Gunmaster And Bullet The Gun-Boy!

Once upon a time western heroes ruled the day. Pulps, radio, films, and ultimately television and comics were dominated by the genre which generated hundreds of iterations of the western hero. One of the most distinctive to appear from Charlton Comics, one of the last bastions of the western was Gunmaster. A western hero with a superhero flavor, Gunmaster straddled the transition from the dominance of the one genre into the dominance of the other.

He first appeared in the fifty-seventh issue of Charlton's Six-Gun Heroes which also starred Annie Oakley and Wild Bill Hickock, among others. Quickly though Gunmaster came to dominate the covers and eventually the entire comic. Gunmaster was the masked identity of Clay Boone, a gunsmith who traveled the western landscape plying his trade and seeking justice where he could. Eventually he would need help in this work. More on that below. 

To read Gunmaster's origin story by Joe Gill, Dick Giordano, and Frank McLaughlin go here.

For now enjoy some vintage Charlton covers featuring one of their most distinctive heroes, one who doesn't get a lot of attention. More details to follow as well. 

Eventually the Gunmaster series in Charlton's Six-Gun Heroes was thought to require a boost, and it got it in the addition of the then-obligatory boy sidekick, another element which pushed the series to the superhero side of things. Bob Tellub (ahem...really?) learned of Gunmaster's dual identity and almost immediately was brought into the fold as "Bullet the Gun Boy". He did add a dash of action and the series featured some of the best covers Charlton had to offer thanks to the art of Dick Giordano, Rocke Mastroserio, Pete Morisi and others.

Eventually Gunmaster and Bullet were given their own self-titled comic which lasted four issues.

But given that this is a Charlton publication, it needed some added confusion to the numbering so without missing a beat nor a month, the series adopted the numbering of the old Six-Gun Heroes series in mid-stride.

The series came to an end in 1966 in time to make way for another master of fighting, a martial artist set in World War II by the name of Judomaster. We're familiar with him around these parts.

Gunmaster did not go gently into that goodnight though and one year later in 1967 one more issue of the series was published. And in vintage Charlton fashion they numbered it eighty-nine, a number they'd already used for the debut of the Judomaster series two years earlier.

Sigh. This did prove to be the last hurrah for the western superhero who had managed to eke out an existence on the comic racks for nearly a decade, no mean feat.

To read some delightful Gunmaster and Bullet Boy adventures go here.

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Flips And Counters With Judomaster!

With the seventh anniversary of the Dojo, let me take a moment and talk about the comic book which in many ways inspired this blog -- Judomaster. This site makes it most plain that I have a great affection for that little concoction of Dick Giordano's he dubbed the "Action-Heroes", of which Judomaster is a part despite being set during World War II. The comic produced by Frank McLaughlin under the editorial auspices of  Pat Masulli and Giordano had a distinctive character which set it apart from everything else on the stands. All the "Action-Heroes" had that, something Giordano strived mightily to create in order to find some level of sales success. It didn't work but not for lack of trying.

(Dick Giordano (far right) holds court in the 60's with writers O'Neil and Skeates)

With "Flips and Counters with Judomaster" Giordano attempted to open a line of communication with the fans. That strategy had proven mondo successful for Stan Lee at Marvel and clearly Giordano was attempting to tap into something akin to that popularity with his refurbished Charlton books. In those letters pages in Judomaster and elsewhere, Giordano entered into a robust and surprisingly frank conversation with the fans, treating them with true respect. For all his vibrant personality Stan could come off as glib and sometimes condescending in his letters pages, and DC rarely did it at all and didn't really to understand the whole dynamic. Giordano did get it, and he brought forth something which worked for this young fan.

Letters pages have disappeared in the modern day, losing out to the internet where fans yak incessantly about their favorite comics (this website a case in point of course). But once upon a time they were important, really important in building what we take so much for granted today, real sense of community among comics book fans, a group that often shared isolation and a degree of loneliness all their own.

Here are the letters pages from Judomaster...all of them. 

In this one we meet Judomaster's creator and the artist and writer of the lead feature Frank McLaughlin.

This letters page features a missive from Bill Schelly, a regular contributor and a man who has since gone on to document much of what was happening in the fan press of the time.

This is the only two-page letters section in the comics run, but it was the first issue I ever encountered and so I just assumed two pages was the norm, and was disappointed when I only found one. The candid talk about prices and distribution was fascinating. Dick Giordano was an artist before he became editor and the value of having artists write as well as draw the feature is discussed.

Letters pages were always great places for cross promotion and Pat Boyette's Peacemaker gets a push in this installment.

