All Star Western #10 ()
Westerns had been a comic-book staple since their introduction in the
1940's, with lead characters much like those in western movies:
clean-cut, tough-fighting, honest men. Some adopted masked
identities, like Johnny Thunder, but most were lawmen or trail bosses
who helped tame America's frontier in four-color adventures. By the
1970's, though, Westerns had taken a turn for the cynical, especially
in Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly or
Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, movies that
reflected the turbulence of the era.
When John Albano's Jonah Hex rode into the town of Paradise, he was
like nothing ever seen in a Western comic book before. The first clue
that he was something different: he was a bounty hunter. The people
who hired him also feared him. And some fairly obvious questions were
left unanswered: Why did he wear a Confederate uniform jacket in the
post-Civil War West? And how did his face come to be so hideously
Scared?
All-Star Western began as a mix of reprints and new
features such as Bob Kanigher and Gray Morrow's El Diablo, which
never caught on with readers. As the title got under way, the entire
DC line shifted from 32 to 48 pages, with select reprints joining new
material. Readers of All-Star Western were treated
to reprints from series such as the acclaimed but short-lived BAT
LASH; the second half of his origin is presented here.
Jonah Hex rode out of the dust and into almost-instant popularity.
Albano's tight script introduced all the elements that would become
hallmarks of Hex's career. Tony DeZuniga, one of the first successful
Philippine artists DC Comics recruited at the time, executed the art
with appropriate atmosphere. By issue #18 (by which time the title
had reverted to 32 pages and been renamed Weird Western
Tales), Hex had the book to himself. He remained their until
issue #38, when he graduated to his own title, which then ran for 92
issues.
While John Albano have Hex a rousing launch, the series went on to
showcase some of the finest writing in Michael Fleisher's career. Hex
remained a cursed man, with a haunted background, and while his
origin was told in Weird Western Tales #29, Fleisher
explored facets of it through the 1970's. Hex was an original, and
his popularity remains intact. He even had a guest-starring role in
an episode of The Batman Adventures on the Kids'
WB!, in an episode written by horror novelist Joe R. Lansdale, who
wrote several Jonah Hex miniseries for Vertigo.
Hex may be best remembered by the finality of his last story, which
was a true Fleisher masterpiece. Hex, older but no less ornery, was
finally, senselessly gunned down. Even then, he was denied the rest
he deserved. Instead, his corpse was stuffed, mounted and displayed
as a side-show amusement at the turn of the Twentieth century.
John Albano (w) and Tony DeZuniga (a)
Welcome to Paradise
Jonah Hex Blazes a New Trail
---Robert Greenbuerger, writing in the introduction to the Millennium
Edition reprint of All-Star Western #10 (April 2000)
All-Star Western Vol 2 #11 ()
John Albano (w), Tony DeZuniga (a), Nestor Redondo (c)
The Hundred Dollar Deal