Out of Tragedy....

If Swamp Thing is the embodiment of the ‘Green’, Firestorm is a Fire Elemental (or at least he WAS) , and The Flash(s) is the manifestation of the ‘Speed Force’, I would therefore postulate that Jonah Hex is the DCU personification of Tragedy.

 

  Under the guidance of Michael Fleisher, the realm of Jonah expanded to include Turnbull, Mei Ling, Woodson & Ginny Hex and all the sorrow that accompanied the growing cast of supporting characters. However, under the deft hand of Justin & Jimmy, Jonah Hex has moved from melodrama into out and out tragedy. They have kept the Fleisher contributions, adding their own twists, and brought in characters of their own.

  J & J have closed the tragic book on Ginny Hex, acknowledged the strained relationship with Jason Hex, peeled back the layers on the abusiveness of Woodson Hex and allowed us to see the end of it as wel, and violently laid El Papagayo to rest. In addition they have given us Tallulah Black, a woman almost as fiercely damaged as Hex, tossed in a small ray of hope and redemption for her (via a child) and then dramatically snatched that away from her and from us as well; and revealed Joshua Dazzleby, a half-brother completely at odds with Jonah, leading his own scarred life.

  The book is so much more than a Western. It’s an ongoing tale of everything that can possibly go wrong in a person’s life. It is simply and truly a tragedy.

  My wife asks why I read such a potentially depressing book. Granted, I do get enjoyment from the action and adventure but I also do it in order to appreciate my own life. Viewing my own relationships through the broken glass of Jonah’s life, I appreciate what I have, but I am also inspired to work to make mine better. So much of Jonah’s life has been spent turning his back on his pain and those who abandoned him that it spurs me on to take action, to make the phone call, to reach out, to connect with my family so that there will never be the chance of us drifting apart.

  So, yeah, Jonah Hex is a Western comic book. But thanks to Mr. Albano, Fleisher, Palmiotti, Gray, and I guess even Lansdale , we have more than a comic book Western. We have a tragedy and, hopefully, a better appreciation for the things in our own lives. 

Weird Western Tales #43 "Feather for a Savage!"

Weird Western Tales #43 Dec 1977
"Feather for a Savage!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Dick Ayers and George Evans, art - George Evans, cover

We start off with a three page recap that brings us to the point where Scalphunter and Sixteen Hands are bound hand and foot as the bank robbers decide what to do with them. Pete, the leader, gets the idea to use the dynamite they had been saving for a big job.

The robbers set the dynamite a short ways from the captives, put an incredibly long fuse on it, light it and ride off chortling. Alone, Sixteen Hands confesses of his plan to kill Ke-Woh-No-Tay. Ke-Woh tells him to shut his yapper and then rolls upside down to dislodge a knife in his boot. Holding the knife he tells Sixteen Hands to cut his own bonds. Sixteen Hands does this, grabs the knife from Ke-Woh, cuts loose his feet and then throws himself onto the dynamite to save Ke-Woh-No-Tay.

The dynamite goes off and then Ke-Woh-No-Tay has to wriggle across the snow, pick up the knife in his teeth and cut himself loose. After all of that, Sixteen Hands is still not dead. He still has time to wish Ke-Woh-No-Tay luck on his Death Stalk and gives him his own feather, making him a warrior.

Off in the distance, the bank robbers hear the explosion and celebrate. Pete tells everyone to break up and head back to their old jobs. They can lay low for awhile since nobody knows it was them that robbed the bank. However, Ke-Woh-No-Tay overhears everything since he is high above them in the trees.

Several days go by and Pete and Bart are working in the barn. Suddenly they smell smoke. Pete runs out and finds some rags on fire on the ground and a huge white man raised by Kiowas leaping from the barn roof. He puts up a gallant effort, but Ke-Woh-No-Tay holds him down and stabs him repeatedly. Bart tries to intervene, but the Kiowa brave reacts instinctively and scalps both men.

A few days later, Mike and Red are hanging out in the blacksmith shop wondering why they haven't heard from Pete. They decide to mount up and mosey on over and see what's up. On the way over, Mike's horse falls into a huge covered pit and Ke-Woh-No-Tay leaps from an overhanging tree. As Read panics and turns tail, we hear the agonizing screams of Mike.

