Gunmaster (Gwandanaland Comics #684)

This collection of Charlton Comics Westerns comes from Gwandanaland Comics. It collects the 10 issues of the solo titled Gunmaster series. Published in stunning full color, there's also another collection of the character's adventures from the pages of the anthology series Six-Gun Heroes. I don't have that book, which is perfectly fine. Almost every story in this book is a standalone tale that doesn't require any prior knowledge about Gunmaster or his teen sidekick Bullet Boy. The only thing that seems to be missing here is any sort of an origin story about the main character and/or how he met Bullet Boy. But for all I know, there might not even be a origin story. Though that does seem unlikely.

Our hero is a talented gun smith, Clay Boone He's a man that abhors violence. To many, he's a yellow bellied coward. But secretly, he's a vigilante masked man who uses a stunning array of handmade weapons and gadgets to bring in outlaws with no fear of the men who wear the badge. 

Gunmaster's sidekick has got to have the most transparent secret identity in all of comicdom. If you thought Clark Kent just wearing glasses was see through, you haven't read anything yet. Bullet Boy's real name is Bob Tellub. That's Bullet Bob backwards! The kid is basically 1 letter away from a super villain with a mirror figuring out who these armed vigilantes really are. And if you ask me, I am pretty sure that the local authorities know that Clay and Bob are Gunmaster and his ward and the law men are just playing along because the masked heroes are the ones sticking their necks out in pursuit of justice.

This series reads like the Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly classic Western High Noon, only with hi-tech and gadgets. Gunmaster might have invented a lot of weapons. But he surely had nothing to do with Chekov's gun which is essentially a literary rule that states that if a gun appears in act one, it must be used in act 2. We witness Cooper creating a lot of gadgets to use in his war on crime at the beginning of every story that never gets used nor mentioned ever again by story's end.

One aspect that I did think that this series was rather superior at was it's villains. There's some varmints with gimmicks that rival those of Jonah Hex. There's the snake oil salesman with the hypnotic eyes. A fat guy who's the brains behind some impossible hold ups. Not to mention a Native American with supernatural connections to the predatory hawk and a tough guy who's charisma intimidates the heck out of Gunmaster. Having several of them return for a showdown against this Western pair of do-gooders was an exciting way to end the series.

That's not to say that they were all Professor Moriartys. The guy who thought he was the new king of a region of Mexico was a major wuss. And several outlaws were drawn so goofy-looking like they were the ancestors of some of the gangsters that Dick Tracy will one day face.

Various artists worked on this series that ran from 1965-67. There were varying degrees of success. But the real masterpieces were the covers dynamically illustrated off and on by Dick Giordano and Rocke Mastroserio. I never could figure out who wrote the stories with the exception of Joe Gill. For some reason, only they were given a writing credit in the last issue.

An interesting read with some strange and rather bizarre storylines. It wasn't always pretty. Far from it. .But I can see where this book might have influenced DC's Weird Western Tales.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.