Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex

Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex
DC Comics, September 2020

But [what] they [i.e., DC Comics] wanted to do was ridiculous. They wanted to do was take a cowboy character, a Western character, who was a take-off on the Incredible Hulk – exactly like the Incredible Hulk, with a physique like that !  

So I was telling the writer, John Albano, ‘I don’t think I want to do this’…….then they told me, ‘Just design him’. He was a Confederate soldier who survived the Civil War and, if I make him so he’s battle-scarred or something like that, that already gave us a start on how to develop the character. So I did a lot of studies.........’

..........So we said we want to make him an anti-hero, like the Clint Eastwood character. That’s about it. When it was published, a lot of readers said, ‘Well, it’s about time you did a comic book like this !’

-Tony DeZuniga: The CBA Interview, by Shaun Clancy, Comic Book Artist magazine, issue 4, 2004

'Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex' (526 pp.) was published by DC Comics; the second printing was issued in September, 2020. 

This is a very nice hardbound volume, printed on glossy stock paper with a sewn binding. Its cover price is $75, but amazon is offering it for considerably less (i.e., under $45 as of July, 2021).

This book compiles the appearances of the Jonah Hex character beginning with his debut in 1972 in All Star Western, issue 10, and in Weird Western Tales up to issue 38 (February 1977). It should be noted that the backup stories in these two comics are not included in this volume.

It's worth noting that all of these Jonah Hex stories, and the backup features, have previously been printed - albeit in black and white - in the two trade paperbacks, 'Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Volume 1' (2005), and 'Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex, Volume 2' (2014).

Most of the stories in 'Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex' were written by John Albano and Michael Fleisher. Artwork was provided by the Filipino artists Tony DeZuniga and Noly Panaligan, as well as Rich Buckler, and the Argentinian artists George Moliterni and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

These comics were subject to the regulation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA), but by 1972, the CCA has loosened some of these regulations, and the storylines take advantage of this to depict people being shot (as opposed to having their guns shot out of their hands). There also is a higher level of violence, and a degree of moral ambivalence, that would not have been permitted in the 1960s under the Code.

One thing that is worth complimenting DC on, is that they did not try and re-color these nearly 50 year-old comics. The original color separations were not ideal, but by staying true to the originals, the compilation avoids projecting an 'artificial' quality to the profiled artwork.

The majority of the comics compiled in 'Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex' were designed to have standalone, one-issue plots that had to be completed within 14 to 20 pages, so writers John Albano and Michael Fleisher necessarily deployed compressed narratives, with lots of speech balloons and narrative text boxes. 

That said, these are good stories, all things considered, and it's no surprise that writers Justin Grey and Jimmy Palmiotti 'recycled' some of Fleisher's plots, from his lengthy run with the character, for the 2006 'Jonah Hex' series they did for DC. 

One area in which these comics have not aged well is the decision by writers Albano and Fleisher to phonetically render the 'Southern' dialects of Hex and other characters. Readers will need to negotiate lots of speech balloons filled with words like 'ah' (I), 'yore' (your), 'thet' (that), and 'fer' (for), among others............

While it would seem good business sense for DC to issue additional hardcover volumes compiling the remaining issues of Weird Western Tales, as well as some (or all ?) of the 92 issues of the Jonah Hex comic book published from 1977 - 1985, the current uncertain state of DC as a comics publishing enterprise makes this no sure bet, unfortunately.........   

Summing up, if you're a fan of comic book westerns and Jonah Hex, and with this volume costing less than $45, it's a great time to invest in getting 'Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex', especially with the out-of-print black-and-white Showcase volumes get more and more pricey each few months. 

True enough, in another year (or less) when 'Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex' goes out of print, the speculators and Bookjackers will move in and demand exorbitant prices..........so it's best to Act Now.

[ A rather pretentious review of 'Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex' is available at The Comics Journal website ]