Red pulls up in front of the sheriff's office and runs in pleading his brother, Brett, for help. Red tells MOST of the story and gets Brett to help him find the Indian. Brett and Red use a shortcut to lie in wait for Ke-Woh-No-Tay and Brett gets a shot off, knocking the Indian off his horse and into the tall grass and cattails. When they rush down to inspect the body, Ke-Woh-No-Tay is gone. The men decide to split up and in a short time Red is ambushed by a bent sapling.

On his knees begging for mercy, Red watches as Ke-Woh-No-Tay slowly walks forward, grabs Red by the hair on his head and then buries his tomahawk into the man's skull. As Ke-Woh-No-Tay is taking Red's scalp, Brett shows up and his horse kicks Ke-Woh-No-Tay as he rushes Brett.

Brett, slips a rope around the Indian's ankles,, drags him to a nearby tree and hangs him upside down as he takes careful aim with his rifle...

Statistics for This Issue

Men Killed by Scalphunter - 4
Running Total - 23
Compared to Jonah Hex - 23 vs 22
Scalps taken - 4
Running Total -10
Injuries - Shot in head, kicked by a horse
Timeline - Several days and then a few days in Winter, 1865 (can we say a week?)

A seventeen page story with three pages of recap doesn't leave much room, but this one is packed with action. True, the dynamite was terribly slow and Sixteen Hands appeared to be able to live through almost anything, but the out and out savagery depicted in the scalpings really helped the book live up to its name. One thing bothered me, it seems like two weeks has gone by, so I'm wondering if Scalphunter is a dead man when he gets back to the tribe. (I'm not really wondering, I've already read all of these books. Just trying to build suspense.)

I'm liking the ongoing storyline and it's interesting that Ke-Woh-No-Tay's task is done, but he isn't out of the woods yet.

Next Issue: The wagon train of death, a killer cougar and...APACHE RAID!

House Ad #39

Man, I'm drooling just remembering this book. The greatest thing about it was that each person spoke in their won font and each character had their own inker. The book had one crazy look to it, but it was fantastic!

Weird Western Tales #42 "Death Stalk!"

Weird Western Tales #42 Oct 1977
"Death Stalk!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Dick Ayers and George Evans, art - Alan Weiss, cover

Cantwell, Missouri, 1865. We last saw the town of Cantwell two issues ago, ya know, back in 1862.  Now, three years later, six men on horseback ride into town. They pull up in front of the bank and tell Brandy to keep watch. They go inside and rob the bank and the patrons, gunning down one old farmer. The bandana slips off of Red's face and a woman recognizes him as the younger brother of Sheriff Brett Harley.

The robbers are left with no choice but to kill the teller and the other three patrons. They run from the bank, mount up and ride off into the growing snowstorm.

Meanwhile in the snowy hills above town, Ke-Woh-No-Tay is teaching Little Bear how to hunt for food using only a bow and arrow. Little Bear wishes that Scalphunter had brought his rifle but gets a lesson on Kiowa preparedness instead. While Scalphunter cleans the deer, Little Bear chases down a fox and while trailing the fox, he comes to a cave where Bart and his gang of robbers are holed up. The robbers spot him and give chase, thinking that he heard something and can snitch on them.

Little Bear is running away but is soon surrounded by the six men on horseback. Little Bear panics and fires an arrow at Pete, who in turn get angry and shoots Little Bear. The shots alert Scalphunter and he arrives on a hillside overlooking the scene. As he draws back his bow, the robbers fire on him, grazing his head and the men ride off.

Hours later, Scalphunter comes to and rushes to Little Bear. He picks him up and sings his Death Song. Much later Scalphunter walks into the village with the body of Little Bear. He tells the story and Little Bear's mother is distraught. Another brave, Sixteen Hands Horse berates Ke-Woh-No-Tay as being a coward, afraid of the white man. Scalphunter responds..

Sixteen Hands pulls a tomahawk and rushes Scalphunter but is quickly cooled off by being thrown into the lake. The Chief finally shows up to see the ruckus and tells Scalphunter that there is only one way to remove the dishonor that he has brought upon himself. Scalpy must track down these six men and count coup with only a tomahawk and a knife and he has only two weeks (the Chief states that the moon is hiding and he has until the moon is full. That's two weeks, isn't it?) to complete this mission, otherwise, Scalphunter will die at the stake in place of the killers of Little Bear.

