Once upon a time, believe it or not, the Western genre of cowboys and gunfighters were more popular than super-heroes. The later Golden Age, especially the period right after World War II ended, saw a decline in the fascination with super-heroes. By 1948, for example, the change was so evident that DC had to rename its once popular Super-hero title All-American Comics to All-American Western (starting with issue #103). From Gene Autry to Roy Rogers and from Johnny Thunder to Tomahawk, it’s hard for readers of modern comics to appreciate how many successful cowboy titles there were.

The cowboy trend would persist until the early 1960s, but it began to decline at that point. These days Westerns are definitely out of fashion (but they are still probably produced more frequently than War or Romance comics, well definitely more often than Romance comics). Are there any classic Western series still valuable and worth picking up?

Although Westerns are not my favorite genre, there are select Westerns that I will pick up for either story or art (some my favorite artists like Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Neil Adams and Joe Kubert did work on Westerns), and there are some characters whose stories are set in the Wild West that are among my favorites.

In what follows I will list what I think are the top five classic Western Comics worth picking up if you can find them.

5) Showcase #76 (August 1968) – First Appearance of Bat Lash

Bartholomew “Bat” Aloysius Lash is probably one of the stranger cowboy characters. Created by Sergio Aragonés and Nick Cardy, Bat Lash was more interested in chatting up the ladies than in getting into a shootout. If he did have to fight, he could hold his own. But gambling and romancing were his favorite past times. The highest graded copy of this comic (a 9.8) sold on ComicLink for $727.00 in June of 2010. Otherwise, most frequent sales are of 9.4 and of these the average sale price is holding steady at the $260.00 range.

4) All-American Comics #100 (August 1948) – First Appearance of Johnny Thunder

Next comes a comic already mentioned above, which just before it became an all Western title, introduced the cowboy gunslinger Johnny Thunder. All-American Comics #100 is the first appearance of Johnny Thunder. The son of a Sheriff and a school teacher, Johnny Tane was known as Johnny Thunder and rode a black horse that he called Black Lightnin’. Not really enough data to say how this comic is faring with speculators or collectors, but an 8.5 graded copy sold on Heritage for $836.50 in November of 2012, so it's worth seeking out.

3) Two-Gun Kid #1 (March 1948) - First Appearance of Two-Gun Kid

The original Two-Gun kid was Clay Harder, later characters would also take up the name. As his name implied, he was adept at shooting with two pistols and kept himself alive with his gun slinging prowess. There are 35 copies of this comic on the CGC census with the highest known copy at the 9.4 grade. Like all Golden Age comics, this is not easy to find but if you can get a high grade copy, one of those 9.4 could be worth up to $5,019.00 (the price of the last sold copy on Heritage in August of 2015). Best returns over the last few years have been on 3.0 grades, which went from $124.00 in 2013 to sales of $300.00 by 2015, a positive roi of + 141.8%.

2) Rawhide Kid #1 (March 1955) - First Appearance of Rawhide Kid

Written by Stan ‘the Man’ Lee and drawn by Joe Maneely, this is a classic cowboy character. The Rawhide Kid was an ally of the Two-Gun Kid (they often fought together), and he was active in the American South West in the 19th century. For some inexplicable reason Marvel decided to bring this character back in 2002 but instead of focusing on his daring or gun shooting ability they made his sexuality the main attraction (it turns out the character was supposed to be gay). Unfortunately since the stories were badly written and just not that good, the relaunch didn’t do well and was quickly cancelled. A 7.0 copy of the original, and much better version, sold as recently as February, 2018 for $2,031.50. Best returns are on 5.0 grades, the last sale of which raised an impressive $690.00, giving this book a positive return of + 316.7% on investment since 2003. Not too bad.

1) All Star Western #10 (March 1972)- First Appearance of Jonah Hex

John Albano and Tony DeZuniga’s Jonah Hex is one of my favorite comic characters. I’ve written about his key comics before (here), but in this post I will just say that the first appearance of this weirdest of western heroes is a key worth seeking out. The early seventies saw a strange phenomenon after the Comics Code authority was relaxed. There was a simultaneous reappearance of horror and Westerns. We could call this the ‘Bronze Age Weird West movement’. Jonah Hex stands out among these weird cowboys for the great stories and art his comic consistently produced. As great as Marvel’s original Ghost Rider was (Ghost Rider #1), the moral horror generated in the best Jonah Hex stories can’t be beat. This Bronze Age comic is currently not hard to find, but finding it in high grade for an affordable price is another matter. A 9.8 sold for $4,723.00 on ComicLink in May of 2018. Best returns ares still on 9.4 grades which are up + 40.1% over the last ten years and will cost you around $1,300.00 to own.