Jonah Hex - Weird Western Tales

[Calenture]

In this October 1973 issue of DC's Weird Western Tales, Jonah Hex shared the comic half-and-half with El Diablo, a Zorro-type character.

The story was about a mean varmint of a jailbird who escaped and poisoned a lot of water-holes, then got a bit turned-around during his flight from bounty-hunter Hex, and guess what he started drinking when he got thirsty?

Before these next two issues appeared, Hex had taken over the entire magazine. Western heroes seemed to have bad luck with their faces, as witness Warren's doomed cowboy character Coffin, who I posted on earlier around here. Exactly what happened to Jonah Hex's face was the subject of several readers' letters, and the comic team had begun investigating the question through their anti-hero's nightmares.

Asked by a youngster: "Mr hex, whut made your face like thet? Wahr you kicked by a mule?" his response was: ""Yep! Then ah shot it...jest like ah shoot young cubs that chatter too much. Now git!"

The premise of the scene with the spiked pitfall was that Hex had been temporarily blinded by an explosion, and naturally had had to kill a number of enemies in sightless self-defence already before this stage of the story.

Scripted by Michael Fleischer and drawn by Tony De Zuniga - the art was taken over by Noly Panaligan by issue 24, who continued to deliver sterling work - this is probably the most readable comic I've ever picked up.

[kale]

Never a big fan of DC comics until this guy came along. I was introduced to him when the series was quite established-so I have no real idea of how he came by the gruesome scar. Unfortunately I only purchased a few issues and they're in a bit of a sorry state...but I know if I spot any on my travels I wont be shy of obtaining a few more.
Thankyou Calenture for evoking some happy memories associated with this varmint. Much obliged...