Scalphunter rides off and the Chief tasks Sixteen Hands Horse with following Scalphunter and if Scalpy wavers in his task, Sixteen Hands is to bring him back to the village. However, Sixteen Hands plans on exacting revenge upon Scalpy himself.

Five days later, the robbers are riding through a narrow pass and Scalphunter is hiding in the snow above them. Brandy, the alcoholic of the bunch, falls behind to take a snort on his flask and it's true that liquor will kill ya....

After a while, one of the men rides back to see Scalphunter holding up Brandy's bloody dripping scalp. Scalpy rushes him and plunges his knife into the man's ribs.

Up above, in the hills, Sixteen Hands is taking aim with his rifle in order to kill Scalphunter. Just then a grizzly bear (Seemingly possessed, as indicated by the red glowing eyes) rushes Sixteen Hands. Scalphunter hears the screams and realizes that Sixteen Hands is in danger. He grabs a rope from the dead man's horse and lasso's an outcrop and scales the cliff. He then rushes into the arms of Wa-Noh-Nah (the bear) and finally vanquishes the beast.

As Scalphunter turns to Sixteen Hands and demands to know why HE is there, the two Indians suddenly find themselves set upon by the four remaining robbers....

Statistics for This Issue

Men Killed by Scalphunter - 2
Running Total - 19
Compared to Jonah Hex - 19 vs 20
Scalps taken - 2
Running Total - 6
Injuries - Shot in head
Timeline - Six days in Winter, 1865 (really?)

I liked this book a lot, mainly because of the interior inking of George Evans. Evans is a gritty inker and it really makes the book shine. We also have the beginning of an ongoing story and I'm happy to see some continuity (even though it is three years off the mark...maybe).

Also, this is the first time that we have seen Scalphunter interacting with other Indians and it appears that he even is a member of a tribe. In past issues we have seen how Brain is not accepted by the White men but in this issue we see how he isn't fully accepted by his own tribe. The last we saw of the Kiowa tribe was back in issue #39 where a large bunch of them were killed. I liked the cover. At first I thought it was Alfredo Alcala, but then I saw the Weiss signature.

And this brings up one other thing. Our hero has four names; Scalphunter, Brian Savage, Ke-Woh-No-Tay, He Who is Less Than Human. In the book, he is rarely referred to as Scalphunter or as Brian Savage. The Indians always call him Ke-Woh-No-Tay (which they never translate as He Who is Less Than Human) but refer to each other as their translated names (Sixteen Hands Horse, Little Bear). So, with all that information, how shall I denote our hero? I would like to stay consistent (and I have tried three of the four names to see how they 'feel')

Next Issue: Things get really really bloody and there is a transfer of plumage!

House Ad #38

So who remembers Star Hunters? I don't but it looks like it could have been fun.

Pitchman-A-Go-Go #89

I don't care what he was selling, I always loved the Jack Davis ads. They were like visual poetry.

House Ads #37

Wow! 3 ads for the price of one!! I actually owned the Freedom Fighters and the Return of the New Gods.

Weird Western Tales #41 "The Black Seer of Death Canyon!"

Weird Western Tales #41 August 1977
"The Black Seer of Death Canyon!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Dick Ayers and Frank Springer, art - George Evans, cover

Summer, 1862. Brian Savage finds himself riding near the Canyon De La Muerte when he hears a man screaming for help. Turns out several men are terrorizing an old prospector when one of them is suddenly shot to death. Several of the men take off towards the cliffs where the shots came from, leaving behind one man to guard the old prospector. But, that idea doesn't pay off too well...

Brian grabs up the old man and runs off with the old man and his burro and attempts to nurse him back to health. The old man tells Brian that he was searching for his old pal Skeeter Short. Brian has to tell Skeeter that the old man, Muskrat Charlie, finally hit it rich and that he hid the map. All you have to do is look through the eye... the eye...needle....PLOTZ!! He's DEAD!!!!!

Brian buries the old man and the rides off with the man's burro in tow.

The next afternoon in a nearby town, the thugs that were killing the old man recognize the burro as Brian rides into town. They get an idea and tell the sheriff that Brian murdered the old prospector and stole the burro. Brian says that they are lying, that the men killed the prospector and resists the sheriff's attempt to jail him. One of the thugs pistol whips Brian, knocking him out.

