finally vanquishes the beast.

As Scalphunter turns to Sixteen Hands and demands to know why HE is there, the two Indians suddenly find themselves set upon by the four remaining robbers....

Statistics for This Issue

Men Killed by Scalphunter - 2
Running Total - 19
Compared to Jonah Hex - 19 vs 20
Scalps taken - 2
Running Total - 6
Injuries - Shot in head
Timeline - Six days in Winter, 1865 (really?)

I liked this book a lot, mainly because of the interior inking of George Evans. Evans is a gritty inker and it really makes the book shine. We also have the beginning of an ongoing story and I'm happy to see some continuity (even though it is three years off the mark...maybe).

Also, this is the first time that we have seen Scalphunter interacting with other Indians and it appears that he even is a member of a tribe. In past issues we have seen how Brain is not accepted by the White men but in this issue we see how he isn't fully accepted by his own tribe. The last we saw of the Kiowa tribe was back in issue #39 where a large bunch of them were killed. I liked the cover. At first I thought it was Alfredo Alcala, but then I saw the Weiss signature.

And this brings up one other thing. Our hero has four names; Scalphunter, Brian Savage, Ke-Woh-No-Tay, He Who is Less Than Human. In the book, he is rarely referred to as Scalphunter or as Brian Savage. The Indians always call him Ke-Woh-No-Tay (which they never translate as He Who is Less Than Human) but refer to each other as their translated names (Sixteen Hands Horse, Little Bear). So, with all that information, how shall I denote our hero? I would like to stay consistent (and I have tried three of the four names to see how they 'feel')

Next Issue: Things get really really bloody and there is a transfer of plumage!

DC Universe Holiday Special 2010 #1 "Guiding Light"

DC Universe Holiday Special 2010 #1 Dec 2010
"Guiding Light"
Seth J. Albano, story - Renato Arlem, art - ?, cover

A lonely hilltop in California, 1865. A covered wagon, a campfire, and a father and son. The scarred visage of Jonah Hex hovers over them in the smoke from the fire.

It is the just past midnight, the first day of Chanukah, and Kaleb Kane is talking to his son Avram, who had his Bar Mitzvah just this year. They discuss the gelt coins given during the holiday and then Kaleb produces a small box that was given to him by his father. Avram takes the box and opens it to reveal coins, very ancient coins.

Suddenly, twin gunmen, Barry and Larry Turner, step out of the shadows, demanding all their money. Kaleb complies, telling them where their money is kept. The Turner's ransack the wagon and not being pleased with the amount, kill Kaleb. The Turner's say that anyone on the trail to Sutter's Mill are only there to buy gold so there must be more money somewhere.

Avram dives over the edge of the hill as the Turners unload their shotguns at him.

Much later, Avram climbs back up the hill to find the wagon on fire. He vows to his father to recover the box of coins and lights a small fire as a memorial to his dad. He heads off to Sutter's Mill and comes staggering into town two days later. John Sutter is fetched and they take Avram to the local doctor who is holed up in the saloon. Sutter tells the doc that they have some work for him and the doc grumbles "That ugly bastard with the Confederate jacket just took the last room."

Sutter heads upstairs and knocks on the door of the room. Jonah Hex answers the door, holding a pistol in Sutter's face and we can see a saloon girl on the bed in the background. Sutter tells Hex that the Turner twins have murdered Sutter's cousin and the reward has been doubled. Hex allows the boy into the room and the saloon girl, April, helps the doc treat Avram's wounds.

Two nights later we see the Turners camped at the base of the hill where the robbery took place and they are commenting that the campfire on top of the hill is back, even though they have doused it four nights in a row. It spooks them that the kid comes back every night to relight the fire, but they can never find him.

The next day, Avram and Hex head out. Avram tells Jonah that he wasn't able to bury his dad and asks Jonah what he would have done in that case. Jonah replies that he would have left his old man to rot.

