I know this book ran reprints for a long time, but this issue hadn't been reprinted stateside? Hmm, from later than I would've thought, too: from 1971, Rawhide Kid #85, "Ride the Savage Land!" Written and drawn by Larry Lieber, inks by John Tartaglione.
Although he was a known "owlhoot," the Rawhide Kid is able to get honest work riding shotgun for a stage. Grateful for the chance, Rawhide likes his boss, who is excited for the return of his son from schooling back east. The son, Tom, is an uppity snob; but he's not the biggest problem, as the stage gets robbed: the robbers had an inside man, posing as a passenger, who takes Tom hostage. Tom's sniveling gets the stage driver killed when he goes for his gun, and Rawhide and Tom are left tied up and horseless in the middle of nowhere. Once they get loose, Rawhide has no choice but to go after the robbers, since he figures if he didn't bring them in, folks would jump to the conclusion he was in on it.
Rawhide tries to cash in on his bad reputation and join the gang in order to take it down, but they aren't as dumb as he thought. Still, when Tom finally sacks up, they're able to turn the tables. I'm guessing the bad guy would be played by, I don't know, Jack Elam probably.
"Ride The Savage Land" sounds like an obvious pickup line/bedroom talk Ka-Zar uses on Shanna when he gets drunk and horny. Otherwise, false and very misleading title that doesn't have shit to do with the story at all.
ReplyDeleteOh and I'd have fucking shot the boss'son out of principal for getting the driver killer like that. Dumb bitch.