Several hours later, the sheriff is bringing Brian a meal in jail, but when the sheriff tries to awaken Brian, he learns that the form on the cot is just a bundle of blankets. Brian drops from the ceiling and knocks out the sheriff and sneaks out the second story window of the jail. He jumps from the balcony onto a buckboard below, knocking out the driver, and then steers the team towards the livery. As he nears the livery, he jumps off, leaving the woman passenger at the mercy of the runaway horses.

Brian bursts into the livery in order to obtain his horse. He refuses to pay and rides off into the night. In the darkness the sheriff and the thugs laugh to themselves about how easily they let Brian escape so that he could lead them to the map and the treasure.

Several hours later, Brian rides up to needle rock and climbs up so that he can see through the eye. In the distance he spots a rock with a large X on it. Brian climbs down and heads over to the X and finds the map. Just then shots ring out and Brian topples over, the thugs come out of hiding and close in to recover the map.

Just then one of the thugs notices an African standing on a nearby boulder. The African is glowing and is wrapped in a large snake. Suddenly a spear pierces one thug, killing him, and the African vanishes only to appear behind them. He hurls the snake at the sheriff who gets squeezed to death and the remaining two thugs take off.

The glowing African then picks up Brian and takes him to a cave. Three days later when Brian comes to, the African explains that he is Wakwame, a shaman, a seer, a magician, a necromancer who can see the future and speak with the dead. He tells how he was kidnapped from Africa and there was a great revolt on the slavers ship. The slaves managed to kill the white men, but the ship crashed at sea and only he survived.

He gives Brian the map and tells Brian that the treasure house shall be the white men's tomb. Brian thanks him for his help and rides off.

A week later, Brian is riding along and finally locates Skeeter Short. Brian tells the story and Short busts out laughing because the map is for a mine full of fool's gold. Short says that Muskrat must have been senile and thanks Brian for his trouble. Brian rides off and suddenly Short is gunned down.

Brian hears the shots and rides back to find Short dead and the map gone. Brian has seen the map and knows where the mine is located.

At the mine, several of the thugs enter the mine and leave Lance to guard the entrance. They go in and find several bags of gold nuggets and then they realize that it's nothing but fool's gold. They look deeper into the mine and that's when they spot the real gold, further into the mine. Just then Lance stumbles into the mine with a large arrow sticking out of his chest. The thugs whirl around and see Brian standing at the entrance of the mine. One of them opens fire with his rifle and that sounds causes the entire mine to come crashing down on their heads, killing all of them.

Brian rides off, thinking about Wakwame.

Statistics for This Issue

Men Killed by Scalphunter -3
Running Total - 17
Compared to Jonah Hex - 17 vs 17
Scalps taken -0
Running Total - 4
Injuries - Pistol whipped 
Timeline - Eleven days in summer, 1862

All in all kind of a 'meh' story but it was nice to see Brian encounter an African witch doctor and what the witch doctor did with the glowing and the vanishing and the snake did help the book live up to the Weird in Weird Western Tales. The bit with Brian leaving the woman in the buckboard (and probably resulting in her death when the wagon eventually overturned) was a bit unsettling. I know it was supposed to be funny, but it really wasn't.

Next Issue: A bank robbery, blood in the snow, and the start of an ongoing story arc.

Reading in a vacuum... and out of it.

I was thinking last night if I enjoy comics now as much as when I was a kid. I'm still thinking about it and I think I have to cover some history first. I grew up in the 60s and 70s about 50 SW of Chicago in a very small town. Comics were nowhere to be found. However, several times a year we would go to Grandma's house in SW Missouri.

The town wasn't big but it was the county seat and I could buy comics at Blues Drug, Woods Grocery or Wades Grocery. So this meant that I would save my money for these trips and walk all over town buying comics. I would normally end the trip with 50+ books piled in the backseat with me on the way home. Blues Drug was the best. His were on a spinner rack but the box .... the box, that half-price box with the top of the covers ripped off, that was the goldmine. (I learned years later he was getting a refund on those books and also selling them, thereby double dipping and breaking the law.) You could get a quarter 80 page giant for 12 cents. How could you NOT love a guy like that?

So I would grab up Superman, Action, Detective, Batman, Justice League, all the scary books I could find, Archie (cuz my sister made me do it), all the war books, but I hardly ever grabbed Marvel. Why? Because they had continuing stories and there was no guarantee that I was going to be able to get every issue. I was elated if I ended up missing only two issues on any title between trips.