The following day finds the Turners on top of the hill, pouring water on the campfire, trying to figure out how to catch Avram. Night falls as they continue their search. Later as Hex and the boy ride atop the hill, the campfire blazes up once again. Hex tells the boy that his eyes must be playing tricks. If there is a fire, then someone is nearby, probably the Turners.

Down the hillside the Turners notice the fire blazing once again and as they turn around they are confronted by Jonah Hex himself.

Jonah shoots one of them reaching for his pistol. Jonah asks the other why they didn't bury the rabbi if they were camped by the wagon? The robber says it wasn't them, the kid came back every night to relight the fire. Avram reaches into Turner's saddlebag and retrieves the box of coins as Turner is pleading with Hex to spare his life. Turner points out that he is worth twice as much alive. Hex retorts with...

The following morning, the Turners are on a drag sled behind Jonah's horse and Avram is standing next to his father's grave. Hex asks Avram how he kept resetting the fire. The Turners kept hanging around trying to put it out, otherwise it would have been a lot more difficult locating them. Avram says that he was with April and doc the whole time. It must have been a miracle.

Hex replies that there ain't no such thing, just resourceful men. Maybe someone was looking out for Avram. Avram chuckles and agrees that it was "someone". Jonah comments that Avram will make a nice rabbi and hands him a book, a Hebrew prayer book given to him by John Sutter to pass along. As Jonah rides off, Avram reads from the prayer book and the story closes with a dedication to John Albano Sr. and John Albano Jr.

Statistics for the Issue

Men Killed by Hex - 2, the Turner twins
Running Total - 487 (432 past, 55 future)
Jonah's Injuries - none
Timeline - eight days in Dec 1865

All in all, not a bad story. Not a great story either. But for a first time venture not bad. This takes me back to the last time Jonah was in a Holiday Special, 30 years ago, where we learned of the horrible fate of Roy the Raccoon. It also reminds me of a backup story in Justice League of America where the air in the leaking satellite lasted eight hours instead of one.

As a Jonah Hex story, it suffered because there was very little of Jonah. Of course, it was a story of Avram and Chanukah. I will also admit that the current Jonah Hex series, at times, deals much more with people encountering Hex than depicting Hex's adventures from his point of view. It just seemed to me that Scalphunter, Bat Lash, or El Diablo could have been plugged in to substitute for Jonah in this tale. The other thing that stuck in my craw was the date: 1865.

With the mention of Sutter's Mill, I did some digging, since my historical recall isn't always exact. Sutter's Mill is where gold was discovered in California in 1848 and during the next seven years over 300,000 people flocked to California. Seven years...1865. The only problem is this: Jonah Hex was scarred in 1866. This makes me wonder what the job of an editor and an associate editor at DC comics entails. It sure doesn't include fact checking the continuity of your characters history, that's for sure. Isn't there anyone that picked up the DC History department from Bob Rozakis? Even then, there is the internet option for research, wikipedia .... blogs.. surely there was SOMEONE that has some sort of running timeline for the history of Jonah Hex (cough cough).

Another problem pointed out in the DC Forums, the rabbi has a cross on his grave instead of a Star of David. Again, lazy editors (I'm looking at YOU, Mike Carlin!!!)

Enough ranting.

As a holiday story, in this case Chanukah, it was nice. Something mysterious happened that couldn't be explained naturally and it tied in with the tradition of the holiday. Compared to the JLA Chanukah story from the 80s, I think it was less tied in to the holiday. Where the JLA story had something that should have lasted only one hour actually lasting eight (a parallel to the oil of the Macabees lasting for eight days instead of one), this story ties to the tradition of lighting the menorah for eight days. There is a slight parallel with the fire lasting eight days despite being put out repeatedly, but I think the point was better made in the JLA story.

Seth, it's nice to see an Albano name in the credits again and I hope you're able to make some more inroads into the business. Keep plugging away. Just remember, you've gotten something published. Me? I'm just carping from the sidelines.

Finally, Renato Arlem was the artist. Wow, the man finally did some WORK!!! There wasn't one photocopy that I could see in these eight pages, a record for that man. However, everyone looked pretty wooden but the work was better than his last attempt at Jonah Hex.

