Is there a market for Western comics any more? 3 3

[gadzukes]

6 hours ago, Scrooge said:

Thanks. Notice how the swiper was rather lazy. The closed right hand of Cheyenne Kid is lacking the knife. Why not draw it in another position to avoid the awkwardness? It can't be a case of a change to conform to the Code … this is 1959!

Charlton had a couple of series that ran decades including Cheyenne Kid that ran until 1973.

Is the Cheyenne Kid a flat out murderer?  Maybe the closed fist means he's going to punch the guy and knock him out.

[Robot Man]

OK, cheating a bit but I just couldn't resist posting this great Jack Davis cover!

[kaculler]

This one arrived in the mail this week.  I need one more issue to finish the series.

[circumstances]

Was there ever?

[Scrooge]

As this thread has become our go-to thread for Western anything, here goes.

[Scrooge]

Back a couple of years ago, Dr. Love wondered how many Western photo-covers there were. Well, I like neat answers to simple questions. I now know.

But, first, let's set up the picture.

From 1937 to December 1959 (my arbitrary cut-off), I counted 4,276 Western comics. Here is their timeline.

Peak Western occurred in 1951. It took a looooong time to get there. It's not until 1947 that publication count starts to double almost annually to skyrocket to a towering 573 Western comics published in 1951.

Western gradual decline was not a smooth one. We get a second hump in 1954 - 1955, which we'll explain soon.

 

[Scrooge]

There are about 3 types of Western comics.

FIRST TYPE: Straight series of pure Westerns.

That's the bulk of the Western comics. They represent 3,896 comics across 322 series from 44 publishers.

These are the Westerns we know and love. Examples are:

[Scrooge]

SECOND TYPE: Western comics from non-straight Western series

That's the balance of the count. They represent 380 comics across 17 series.

There are two sub-types:

a. Anthology series with Western comics included. The main "culprit" is of course Four Color Comics. On its own, it accounts for 277 out of the 380 comics in this category. There are others: Classics Illustrated (15 within the series) for one but also most movie anthology series including the John Wayne series.

b. Series that change focus mid-way without changing titles. That's your Thrilling and Exciting.

Examples:

Edited April 21, 2019 by Scrooge

[ComicConnoisseur]

On 3/8/2019 at 2:12 PM, Marty Mann said:

Pictures of the cast from the TOM MIX Radio Show.

 

Glad to see the world has grown up a little since than.

 

Edited April 21, 2019 by ComicConnoisseur

[Scrooge]

THIRD TYPE: though these are not included in the 4,276 count above, they deserve mention. There are 157 non-Western comics with a Western cover from 35 series.

These are common in the early years of the period. They are comics from anthology issues that happen to select the Western story as the cover story.

Most are obvious as these are:

Some, not as much, like these two.

This is not a western comics as it contains Alley Oop, Captain Easy, Freckles, etc. -

This is a western comics, once it drops the non-western reprints -

Other examples would be Treasure Chest, Star Ranger, etc.

[ComicConnoisseur]

On 2/26/2019 at 2:36 PM, gadzukes said:

I bought a small collection of about 30 GA western comics.  I would normally run the other way but these are all stunningly high grade for early '50s comics. I'm sure with a press that every single one of these could grade out 9.0 and higher.  There's no key-issues (is there such a thing as a western key issue?).

I feel like I got a pretty good price (about $20 each), but now I'm pondering if I should do the full press and slab for all of them.  That would add at least another $35-$40 for each comic in my cost.  

Any ideas?

Is there still enough of a market to invest more $ into slabbing these?

It`s a niche. You got to think all the big players are dead . Autry, Rogers and what Hopalong died about 50 years ago?

Most of the western fanbase has aged out. Maybe in the 1990s they might have had some juice.

Also the king of westerns Lone Ranger was a box office bomb and that was by Disney. If Disney couldn`t make western heroes popular with mainstream than nobody can.

I will say though if any western heroes have a shot it would maybe be the Marvel silver age western heroes like Two Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt just because they were Stan Lee creations and eventually might show up in the Marvel movies.

[Scrooge]

As usual, the market is not evenly distributed with some publishers taking the lion's share of the market. Yes, Dell is the clear winner in term of quantity. The drop-off is clear in the following table rounding out the Top 7 publishers of the genre. The Percentage column indicates the percentage of the total number of Westerns published over the time period.

Behind Avon, there is a group of 10 companies with a total output from 40 to 70 comics, ranging from Hillman (68) to Fox (40).

[Scrooge]

Dell's dominance, once established, was only briefly challenged by Fawcett until it disappeared from the stands.

Along with the largest # published by a single company annually, I list the series with the most issues per year that year. During the heyday (or should that be hay-day), these series were monthly. Given the schedule for Four Color, it's not surprise that they accounted for more than the Lone Ranger / Roy Rogers / Gene Autry series most years. 

[Scrooge]

Ahh. The answer to that long-ago question.

By my count, there were 1,353 Western photo-covers or 32% of all Westerns. Essentially what everyone guessed without having to count 

Dell + Fawcett accounted for 85% of all photo covers.

An astonishing 86% of Fawcett's Westerns had photo-covers and over half of Dells do as well.

 

[Scrooge]

By my count, there were 523 Western painted covers or 12% of all Westerns.

Dell, by far, gifted us with Western painted covers. 36% of Dell Westerns have painted covers and 100% of Ziff-Davis' 13 Westerns have painted covers.

 

[SLR5]

On 4/19/2019 at 9:02 PM, kaculler said:

This one arrived in the mail this week.  I need one more issue to finish the series.

Love the great Roy.  Nobody could sing like he could.  His group the Sons of the Pioneers were one of the best old-time western bands of all time.  Even the great Pete Seeger would include some of Bob Nolan songs on his records.  Happy Trails, Roy.  You and 
Dale were the best.

[Scrooge]

DELL - Unabated production.

Westerns are 1,235 comics out of the 4,138 comics Dell produced over the time period, or 30% of all Dells.

As you see below, Dell's Western count keep on rising through the period. As TV Westerns come on the scene, the number of Western continue to rise in Four Color and individual series with a greater emphasis on photo-cover once the TV series arise. Still, the high watermark in term of percentage of annual output dedicated to Westerns remains 1951, the height of the Western craze.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2019 by Scrooge

[Scrooge]

FAWCETT - Gone by 1954

Westerns are 577 comics out of the 1,942 comics Fawcett produced over the time period, or 30% of all Fawcetts.

The main culprit of the dip in 1954 is the disappearance of Fawcett in the market. Fawcett was also swept up in the craze of 1951 when close to 60% of its output were Westerns.

Edited April 21, 2019 by Scrooge

[Scrooge]

CHARLTON - 

Westerns are 381 comics out of the 1,349 comics Charlton produced over the time period, or 28% of all Charltons.

Though Charlton published comics as early as 1944, they only become active across the board circa 1954. This incline helped stem the drop in Western output at the time, esp. as they picked up series from Fawcett. At the same time, Farrell also became active, acting as a replacement for Fawcett's missing output.

Since most of Charltons were published later in the period, a period of lower interest to me, I don't really have representative copies to share.

[Scrooge]

MARVEL - The House that the Kids built.

Westerns are 572 comics out of the 3,847 comics Marvel produced over the time period, or 15% of all Marvels.

Marvel's "love" for Westerns kick-starts up again post-code as an alternative to lost production. Marvel sticks to a healthy percentage of Westerns even when production becomes capped. Marvel's switch to Western also accounts for the uptick in 1954-1955.

An assortment of many Kids -