Also, I had a deal with the barber back home. I gave him comics and he gave me Juicy Fruit gum. Of course I only gave him the scary ones because ... Well, because they were scary! And he gave me the monster family packs of gum. He ended with more business cuz he was the only barber in town with comics and that meant kids would be quite waiting for dad and siblings to get their hair cut.

Now imagine, I would go 3, 4 months with no comics and then I would gorge myself on them. I'd read them on grandma's porch, in bed, on the toliet (to everyone's chagrin), and then curled up in the back seat on the 8 hour drive home (I was reading trades before there were even trades available!) . The only way I had to know what comics were GOING to be available were the wonderful house ads. Reading the house ads would build up anticipation inside me and when I actually found a book that I had seen the ad for, well, I HAD to buy it.

Basically, I grew up reading comic in a vacuum. I knew nobody else that read comics, none of my friends did (because they couldn't get them and I wouldn't loan mine out). Everything I knew about comics were from actually reading them. If a book sucked, you knew it because you bought it, read it, and it sucked. If a book was great it was because you bought it, read it, and it was great.

Compare that to today. We have blogs telling us everything coming out, stores with posters heralding the newest release, online previews, solicits for upcoming months, forums, tweets, facebooks, heck probably even text messages telling us what's great, what sucks, what's a must buy, what's a 'wait for trade'. In some cases you can even get a PDF preview of an entire issue if you play your cards right.

Honestly, I find the information overload a lot too much. Take, for instance, All-Star Western #5. Hex and Arkham go deep into a cave  and the last page, a splash page, the big payoff is the cover for All-Star Western #6, which we saw 3 months ago.

Yawn.

Now just imagine reading that book, with no foreknowledge. You turn the page and

BLAM!

A giant bat right in Hex's face! Holy cow, that's awesome and it makes me want to grab the next issue no matter what because, ladies and germs, THAT'S storytelling.

So, let me know what you think. Do you remember reading in a vacuum? Do you think you got your money's worth back when you were an ignorant kid, or do you get your money's worth now that you're privy to all the ins and outs of the industry? Does the information build anticipation or does it lessen the impact? I fall on the side of trying to go back to reading in a vacuum and seeing if I can go back to being that stupid wide-eyed kid.

Weird Western Tales #40 "The Mark of a Warrior!"

Weird Western Tales #40 June 1977
"The Mark of a Warrior!"
Michael Fleisher, story - Dick Ayers and George Evans, art - George Evans, cover

It's been awhile so you might want to catch-up here.

Southwest Missouri, 1862. Miss Masefield, a blonde woman, is riding in a buckboard with Ed, a black man that works for her. Miss Masefield runs a newspaper and Ed is scared of what she has been writing, it might stir up trouble. Of course, it means trouble for Ed because at that very minute he gets shot in the chest.

Several men wearing white masks ride up and pull all of the papers out of the wagon. It seems that Miss Masefield is an abolitionist and declares so in her papers. The men set fire to the papers and then tear open the front of her dress when an arrow suddenly strikes one man in the chest. They all turn to see a horse with no rider bearing down on them. Too late they realize that there is an Indian hanging off the side of the horse and, using the horse for cover, shoots most of the men dead. The rest ride off, fearing for their lives.

The Indian, Scalphunter, examines Ed and states that he will live. Scalphunter then goes to the fallen men and scalps them all. Miss Masefield is appalled, but thankful for her life. Sclalphunter asks why she was attacked and she explains about the newspapers and her stand against slavery. Scalphunter mocks her for her writings but takes her into town to the doctor and then leaves.

She takes Ed to the doc (same one from last issue) and explains about the Indian. The doc chuckles and explains that is Brian Savage, the son of Matt Savage. 23 years ago (1839) Kiowas attacked the Savage ranch and carted off the young boy. Matt survived the raid and built a ranching empire, but about two months ago some troopers from Fort Caroline fought some Kiowas and brought back one, a white man, Brian Savage.

But Matt had died of TB but Brian refused to believe that he was born white and turned down the land that was left to him.

Back in town we find a Mr. Stockwell, who is very very angry. It was he that had hired those men to put Miss Masefield out of business and he has bigger and better plans to deal with her.

