I would like to express my admiration and appreciation, as others have lately, of Bill Mantlo. Some who recognize his name, may remember him as the seeming “go-to guy” for fill-in stories at Marvel in the seventies. In case there are readers, who for some reason, do not know, I will explain that the fill-in story policy was implemented as a contingency for The Dreaded Deadline Doom, i.e., the writer and/or artist did not have pages ready for press, or some other disaster developed which prevented the next installment of the current story arc from appearing in its scheduled issue. In these situations, a single-issue (usually) story was pulled from an inventory of such stories and appeared, preceded by some explanation and apology, in that issue of the title. In rare exceptions, and, even then, only through skillful, last-minute editing/re-writing could these fill-in stories fit in the context of the current story-line. (Hence, the usual apology/explanation.) Given the limited “space” to develop a story and continuity restraints (a story written ahead of time might not reflect recent changes in the relationships between the protagonist and his/her supporting characters), Bill, as well as others, did well to write adequate stories.

However, although the readers might not have felt as cheated as they would have with reprints, the fill-in stories were not much more satisfying. Moreover, Bill was also often given the thankless task of taking over a faltering title when the previous writer left or was taken off the title before finishing the current storyline. Bill gave his best shots on a number of such titles, wrapping up loose ends and coming up with a new direction either in the hope of stirring up new interest in the title or laying a foundation for the storyline to be concluded elsewhere in the Marvel universe. I think because of these, writing fill-in stories and riding out many weak 70’s titles to ultimate cancellation, Bill was unfairly perceived as one of the lesser talents in The Marvel Bullpen.

Bill redeemed himself, assuming there was a need, through tremendous contributions to better selling titles. He had respectable runs on The Hulk, Alpha Flight, Rom: Space-Knight, Micronauts, Iron Man, Marvel Team-Up, Cloak and Dagger and other titles/strips/mini-series too numerous for me to remember or list. While turning out this prodigious volume of writing, he was also working on a career in law. Eventually, he became a public defender and his output diminished somewhat. Later, the output was stopped completely, when Bill was struck by a hit-&-run driver while rollerblading. Suffering irreparable brain damage – comatose, for some time – Bill now needs full-time health care which he receives in an appropriate facility. His brother is his primary caregiver, who can certainly use the help provided by the sales of a tribute book, Bill Mantlo: A Life In Comics. I strongly urge comics fans to buy a copy for that reason alone.

Marvel’s Essential volumes and Visionaries trade paperbacks are generating new interest in their 70’s & ’80’s titles in general and Bill’s work, in particular. Although Rom: Space-Knight has achieved cult classic status, we will not, unfortunately, be seeing any Essential collections of it. The rights to Rom, (and I believe Micronautsas well), belong to the toy companies which first introduced them. The work, of which Bill was most proud, was Cloak and Dagger, which he co-created with Ed Hannigan. It would be a good candidate for an Essential collection. It would be wonderful if Marvel would produce a Bill Mantlo benefit book of its own.

Now, moving on to The Rawhide Kid (miniseries, August-November, 1985). When I first encountered Marvel comics (circa 1964-1965), Rawhide, along with Kid Colt and Two-Gun Kid formed the triumvirate of Western characters. Later on, they were joined by the Ghost/Night/Phantom/(?) Rider. I really got a kick out of them fighting super-villains like the Living Totem, Fat Man, Iron Mask (Dr. Doom in Western drag), Hurricane, etc. I concede there may have been some comparable DC Western characters before even my time but the only one in the pre-psychedelic sixties was Tomahawk. But, I don’t count him because he was contemporary to American Revolution times rather than the post Civil War years. I’m not a little guy myself, but I thought it was cool that Rawhide was short and scrappy.

As the sixties passed by, the villains in Marvel westerns (should “western” always be capitalized n this sense of the word?) still had colorful names but they were mostly “real” lowlifes. Larry Lieber and Gary Friedrich wrote most of the stories. By the seventies, some more western titles appeared, but they and the other “Kids” were reprints. Somewhere, between the mid-seventies and the early eighties, the Marvel westerns, to my knowledge, had disappeared. In 2000 , Rawhide, the other original Kids, the (?) Rider and other characters appeared in Blaze of Glory, a trade paperback miniseries and again, in a sequel, Apache Skies (2003), perhaps missing some casualties from BOG. Rawhide and the others were costumed more realistically – long dark coats, long hair, stubbly bearded faces – which was cool but, to me, they were indistinguishable from one another. Sometime afterwards, came a Rawhide miniseries, carrying Marvel’s MAX brand which asserted that the Kid was homosexual. I do not have a problem with the gay community in general or in comics, particularly, but, in my opinion, the less said about this series, the better.

However, my favorite incarnation of Rawhide appeared in an under-appreciated miniseries that came out in the second half of 1985, prior to Blaze of Glory. I selected this series because it complements my latter tribute to Bill Mantlo. Bill handled the writing, of course, and Herb Trimpe provided the visuals. Set in 1890, Rawhide is facing both the realities of growing older and the changing face of the American west. Unlike Marvel’s and DC’s characters that survived the WWII era and are still going strong in the 21st century, the middle-aged Kid actually gasps for breath while racing across the top of a train, leaping from box-car to box-car. He dreads waking up the next morning as the galloping of his horse jars his arthritic bones. (Or some similar Western action cliches. I do not have the series handy for reference.) He also realizes railroads and horseless carriages are going to replace the world to which he is accustomed.

Although it makes the necessary concessions to fist-fights, gun-play and happy endings, this miniseries provided a rare and relatively sophisticated examination of a character’s realization that the end of the trail is not that far over the horizon. It resonated with me in 1985, as I waxed philosophical about an approaching 35th birthday. How much more does the memory resonate today with my 58thbirthday only months away and the world on the cusp of revolutionary technological changes such as electric/hybrid cars, the development of solar and other alternative energy sources, more trends in computer/Internet than I can keep up with, and a government moving toward socialism? I am not sure if I still have this miniseries or if, forgetting how good it actually was, I have already traded or sold it. If I still have it, rest assure I will include it in my nostalgic “keepers” as I re-explore my collection.