Red Ryder Comics #53

(December 1947)

Red Ryder Ranch (Table of Contents: 1)

Red Ryder / text article / 1 page (report information)

Script

Fred Harman (signed)

Pencils

Fred Harman (signed)

Inks

Fred Harman (signed)

Letters

Fred Harman (signed)

Genre

non-fiction; western-frontier

Characters

Fred Harman; Cass Hough; Bob Wesley; Kit Hough

Synopsis

Letter and photos from Fred Harman

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 2)

Red Ryder / comic story / 16 pages (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

Fred Harman ? (signed) (see notes)

Inks

Fred Harman ? (signed) (see notes)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Hi, Sheriff!

Genre

western-frontier

Characters

Red Ryder; Little Beaver; Sheriff; Bart; Hitch

Synopsis

Two robbers just seem to disappear after each job. Red will search the hills and the sheriff will take care of the town.

Indexer Notes

Since Fred Harman used ghost artists on the Red Ryder comic book, this one could be by John Hampton. The horses seems very similar to some in a Gene Autry Whitman book. The heavy inking may be an imitation of Fred Harman.

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 3)

King of the Royal Mounted / comic story / 12.75 pages (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

Jim Gary (signed); ?

Inks

Jim Gary (signed); ?

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Eeoof! Am I tired!

Genre

adventure; western-frontier; detective-mystery

Characters

Telecomics Kid; King; Kid; Bulky; Doc; Merry

Synopsis

King and Kid are on the trail to the diamond thieves' hideout.

Indexer Notes

Signed on page eleven.
The two first pages show the Telecomics Kid turning on the TV to have a look at the King story; the last page has them seeing & talking about the end of the story.

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 4)

statement of ownership / 0.25 page (report information)

Script

F. J. Leyerle (credited) (business manager)

Letters

typeset

Little Beaver's Bull Session (Table of Contents: 5)

Little Beaver / text story / 3 pages (report information)

Script

Gaylord Du Bois (sourced)

Pencils

Bill Ely (sourced)

Inks

Bill Ely (sourced)

Colors

?

Letters

typeset

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Red Ryder knotted a rope surcingle around the great bull's chest, and turned to the two Navajo kids who perched on the corral gate.

Genre

western-frontier

Characters

Little Beaver (Navajo youngster); Po-ko (Navajo youngster); Red Ryder (rancher); Bull; second bull; rustler in tree; Jase (other rustler in tree)

Synopsis

Po-ko dares Little Beaver to mount the wild bull that Red had tied to the post, and ride him. The bull breaks free with LB atop. A wild ride up into Kettle Canyon. Horns clash as heads butt, a challenge by another wild bull. LB is thrown. He sees Red's cow, dead, steaks fried, the guns. A disembodied voice calls for him to get the rifle. The bulls' fight ends. The nude rustlers treed while bathing are now LB's prisoners, recompense for losing Red's bull.

Indexer Notes

Du Bois entry states: "Little Beaver's Bull Session. Text for Red Ryder Comics #53. Sent July 8, 1947."

The illustration of the rustlers shows them clothed in boots, pants, suspenders, shirts; the text describes them as nude, treed by the bull after coming from bathing in the brook, their pants and boots picked up by Little Beaver.

Du Bois identifiers:
• Language: "surcingle" (a strap that fastens around the animal's girth. A surcingle may be used for ground training, and some types of in-hand exhibition, to stabilize the rider's weight); "taking his courage in his teeth" (To take his courage in his teeth, winning a fear; dare); "crags" (a steep or rugged cliff or rock face); "cedar brakes" (brake: An area overgrown with dense brushwood, briers, and undergrowth; a thicket); "in and out of gulches, over rim rock, up and down slopes that would daunt a wild horse ("gulch: n. a deep, narrow ravine, esp. one marking the course of a stream or torrent" - thefreedictionary.com; "Rimrock is the sheer rock wall at the upper edge of a plateau, canyon, or geological uplift" - Wikipedia; "A slope is the rise or fall of the land surface ... easy to recognize in a hilly area. ... climbing from the foot of a hill toward the top, this is called a rising slope ... downhill, this is a falling slope" - fao.org Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations); "outcroppings" ("visible exposures of bedrock are called outcroppings" - nationalgeographic.org); "scrub trees" (scrub oak, any of several small shrubby trees in the beech family, native to dry soils in North America. ... The Rocky Mountain scrub oak grows up to 30 feet tall" - britannica.com); "from a wooded ravine" ("ravine: a narrow, steep sided crevice, smaller than a valley, larger than a gully, formed by the action of running water" - allthingsnature.org); "grub-hooks" ("grub hooks n. [1920s+] (US) fingers or hands" Cassell's Dictionary of Slang googlebooks.com)

