Tales From The Quarter Bin--Swept Under The Rug!!

I know you kids are impressed by new and shiny things,but comic book companies were doing the "give away pamphlets full of features and solicitations" 30 years before DC Nation wandered into our Local Comic Shoppes:

Wait, what was that?

No, it wouldn't.

With hindsight, it's pretty amazing how forgotten Millennium is today.

Now, I'm not arguing that it was a successful story, or even a particularly good one.

But DC put a lot of effort into this event: a weekly main book!! Crossing over into virtually every single other DCU title (even those set 1000 years in the future), making what this preview called a "56-chapter novel"!! All of the big guns involved!! Universe-shaping consequences!!

Well, not so much that last one.

Sure, there have been 3 semi-boots and one full reboot since Millennium. But that hasn't stopped other events from being respected/canonized/fetishized by the modern keepers of the flame.

Despite getting the cover treatment here in Focus #1, there never seemed to be much institutional support from DC's upper echelon. The only real follow-up was the short-lived New Guardians series. Contrast with today, when we've already had 58 series spinning out of Metal (OK, it just seems like that many). DC management seemed to shrug even more than the fans.

Maybe it's because the "revelations" about who were the "secret Manhunters" in each title were so underwhelming--and frequently just plain cheating--that it made the "who was a Skrull" reveals in Secret Invasion look positively brilliant by comparison.

Or maybe it's because Millennium was followed almost immediately by a much, much better crossover event, Invasion, which made it pale by comparison.

Maybe it was because the promised outcome--the creation of a new set of Guardians Of The Universe and the creation of a new race of immortals and Earthling evolving to run the universe--never really happened.

And maybe, just maybe...

...the 80s weren't ready for a team this diverse?

Anyway, Millennium wasn't the only non-starter on the cover of Focus #1:

Oh, poor Focus...

Of course, I just paid 50¢ for a bit of advertising that was free in 1987, so i really shouldn't be mocking anyone...

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Owlhoots?!?

Today I found these two book in the Quarter Bin:

So, what are the odds that I would find two books, right next to each other, that had the hero calling the bad guys "owlhoots" on the cover?

 As it turns out after a little research, it wasn't that unlikely...

Now, it should be noted that I'm sure I missed some. Marvel had an awful lot of damned Western titles, and some of them ran forever. Did you know that Kid Colt Outlaw ran for 229 issues?!?! The Action Comics of Westerns!!

So, yeah, lots of covers to look at, some titles I'm sure that I forgot about, and I was mainly skimming word balloons, so I almost certainly missed some.

It should also be pointed out that the majority of "owlhoots" come from the 1970s reprint covers. Timely/Atlas didn't usually have a ton of word balloons on their covers, and the '60s Marvel titles preferred "coyotes" or "varmints" or "polecats" or just plain "outlaws" as their cover sobriquets.

I'm not sure why that was. The term owlhoot was certainly around long before the 1970s. Was there a recent movie or TV series that made the term particularly popular at the time? Was whoever was editing these mags just especially enamored of the term?

(This is also a good time to mention that man, Marvel had a lot of Western anthology titles at the time. They were pretty much all reprints at the time, but they were obviously still popular enough to justify repackaging into a "giant-size" format to suck up kids' quarters.)

No, I didn't look at any DC western titles. I'll leave that for someone else.

Look, there's a rare example of an owlhoot in a cover caption!!

Anyway, why, exactly, did "owlhoot" come to mean outlaw/bad guy? Why not "falconscreech" or "pigeoncooing"? This website presents a couple of theories:

Outlaws were referred to as “owlhoots.” “Riding the owlhoot trail” referred to a man who had left the straight and narrow to become an outlaw.

One explanation of origin came from a man living in the Indian Territory of eastern Oklahoma around 1870. He claimed the name came about from the Indians in the area using owl hoots to signal danger or someone’s approach.

Another tale goes that outlaws were called “owlhoots” because, when they were getting ready to ambush somebody in the dark, they would imitate the hooting of owls to signal to each other.

Go figure. And don't ask me to explain this one:

Nope, I'm not going to scour comic book covers for the word "crawfish." You're on your own there.

BONUS: What if Peter Parker were raised in the Old West?

Man, if you're an uncle and your name is Ben--CHANGE YOUR NAME NOW!!!

DOUBLE BONUS: Wakanda forever?

T'Challa's great-great-grandfather, no doubt...

