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.
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.
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."
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."
© 1947 by Dan Gormley