Growing up, I was a comic book freak. Unfortunately, under the watchful eye of a protective mother, I wasn’t afforded the luxury of reading the things I was really interested in, so it was all generic superheroes for me. No monsters, no aliens and absolutely nothing with guns. That counted out JONAH HEX.
Now that DC Comics has seen fit to release SHOWCASE PRESENTS JONAH HEX: VOLUME 1, I was able to see what I missed. As it turns out, an awful lot. I’m now obsessed with this gunslinger, as well as DC’s new SHOWCASE line. Meant as their version of Marvel’s ESSENTIAL line of affordable reprints in black-and-white, these first SHOWCASE editions sport better covers and better paper. And the more obscure stuff they want to put out, the better.
Hex began his four-color life as just another rotating feature alongside Bat Lash, El Diablo and Pow-Wow Smith in DC’s bimonthly ALL-STAR WESTERN title in 1972. By the 13th issue, however, Hex was pretty much the star of the show, and the name changed to the more apt WEIRD WESTERN TALES. It’s no surprise, because while those other characters are pretty generic, there’s something unique – and decidedly unusual – about Hex, the Civil War veteran anti-hero who’s missing close to half his face, for reasons we aren’t told.
Hex roams from town to town as a for-hire bounty hunter, with allegiances that lie with whoever’s footing his bill. He’s not the most personable fellow (just about everyone gets called “skunk”), but he’s reliable in his skill for plugging bad guys full of holes. Going in, I wondered just how different it could be issue to issue, but luckily, it was. In between the expected showdowns and train robberies, issues of suffrage and slavery surface, and Hex comes across a half-wolf/half-man, some unruly Injuns and big-ass grizzly bears. In one memorable encounter that sums up the Hex character entirely, Hex finds across a wounded wolf, which he takes to the town doc, who is busy patching up some poor sap with a broken leg, whom Hex tosses out a second-story window so the animal can receive immediate care. You gotta love him.
Despite the title, JONAH HEX: VOLUME 1 isn’t 100 percent Jonah Hex. The last 100 pages or so are devoted to a character called the Outlaw, who was the flagship of the ALL-STAR title before Hex rode into town. His seven stories here are more conventional than Hex (and far more baffling, since the character suddenly becomes Billy the Kid without explanation), but still with enough smokin’ gun shenanigans to keep that fun quotient high.
At more than 500 pages and collecting a full five years’ worth of comics, this collection is an absolute bargain. Of course, that point would be moot if the comics weren’t worth reading. JONAH HEX is. If Westerns were as much fun as this, I’d watch Westerns. –Rod Lott
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I read some Hex when I was a kid but that lip with the skin thing always freaked me out. I’m glad DC finally got on the ball and started putting out stuff like Marvel has been doing for years.
Marvel’s ESSENTIAL line is great for getting the obscure stuff that you know wouldn’t see release otherwise, like TOMB OF DRACULA, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and that sort of thing.
But as I mentioned in the review, DC’s SHOWCASE really puts the ESSENTIALS to shame in the design and quality control departments. I love that they’re going obscure (HOUSE OF MYSTERY, METAMORPHO) and *really* obscure (HAUNTED TANK) as well as with the big boys (SUPERMAN, GREEN LANTERN), and hope they continue to do so.
I didn’t read any of the comics in the original western Jonah Hex series, but I had many issues of HEX, this 1984 (I think) revamp that time warped Hex into the post-apocalyptic 21st century–I remember liking it quite a bit and was bummed when they cancelled it (or so I assumed–there was no WIZARD back in the early 80s, so if the supermarket stopped selling it, chances are they did).
I missed out on the post-apocalyptic HEX, but I really liked the Joe R. Lansdale/Tim Truman VERTIGO miniseres from 10 years or so ago. I think VERTIGO just started a new series as well, but I don’t know anything about it.
The new series isn’t from Vertigo, it’s from DC proper. It’s slightly more modern, but it’s not terribly different from the stories in the SHOWCASE book. They’re all one issue stories so you can pick up any issue and not be lost. The most recent issue was even drawn by one of the artists who workd on the original series whose name escapes me right now.
In that case, Eric, I’ll have to pick up the inevitable trade.
The old-school, pre-apocalyptic Jonah Hex is my favorite Western comic of all time. He was nihilistic before it was cool.