My mother used to always say that Tim Conway was the kiss of death to a TV show. True, the actor did guest star on the ill-fated sit show Turn On; perhaps the only show in history to be cancelled midway through it's debut airing. Yet, Conway was an integral part of many hit shows. Along with The Carol Burnett Show, Conway was on the long running McHale's Navy, costar of many beloved 1970s Disney pictures and the star of a series of very popular direct-to-video shorts about a tiny man named Dorf. Later in his career, Conway turned to voice acting, most notably as Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob Squarepants.
Alas, Rango was not one of those timeless hits...
Tim Conway was the title star. As Rango, the worst Texas Ranger ever, Conway's character was prone to accidents, a yellow belly with dreams of bravery and not-too-smart. Rango was often assisted by an Indian named Pink Clouds; though the Native American was mostly helping the bumbling law man on the sly. Rango often got the bad guy but only through his own dumb luck.
Rango was western comedy that ran on the ABC network for less than a full season. While not considered one of Conway's hits, Rango is one of the few representations of a work of the comedians that became a comic book. I am a member of quite a few groups devoted to comics on Facebook and I saw quite a few fans posting pictures of their copy of Rango #1 as a memorial to Tim Conway.
Dumb luck seems to also be how I found my copy of this book. A few years back, I was leaving a thrift store when I found this issue and several other Dell Comic gems in a display case. Being closing time, I negotiated a sweet deal. But for one reason or another, after bagging, tagging and adding to my database, I never got around to reading any of these books. I guess I was waiting for such an occasion as this to finally get around to it.
Rango: The Comic Book, only ran for 1 issue. The cover proclaims that it's a collector's issue and oddly enough for such an obscure property, I have seen this issue pop up a lot in collector's posts online. There's 4 stories in this issue. Each one has Rango starting out being overlooked for some sort of mission. But by sheer coincidence, the Ranger ends up running afoul of the villain. Somehow, Rango captures the baddie and becomes the hero.
One thing that was oddly absent from the book was a love interest. You would think that it would have been set up where both Rango and either the captain of his Ranger unit or another Texas Ranger would be vying for the affects of the town's most beautiful and eligible belle. Her name would be something like Annabelle or Clementine and she'd always wear some pink frilly thing with a bonnet. Then Rango and some rival for her affection would compete to see who'd win the chance to take the lass to the town dance or something by being the one to capture the bad man of the week.
Yet, no such rivalry occurred and I think by not being so formulaic, it spelled disaster for the comedy. Something that wouldn't fly on today's TV is the portrayal of the Indian, Pink Clouds. The character was played by an Italian-American actor and not a Native American. Plus, while the Indian is the smartest character of the entire cast, he plays the fool for Rango's benefit. I think had Rango been on TV today, it would have been cancelled before the credits of the first episode ran.
The stories were sub-par but the art was pretty good. None of the characters look like the actors playing them. But I have learned recently that this was the case of most artists and writers only had a story bible to help them navigate how to craft the comic book. So, I can forgive. But I do wish I knew who did the artwork as for it's time when adaptation comics were considered hack work, this was pretty good western fare.
An okay read that I wish I was reading for other circumstances that to pay tribute to the late Tim Conway. It's not the best thing I've ever come across. I'm glad it's a part of collection if only for the kitschy oddity of it all.
Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.
