Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex

The quintessential Bronze Age old west bounty hunter, Jonah Hex is DC's iconic western hero, with lesser lights like Scalphunter and Bat Lash hiding in the bushes, waiting to ambush on the fringe.Disfigured by a hot tomahawk that 'branded" his face, Jonah Hex stars in comics that owe zilch to the polished super-heroics of the most jaded super teams (I see your smirk, Doom Patrol).An iconic western "thread the needle"/ "last ditch effort," archetypal hero, Hex manages to do the right thing despite a character that, on the surface, proves morally dubious at best, as he roams a volatile post-Civil War universe.Series writer/creator, the great Michael Fleisher, a surrealist at heart, a force to be recokned with, also penned a once-controversial take on The Spectre (set to receive Omnibus treatment soon).Tony DeZuniga accompanies Fleisher on pencils, with a luminary such as Jose Louis Garcia Lopez saddling up later. DeZuniga has Gene Colan's world-weary, dusky, dusty style, suited to the approach.Hex is the Eastwood of the American flicks: "Unforgiven," "Outlaw Josey Wales," and "Pale Rider," rather than the Leone films in which Eastwood essays The Man with No Name.The series does not date, unlike, say, "Enemy Ace."However, recent Hex updates fall flat, often sacrificing story in favor of needless graphic violence in what was already, in the orginal tales, a Hobbesian landscape: nasty; brutal; brief.With luck, DC will cover Hex up to and THROUGH his brilliant 1985 revival, "Hex," still penned by Fleischer. In "Hex," absurd events propel Hex to the 21st century where he becomes a post-apocalyptic warrior.If you do not care for bad-ass, I "reckon ye" may want to pass, and hole up with some "Blue Devil" or "Ambush Bug."

Good western stories

The cover, pages, binding, etc. are all top notch materials. They make this hard cover book very durable and enhances the quality of the artwork. All of the pencils/drawings and ink work have been restored to better than original. The stories, characters, and dialog are also excellent.I've been a Jonah Hex fan since the 1990s and have waited that long for this type of collection to be published in full rich color.If you to are a Hex fan, western comics, fan or even just a western movie/TV fan, you will enjoy this book!

At some point in my early teens, I bought a big stack of old Jonah Hex stories (for 25 cents apiece). For weeks after, I got up early each morning to read a few before heading off to school. When I saw this collection was available, it immediately took me back to thoughts of those days. The book itself is excellent. The main worry I had was that it would be recolored, but they avoided that problem with this one. A few of the early pages are somewhat wavy, maybe because of some slight flaw in binding, but that problem ends before any of the stories begin. Overall, it's been a fun read. I recommend it to anyone looking for a very non-p.c. character. I really hope DC publishes additional volumes, covering the Jonah Hex series.

This book was monumental for the time. It was one of the best written western titles ever- a gritty and violent western written for adults. I was only 7 when I read the first story and I never looked back- it changed comics for me.There unfortunately are no extras. Nothing. Not even an introduction into the development of Jonah Hex. Still, worth the purchase.

I have most of these issues already in black & white reprints and such, but for the first time I no have Jonah Hex “shelf porn”! Big, beautiful, heavy coffee table edition of my favorite gunfighter’s exploits. Quality is primo, with slick, heavy interior pages, nice hardcover, and sweet slipcover too. Great stuff.

This isn't classic literature or great art, but if you are in the mood for a good, violent western comic book, this delivers.

A real western comic with wonderful writing and great pictures .The tales draw you into Jonah Hex,s adventure s.Half way thru and hopeing for the next omnibus.

