Old newspaper comic

I was rooting through some old newspaper clippings and found this.

Jonah Hex #75 "The Bloody Saga of Railroad Bill! Part 2"

Jonah Hex #75 Aug 1983
"The Bloody Saga of Railroad Bill! Part 2"
Michael Fleisher, story - Dick Ayers & Tony DeZuniga, art - Ross Andru & Dick Giordano, cover

A quick two page recap of last issue and we find Terry sneaking back into the cabin, but Bill Clinton is standing there as he enters. Terry insists that he has just been out for a stroll but Clinton isn't buying any of it and shoots Terry dead. That awakens the rest of the gang and Clinton's Ma & sister. Before everyone can get calmed down and back into bed, Graphus and one of his men sneak up to the window.

Graphus orders his man to toss a bomb through the window but the man hesitates when he spies the women. Graphus orders him to throw it anyway and the bomb lands in the room with a thud. Clinton dives for cover but his ma & sister take the brunt of the blast. Clinton starts screaming his vengeance so Graphus can hear.

The four remaining men of Clinton's gang and Jonah Hex finally convince Clinton that they need to flee the burning cabin. They bust out the back door, heading for the corral when Hex sees a Pinkerton drawing a bead on Clinton. He kills the Pinkerton, saving Clinton's life and they all grab the horses from the corral (magically saddling them) and they ride off with Graphus unable to give chase due to their horses being worn out.

Later on the trail Clinton thanks Hex for the save and explains that when he rode with Quantrill he spent some time in prison and he vowed that he would never go back. They part ways with Clinton explaining that if he ever sees Jonah Hex again, he will kill him.

Three weeks later, Clinton and his men have blocked the rails and are robbing a train when they open up the mail car they are greeted by Jonah Hex! Clinton is atop the car and fires at Jonah, missing, and allowing Jonah to slam the doors shut and lock them. In the meantime the crew have cleared the tracks and started the train rolling again.

Clinton jumps from the train and they give chase but can't catch up to it. One of the gang accuse Clinton of missing Hex on purpose and gets a pistol to the face for his troubles. He tells his gang to head to one of their hideouts while he goes and kills Jonah Hex.

Four nights later, Jonah is sipping coffee by a campfire, contemplating his next step since he has been unable to track down any sign of Clinton or his men. Unknown to Jonah, Clinton, in the rocks above him, has his rifle sights on Hex. Just before Clinton can fire, Graphus steps out of the shadows. Graphus says that he has captured all of Clinton's men but none of them will talk. Now Jonah Hex is going to tell Graphus how to find Clinton.

Clinton is now in a quandary. He can't shoot both Graphus & Hex before they return fire so he has to make a choice. Graphus or Hex? Clinton's bullet slams into Graphus and Jonah dives for cover. Jonah can't return fire so he starts making his way around to the back of the hill. Above, Clinton continues to fire, trying to nail Hex, but he soon runs out of shells and decides to hightail it before Jonah can track him. Just as Clinton is coming down from the rocks, he turns to find Jonah Hex holding a pistol on him.

Jonah tells him to drop the pistol and Hex will take him in. Clinton once again swears that he won't go to prison and starts to raise the empty rifle. Jonah warns him again but Clinton starts to draw a bead on Hex so Jonah shoots Clinton twice, killing him. As Jonah examines the rifle he finds that it was empty.

Statistics for this Issue
Men killed by Jonah - 2
Running Total - 394
Jonah's Injuries - None
Timeline - This had two time spans, three weeks & 4 nights (25 days). Add that to last issue's 8 days and the Saga of Railroad Bill covers 33 days. No sign of continuity from issue 72, but we'll get back to that soon enough.

A fairly good issue with Jonah not doing a whole lot, again the majority of the story was Bill Clinton, but the conflict at the end was handled well. The best thing about the whole book was the cover, one of the best in the whole entire run of WWT & Jonah Hex. I love the tilted title, Jonah's coat on fire, the angle and perspective are just perfect. It has to be one of the top 10 covers of the series.

