Hell-Rider

Hell-Rider is a short-lived, black-and-white comics magazine published by Skywald Publications, a 1970s company best known for its horror-comics magazines Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream.[1] Like them and the similar publications of Warren Publishing, these were mature-audience magazines not covered by comic books' Comics Code Authority. Its cover price was 60¢, typical for that format and time, during which standard comic books sold for 15¢.

Hell-Rider
Hell-Rider #1 (Aug. 1971). Painted cover by Harry Rosenbaum.
Publication information
PublisherSkywald Publications
First appearanceHell-Rider #1 (Aug. 1971)
Created byGary Friedrich, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito
Hell-Rider
Series publication information
ScheduleBimonthly
FormatOngoing series
Publication dateAug. – Oct. 1971
Number of issues2
Main character(s)Hell-Rider
Creative team
Writer(s)Gary Friedrich
Penciller(s)Ross Andru
Inker(s)Mike Esposito
Editor(s)Gary Friedrich
Sol Brodsky

Publication history

Main feature

Lasting two 64-page issues, Hell-Rider (cover-dated Aug. & Oct. 1971)[2] starred the titular vigilante motorcyclist, a Vietnam War veteran, lawyer, and black belt martial artist named Brick Reese. With his customized, flamethrower-equipped motorcycle, and temporary super-strength courtesy of the experimental drug Q-47, the Los Angeles, California-based Hell-Rider battled the Claw, a masked, heroin-smuggling, secret society leader in issue #1, and a bestial rampager called the Ripper in issue #2. The stories featured scantily clad rock starlets, nightclub waitresses, and groovy, pot-smoking ' 70s chicks all quickly losing what little clothing they wore.[3]

The series was created by Gary Friedrich, who would go on to co-create the better-known, Marvel Comics supernatural motorcyclist Ghost Rider, and illustrated by the veteran team of penciler Ross Andru and inker Mike Esposito. Skywald partners Sol Brodsky and Israel Waldman are listed as publishers, with Brodsky additionally credited as editor. Gary Friedrich is listed as "script editor", while Golden Age great Bill Everett, creator of the Sub-Mariner in 1939, has an unexplained credit for "special effects",[2][3] which Al Hewetson, an editor of other Skywald titles, said in 2004 "probably refers to art corrections, assists and/or character designs."[4]

Panel from Hell-Rider #1, art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. The blood-spewing violence was graphic for the time.

The title character's name is sometimes spelled "Hell Rider", without a hyphen, in the stories.

A house ad for the never-published Hell-Rider #3, with cover art by Gray Morrow for a story titled "The Zodiac Killers", appeared as the back cover of Skywald's Psycho #5 (Nov. 1971).[3]

Backup features

The magazine's backup features, whose stories were interrelated with those of the main feature, were "The Butterfly" and "The Wild Bunch", both written by Friedrich.

The former starred African-American singer/superheroine Marian Michaels, whose costume is equipped with bright lights to blind adversaries, a jet pack for flying, and suction cups for climbing. The latter starred a rough but basically goodhearted biker gang that Reese had encountered, consisting of leader Animal; Afro-haired Deke; weaselly Slinker; tall, blond Curly; and blond biker-babe Ruby.[3]

Art credits for the first issue's backups are disputed, with sources suggesting either John Celardo and Rich Buckler as the "Butterfly" penciler, and either Dick Ayers or Syd Shores as the "Wild Bunch" penciler. The second issue's "Butterfly" story is credited to penciler-inker Buckler, and its "Wild Bunch" story to Shores and inker Esposito,[2][3][4]

The magazine also included a motorcycle-related, Q&A and advice column, "Curly's Cycle Corner", also written by Friedrich.[2][3]

gollark: I consider OSes decent if they do something other than just implement a new interface for launching programs and add a lock screen, and also are free of fake loading bars.
gollark: I'm considering using it for slightly-less-evil purposes and modifying YAFSS to implement nice stuff like symlinks and pseudofiles.
gollark: Basically, it's a completely pointless virus which sandboxes your stuff using YAFSS and has *three* backdoors for remote access.
gollark: Meanwhile, for some inexplicable reason, yours can get away with just cloning `_G` and overwriting `fs`, and then pesky stuff like `fs.complete` and `os.run` just use that.
gollark: PotatOS!

References
  1. Sacks, Jason; Dallas, Keith (2014). American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s. TwoMorrows Publishing. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-1605490564.
  2. Hell-Rider at the Grand Comics Database
  3. Arndt, Richard J. (2007). "The Complete Skywald Checklist". Archived from the original on May 10, 2010.
  4. Skywald!: The Complete Illustrated History of the Horror-Mood 2. Manchester, UK: Headpress/Critical Vision. 2004. p. 252. ISBN 978-1900486378.
  • Williams, Freeman (June 11, 2004). "Hell-Rider: A Memoir of the '70s". StompTokyo.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link) Additional, June 28, 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.