I get the sense that Stan Lee is getting a mention here in the discussion of dialogue and attempting to get a natural feel. Stan's loquaciousness would seem to be the counter to what is mentioned. Sarge Steel fans really miss that comic and since he's the back up in Judomaster a lot of the page time is devoted to him.

The Action Hero line up is in full swing and you really get a sense that we are talking about a line and not just a single comic book. Giordano really was on to something.

But it didn't last, just like the Action Heroes themselves the letters pages went away and were replaced by the durable one and two-page text pieces which had decorated Charlton comics for many many years. It's a shame really. With the lapse of the letters page the company lost a crucial connection with their fan base and lost an ability to reinforce a sense of a distinctive voice. But for a short time, a sweet moment in comic history they had the lightning in a bottle and were making the most of it.

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Judomaster - The Smiling Skull!

Judomaster #92 is dated December 1966. Frank McLaughlin's name is the sole name listed and I assume he again is responsible for both story and art. 

"Judomaster meets The Smiling Skull" begins right where the last issue ended with the plane carrying Rip Jagger landing in Europe so that he can combat the spy ring he began investigating in the previous issue. Also still aboard that plane is the young Japanese-American boy who learned that Rip Jagger was Judomaster and who helped him in his battle with The Cat. Rip leaves the nameless boy with the MPs at the airbase but he slips away. Rip and his European contact follow a known spy but they are spotted and the spy runs away before being intercepted by the young boy who has followed Rip yet again. The spy captures the kid and uses him to escape. Intelligence reports allow Rip to discover the likely location of the spy ring as well as its leader a man named Rudolf Wolk, more infamously known as "The Smiling Skull". (Note: This villain first appeared in Sarge Steel #3 some years before.) Rip dons his Judomaster gear and is air dropped into the base where he is immediately intercepted by The Smiling Skull and his men. 

The Skull has heard of Judomaster's skills and wants a hand-to-hand duel with him promising him the safety of the boy and himself if Judomater prevails, but with the edge that bright searchlights will be used to diminish Judomaster's eyesight. The two struggle in the glare of bright searhlights, which continue to burn and in fact increase in number and intensity throughout the fight. Ultimately Judomaster knocks out The Skull, but he himself collapses in exhaustion. He is about to be shot by the Skull's men regardless of their bargain when bombs begin to explode around them all. He finds the young boy who he now calls "Tiger" but before they can leave Judomaster reveals that he has gone blind. With this revelation, the story ends. 

The next feature is three pages and is titled "Judomaster's Sport of Judo". In this piece by McLaughlin Judomaster gives detailed instructions in the use of two moves, one called "Kubi-Nage" a head lock throw, and the other called "Tsurikomi-Goshi a lifting hip throw. 

The back up is the second half of the Sarge Steel adventure by Joe Gill and Dick Giordano called File 110 "Case of the Double Agent". The story begins with Sarge and the spy Irena Dubaya on a military base where Dubaya is getting photos of the secure installation with a belt-buckle camera. Sarge is still pretending to be a double agent offering his services to the foreign spy ring. He tries though to turn Dubaya over to the Security chief of the base a Colonel Trask, but it turns out Trask is also a spy and having revealed his true colors Steel is forced to fight Trask saved from a bullet by his steel hand deflecting it. He knocks out Trask, but Dubaya gives him a judo flip and gets him at gunpoint. Then Trask and Dubaya take Steel aboard a jet and overpower the pilots and steal it with the intent of dumping the bodies along with Steel's out the bomb doors. Steel frustrates Trask's attempts to seal him inside a bomb casing using his steel mitt and uses its single-shot .38 gun to do him in. He then uses the hands sleeping gas to overcome Dubaya and take over the plane landing it safely and handing the spies over to the authorities. 

"Flips and Counters with Judomaster" offers up four letters, most complimentary of the comic to date, though a few are not happy with Judomaster's ponytail. There is mention made of the 25-cent comic Fantastic Giants. Of note is that one of the letters is from famous fan Bill Schelly.

 

And that wraps another issue of Judomaster. A few things are apparent at this point in the series. One that the stories will continue from issue to issue with a clear sense of continuity between tales. Also that the continuity will be more strongly enhanced between comic book series as the villain here The Smiling Skull is from another comic to begin with, Sarge Steel #3. This is clearly an attempt by Dick Giordano to build a line-up that feeds across titles and essentially develop a Charlton universe. There will be other examples of these attempts at continuity, some quite cleverly done. 

To read the complete comic book go to this link. 

More Judomaster to come. 

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