Next Issue: Emmy Lou, Mei Ling, Quentin Turnbull, and the secret of prisoner 26150

Revamping the injury list

I have been lax in keeping the Jonah Hex Injury List updated, so I am going back through and adding issue links to each injury. Once I get THAT caught back up, I'll start on the timeline.

Pitchman-A-Go-Go #73

I had all of these beauties and they were twice as fun as the ad shows. ROBOTS!!!!!

Guess what ya can't buy anymore?

A DSL modem. At least you can't buy one at Radio Shack, Target, Best Buy, Office Depot, Ultimate Electronics, 7-11, Barnes & Noble. You can buy one from AT&T but it would only be the same sucky piece of trash that only lasted a year.

So I stumbled into Staples and $97 later I stumbled out with a DSL Modem/Wireless-N router combo.

Sheesh. But I'm back up & running.

Huntin Some Varmints

Well, Dad was out of town this past weekend and his modem decided then would be a good time to die. After a lengthy conversation with the friendly neighborhood ISP, they figured out a new modem was needed. As soon as he gets one normal posting will resume.

_J

So good I have to link it

Eldest here. Just read this article over at Comics Should Be Good. Crazy how much impact stories can have on someone. Morrison would be proud.

_J

Random ramblings about the Jonah Hex movie

Bleah. Allergies have got me town (tree pollen must be through the roof) and we ended up postponing a weekend getaway to Dallas to see the King Tut exhibit. We left the house this morning and after about 30 minutes I told my lovely wife that I needed to go home. Went to bed & just got up.

I got nothing scanned but several things in the works, but nothing ready. Might as well talk about the Jonah Hex movie.

Jonah Hex - targeted release date August 6 2010. Not a promising release date, but at least it ain't February. (Feb is the time they dump the worst of the worst).

Josh Brolin as Hex. Having only seen No Country for Old Men, I think this is a good pick. Brolin can play the steely-eyed non-talker with ease. I'm looking forward to this.

John Malkovich as Turnbull. When I first heard of this, I wasn't too thrilled. After watching Rounders, I'm stoked. Having a big (ger) name as the villain usually helps but not always. We'll have to see how he plays our favorite Soutern master manipulator.

Megan Fox as Leila. Erg. Don't know much about her other than I've never knowingly seen her in a movie. "Leila". Hmmm, no Mei Ling that's for sure.

Michael Shannon as Doc Cross Williams. I know nothing about him & this is a new character. We'll have to see how this plays out.

Will Arnett. This man did the announcer in the "Don't" trailer in Grindhouse. That & playing Vlad in Horton Hears a Who brings thumbs up from me.

Speaking of Horton, that brings up Jimmy Hayward, the director. His only prior directing credit is Horton, but he has worked in the animation of Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., Toy Story 2, Bug's Life, & Toy Story. It looks like he has worked on films that know how to have a good compelling story with a nice rhythm and flow. I'm giving this a thumbs up as well. A good director doesn't guarantee a good film (cough Hulk cough).

Now, what about the plot. Everyone thinks they know what is going down, from a rewrite of a plot from years ago to Turnbull being a voodoo daddy raising the Confedrate dead. A lot of noise is pointing towards the Vertigo Jonah Hex (that I haven't reviewed here yet, but might jump ahead prior to the movie being released) but I still hear conflicting stories about the range of the weirdness that is going to be on the screen.

This casting call shows that we are going to get some startling visuals, including amputees, 'unique features', and Carnys.

Here are a few pictures of one of the sets.

One thing does bother me and that is the IMDB page lists John Albano & Tony DeZuniga with writing credits for the characters. This is true for Jonah Hex, but Michael Fleisher first wrote Quentin Turnbull. I'll have to see what I need to do to fix that.

Comics Cavalcade Calendar #12

The Squadron Royale contemplate the colossal cranial capacity of Hitler's secret weapon
Best Fun Comics #24
July, 1943

Abin Sur's distress call.....