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Not Just A Super-Hero Trope!

The following two stories appeared back-to-back in Super DC Giant #S-22 (1971).

First up--the adventures of Johnny Thunder, originally from All-Star Western #97 (1957):

Next reprint in the book--The Nighthawk, from Western Comics #59 (1956):

Yowsa!! Secret identity games, and virtually identical thought balloons (thought balloons!!) for the last panels!!

It's trendy to discount or disparage secret identities as a lame, overused trope of the super-hero genre. And hey, legitimate arguments can be made either way about the value of the idea.

But people tend to forget--the secret identity trope started before super-heroes were ever created.

The Lone Ranger and Zorro were playing that game long before Lois Lane ever tried to figure out who Superman really was.

Westerns didn't originate the "secret identity"--that's largely credited to The Scarlet Pimpernel--and it didn't take long before pulps and radio programs gave us the Shadow and many, many others.

But Westerns, as one of the most popular genres in all media prior to the 1970s, helped to popularize the idea. And, it can be argued, the trope works better with the cowboy opera than many other forms. Smaller populations in the sparsely settled Olde Weste meant a greater chance of an individual being recognized (after all in a city of 8 million, who's going to recognize one nerdy high school student?). The quasi-anarchy as law & order were slow to establish meant that one man had to stand up to powerful forces who could easily take revenge if they knew who he was--or the heo could be jailed and killed by the corrupt justice of the era.

So yeah, rail against super-hero secret identity games if you like. But at least acknowledge that the capes didn't invent the idea--they're just carrying on an older tradition. Hi-Yo, Silver!!

Tales From The Quarter Bin--For Your WWII RPG Needs!!

Here at Slay Monstrobot, we're all about helping you plan fun activities with friends. And so, at no small expense (cough cough Quarter Bin cough cough), we've provided you with some top secret army files to give you a head start on building characters for you WWII role-playing game!

See--it says "Secret Army Files"!! I'm not sure how they ended up in a comic book, but there you are!

We should note that, post-Crisis, we had a retcon that revealed "Mademoiselle Michelle" was an honorary code name named bestowed upon France's top agent, at least as far back as the French Revolution, and continuing in modern day. So feel free to use that tidbit to spice up your player character!!

From DC Super-Stars #15 (1977)

Tales From The Quarter Bin--The Sincerest Form Of Flattery?!?

I know what you're thinking: is this Richie Rich...

...or just an incredible simulation?

A simulation. A very precise, legally actionable simulation!

When Marvel started their imprint for younger readers, Star Comics, they brought in Richie Rich co-creator Warren Kremer as artist and longtime Richie writer Lennie Herman to create the incredibly original and completely not derivative Royal Roy.

See, he's not just another "poor little rich boy"--he's a prince!! Of the nation of Cashelot!! Son of King Regal and Queen Regalia!! With one rich girlfriend and one non-wealthy girlfriend. And...

The best part about Royal Roy was that the entire strip wasn't about the flaunting of excessive wealth. It was also about...

...flaunting monarchy and inherited autocratic power!!

Sadly, in some eyes, that may not having been enough to differentiate Royal Roy from Richie Rich. Indeed, spoilsport Harvey Comics sued Marvel for copyright infringement. Marvel cancelled poor Roy after 6 months, Harvey dropped the lawsuit and starting publishing Richie Rich again after a four year hiatus.

Did you know that over the years, Harvey published over fifty different Richie Rich series? That could have been you, Roy...you oculd have been a contender...

From Royal Roy #3 (1985) & #5 (1986)

Tales from The Quarter Bin--Where The Heck Is Dakota North?

You know whom we haven't seen in awhile?

Dakota North, that's whom we haven't seen for awhile.

You'd think Marvel would be able to find work for a former model turned owner of an international private investigations firm (note the locations of her "card" that serves as the series' logo).

Dakota's own 1986 series lasted just 5 issues, but she became a quasi-regular around the Marvel Universe. She became a regular in the early 90s Cage series; T'Challa hired her to bodyguard his girlfriend. She showed up in Power Pack. She was a regular during Ed Brubaker's run on Daredevil, and had a brief cameo during Waid's run.

But as near as I can tell, she hasn't appeared in a Marvel comic in over 4 years. Four years!! (Maybe she's been investigating what happened to thought balloons...?)