As for the rest of the book? Anthro, art good, story ehhhh. Green Lantern, liked it. Spectre, meh, Superman, why did they bother?  Legion was cute. Not as good as it was 30 years ago.

Jonah Hex #30 "Birth of a Bounty Hunter!"

Jonah Hex #30 Nov. 1979

"Birth of a Bounty Hunter!"

Michael Fleisher, story - Luis Dominguez, art & cover

Jonah Hex strides down the street, folks run for cover, and a young dandy nearby questions a old-timer in a rocker as to why folks are fleeing. The old man explains who and what Jonah Hex is and who & why he will be killing the folks that need a good killing (in this case, the Cranston Boys down by the express depot (not to be confused with the Home Depot, but I digress within double parentheses yet!)). The young dandy is amazed that anyone would be come a bounty hunter and the old timer says that he has wondered about it as well, but wondering is one thing and walking up to Jonah Hex and asking is something entirely different.

Jonah continues his trek down the street, but he has overheard the two men talking and his mind races back to the Civil War where he is embroiled in a bloody fight. His platoon has managed to corner the Union boys and are winning the battle, but then Jonah rides off in order to scout out a suspected Union paymaster delivery that his platoon has been planning on raiding.

Later, Jonah has taken up position on a cliff overlooking the road and spies the paymaster wagon, but he is discovered by two Union soldiers on patrol. They knock him out and take him back to camp for questioning. When Jonah comes to, he is tied to a tree and being doused with water. The Union captain asks Jonah where his outfit is, but Jonah only replies with his name, rank (Lt.), and serial number (according to the Geneva Convention, first adopted in 1863). One of the Union soldiers offers to 'soften him up' for more questioning, but the Captain declines. Just then several sticks of dynamite land in the camp, blowing four Union soldiers to hell and halfway back.

A Corporal comes running out of the carnage to report to the Captain that the Rebs have them surrounded and the remaining soldiers take cover behind the paymaster wagon, leaving Jonah tied to tree, watching the explosions and gunfire in the distance. Jonah is baffled, because his platoon didn't have that much firepower. Finally, Eddie Cantwell, one of Jonah's men, emerges from the brush and orders the Unions men to throw down their weapons and sit down against a nearby cliff. Eddie then unties Jonah and confesses to Hex that they are all alone. Eddie had gotten worried about Jonah not coming back and rounded up some dynamite and cartridges. He built several fires and tossed the dynamite & bullets into the fires to simulate random gunfire and cannons in order to trick the Union men. Eddie tells Jonah to grab his gear and Eddie will tend to the prisoners.

Jonah gets his jacket and gunbelt and is surprised to hear gunfire. Running around the paymaster wagon, Jonah is horrified to see Eddie using a Gatling gun to mow down the Union men! Jonah berates Eddie for killing prisoners of war, but Eddie says that there was no way that their platoon could effectively guard that many prisoners, besides, Eddie didn't want any witnesses to he and Jonah making off with the paymaster's chest, holding more than $100,000 ($2.1 million today) in gold coins.

Jonah protests that the money belongs to the Confederacy and Eddie says that he could shoot Jonah and take the money for himself. Jonah agrees with Eddie but then Eddie relents and they take the money to their superiors.

Then, on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse (which is an entire town, not just a courthouse) in a house owned by Wilmer McLean, Lee surrendered to Grant, thus ending the war.

Two weeks later, on April 23, 1865, Jonah Hex and the 7th light cavalry, surrendered at the federal stockade in Lynchburg, Virginia. So how do we reconcile this with WWT #29 and the Fort Charlotte massacre? Is it possible that Jonah, having once joined the Confederacy, surrendering to the Union, then basically being made a scapegoat by the Union for the slaughter of his platoon, had enough anger at the Union behavior and decided to rejoin the Confederacy and then surrender once the war was over? Earlier stories with Turnbull (the man with the Eagle topped cane) never addressed why Turnbull's thirst for vengeance never surfaced prior to WWT #22 (or we just hadn't seen it prior to that issue). Anyway, I find it odd that the survivors of the massacre, who had also sworn vengeance on Jonah, never tried to to get their revenge during the remainder of the Civil War, prior to Turnbull's kangaroo court. Communication back then, obviously wasn't what it is today, and it could be that Jonah returned to the Confederacy, explained the massacre, was reinstated into the military, and the survivors either did not hear of the outcome or refused to believe it. Personally, I think it is a topic that needs to be handled and could make for some good story-telling by the current chroniclers of Jonah's exploits.

