Number 2388: Sheriff Sal, one helluva gal

The town fathers of Red Dog give Sally Starr the job of sheriff because the town is too peaceful. No man wants the job, they claim. Sally overlooks the implied insult to her sex and snaps up the opportunity. Despite the misgivings of some she does a good job as sheriff. That drives her boyfriend, Flash Gannon (he of the green cowboy hat and bright yellow shirt*), crazy. He wants her to quit and marry him. You get a sense of his feelings for Sheriff Sal by how he pins her badge on in the last panel of page one, shown above, and where he rests his right hand while doing it.

Western Adventures, from Ace, lasted just six issues in 1949, then the book was cancelled, and continued as Western Love Trails for three more issues before being finally retired. Sally and Flash went through all six of Western Adventures, and appeared in the first issue (#7) of Western Love Trails.

I believe the traditional Western comic was done for boys and young men, and includes some female Western fans. Sally’s story is an example for them that women can do the jobs that are traditionally male. The final story in the love comic shows Sally finally giving in to Flash, thereby letting the young women (and men) who read it know that in order to keep her love, Sally has to return to a “typical” female role.

This story, drawn by King Ward, appeared in Western Adventures #1 (1948).

*Two days ago I showed an example of how Quality Comics went for glaring colors in its early forties period...that tradition lives on with some of the colors in this story.

Number 2279: The Domain of the Doomed!

This ACG story, from Forbidden Worlds #3 (1951), boggles the mind. I could make a list of things that the characters do in this story that are screwy, but here are just a couple: Bruce Norton takes his girlfriend, Betty, to see an atomic bomb test, and she does not have to present any kind of pass, identification or secret clearance (page 1 ). Even though they have floated into the stratosphere with the balloon hoisting the bomb aloft, Bruce “knows” that they have “absorbed atomic rays from the fissionable material inside the bomb to enable us to withstand the extreme cold and lack of oxygen.” (Page 3.) And that is just the first example of Bruce or another character “knowing” what is going on even though they are involved in extraordinary experiences no other human — or monster — has ever had.

Ah, those ACG comic books. The stories, silly as they are I still love them. They unfold with nary a thought to how  impossible they are to believe. I am not sure of the writer, although I suspect editor Richard E. Hughes. I have noticed ACG stories with an inevitable use of the expression “Ye gods!” which I always attribute to Hughes. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can tell me if I’m right.

The Grand Comics Database says that King Ward did the artwork.

Number 1647: Dead Man’s Doom!

Anticipating Halloween next week, we have a spooky story. The moody and melodramatic tale of a malevolent medium in the aftermath of murdering his mark has a gimmick: a couple of meanings, besides the most obvious, for the term “dead man.” Huh. I was not familiar with either of these descriptive phrases before, so who says you can’t learn something from comic books? King Ward signed this story in the splash panel with a fancy “K”.  It is from Forbidden Worlds #2 (1951).

Number 1604: Flapping Head

“The Flapping Head” is a not untypical tale from Forbidden Worlds, but it has the distinction of being drawn by Al Williamson.

Williamson was known for his collaborators on a job, nicknamed the Fleagle Gang by Harvey Kurtzman: Angelo Torres, Roy Krenkel, Frank Frazetta, among others, but for this story the Grand Comics Database credits Williamson for pencils and artists Larry Woromay and King Ward for the inking.

This story has been reprinted several times in the past few decades, solely because of art by Williamson.

From Forbidden Worlds #6 (1952):

Number 1557: A sheriff’s place is in the home

Sal is a strong and capable woman who is sheriff of Red Dog. She’s dealing with a gang of rustlers and the jasper she loves, Flash, who is trying to get her job as sheriff.

Published in 1949 in Ace’s Western Love Trails #7, “Sheriff Sal’s Last Stand” fits into what was happening in American society in the time after World War II. Men were taking back jobs that women had held during the war, and women were put in the homes to be supported by their husbands. That was the era in which I was raised. Obviously there has been a major change of attitude since, which makes the ending of the story not nineteenth century, the era in which it’s set, but very much mid-century twentieth.

The Grand Comics Database makes a guess the well-drawn artwork is by King Ward. I’m not familiar enough with his work to tell one way or another.