• Animals: "the great bull's chest"; "that ornery brute"; "the bull---a fierce long-legged, long-horned, old outlaw"; "An old 'mossy-horned' wild bull"; "Grunting and snorting, the long-horn fought the rope that bound his head to the post"; "like a wildcat"; "the old 'mossy-horn' went into convulsions"; "the half-ton brute headed for the open range"; "slopes that would daunt a wild horse"; "his tail was kinked over his back, and his great head swung low. He was still mad"; "another bull was challenging"; "the second bull was a whopper, too"; "jabbing his horns into the dust and pawing earth up over his back"; "a dead cow"; "they surged in a battle of giants."

• Peoples of the World: "the two Navajo kids who perched on the corral gate"; "Navajo kids---like any other kids--- are that way."

• Nature: "Kettle Canyon"; "the open range"; "the crags and cedar brakes of wild Kettle Canyon"; "brush and tree limbs whipped"; "Dust rose and loose stones flew"; "in and out of gulches, over rim rock, up and down slopes that would daunt a wild horse"; "Kettle Canyon's rocky sides rose now on either side. This was country so broken with jagged outcroppings of rock and choked with scrub trees"; "a wooded ravine"; "beyond him was a little stream"; "near the brook"; "a cautious voice called from somewhere in the tree"; "the man in the tree."

• didacticism: "The knots held. But they had been so cleverly tied that a single hard jerk on the rope's end that led to the surcingle would free the captive."

• Race: "'Hey, Injun!' a cautious voice called"; "the little brown warrior"; "the two rustlers stood scowling ... 'Listen, Injun,' one of them growled."

[The Shepherd's Sacrifice] (Table of Contents: 6)

The Kiyotee Kids / comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

Gaylord Du Bois (sourced)

Pencils

Harry Parkhurst (signed) (Signature found on page 8 at bottom right of panel 7 of 7 (last panel).)

Inks

Harry Parkhurst (signed) (Signature found on page 8 at bottom right of panel 7 of 7 (last panel).)

Colors

?

Letters

Harry Parkhurst (signed) (Signature found on page 8 at bottom right of panel 7 of 7 (last panel).)

First Line of Dialogue or Text

On Ted Lucas's horse and wearing Ted's clothes, Pepe the sheep herder hears the approach of unknown riders.

Genre

western-frontier

Characters

Pepe Fulano (a shepherd); Ted Lucas (Kiyotee, kid); outlaws' horses (referenced); Gib (a Selden outlaw); Silk Selden (bank robber, gambler, killer); outlaw gang; Pepe's / Ted's horse (word balloon); Billy Haynes (Kiyotee, kid); Sandy Rivers (Kiyotee, kid); Sheriff Simms; "Judge" Tobey (a Selden outlaw); flock of sheep; Sheep 1 (word balloon); Sheep 2 (word balloon); Standing Horse (Apache); Sheriff's posse's ponies (referenced)

Synopsis

The outlaws shoot Pepe. He rides wounded to get Ted's message through. He bleeds out. Billy finds him, and Ted's message. He buries Pepe, rides back, alerts Sandy: Ted is a spy in the enemy camp, disguised as a sheep herder. She worries for Ted, writes a Coyote note to the sheriff. Ted hears Silk plan a bank job raid on Alkali Town tonight. Silk binds him. An Apache frees Ted, requests a sheep. Ted gives two. Coming on the sheriff, Ted says he's Pepe, the outlaws have passed them in the night: return to Alkali. The sheriff, thinking it's Pepe's ghost, complies. Ted finds Pepe's grave.

Indexer Notes

Du Bois entry states: "Kyotee Kids. 8p. For Red Ryder Comics #53. Sent May 28, 1947."

Written as an 8-page story, it presents in 49 panels with panels per page as 6-6-6-6-6-6-6-7.

This story is rich in Christian metaphor, and Christian religion generally, which are very Du Boisian. The good shepherd dies, bleeding out, to get the message through that will save the people from the evil one. The sheriff believes he's hearing the dead shepherd's ghost (a resurrection of sorts). The shepherd calls on God. Billy references God.

Du Bois identifiers:

• FOREIGN LANGUAGE (Spanish): "Senor Ted"; "Pronto! Pronto!"; "Dios mio... Help! I bleed"; "But ze note from Senor Ted"; "Senores! Por favor!"; "Si! Take two sheep Standing Horse! And thanks! Adios, amigo! I've got business in town!"; "Senores! Un momento! Wait!"

