| E-Mail | Introduction | Archives | Message Board | August, 16, 2001 Issue #362 of 1282 |
Title: The Rifleman
Issue: No. 10
Date: Jan. – Mar, 1962
Publisher: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
Cover Artist(s): None
Remember TV’s The Rifleman? Well, after today’s pants-wetting Oddball Comic, you’ll never forget Chuck Connors and his rifle-sized woody!
Y’know, I’ve heard the term “sportin’ a woody” before -- but this…this…this is just plain ridiculous! And the expressions on the faces of Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford just make things worse -- or at least, funnier!
(Seriously, did the concepts of “staging” or “tangents” ever even occur to the publicity photographer who snapped this picture? Or did he actually intend to make visual commentary on the much-rumored, prodigious size of Chuck Connors’ sexual equipment? What’s even worse, (and I realize – or desperately hope – that it may merely be a shadow), this photo cover makes it appear as though rifle-totin’ Chuck has peed in his pants! I guess he can shoot…but his aim sure is lousy!)
This comic is based on THE RIFLEMAN, a long-running (1958 – 1963) and surprisingly grim and violent western “wholesome family drama” that originally aired on ABC. Chuck Connors starred as Lucas McCain, known as “The Rifleman” because of the .44 Winchester rifle he often wielded against various bad guys and criminal elements who threatened the townsfolk of North Fork, New Mexico. A widower, Lucas also had his hands full trying to raise his young son Mark (played by Johnny Crawford.) Other regular characters included North Fork’s marshal Micah Torrance (Paul Fix), Sweeney the bartender (Bill Quinn), storekeeper Hattie Denton (Hope Summers), Millie Scott, proprietor of North Fork’s general store (Joan Taylor) and hotelkeeper Lou Mallory (Pat Blair). Four Star Films produced 168 episodes of THE RIFLEMAN, which was rated the most popular new series of the 1958 – 1959 TV season.
This issue of THE RIFLEMAN, most of which was drawn by cartoonist Dan Spiegle, features three stories, “A Stranger Comes To North Fork”, “Proof Of Guilt” and “The Young Runaway”, as well as the “filler” pages “Winter’s Harvest”, “Getting Started” and “Runaway From Somewhere”.
And check out this great SATURDAY EVENING POST-style back-cover advertisement for “The Most Thrilling New Bike You’ve Ever Seen!” – the Schwinn 5-Speed Corvette!
ODDBALL Factoid – The great Dan Spiegle has drawn nearly every type of comic books – and has drawn ‘em exquisitely – but has drawn only a single comic book story featuring super-heroes! It was Marvel’s one-shot adaptation of the NBC Saturday morning series, SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS (1982 – 1984)! But since his pencil art was inked by Vince Colletta, who knows just how much of Dan’s work actually saw print in the book? After all, Mr. Colletta had the unpleasant habit of often erasing any extraneous pencil art (such as secondary characters and backgrounds) in order to save inking time and thusly meet deadlines faster!
** Here’s a special ODDBALL COMICS twenty-one gun salute to Brent Swanson for alerting me to this issue of THE RIFLEMAN at the San Diego Comic-Con International 2001! **
For more from Scott Shaw!, visit his Web site at http://www.shawcartoons.com/.
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