Later that night, in Southfield, Missouri, Miss Masefield and Ed are getting the next day's edition ready for the presses. There is a knock on the door and, thinking it is Brian Savage, Masefield opens the door. Sadly, it's Stockwell's men and they deliver a shotgun blast to Ed, killing him. They then take axes to the presses, pistol whip Masefield, and then torch the place.

They ride off and Miss Masefield comes to just as Scalphunter crashes through a window, scoops her up and carries her to safety. Scalphunter starts to leave, saying that he will find the men responsible and destroy them by Masefield asks to go along and then suddenly collapses. Scalphunter picks her up and takes her to the doctor.

The doc opens the door and starts to slam the door, stating that he doesn't treat Indians but Ke-Woh-No-Tay literally kicks the door off the hinges and tells the doctor to treat her or what is left of the doc's scalp will be used to braid a whip for his horse.

Several hours later Scalphunter locates Mr. Stockwell's place and finds the men who burnt the newspaper office. He is lurking outside but is discovered and brought inside. One of the men shouts that it's the Indian that attacked them. Stockwell starts hollering because his men had told him they had been attacked by a dozen Indians. Brian uses the distraction to knee on guy in the gut, but is suddenly brought down by being pistol-whipped.

Rather than killing the Indian outright, Stockwell decides to make an example of him and they haul Scalphunter to a grain mill and they tie him to a waterwheel to drown him. Stockwell's men leave and Brian uses a piece of glass that he has hidden in his hand. He obtained the glass when he kneed the one guy in the gut (causing him to drop a glass lantern). He manages to saw through his ropes and escape.

Shortly thereafter a flaming arrow bursts through Stockwell's window. Stockwell grabs a rifle and heads for the door, followed by several men. They see Brian standing in the darkness holding a bow and arrow. Before they can even blink, Savage grabs a rifle from behind him and kills them all. One last thug, the leader, sneaks out of the house and draws a bead on Savage as he leaves but is suddenly shot in the side of the head.

We discover that Masefield shot him with her rifle. Savage is not thankful. He says that a warrior must fight his own battles or stand shamed in the eyes of The Great Spirit and that a Kiowa squaw would know not to interfere. Masefield is incensed and demands to know why Brian showed up at the newspaper office, was it to learn to read (as she had offered earlier)?

Scalphunter scoffs and says that watching the wriggling maggots is a pastime for women and then he mounts up and rides off into the night.

Statistics for This Issue

Men Killed by Scalphunter - 9
Running Total - 14
Compared to Jonah Hex - 14 vs 12
Scalps taken - 4
Running Total - 4
Injuries - Pistol whipped and almost drowned
Timeline - One day and one night in 1862

This was a pretty good issue and fairly gruesome. Scalphunter starts living up to his name and we do see a guy shot in the head. I find it interesting that Brian Savage is hanging around Missouri and hating all over the white man's ways rather than heading out west. We get another heaping helping of the "noble Savage" (hee hee, see what I did there?) and how he refuses to acknowledge any hint of a desire that he might have to want to learn of the white man's ways. Also, I'm not sure how 'hip' it was in 1862 to use the term 'chauvinist'.

I enjoyed Evans artwork. I'm normally a fan of cleaner work, but Evans stuff here is gritty and has a loose flowing quality to it. I would like to see this reprinted on quality paper with better or no coloring.

It was also around this time that the TV show "The Quest" aired in 76. Coincidence? I think not. YouTube disabled embedding for this video, but here ya go, you can watch the whole pilot.

Next Issue: A map to a lost mine and the power of Voodoo!

Rereading Scalphunter

I dug out my box of Weird Western books and started rereading Scalphunter. Bat Lash gets a lot of love but Scalphunter deserves it as well, solely on number of appearances.

Brian Savage carried WWT for 31 issues, longer than Jonah Hex carried it. He also had only two writers, Michael Fleisher and Gerry Conway. While Fleisher is credited with creating Scalphunter, the letters page in WWT 39 gives the glory to Sergio Aragones and Joe Orlando. But, in the manner that Fleisher fleshed out the Jonah Hex that Albano and DeZuniga created, Gerry Conway is the man who really took control of Scalphunter.

I think a Showcase of all of Scalphunter, including the backup features and possibly his move to Opal City would be great. Bat Lash got one and he only had 7 issues, an issue of Showcase, and three backup stories.