1951 Series
Publisher: DC
Publication Dates: April-May 1951 – June-July 1961
Number of Issues Published: 62 (#58 – #119)
Color: Color
Dimensions: Standard Golden Age U. S.; Later Standard Silver Age U. S.
Paper Stock: Glossy cover; Newsprint interior
Binding: Saddle-stitched
Publishing Format: Was Ongoing Series
Publication Type: magazine
Pages: 36 Indicia Frequency: bi-monthly
Tracking:
Numbering continues from All-Star Comics (DC, 1940 series) #57
Notes
Indicia title:
All-Star Western - #58-59
All Star Western - #60-119
Script and art credits for stories and fillers verified from copies of DC editorial records.
All-Star Western was the name of three American comic book series published by DC Comics, each a Western fiction omnibus featuring both continuing characters and anthological stories. The first ran from 1951 to 1961, the second from 1970 to 1972 and the third was part of The New 52 and ran from September 2011 to August 2014.
Vol. 1
The original All-Star Western began with #58 (May 1951), having taken over the number of its predecessor title, All Star Comics — a superhero omnibus that years before had introduced the enduring team the Justice Society of America. With the postwar decline in the popularity of superheroes, publisher DC Comics changed the series format and title. All-Star Western ran 62 bimonthly issues through #119 (July 1961). The cover logo did not include a hyphen until issue #108 (Sept. 1959), when it was much reduced in size and placed above the much larger logo for what was then the title feature, “Johnny Thunder”. Johnny Thunder remained on the cover until the final issue, #119, occasionally sharing it with Madame .44, “the masked outlaw queen.”
The first issue contained the features “The Trigger Twins”, created by writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino and running through #116; “Don Caballero”, drawn by Gil Kane, and “Roving Ranger”, penciled by Alex Toth, the writer-creator uncredited; and “Strong Bow”, created by writer David Wood and artist Frank Giacoia. Other features that appeared through the years included “Super-Chief”, by writer Gardner Fox and artist Infantino; and, beginning with #67 (Nov. 1952), “Johnny Thunder”, featuring the masked, vigilante persona of a schoolteacher in an Old West Mormon settlement. The character had been created by writer Kanigher and artist Toth in DC’s All-American Comics in 1948.
Authors:
Script
Robert Kanigher (sourced), Dave Wood
Pencils
Carmine Infantino (sourced), Gil Kane ("Don Caballero"),
Frank Giacoia (signed),
Alex Toth ("The Roving Ranger") ,
Inks
Joe Giella ("The Roving Ranger"), Frank Giacoia, Gil Kane,
Bernard Sachs ("Don Caballero"), Frank Giacoia (signed), Alex Toth,