• RACE / PEOPLES OF THE WORLD: "A Mexican kid! Plumb dead!"; "..they killed a Mexican sheepherder..."; "There's a Mex kid herding sheep on the mesa"; "the figure noiselessly approaching"; "No spik Mexican. My name Standing Horse...Apache..."

• ACCENTS, SYNTAX, IDIOMS: "These trees weel hide me"; "Ted, he say, Look out"; "We've got...grub and hosses"; "Zey try to keel"; "...ze note...mus' not be lost! I mus' not die..."; "Bellerin' bullfrawgs! THIS MEANS WAR!"; "W'at 'ave I done for theese?"; "No spik Mexican...Me see-um bad mans tie you up"; "Standing Horse hunt-um deer on this mesa...no find-um ... Mebbeso you give-um me one sheep? Me poor mans..."; "Unh! Heap strong business...make-um sheep herder move so fast!"; "With those lawdogs out of town, the place will be ours tonight!"; "I am Pepe Fulano Senor Shereeff. I 'ave word from ze Coyote zat Seelk Selden's gang weel rob ze Alkali bank tonight."; "Never mind zat, Senor! You mus' queekly turn back to town wiz your men. Ze outlaws, zey have pass you in ze dark."; "Galloping gophers! That's his GRAVE! No wonder Simms tho't..."

• RELIGION: "Dios mio"; "You gave your life to get this message through, Pepe. I reckon only God can pay you for that."; "We've g-got no argument with a...uh...GHOST!"

• FULLY REALIZED FEMALE CHARACTERS: BILLY: "I SAW Selden shoot up Broken Bow. And now Ted has made himself a spy in the enemy's camp, so he can help the law trap them. SANDY: "And maybe they've killed him, by now. Oh Billy, I'm worried sick!"; BILLY: "Worrying won't help Ted! We've got to send the sheriff a Coyote message and make it STRONG!"; SANDY: "That's just what I'm doing, Billy Haynes!" cut to later back in town SHERIFF SIMMS: "HUH? A note... SIGNED BY THE COYOTE!"

• ANIMALS INTRINSIC TO PLOT: "On Ted Lucas's horse"; "hears the approach of unknown riders"; "Pepe's horse whinnies a greeting. 'Ho-ho-ho-ho!'"; "Those tracks were made by a horse RUNNING HARD!"; "It isn't a real grave...but these rocks will keep the buzzards from bothering him."; SELDEN: "Sheep! Blast 'em where'd they come from?"; SHEEP 1"Ba-a-aa"; SHEEP 2"Baa-a"; CAPTION: "Three miles from town Selden's gang pulls up short."; SELDEN: "Whisht! Horses coming this way boys. Ride into the gulch and let 'em pass."

Here, animals serve as a tip-off to each side. The hoofbeats of the gang's horses tip Pepe off to their approach. Pepe's (Ted's) horse's greeting tips the gang off to his presence. The tracks of Pepe's (Ted's) horse tip Billy off to Pepe's corpse. The bleatings of Ted's sheep tip the gang off to his presence. The hoofbeats of the sheriff's posse's ponies tip Selden off to their presence.

• NATURE: "These trees weel hide me"; "behind a screen of cedars'; "A rider---behind those trees! Get him, boys!"; "I want to see everybody at the spring right now!"; "the mesa"; "hunt-um deer on this mesa"; "Ride into the guch."

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 7)

Panamint Patty / comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

Dan Gormley (signed)

Pencils

Dan Gormley (signed)

Inks

Dan Gormley (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Oh, thu grey-haired muther...

Genre

humor; western-frontier

Characters

Panamint Patty; Bareface; Gatney; Little Neck

Synopsis

Two outlaws are sneaking up on Patty when he plays the guitar and sings.

Indexer Notes

© 1947 by Dan Gormley

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 8)

Red Ryder / photo story / 1 page (report information)

Script

Fred Harman (signed as Fred Harman)

Pencils

Fred Harman (signed as Fred Harman); ? (photos)

Inks

Fred Harman (signed as Fred Harman); ? (photos)

Letters

Fred Harman (signed as Fred Harman)

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Here's more Red Ryder Ranch photos...

Genre

western-frontier

Characters

Kit Hough; Cass Hough; Fred Harman; Lola Harman; Chief Langworhty

Synopsis

Photographs from the Red Ryder Ranch with comments.

Fred Harman, creator of Red Ryder... (Table of Contents: 9)

illustration / 1 page (report information)

Pencils

? (photo)

Inks

? (photo)

Colors

? (photo)

Letters

typeset

Genre

western-frontier

Characters

Fred Harman; Thunder (horse)

Indexer Notes

Back cover.