Western Genre in Graphic Novels

Definition

Stories of the late nineteenth-century Western frontier of the United States remain the foremost narrative of American popular culture. Themes involving conflicts between cowboys and Indians became a crucial storytelling genre in the emerging comic book industry of the 1930s. Although "the Western" has fluctuated in popularity over the decades, writers of comic books and graphic novels continue to explore its core thematic devices in innovative ways.

Introduction

Twenty-first-century films and series such as 3:10 to Yuma (2007), True Grit (2010), 1923 (2022), and Horizon (2024) have demonstrated the enduring popularity of stories of the American West. This genre came to be known as the "Western." In comic books, the Western was one of the foundational genres of the medium. It has remained popular with writers and fans alike since the 1930s. Westerns experienced a resurgence during the 1960s that, in turn, gave way to tremendous growth during the 1970s against the backdrop of new Western films inspired by actor Clint Eastwood. By the 1980s, however, the Western genre in mainstream comic books and graphic novels had stagnated, resulting in the cancellation of numerous titles. While the shift toward darker heroes and villains and psychologically complex plots in the superhero comics of the period signified a maturation of the comics medium, attempts to reignite the West by infusing it with horror, time travel, or dystopian themes largely failed to connect with readers.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new generation of Western comics broke with traditional depictions of heroes and villains, race, and historical figures. Narratives emerged that demonstrated comics had evolved into a serious medium that can explore topics that mainstream film or television portrayals avoid. Comics revitalized older Western characters while introducing new, original characters who reflected a more inclusive, multicultural West, reinforcing their connections to the larger Western genre beyond comics while reaffirming their ability to mirror contemporary social interests.

Western Comics in the Formative Period, 1934-1961

The American comic book was officially born when Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications began operation in 1934. Although comics and syndicated newspaper strips predated National's debut, the establishment of National represented the birth of original material created explicitly for the comic book medium. It is little surprise that the early freelance writers who published in National's earliest books, such as New Fun and New Comics, fell back upon tried-and-true genres, including the Western, for their early stories. Titles such as New Adventure Comicsoriginally New Comics, rebranded in 1937featured short Western stories, sometimes even a single page, that mainly told formulaic tales of cowboys versus Indians and other frontier narratives.

The superhero genre dominated industry giants such as National Allied Publications and Timely Publications, the predecessors of DC Comics and Marvel Comics, respectively, throughout the Golden Age of comic books (c. 1938-1954). Western characters such as Vigilante (debuted in 1941) and Tomahawk (1947) did sporadically appear alongside mainstream leaders such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and comics featuring licensed Western figures, as opposed to original comic book creations, shared the same shelves as the Golden Age superheroes. Gene Autry Comics was a regular staple from its inception in 1941 through its cancellation in 1959, and Roy Rogers Comics ran from 1944 through 1961. Comics such as Red Ryder Comics (1940-1957), Hopalong Cassidy (1943, 1946-1959), and Tom Mix Western (1948-1953) rounded out the early Western comics craze. Interestingly, the appearance of original American Indian characters as foils for superheroes predated the introduction of stock cowboy heroes and book titles of the late 1940s and early 1950s. One storyline in All Star Comics (1940-1951) featured its Justice Society of America stopping an attempt by Nazis to infiltrate a Native American reservation in the West.

Because superheroes became intrinsically tied to World War II, the war's conclusion in 1945 led to declining superhero comic book sales when comic book publishers immediately shifted focus to accommodate the emerging Western craze that was reflected in film and television, transforming titles such as All-American Comics (1939-1948) and All Star Comics into All-American Western (1948-1952) and All Star Western (1951-1961), respectively. DC Comics' own Western Comics (1948-1961) would also be a premier venue for such stories. With characters such as Pow-Wow Smith, Wyoming Kid, Nighthawk, Rodeo Rick, and Matt Savage, Trail Boss in the DC Comics stable and the Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt, the Apache Kid, the Ringo Kid, and the Rawhide Kid starring in Marvel Comics titles such as Red Warrior (1951) and Two-Gun Western(1950-1952), original Western comic book stories found an eager audience in American children, who saw the West reinforced in television and film adaptations. Historical Western storylines based on fact also became popular, as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and Buffalo Bill Cody saw a resurgence in popularity in series such as The Legends of Daniel Boone (1955-1957) and Frontier Fighters (1955-1956).

Even the superhero comics were not immune to the Western craze of the postwar decades. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and even Batman all had Western-themed adventures throughout the 1950s. Although superhero comics had taken a backseat to Western books in the early 1950s, the introduction of newer heroes ushered in the Silver Age of American comics, which lasted from 1956 to 1970. While this shift initially had little effect on how the West and Western characters were portrayed in comics, it did signify a decrease in Western-themed books as superheroes reasserted their dominance. By the early to mid-1960s, most of the top Western anthology comics had been canceled, though individual titles such as Rawhide Kid (1955-1979) and Kid Colt Outlaw (1948-1979) successfully continued into the 1970s.

