The Grooviest Covers of All Time: Two Gun Kid

Slap leather, Groove-ophiles! Back in the Groovy Age, one of  Young Groove's fave western comics was Two Gun Kid. I guess the mask and the mostly black outfit just made him seem more cool and super-heroic--or at least Lone Ranger-ish. While the mag was mostly reprints during the Groovy Age, the Kid was blessed with suh-weet covers by such titanically-yet-diversely talented artists as John Severin, Herb Trimpe, and Gil Kane. When someone hollered "Draw!" at that terrific trio, they whipped out their pencils and whipped up some of the coolest cowboy covers ever! Can you dig it, pardner?

Decent Comics: "Promise for a Princess!" by Albano and DeZuniga and "A Time to Die" by Bates, Adams, and Wrightson

Howdy, Groove-ophiles! You'd have thought that when DC changed All-Star Western's moniker to Weird Western Tales with ish #12 (April 1972), that Jonah Hex, the mag's new star, would have been the cover feature. Well, t'weren't the way it was. El Diablo actually got the coveted  cover spot (illoed by none other than Joe Kubert)...

...but Hex did lead off the mag with "Promise for a Princess" by co-creators John Albano and Tony DeZuniga. Hex's third outing shows the creators getting comfortable with who Jonah really was (a savage barbarian out of time--Ol' Groove thinks of Hex as a sort of Conan with guns). The tale is action packed, emotional (and admittedly a bit manipulative in that department), and beautifully illustrated. Check it out...

Speaking of beautifully illustrated, if you're still wondering why El Diablo got the cover on this ish, well, Ol' Groove can't tell you for certain--especially when you notice that his story is only four pages long. Perhaps editor Joe Orlando just had a beauty of a Kubert ED cover lyin' around? Or maybe four pages worth of the art combo of Neal Adams and Berni Wrightson illustrating a Cary Bates western automatically made it cover-worthy...

All Ol Groove can say for sure is that Weird Western Tales #12 was one fantastic comicbook!

Decent Comics: "The Hundred Dollar Deal!" by Albano and DeZuniga

Saddle up, Groove-ophiles! We're'a gonna slap leather with Jonah Hex today! Ol' Groove just recently re-read Hex's second appearance from All-Star Western #11 (February 1972) and I truly dug it! Co-creators John Albano and Tony DeZuniga were still experimenting a bit with our hard-as-nails anti-hero (just check out the blackly humorous ending), but you can sense as you read that they knew they were on to something special. So special that, with the very next issue due, no doubt, to the rapidly rising popularity of the Jonah Hex strip, the mag's very title would be changed to reflect our weird western hero. More on that next time! Now let's siddown next to the campfire and dig on the story of..."The Hundred Dollar Deal!"

Cover art by Tony DeZuniga and company

Groove's Faves: "The Ghost Town Sheriff" by Newman and Gill

Dig it, Groove-ophiles: Ol' Groove totally digs the Lone Ranger. Always have, always will. Young Groove didn't buy a lot of Lone Ranger comics 'cause they were hard to find, but when I did find a stray Gold Key ish with those gorgeous painted covers, I'd snatch 'em up. I never new if an issue had new stories or reprints (until I started noticing those "Reprinted by Popular Demand" blurbs stamped on the first pages of the stories), but I didn't care. Take for instance "The Ghost Town Sheriff" from Lone Ranger #14 (February 1969). This gem by Paul S. Newman and Tom Gill could have come directly from the late 1800s for all I cared--I just knew a rousing fun story with terrific art when I saw one! Check it out for yourself...

Oh, and this one was, indeed, a reprint from Dell's Lone Ranger #100 (cover dated October 1956).