A spaceship has crashed in the desert and the pilot is dying, his life seeping into the sands surrounding his vessel. He is a member of the Green Lantern Corps, intergalactic guardians of freedom and protectors of interplanetary justice. He orders his ring to seek out a replacement for him, a man of courage that knows no fear.

So the ring locates a man several miles away and starts leading the man towards the wreckage. Buffeted by the heat, the man makes his way across the sands, led by "voice" in his head. When he finally sees the twisted metal of the intergalactic ship, he is amazed, but still he moves forward looking deeper into the wreckage. He finally finds the body of the pilot, but Abin Sur is dead and no explanations are forthcoming from the weirdly costumed body of the extraterrestrial.

The man stands up, looking towards the horizon, wondering if anyone else has seen the remains of this ship. Before he can even consider his next step, the ring flies onto his hand and his mind is flooded with the knowledge of the Green Lantern Corps and that he is now a member of the Corps, guardian of sector 2814. No longer would he be a normal man. He will from now on be known as a Green Lantern, never again to be known as Jonah Hex!

I envision a Lantern even more bloodthirsty than Guy Gardner being unleashed upon the cosmos. Constructs based on the life of the Old West abound in the coldness of outer space. And perhaps, just perhaps, Jonah ends up encountering the original Terra-Man.

Feel free to dream and expound upon your thoughts. Personally I think it would be one helluva Elseworlds book.

Pitchman-A-Go-Go #72

I actually had the van. There was no way that you could locate the VW bug. It was awesome!! Getting one now on ebay will cost more than I'm willing to pay.

Kingdom Come - 1996

Kingdom Come 1996
Mark Waid, story - Alex Ross, art

Folks sometimes wonder what became of Jonah after he was stuffed and mounted. We do know that he ended up in an amusement park, but the last time his body was seen was in Kingdom Come residing in the Planet Krypton restaurant. Some folks have stated that since Booster Gold, the owner of the establishment has personally met Jonah, that perhaps he'll finally give the bounty hunter a decent burial. But Kingdom Come is an alternate reality (right? I'm not sure anymore) so I'm inclined to state that this is not the final time we'll see the corpse of Jonah Hex.

Comics Cavalcade Calendar #11

Tung is unable to close the door as Chic gets ready for their trip to the beach.
Tung n' Chic Swimsuit Edition #1
May, 1995

Jonah Hex #74 "The Bloody Saga of Railroad Bill!"

Jonah Hex #74 July 1983
"The Bloody Saga of Railroad Bill!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Dick Ayers & Tony DeZuniga, art - Ross Andru & Dick Giordano, cover

Jonah Hex stands in front of the desk of Mr. Thorgson, the owner of a railroad. Thorgson is railing (hee hee) against William Clinton, a train robber, who has been unstoppable. Clinton rode with Quantrill and has learned how to get the locals on his side, helping him cover his tracks. Hex asks why the Pinkertons haven't been involved and Thorgson says that the railroad has hired Pinkerton Archibald Graphus, but he keeps coming up empty handed. Now Thorgson is hiring Hex using his own money in order not to antagonize Graphus.

A week later in the town of Franklin Forks, we find Graphus and eight of his men crouching on a rooftop on main street. They are staking out the bank on a tip that Clinton will be knocking over that bank today (Looks like Clinton robs more than just trains). Sure enough, Clinton and twelve of his men come riding into town. He leaves two men outside to hold the horses and the rest head into the bank. Once in the bank, Clinton notices an old man who is wearing Confederate medals. He asks the man if the medals are his and the old man affirms that he got them at Chickamauga and Vicksburg and says that Clinton is now taking all the money he has in the world.

Clinton tells him that he has never stolen from a fellow Reb and never will. Clinton pulls out a fat wad of bills and gives them to the Rebel Vet. A few minutes later Clinton and his men are leaving the bank and Graphus is getting ready to give the signal to open fire (they waited until the bank had been robbed so that the crooks would have their hands full and be unable to fire back) when the local choir practice adjourns and a bunch of women walk out into the street. Ignoring the danger to innocent civilians, Graphus orders his men to open fire and when the dust settles eight of Clinton's men are dead along with several choir members.


