Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Saturday, August 6, 2016

TODAY'S COMIC BOOK : FEARLESS DAVY CROCKETT #3

I can't tell you much about this comic book.  It's undated.  It comes from Australia.  It's printed in black and white.  I have no idea who the artist is.  I have no idea who the writer is.  I have no idea if it was reprinted from another source.  I do know that Davy's coonskin cap looks like it had a tussle with live electric socket -- which is probably why you don't see many people wearing a coonskin cap.

In "The Pennsylvania Rifle," Davy meets a man who could outshoot him.  Horrors!  Either the man is a better shot, or he has a much better rifle,  Turns out it's the rifle -- a new-fangled one made in Pennsylvania.  So Davy starts walking to PA.  Davy gets the rifle and names it "Old Betsy."   On his way back home Davy comes across a town that's having a fair day -- with dancing (not interested) and contests (ooh. contests!  Including wrestling and shooting).  This is a chance for Davy to test his new rifle.  He's pitted against Bull Munson, the town braggart considered the shoo-in for both contests.  Wonder if Davy will win?  Okay.  So this one is a ho-hum story.

"Forest Runners" -- "evil men with black hearts who preyed on lonesome hunters and bands of trappers...!"  You know they're evil because one has an eyepatch, another has a bad guy's mustache, while a third looks like Abraham Lincoln...oh...wait...I mean, the third has a bad attitude.  Davy leaps into action (literally.  From a tree.) to give them "salt and vinegar" (which is frontier talk for a can of whoop-ass).  All the trappers are happy except the big surly one who looks like Tor Johnson.  Davy's instincts tell him that anyone who looks like Tor Johnson can be up to no good, so Davy again leaps into action -- again from a tree.  Not as ho-hum as the first story, because how could anything with Tor Johnson be ho-hum?

Davy's absent in the next tale, "Ben Norton X Trail Blazer."  The X, I assume, is a trail-blazing mark.  The Delaware Chief Red Bear tells Ben his tribe's tale of woe.  High winds have chased game away and fires have destroyed the tribe's crops, leaving the tribe to face a long, hard winter.  The neighboring Huron's, who had just lost their chief, refused to help.  Speaking for the tribe, a Huron warrior named Martok tells Red Bear that the gods are angry with the Delaware because they killed the Huron chief.  Despite Red Bear's protests that they had nothing to do with the chief's death, Martok refuses to help the Delaware and orders them off Huron land.  Ben sneaks onto 
Huron land with some of Red Bear's men.  They kill thirty deer (I'm hoping one of them was not Bambi's mom) and they Indians head home with the kill while Ben stays behind to wipe out their trail.  Alas, Ben has to use his rifle to kill an attacking bear and the Huron hear the shot and capture him.  Ben is tied to a tree while the Huron throw axes at him.  Evidently, 1) the Hurons are dong this for fun because all of the axes narrowly miss Ben until it is Martok's turn, and 2) the dudes have some mad ax-throwing skills.  Remember that the title of this comic book is Fearless Davy Crockett, but Ben Norton out-fearlesses Davy any day of the week.  I mean, Ben doesn't even break into a sweat with all those axes heading toward him.  Anyway, all's well that ends well, and Martok is made to work for the squaws as a very non-PC, Nineteenth century punishment.

Three stories.  That's it.  Just 28 pages.

Throw a shrimp on the barbie as you peruse this issue.  Enjoy.


http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=28536

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