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Western comics.
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I'd like to start collecting some GA or SA western comics. Does anyone have any recommendations. I have seen a lot of great covers in the Gerber books but good stories are a must, nice artwork a bonus. Long running titles, small runs or single issues. I also don't mind spending a few years trying to find that rare issue. I like more adult oriented stories (Gunsmoke, Louis L'amour...). Thanks for any help.

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My father's boyhood collection has comics from the late 40s and early 50s. I remember reading Gene Autry, Gene Autry's Champion, Tomahawk, Long Bow, Indians, and some others. I thought they were all pretty enjoyable stories. The Dell titles had more sedate covers, photo or painted, but more consistent interior art and stories. The Fiction House titles had really nice colorful covers, and I remember really liking Long Bow, but I don't the writing was the same quality as Dell. My favorite art and stories were Tomahawk, especially the Frazetta art, but he's more a Daniel Boone figure than a western cowboy and its set around Revolutonary War times.

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More adult oriented seems more like Atlas to me? What do you guys think? I just read Wild Western #7 last night (Marvel, 1949) and it's reasonably gritty. Maybe westerns from Fox and Avon are even more adult.

 

I'm a fan of a lot of the DC western books and also the Lone Ranger, for sure. Especially All Star Western.

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Boy's Ranch is a good read and it's 100% Simon & Kirby cover to cover. And since the series only lasted 5 or 6 issues, it's pretty easy to put the whole run together. There's also a hardcover published about 15 years ago that reprints them all.

 

Another idea is the Western Roundup series of Dell Giants. I've never read any, but since Dells are usually a good read, I figure these are too. They're cheap and easy to find, and they have 80 or 100 pages, so you get a lot of bang for your buck. I think the series lasted about 25 issues.

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More adult oriented seems more like Atlas to me? What do you guys think? I just read Wild Western #7 last night (Marvel, 1949) and it's reasonably gritty.

 

I find that later Atlas westerns - post 1950 - are very formulaïc, esp. when the number of pages per story drops down.

 

I collect a few Western series / characters:

 

American Eagle in Prize Comics Western: the combination of Severin / Elder on art (up 'til issue # 113) with Collins (?) as the writer is winning. There is a regular cast of characters recurring in the stories. The Lazo Kid is a decent back-up feature.

 

All-American Western with the mix of Johnny Thunder, Overland Coach, Traveling Minstrel and Foley of the Fighting Fifth is pleasant, not so much for the stories (I am not big on Traveling Minstrel) but for the art line-up: Toth, Infantino, Kubert, Kane, Giacioa, Hasen (on Minstrel), ...

 

Apache Kid - esp. the issues with Werner Roth art instead of Gill. The stories are about average for Atlas but still quite pleasant ... so long as you accept the improbable costume changes of the Kid.

 

Straight Arrow - there is nothing more fun than to find a '50's series running 55 issues drawn by a single artist: Fred Meagher. The Bob Powell shop back-ups are also good.

 

I would also consider: Masked Ranger, Western Comics, Tomahawk, Tonto, All-Star Western, ...

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I'd like to start collecting some GA or SA western comics. Does anyone have any recommendations. I have seen a lot of great covers in the Gerber books but good stories are a must, nice artwork a bonus. Long running titles, small runs or single issues. I also don't mind spending a few years trying to find that rare issue. I like more adult oriented stories (Gunsmoke, Louis L'amour...). Thanks for any help.

 

Could you elaborate on "adult oriented"? Do you mean gritty, hard-nosed stuff?

 

The Dell adaptations of novels are really good stories (Zane Grey), and in general the Four Color books had book length stories so they tended to have more elaborate plots. They also had serviceable art.

 

As someone else mentioned, DCs had great art. I only have a few of them but the stories are less elaborate but pretty good.

 

 

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I'd like to start collecting some GA or SA western comics. Does anyone have any recommendations. I have seen a lot of great covers in the Gerber books but good stories are a must, nice artwork a bonus. Long running titles, small runs or single issues. I also don't mind spending a few years trying to find that rare issue. I like more adult oriented stories (Gunsmoke, Louis L'amour...). Thanks for any help.

 

Could you elaborate on "adult oriented"? Do you mean gritty, hard-nosed stuff?

 

The Dell adaptations of novels are really good stories (Zane Grey), and in general the Four Color books had book length stories so they tended to have more elaborate plots. They also had serviceable art.

 

As someone else mentioned, DCs had great art. I only have a few of them but the stories are less elaborate but pretty good.

 

Thanks for all the input so far everyone. I'll have to start making some lists.

 

JohnT: as far as "adult oriented", I guess I mean something with a decent, believable and somewhat realistic plot. All kinds of western themes are o.k.: law men, outlaws, scouts, settlers, trappers, etc... Doesn't need non-stop action.

I hope that cleared up what I meant some.