It's no big surprise why that's happened--Jessica Jones came along, and sucked all the oxygen out of the "female P.I" corner of the Marvel Universe.

But they're two very different characters, and despite Jessica's seedy crapulance, she's still a super-hero, and all of her cases, including her current run, involve super-heroes.

You'd think that Marvel would have use for a real "street-level" character, a tough P.I. who helps the normals. Especially in an era when they're under increasing scrutiny to feature female characters--and Dakota was created by a woman (Martha Thomases).

Four years, Marvel--time to protect that trademark!!

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Dutch Treat!!

One of my favoritest things in the world is to find foreign translations of American funny books in the bowels of the Quarter Bin.

For example, who would want to read this drab book...

...when you could read this one instead?!?

Nope, that's not an error, fan--apparently, in Dutch, "Spiderman" is not hyphenated! Go figure!

It's not the most exciting story in the world, even though it does have Rocket Racer...

But it's just silly fun to read this stuff, and give Google Translate a workout.

Also in this issue--a reprint of:

Yup, that original Wolverine mini-series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller...

Yeah, it's the series that gave us the Hand. They suck as much in Dutch as they do in English.

Oh, and there are ads for other reprint comics!

Paul Smith's X-Men stint has been criminally underrated, if you ask me...

Remember these guys?

Remember when Marvel had the Indiana Jones license?

Hey, um...Disney?!? Where's our Indian Jones comics?

And, as often happened, foreign publishers often had rights to more than one American comic company:

What, there's no Dutch word for "Atari"?

The original version of Spectacular Spider-Man #104 is from 1985. Portions of Wolverine #1 & #2 are from 1982. I can't tell you what year Peter Parker De Spektakulaire Spiderman is from, except obviously it's 1985 or later...

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Who The Heck Is Reno Jones?!?

Western comics have never really been my thing. But I always thought I was enough of a Marvel Zombie that I had at least a passing familiarity with all of their gunslingers.

Until I found this in the Quarter Bin:

I had never even heard of Reno Jones before.

In my defense, it was an obscure title, even by Marvel Western standards, and it wrapped up before I started buying comics.

So a little history.

In 1972, Gray Friedrich and Syd Shore debuted The Gunhawks, starring original characters Reno Jones and Kid Cassidy.

The premise: Reno was a slave on the plantation of Cassidy's family. They grew up best friends (I know, I know...).

Cassidy joined the Confederate Army once the Civil War started. The Union Army destroyed the Cassidy plantation, killing almost everyone and kidnapping Reno's lover Rachel. So Reno joined up with the Confederate Army. (Yes, yes, I know).

After the war, they wandered around the country, looking for Ruth, and always just missing her, or not realizing she was there before they left, or...

As you may have noted, Marvel must have thought Reno had bigger star potential, because he clearly dominated the covers.

And then Jones dominated the entire series, as Kid Cassidy was killed! Reno was framed for the killing, and went on the lam.

Which brings us back to this issue:

Some have said that this was a Big Deal, as, to quote the Wikipedia article,

With the next issue, the series was retitled to Reno Jones, Gunhawk, making Jones Marvel's second black character to have his own self-titled series, after Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. (The Black Panther had taken over the lead in the Jungle Action series a few months prior, but the Panther's name was not included in the series' title.)

However, it was a short-lived distinction, as this was the last issue of Gunhawk. And we leave on a pretty good cliffhanger:

 And fin.

The last caption promises us that the story would be followed up:

But that was a damned lie. Western Team-Up did debut the following month...

...but Reno and his story were nowhere to be found.

That was the only issue of Western Team-Up, and Reno's story was never, ever resolved.

Until a 2000 mini-series (which I never read, as I was out of comics at the time), which retconned the Gunhawks stories as "dime store novel" version of what really happened. They were never really friends, Reno himself killed the racist Kid Cassidy, he never found Ruth, and settled down in a western town with a new wife. Until the Klan showed up, and it turns out that Cassidy wasn't dead, and he was head of the Clan, and Reno became the 2nd western Ghost Rider/Phantom Rider, and killed Cassidy for real this time.

I'd say it's surprising that Marvel never did more to revive Reno Jones, given his historical significance and the desire for more diverse characters. Then again, it was a Western title, and modern Marvel has had a best a disdainful relationship with that part of their history.

Still, if someone were to write a story establishing that Reno Jones was an ancestor of Rufus "Super Midnight" Carter, I for one would read the living hell out of it!