Back to the story! Jonah and the 7th surrender and he and Eddie part ways. There is a brief recap of Jonah being scarred by the Apache and then in the winter of 1866, Jonah is sitting in a saloon eating dinner. The sheriff comes bursting in, demanding that every man in the place join his posse because the Anderson boys just robbed the bank. Jonah keeps eating as everyone hits the door. Jonah explains to the sheriff that HE didn't have any money in the bank and it's not his fight. The sheriff calmly explains that Jonah will be stashing his brains in his boots if he doesn't get up & help them recover the money.

Needless to say, Jonah does help.

Several hours later finds the posse having cornered the crooks in Hampton's Bog. That means that the crooks can't get out, but it also means that since the crooks have their back to a cliff and bog full of dead trees in front of them, they can wait out the posse without fear of being charged or shot. The Sheriff decides to wait them out, should only take a week or so. Upon hearing that, Jonah gets hopping mad at the thought of being with the idiot posse for that long, grabs a rope and heads for the high ground. As he storms off, one of the deputies asks the sheriff if HE thinks Jonah knows that there is a $1,000 bounty on each of the crooks. The sheriff doubts it and decides not to tell Jonah.

Up on top of the cliff overlooking the Anderson gang, Jonah fixes a rope to a dead tree and decides to slide down and surprise the gang. But Jonah, obviously having not heard of Positive Confession, thinks that the tree doesn't look to sturdy and it swiftly breaks, dashing Jonah to the ground. The seven Andersons hear the crash, but before they can collect their thoughts, Jonah is on his feet and has the drop on them. Three of them draw on Hex and he mows them down like ripe wheat, causing the remaining four to surrender.

Jonah brings them back to the sheriff, who promptly strings them up from the nearest cottonwood. Jonah asks why there isn't a trial and the sheriff explains that everyone there saw them steal the money, they have the money on them and what is the town supposed to do, support all of the crooks for 8 months waiting for a judge to ride through? After the hanging, the sheriff tells Jonah that there wasn't any reward, otherwise he would have cut Jonah in for 10%, but would Jonah like a deputy job for $30 bucks a month ($381)?

Jonah declines and the sheriff doesn't blame him one bit. The sheriff does tell Jonah that there is money to be made in bounty hunting, matter of fact, the sheriff has a wanted poster with him that has big money. He pulls it out and hands it to Jonah. The poster is for $10,000 ($127,000) for the murderer and bank robber named.... Edward Cantwell!

Statistics for this issue

Men killed by Jonah - We see Jonah shooting a Union soldier in battle and then killing the three Andersons. Total - 4

Running total - 240

Jonah's Injuries - Knocked out by a rifle butt and falls off a cliff.

Timeline - I'm not sure WHEN this story starts, but the flashback does cover prior to April 1865, 1865 for sure, and the winter of 1866 (with a recap of Jonah's scarring also in 1866).

I did enjoy the story, seeing more of Jonah's past and his old acquaintances. It was pretty bothersome (alright, downright jarring) to try to reconcile this story with the Fort Charlotte massacre. I do think that there is a story that needs to be told placed between the massacre and this tale. I can only assume that the massacre took place prior to this story, otherwise Eddie would have died in the massacre or swore vengeance upon Hex.

But honestly, my favorite part of the book HAS to be the cover. It has everything... Guns, people running scared,

a subtle reflection of Jonah going for his gun, and cheesecake!!

Next Issue - Jonah is chased outta town, old friends meet, and Arbee Stoneham teaches Jonah a lesson he'll never forget.