Sunday, July 19, 2009

Bring On the Back-ups: Charlton Comics' Wander

Starting with issue #66 (February 1968), in the back pages of Charlton's Cheyenne Kid there ran a very strange and literally far-out strip called Wander. Created by writer Denny O'Neil (under his nom de plume Sergius O'Shaugnessy) and initially drawn by the magnificent Jim Aparo (with Charlton mainstay Fred Himes taking over the art chores with issue #72,--he'd eventually write the strip, as well), Wander is the story of an alien who comes to earth right smack in the middle of the U.S. Old West. To give the strip an even wilder twist, our hero speaks The King's English, since it was around the Middle Ages since his people last visited the earth. The mixture of sci-fi, cowboys, and humor made for a fun strip, to say the least, and Wander's adventures lasted through Cheyenne Kid #87 (August 1971). Check out Wander's debut story by "O'Shaugnessy" and Aparo, raht'chere, raht now! Forsooth!
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2 comments:

  1. ScottJuly 20, 2009 at 2:09 PM

    Ah, Wander! What a gem to discover in the back of a comic that ordinarily didn't appeal to me. I'd love to see a complete TPB collection, mostly because even though back issues of Cheyenne Kid are cheap, they are tough to find (probably because they ARE cheap). Thanks for the treat!

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  2. Tom K MasonDecember 22, 2009 at 1:30 PM

    Thanks for this - it's the beauty of the internets that you can find something like this months after the fact. I love Aparo's storytelling - page 4, panel 3, he tilts the sombreros and gives the scene a "movie look." Just great stuff; it's easy to see why Giordano would bring him over to DC.

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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