WESTERNS (COMICS) 687
Th e archetype of the Western hero is the cowboy, still virtually a national symbol in
the present-day United States. Classic examples of the idealized hero who represents
the social values of the “good guy” include heroes like Tom Mix and Roy Rogers (stars
of American fi lm and television Westerns) and Jim Boum (from the French comics by
Marijac). Th e cowboy’s obligatory sidekick is his horse, mostly a stallion, which adds
traits like loyalty, compassion and stamina to the powers of the hero.
Fred Harman’s (1902–82) red-haired Bronc Peeler (created in 1933, known as Red
Ryde r from 1938 on) was an unconventional comic-strip cowboy character. Sometimes
guided by his sense of justice, sometimes simply by more pragmatic motives, he always
remains impenitent. Over time, he undergoes a metamorphosis from traditional cow-
boy to car-driving and plane-fl ying undercover agent. With his companions, Coyote
Pete and Little Beaver, a little Navaho Indian boy, Red Ryder soon moved beyond the
original comic strip to appear in a vast number of comic books from 1940 to 1957.
Originally based on reprinted newspaper strips, these books soon moved into original
territory, using the same cast of characters, but adjusting their adventures to juvenile
readers. Th e pencils on the fi rst original comic book material belonged to Jack Kirby ,
with Lightnin’ and the Lone Rider in 1937. Th e details of costumes (e.g. Red’s Stetson)
and accessories (e.g. the Mexican saddle) and the setting (southwestern Colorado) are
depicted with an almost archaeological authenticity. Characterized by its attention to
detail, a touch of pathos and its wry humor, the series is a Western of the old school,
despite its later setting, which allows for the presence of cars and airplanes.
Th e archetypal cattle driver is also represented in European comics. Marijac’s
( Jacques Dumas, 1908–94) Jim Boum (1934–50) fi ghts cattle rustlers, train robbers,
outlaw gangs and also natural forces like blizzards and wavy rivers. He later transforms
into an enemy of the Nazis in Africa and of the Japanese in the Pacifi c, until he eventu-
ally even becomes a space-cowboy.
Th e vast number of “Kid” characters in Western comics are often masked like
superhero es and capable of fi ghting with super-human stunts and methods. Th ese
more entertaining and juvenile cowboy fi gures include such characters as Kid Colt,
hero of a series that started as Kid Colt , Hero of the West in 1948 scripted inter alia by
Stan Lee and drawn by masters such as Jack Kirby , Reed Crandall , Joe Maneely, and
others, who where engaged at the same time with Marvel Comics’ Tw o - G u n K i d. Th e
huge number of Kid -titles in Western comic books was enlarged in 1954 by three other
young-looking justice-fi ghters: Th e Ringo Kid (mainly by Joe Maneely and Joe Sinnott),
Th e Outlaw Kid (with Doug Wildey’s photographic art style) and Th e Western Kid —all
of them dropped in 1957 and reprinted in 1970. Th e foundation of the Comics Code
Authority also came about in 1954, which sought, among other things to diminish the
violence in comic books. Ironically, the rise of the code had little eff ect on the Western,
which was relatively immune to the strictures of the code because its violence was so
traditional and ritualized. Th us, Stan Lee’s Rawhide Kid, a ruthless gunslinger using
gun and bullwhip with brutal eff ectiveness, was born in 1955 (with art by Kirby), the
year after the establishment of the Comics Code.