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I'd like to start collecting some GA or SA western comics. Does anyone have any recommendations. I have seen a lot of great covers in the Gerber books but good stories are a must, nice artwork a bonus. Long running titles, small runs or single issues. I also don't mind spending a few years trying to find that rare issue. I like more adult oriented stories (Gunsmoke, Louis L'amour...). Thanks for any help.

 

Could you elaborate on "adult oriented"? Do you mean gritty, hard-nosed stuff?

 

The Dell adaptations of novels are really good stories (Zane Grey), and in general the Four Color books had book length stories so they tended to have more elaborate plots. They also had serviceable art.

 

As someone else mentioned, DCs had great art. I only have a few of them but the stories are less elaborate but pretty good.

 

Thanks for all the input so far everyone. I'll have to start making some lists.

 

JohnT: as far as "adult oriented", I guess I mean something with a decent, believable and somewhat realistic plot. All kinds of western themes are o.k.: law men, outlaws, scouts, settlers, trappers, etc... Doesn't need non-stop action.

I hope that cleared up what I meant some.

 

Gotcha. I'd definitely look at Dell then, and especially the Four Color full-length adaptations.

 

The great thing about collecting westerns is there is an almost limitless list of things to try, and most of them are affordable. (thumbs u

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All-American Western with the mix of Johnny Thunder, Overland Coach, Traveling Minstrel and Foley of the Fighting Fifth is pleasant, not so much for the stories (I am not big on Traveling Minstrel) but for the art line-up: Toth, Infantino, Kubert, Kane, Giacioa, Hasen (on Minstrel), ...

 

Can't go wrong with All-American Western. (thumbs u

 

Atlas westerns are fun too. Lots of sweet John Severin artwork. Maneely's stuff has really grown on me over the last couple of years. He's underrated, imo. Russ Heath also did some Atlas western work and Heath never did anything bad.

 

DCs Western Comics can be had relatively cheaply

 

Tomahawk is really fun as well.

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More adult oriented seems more like Atlas to me? What do you guys think? I just read Wild Western #7 last night (Marvel, 1949) and it's reasonably gritty. Maybe westerns from Fox and Avon are even more adult.

 

Atlas comics in general seem more adult oriented than their DC counterparts. Just a scan of covers will confirm that. Atlas put out some great stuff.

 

Don't know about Avon but some Fox comics have just horrible artwork. Admittedly, that's somewhat of a generalization. Covers are often cool but interior work is lacking

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I'd like to start collecting some GA or SA western comics. Does anyone have any recommendations. I have seen a lot of great covers in the Gerber books but good stories are a must, nice artwork a bonus. Long running titles, small runs or single issues. I also don't mind spending a few years trying to find that rare issue. I like more adult oriented stories (Gunsmoke, Louis L'amour...). Thanks for any help.

 

Oh boy, where were you a year ago when I sold a bunch of GENE AUTRY's, STRAIGHT ARROWs, ALL-AMERICAN WESTERNS, KID COLTs and RENO BROWNEs? I sold em on ebay for next to nothing. :(

 

Then there was the time I sold all my MASS. pedigree KID COLTS, RAWHIDE KIDs and TWO-GUNs to Metro....oh well. :insane:

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I personally love the SA Marvel westerns (mostly for the Kirby art, natch), but I love my photo cover Roy Rogers. If I was looking to move more into westerns, I'd hunt cool covers. King of the Royal Mounted has some really neat painted covers.

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I'd like to start collecting some GA or SA western comics. Does anyone have any recommendations. I have seen a lot of great covers in the Gerber books but good stories are a must, nice artwork a bonus. Long running titles, small runs or single issues. I also don't mind spending a few years trying to find that rare issue. I like more adult oriented stories (Gunsmoke, Louis L'amour...). Thanks for any help.

 

Oh boy, where were you a year ago when I sold a bunch of GENE AUTRY's, STRAIGHT ARROWs, ALL-AMERICAN WESTERNS, KID COLTs and RENO BROWNEs? I sold em on ebay for next to nothing. :(

 

Then there was the time I sold all my MASS. pedigree KID COLTS, RAWHIDE KIDs and TWO-GUNs to Metro....oh well. :insane:

A year ago I was in about my 10th year of not even thinking about comics. Didn't even know what a slabbed comic was until last July.

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Can't go wrong with Dell runs of Roy Rogers, and Red Ryder, both on the recommended list.

 

I also really enjoy the DC run of Dale Evans, great photo covers on most, they're mostly nice thick 52 pagers, lots of bang for the buck. with Toth stories in most of the first dozen issues. Still bargain priced IMO

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Market wise, are westerns dead enough that I should look to pay under guide in the VF range for the non primo stuff at cons, etc...?

Really depends which publisher. Dell photo covers, yes. Timely/Atlas, probably not.

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