In 1970s comic books, Westerns were as dead as a louse in a Russian's beard, with only a few reprint titles ticking over in a ghostly half-life. DC's Jonah Hex, however, seriously bucked the trend, lasting 13 years from his 1972 debut (and even then transmogrifying into a horrendously misconceived SF character, before various more on-message revivals in subsequent years).Hex first appeared in the tenth issue of the anthology series All-Star Western in 1972, and appeared in every subsequent issue (with the exception of #15) through to #38, after which he graduated to his own magazine in 1977. But All-Star Western, which changed its title to Weird Western Tales from #12, was pretty much his from the outset. Issues 10-14, and 16-17, were shared with other characters, but he claimed five of the seven covers, and from 18 onwards, he was the only character in the book, with his name was far more prominent on the cover than the magazine's official title.This book contains all of Hex's adventures from All-Star/Weird Western and makes a strong case for this being DC's most consistently strong series of the era. Other titles may have reached greater heights, but they tended to crash and burn very quickly. Hex was never as good as, say, the Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing, or O'Neill and Kaluta's Shadow, but they didn't last long. Hex kept on plugging away, issue after issue, reliably delivering engaging, well-crafted stories with gritty, atmospheric art. There are no absolutely classic stories in this book, but there are lots of very good ones, and the overall level of sustained quality is outstanding.Hex probably lasted as long as he did because, as a comic book Western hero, he was unique. Apart from gimmicky semi-super-heroes like the original Ghost Rider and El Diablo, his predecessors had all been clean-cut good guys, straight out of Saturday morning serials, who, when they shot, made sure they just blasted the guns out of their enemies' hands. Okay, some of them were outlaws, but they'd been framed and were fighting to clear their names.Hex, by contrast, took advantage of the popularity of the cynical, brutal Italian westerns of the 1960s and the relaxation of the Comics Code censorship system in 1971. Far from clean cut, he was a hideously scarred bounty hunter, short-tempered, ornery and motivated entirely by money. He didn't shoot anyone's gun out of their hand. He shot to kill, frequently and without hesitation. The violence in Jonah Hex was unprecedented in Western comic book history up till that point. He was, just about, a hero - he had a firm, if somewhat monochromatic moral code, and his cynicism was essentially due to bitter experience of the greater cynicism of those he met - but he was very much an anti-hero.Hex was created by writer John Albano and the great, under-appreciated artist Tony De Zuniga (who was responsible for the character's unique facial disfigurement). However, he was perfected by writer Michael Fleisher, who took over from issue 22 and made the character his own, writing every subsequent adventure through to 1985 (and even then taking on the misguided SF series). Fleisher's career in comics other than Hex was (with the exception of a gloriously horrific but short-lived and repetitive run on The Spectre) undistinguished, but his work here was an absolute triumph. He carried on with everything that Albano had been doing, but added depth to the characterisation, bringing in back-story and continuity. He also developed Hex's wry sense of humour, which adds welcome nuance to the series. Character and writer seem inseparable.Fleisher's earliest Hex stories are possibly his, and the character's, peak period, and they're all here. They're pacy, cleverly plotted and, for Westerns, surprisingly varied. One of them even uses the campaign for women's suffrage as its springboard. The art in the book is mainly by De Zuniga and two other Filipino artists, Nory Panaligan and George Moliterni. The Filipino artists of the 1970s were often criticised for being good illustrators but poor story-tellers. That's not the case here. The storytelling is excellent, as is the atmospheric, illustrative quality of the art. Their grainy, highly-rendered styles are perfectly matched to the material. In other words, even the most passing glance at a page lets you know: this is a Western. This contrasts emphatically with, say, Marvel's Westerns, which were drawn in exactly the same house-style as their superhero titles, and lacked atmosphere. And while we're on that topic, the quality throughout - both art and story - consistently exceeds the majority of super-hero titles, Marvel or DC, of similar vintage.I'm really pleased DC finally got round to publishing this overlooked but high quality material in a handsome omnibus format. You wouldn't want to sit and read it all the way through in one or two mammoth sessions - it's a bit too repetitive for that - but working through it in digestible chunks of 2-3 stories at a time is pleasurable and very satisfying. Recommended.

I like Westerns.I wanted a Western comic omnibus and this was all I could find available, at least as a new copy.Knowing next to nothing about Jonah Hex apart from the obvious - scar-faced bounty hunter from DC's Western comics - I wasn't sure what I'd be getting for my money. I can't say I'm disappointed by this book - I'm not - but I do feel it would have benefited from including other characters from DC's Western archives. Yes, I KNOW the name on the book is "Jonah Hex", but a bit of variety would have made for a better experience... and, let's face it, who other than fans of "cowboy comics" would buy a book like this in the first place?To conclude: great artwork, particularly from Tony DeZuniga, and stories that would keep any Westerns fan happy; it's always fun to play "Yup, I've seen the movie the writer punched that idea from!" Pity, though, that DC couldn't (or wouldn't) find space for a few tales involving other heroes of their Western comics.

Classic Jonah Hex stories from the 1970s, we see his first appearance in All-Star Western #10, with a wonderful art by Tony DeZuniga, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopes, George Moliterni, Noly Panaligan, Rich Buckler and others, a must read for those who like westerns

Very enjoyable thanks very much

Enjoyed reading this volume only criticism was the colour restoration was a bit weak