Western-themed comic productions did have a second life, but one that came in masquerade and from an unlikely source: space. Space-themed comic books of the early decades of the twentieth century borrowed heavily from the tropes of the American West. Instead of gallant cowboys, space comic book heroes, such as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, were space travelers who fought aliens instead of Indians but still rescued their female love interests from danger.

Western Comics Reborn, 1968-1985

Taking a cue from the shift in content in Western films such as Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and Little Big Man (1970), as well as the social upheavals of the era, comics began to reflect a new approach to the Western genre. The American Indian character Firehair first appeared in 1969 in DC Comics' Showcase (1956-1970, 1977-1978), which had also premiered the Western character Bat Lash a year earlier. Firehair later became a backup feature in Tomahawk (1950-1972). Even the classic title Tomahawk was not immune to the shifts in perception regarding the Western hero and issues of race, as themes of prejudice, sexuality, and bigotry began to appear in its pages.

In 1970, DC Comics resumed publication of All Star Western (1970-1972; rebranded Weird Western Tales 9 1972-1980), introducing characters such as Outlaw, El Diablo, and, most importantly, Jonah Hex. Far more violent and brutal than before, these early 1970s stories featured characters reminiscent of Eastwood's "Man with No Name." Marvel followed suit in 1971 by introducing the bizarre character Red Wolf, who eventually received his short-lived series from 1972 to 1973. Aside from Jonah Hex, the only popular Western figure of the 1970s was Brian Savage, also known as Scalphunter, who emerged in 1977 and eventually became a backup feature in Hex's series. Mounting fan complaints and the lack of innovative storylines ultimately doomed the Jonah Hex series, and the 1970s resurgence in Western comics died off by the early 1980s.

Western Comics' Golden Age Redux, 1997-2011

In the late 1990s, Vertigo began to publish Western miniseries, including a second Weird Western Tales (2001) that primarily featured bizarre storylines, gimmicks, and no-name characters and various series featuring recognizable Western comic book figures such as Tomahawk. The West also featured in DC's annual one-shot issues, which in 1997 were published under the banner "Pulp Heroes: Weird Western Tales" and showcased superheroes engaged in various Western scenarios with American Indian characters such as Pow-Wow Smith and Super-Chief.

The first successful attempt to fuse genres and reinterpret the West featured the preeminent superhero, Superman. DC Comics' The Kents (1997-1998) signified a reimagining of the Superman mythos and a comeback for the Western in mainstream comic books, as historical characters and events were infused into the Man of Steel's legacy. Writer John Ostrander used the popularity of the series to launch a Western miniseries at Marvel, Blaze of Glory (2000), which he later followed with a sequel, Apache Skies (2002). Both miniseries saw a rebirth of classic Marvel Western characters but with far more serious and contemporary social and cultural concerns and plotlines.

In 2005, DC Comics followed the success of The Kents with a relaunch of Jonah Hex, which ran until October 2011 and inspired the 2010 film of the same name. Licensed products also returned in the twenty-first century's first decade with the publication of Dynamite Publishing's Lone Ranger (2006-2011) and the subsequent Man with No Name saga (2008-2009). The original published series included Jason Aaron Scalped, created in 2007 for Vertigo, which showcases an all-American Indian cast and is set in a fictional Lakota reservation in South Dakota.

In the 2020s, Western productions continued to emerge. In addition to adapting to new delivery platforms such as online streaming services, historical Western content melded with twenty-first-century consumer patterns such as "binge-watching" serial productions. Western-themed graphic novels followed suit. Characters such as the bounty hunter High Moon have combined traditional Western figures with other motifs, such as werewolves.

Impact

The Western genre has been the American national narrative of expansion since the foundation of the colonies. This narrative would continue through the subsequent centuries as settlers moved into what would eventually become the continental United States. The flexibility of the Western has allowed the genre to mirror each era's contemporary social, cultural, economic, and political concerns. From art, plays, and high literature to dime novels, international Wild West shows, early cinema and radio dramas, comic books, television, and Hollywood blockbusters, the Western has long been at the core of the American experience in popular culture. Beyond simple cowboy-and-Indian adventures, the Western genre in comics encompasses many themes. These include frontier war, bandits and pirates, vigilantes, and victims, and even the occasional superhero. Perhaps the most multicultural of all genres, the fictional graphic Western showcases the diversity inherent in the historical West as different cultures and ethnicities came together or clashed in the contested spaces between "savagery" and "civilization."

Bibliography

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