At right, an image from All Star Western #103. A great example of Kane doing pencils and inks. The DC western stories weren't realistic at all, but the art by the likes of Kane, Infantino, et al made up for the vapidity of the stories. Of course, most comic book western stories weren't realistic in these pre-Wild Bunch days, but they were entertaining enough, I guess.
Those comics were done strictly for children. As such, they were very innocent from a more innocent age.
ReplyDeleteI knew one of the writers who created stories for DC during that period--mainly for western titles. A very sweet man named Ryerson Johnson.
A bit of a paradox, as comics now are allegedly written for adults, and fail at that, but aren't really suited for children either. It takes talent to write stories that appeal to various age groups from children to adults. I mean, it's been done, but it's not being done all that often nowadays. Although, to be honest, it's been several years since I've been to a comics shop, perhaps that's not even true, now.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree that most of western comics of the Golden Age were pretty simple and directed at children. On occasion, a few of them got a little darker, even though still aimed at maybe-older kids. I was surprised to see a post-code BLACK RIDER story where the hero hurls the villain to his grisly death.
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