This much Rawhide Kid in one go kind of gets old fast, with the constant theme of just how good a gunman the Kid is, and how revered/feared an outlaw he is. But there is still some interesting variety within the genre.
"Gun Duel In Trigger Gap" (RK #19) features the Kid actually falling in love and wishing he could settle down, but of course his outlaw status gets in the way, and he acts heroically in the end to beat some bad guys and leave his potential sweetheart behind.
"Fight Or Crawl, Kid" (RK #19) has the Kid confronted by someone who thinks he can outgun him, demonstrating some impressive shooting, which of course the Kid out-does with no effort.
"The Little Man Laughs Last" (RK #29) has a great splash of the Kid jumping from his horse to a stage-coach. In this one, he demonstrates his bravery compared to some bigger men, but apparent fear of women.
"The Fallen Hero" (RK #29) is the Shane-variation, where the a young boy admires the Kid above his own father. I think anyone who's read/watched enough westerns knows where that leads.
"The Trail Of Apache Joe" (RK #29) has the Kid given one of his periodic chances to clear his name, if he helps bring in the outlaw of the title. If you don't guess that he manages to do the bringing in, but not the name-clearing, you really need to read more westerns...
"The Guns Of Jasker Jelko" (RK #28) the Kid goes up against a travelling carnival's trick shooter this time, a fine enough story made memorable by the joke ending about Annie Oakley.
"When A Gunslinger Gets Mad" (RK #28) is the last story, which features the Kid walking into a bar and ordering a milk. As it almost invariably did in the old west, this led to a good old fashioned barroom brawl, as cowboys tended to take lactose intolerance to ridiculous extremes.
1 comment:
I hope he at least asked for his milk in a dirty glass on the next page.
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