Today In History... Sort Of.

On August 17, 1863, Naval troops under the command of Union Admirals DuPont and Dahlgren, in combination with ground forces under Brigadier General Quincy A. Gilmore, laid siege to Ft. Sumter, SC. The fort had been in the hands of Confederate troops since April of 1861.

The following 4-page tale is about the loss of Fort Sumter to the Confederacy in what would later turn out to be the first shots fired in the American Civil War.







Script by Raymond Marais, art by Jeff Jones- from The Phantom#25, September,1967.

Okay, so what does all that have to do with Westerns? Didn't that happen on the East Coast?

Well, yes, but the repercussions of that encounter in 1861 shaped the West in a myriad of ways.

The American Civil War saw the development of Railroads, revolvers, repeater rifles (the three R's of the Wild West) . Generals Philip Sheridan and George Armstrong Custer were celebrated commanders of the Civil War before turning their attention West to an all-out campaign against the indigenous peoples of this continent. Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok were both scouts for the Union Army.

When the war ended, it left a lot of men with no jobs and a Hell of a lot of training with guns. Just like the rise of Caribbean piracy at the end of the 17th century, the West had an abundance of violent men looking for work. Some became cowboys. Others lawmen. Still others, such as the James Gang, used their knowledge of commando tactics to knock over banks and rob trains.

So, without the attack on Fort Sumter, the West would probably have been a very different place.

A Disabled American Vet

I bet y'all thought ol' Jonah Hex was the only disfigured, ex-Confederate gunfighter floatin' around the comic book West. But he ain't! (Although I'm sure there were plenty in the real West.) Captain Doom debuted in Outlaws of the West #64 back in May of 1967. That's five whole years before Jonah Hex rode his way into All-Star Western #10!

Captain Doom would last for 11 issues of Outlaws of the West before ridin' off into the sunset.

Here we have his debut (albeit in a Modern Comics reprint from 1977). The writer is uncredited but the artwork is by Charles Nicholas with inks by Vince Alascia, Cover art by Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio.

What The HEX Goin' On Here? All-Star Western #10

The recurring heroes in Western comics were traditionally cut from heroic cloth. Guys like Red Ryder, The Lemonade Kid, NightHawk... Maybe some of them wore masks, but they weren't outlaws or bandits, just guys with secret identities. And even the guys who were "outlaws" were never really bad. Guys like The Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, The Outlaw Kid, the Two-Gun Kid (Weren't there any grown-ups in the West?) were branded as outlaws, but they were all falsely accused.

Sure, there were a few misfits, mostly Indians or "half-breed" characters who weren't accepted by the folks they tried to help. But the reader knew about their troubled, noble hearts and so that was okay.

This approach lasted from the Golden Age of the late 30's all the way through the 1960's. And then, in 1971, a new type of hero began to surface in the fabric of American Western comics. The ANTI-hero. What's an anti-hero?

"In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis." - Wikipedia

Jonah Hex is not a typical hero. He is not handsome (although he may have been once). He is not noble (He kills men for money). Jonah Hex is a horribly disfigured Confederate veteran who makes his living as a bounty hunter. And he's mean. Plumb, mad-dog mean.

Enjoy his debut in All-Star Western #10, "Welcome to Paradise"