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Space Western Comics

Entry updated 12 December 2022. Tagged: Comics, Publication.

US Comic (1952-1953). Six issues. Charlton Comics (#40) and Capitol Stories (#41-#45), both companies having the same address. Artists include John Belfi, Stan Campbell and Lou Morales. At least some scripts by Walter Gibson. Five strips per issue (including a one-pager) plus a two-page text story. Nearly all the stories feature Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes – namely, cowboys Spurs Jackson, Hank Roper and their Indian friend, Strong Bow. Their adventures take place in the "not too distant future" (see Near Future) – though one is stated to occur in 1953, in others humanity's Technology is much in advance of this period. Five of the stories have no genre elements.

The first issue's (#40) opening story finds them abducted by the Martian Korok ("I'm giving you one zuba – seventeen and a half Earth minutes – to pack".). When Korok presents them as proof that he has conquered Earth and so is entitled to claim the Martian throne from Queen Thula – they try to stop him. Their guns cannot penetrate his "electronic curtain" (see Force Field); but then they discover their arrows, lassoes and whips can.

Other stories include the return of vengeful Aztecs, who had fled the European invaders by flying to Vulcan in Spaceships built "from diagrams in the Popol Vuh". At an sf Convention held in the desert ("Descon") there is confusion when giant bug-like Aliens invade: fortunately the fans, having expected mosquitoes, are carrying insecticide sprays disguised as Ray Guns. In 1953 hydrogen bombs sent from Mars are dropped on Earth's Cities; the Space Vigilantes fly to Mars to investigate, to discover Nazis who fled there at the end of World War Two – including Adolf Hitler, who flees to the Asteroid belt, only to be killed by one of his own men. Other stories feature a communist slave labour camp on the Moon (see Cold War); a hidden valley with Dinosaurs (see Lost Worlds) and the foiling of further attempts by Korok to usurp Queen Thula.

This short-lived comic did pretty much what it says on the tin. Though the juxtapositions of cowboys and indians with Aliens and Spaceships in a 1950s setting is pleasingly absurd, it cannot really sustain itself – often Spurs being a cowboy is irrelevant. On the whole, Strong Bow is handled reasonably respectfully, though a Mexican cattle rustler is a full-on stereotype (see Clichés; Race in SF).

The numbering follows Cowboy Western Comics (#1-#39), which restarted when Space Western Comics ceased publication (with issues #46-#67, with some title alterations): however issue #46 included "Geronimo Returns", a story featuring Strong Bow and Hank Roper. Here, Indians are invited to witness an atomic bomb test (it might be inferred this is taking place near their lands) when Geronimo lands in a spaceship and tells them to steal the bomb: fortunately Strong Bow discovers he is actually a communist agent in a camouflaged jet plane. The issue also has a one-page strip featuring Spurs Jackson on how scientists are drawing up plans to land on the Moon. [SP]

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