The story goes something like this: Of all the western reprints put out by Marvel in the early 70s, Outlaw Kid was the sales leader. Perhaps thinking that the sales figures had more to do with the character than the stellar Doug Wildey artwork, Marvel commissioned some new material for the series. The new stories were met with a lukewarm reception, and they reverted to the Wildey reprints. At the very tail end of the series, we got reprints of the new material. If it wasn't a success the first time around, one wonders why they even bothered. This is the final issue of the series, and it's a perfect storm of all that didn't work with the 70s material. Gary Friedrich's story of a Confederate hold-out train robber could actually work if the story wasn't full of holes and weak dialogue. There is a scene where Jack MacDaniels (aka the Last Rebel) may or may not have seen the Outlaw Kid unmasked himself. Regardless of what happened, a couple of pages later Lance Temple tells the convalescing Reb his story, punctuating it with 'and that's why I became the Outlaw Kid'. What? Did I miss something? Anyway, there a rather lame showdown towards the end, and I only have less than nice things to say about Dick Ayers' flat artwork here, which are not helped by Jack Abel's thin inks. It's really quite weak, especially when compared to the Wildey drawn stories. This was a great series, but this particular issue should be avoided. Tuesday, September 08, 2009
You've Been Warned: Outlaw Kid #30
The story goes something like this: Of all the western reprints put out by Marvel in the early 70s, Outlaw Kid was the sales leader. Perhaps thinking that the sales figures had more to do with the character than the stellar Doug Wildey artwork, Marvel commissioned some new material for the series. The new stories were met with a lukewarm reception, and they reverted to the Wildey reprints. At the very tail end of the series, we got reprints of the new material. If it wasn't a success the first time around, one wonders why they even bothered. This is the final issue of the series, and it's a perfect storm of all that didn't work with the 70s material. Gary Friedrich's story of a Confederate hold-out train robber could actually work if the story wasn't full of holes and weak dialogue. There is a scene where Jack MacDaniels (aka the Last Rebel) may or may not have seen the Outlaw Kid unmasked himself. Regardless of what happened, a couple of pages later Lance Temple tells the convalescing Reb his story, punctuating it with 'and that's why I became the Outlaw Kid'. What? Did I miss something? Anyway, there a rather lame showdown towards the end, and I only have less than nice things to say about Dick Ayers' flat artwork here, which are not helped by Jack Abel's thin inks. It's really quite weak, especially when compared to the Wildey drawn stories. This was a great series, but this particular issue should be avoided. 
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5 comments:
Scott,
From one Canuck to another (I'm in Burlington), Loving the blog.
Find myself getting lost in reading it from the beginning.
Rob
You should head on over to the collectorssociety.com website and join the CGC forum boards, a whole lot of like minded people like yourself hang there, I think you would enjoy yourself.
You can find me under the username Dawgwindu.
Rob
Huh. As it happens, of late I've been accumulating Mighty Marvel Western(s) (ordered 2 more last night from Mile High) -- I loved all those strips when I was young & still regard them fondly -- & I know one ish I've got includes a story with one of the Kids (Rawhide, Two-Gun, Colt, Western, whatever) tangling with some former Confederates. I don't think the Outlaw Kid appeared in MMW, though, or at least not in any I've got. Makes me wonder if the plot (which doesn't exactly sound particularly labyrinthine anyway) might not've been mined later, as I could swear happened with a Rawhide Kid story I owned back in the day but haven't yet reacquired, but that's a post I've been planning for the CBR Classics forum when I get around to it ...
Oh, yeah -- I had no idea that Outlaw Kid would've been Marvel's best-selling Western title. The character is the one I tend to forget when I think of Marvel's Western heroes (Rawhide, Two-Gun, Kid Colt), but I guess that's because I was apparently far more likely as a young reader to pick up MMW.
Didn't know OUTLAW KID was Marvel best selleing western either.
I would have thought MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN was the best since it lasted the longuest.
I've been trying to compleat my runs of MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN, WESTERN GUNFIGHTER, and the early reprints run of OUTLAW KID (with the good Wildey and Williamson stuff) for many years now. They were very hard to get before Ebay. Local stores would almost never carry western back issues in the 80's and 90's. Conventions were the only place I could find them.
Still a few issues to go, but I'm getting there...
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