The bodies aren't even cooling in the street before Graphus and his men head out after Clinton & his gang. Clinton and his men split up, but Graphus is looking down from a hilltop and pulls out his Remington with the fancy new sight, takes aim and drops Bill Clinton's horse is mid stride. Clinton's men are long gone already and Graphus & his bunch soon have Clinton sitting atop a horse with a noose around his neck.

Just then, Jonah Hex rides up. Jonah starts telling Graphus that they can't hang Clinton without a trial and during the argument, Clinton manages to get to a knife in the back of his pants and cuts himself loose. He then buries the knife into the sternum of one of Graphus's men. Tossing aside the noose, Clinton spurs the horse onward and rides off.

Jonah takes off after but Graphus isn't fooled, he sees that these two are working together and he shoots Hex in the back. Clinton hears the shot and turns to see Hex laying in the dirt. Bill Clinton wheels his horse around and clutching the reins in his teeth and firing his rifle like a man possessed, he charges Graphus and his men, allowing Jonah to climb on the back of the horse and they both make their escape.



Shortly, Clinton & Hex arrive at a farmer's house. The farmer agrees to help Clinton and Hex because of how much he hates the railroads. Soon after, the two men are leaving in a borrowed buckboard. Clinton tells Jonah that he recognizes Hex and he is going to take Hex to Ma Clinton's place to get patched up. If they run into each other after that, Clinton will have to kill Hex.

As they travel along they are stopped by two Pinkertons searching for them. One of the Pinkerton's notices Jonah's boots and Clinton shoots both men using a two shot pistol hidden up his sleeve. Hours later they finally arrive at Ma Clinton's place.

While Clinton's mom & sister tend to Hex's wounds, Clinton talks to his men about how Graphus was waiting for them at Franklin Forks. Terry, one of the men, says that the town was clean when it cased it the previous night. Eventually everyone beds down for the night.

Much later, Terry sneaks out of a window and rides off to a rendezvous with Graphus. Obviously Terry is an informant for Graphus and tells him where everyone is holed up and that Jonah Hex is there as well. Graphus tells Terry to head back to the hideout and he'll get his men and be there before dawn. CONTINUED......

Statistics for this Issue
Men Killed by Jonah - 0
Running Total - 392
Jonah's Injuries - Shot in the back
Timeline - This one covers about 8 days. No mention of any other aspect of the ongoing story (Emmy or Mei Ling)

So far, it's a pretty good story. Jonah hasn't done much and is pretty much being tossed about by Graphus & Clinton but it's good to see these other characters get a chance to shine. This is a two-parter and the rest of the issue was an El Diablo story involving fire. eeeek

The cover had an interesting bit of art. The bullet holes show the splash page underneath. Too bad that there weren't actual holes in the cover, but that was reserved for the higher end books with the pure white paper. This is a throwback to the lettering last seen on Issue 70. I like a more dynamic/edgy cover like this, but I prefer the more 'playbill' style lettering.

Next Issue: Terry gets his, Graphus gets sloppy, Clinton has to make a decision, and Jonah realizes that life stinks.

Pitchman-A-Go-Go #71

Yup a cool toy until you got into a fight over it and stretched it waaaay too far. I would rather have had one made out of Rearden Metal.

Blackest Night before Easter

This was the idea of Eldest!


And then THIS Lantern showed up!!!

and this Lantern arrived and grabbed ALL the eggs!

Pitchman-A-Go-Go #70

Howkum you can grow 7 monsters but they only show you 6? It must have been so horrible that the artist died of fright before he could have rendered it in all of its horrible glory.

Comics Cavalcade Calendar #10

Rebound ponders the apparent death of Dr. Mutiloid

Adventuresome Comics #293 Mar 1969