Wild Western Action (Skywald, 1971)

Mini Post

Wild Western Action: Featuring the Bravados, issues 1-3, published in 1971 by Skywald, a company better remembered by today’s readers for their horror magazines.

The reason I purchased these was because the headline feature, The Bravados, was written by Len Wein, a writer I’m a fan of due to his run on Thor, but it was also drawn by Syd Shores, which I have to say, seemed like a great combination.

These comics are about fifty pages, and I was surprised to find that only around eleven pages of each comic is the Bravados feature. The first two issues are an origin tale, bringing together the cast and pitting them against a common enemy. When the individual characters arrive separately at a small town that they have some connection to, instead of finding their friends and family waiting for them, they find the entire town and it’s inhabitants, utterly annihilated. They soon learn what has taken place and vow to work together to see justice done.

The third issue sees our heroes wandering the west and righting a wrong just for the hell of it. The Bravados was pretty good, but I was a little disappointed in the low page count of the strip in each issue. But, there was an up-side to it.

What I didn’t know, prior to my purchase, was that the remaining page count was devoted to reprints of some incredible Golden Age western strips featuring a host of great talent and iconic characters.

You’ll see classic characters such as the Durango Kid, Billy Nevada (originally Billy the Kid) & Rio Vegas brought to you by the likes of Don Heck, Mike Sekowsky and the fantastic Fred Guardineer.

This was a real treat for me, I’m a sucker for the Golden Age and who doesn’t like a shoot-out. So, yes, I was very pleasantly surprised by Wild Western Action and whilst I appreciate that Golden Age Westerns aren’t to everyone’s taste, this is a great introduction covering a range of characters and creators. And best of all, it won’t cost the earth to add it to your comic box.

Mad Thinker Reads……..

Rugged Men In Memorable Hats.