Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex rode into issue 10 of All Star Western comics which was renamed Weird Western Tales by issue 18. He hung around till issue 38 then starred in 92 issues of his own comic before travelling into the future, 2048 to be exact, for a further 19 issues as Hex.

Originally created to mirror the popular spaghetti western style creator John Albano and more importantly Michael Fleisher piled every misfortune they could onto him. Abandoned by both his parents, brought up by Indians, accidentally causing the death of his best friend in the Civil War and finally hideously scarred by the Apaches, Hex had a reason to be pissed off.

So he became a bounty hunter but one with a code. He had sympathies and feelings but life was hard and often got in the way of them.

Sometimes he was his own worst enemy. Unlike most comic book characters he got married, not once but twice. Perhaps intentionally on the part of the writer, given Hex's outcast status, these were not white women - Mei Ling was Chinese and Tall Bird was a Comanche. But Mei Ling wanted him to give up bounty hunting for a living. She lasted about 10 issues and left with their son. Burning his own barn down didn't help.

Jonah Hex was not without its fair share of western cliche but it had a grittiness that super hero comics lacked. He existed in a real world where people died and usually stayed dead. No one was safe from this, neither man nor woman nor child. All died in these pages over the years. It gave the stories an authentic feel and Hex himself had a certain style.

This was due to the writing of Michael Fleisher as well. The strip also had quite a few good artists working on it.

In issue 92 he was transported into the future in an effort to stave off comic book oblivion. It didn't work but in the final issue Hex saw himself in an old fairground, older deader and stuffed.

We don't know how he does it but somehow he gets back to the past because Fleisher has him killed in 1904.

A highly selective review of Jonah Hex issues

ALL-STAR WESTERN 10 - Welcome to Paradise*

Hex debuts in the 52 page comic, together with El Diablo and Batlash. By the time he leaves for his own comic the renamed Weird Western Tales has about 20 pages, sometimes less. For the Hex story see Jonah Hex 5.

WEIRD WESTERN TALES 26 - Face off with the Gallagher Boys*

The boys in question are a bunch of cut-throats who rob railroads and are looked on as heroes by the local farmers. Hex sees them robbing a train but gets himself caught and wrongly imprisoned as a gang member. Quentin Turnbull (see issue 29) learns of his imprisonment and sends Ben Gallagher a letter offering a reward for Hex's death. He gets Debbie, a rancher's daughter, who is smitten on him, to spring Hex. She then leads him straight to the Gallagher Boys. She then sees what a bunch of no goods they are which is just as well 'cos Hex kills 'em all.

WEIRD WESTERN TALES 27 - The Meadow springs Crusade*

Fantastic "votes for women" issue. The heroine is trying to get female suffrage through the Kansas state legislature. Unfortunately her meetings are broken up by the masked hired hands of a local ranch owner. The reason for this is not because he is opposed to women having the vote but because the senator that might support the issue once in power might also oppose the rancher's land rights.

The heroine appeals to the sheriff for protection. He foists her onto Hex who thinks women's suffrage a fool notion on account of women would outlaw alcohol. But he is a gun for hire and offers to bodyguard her for $500.

That night two ranch hands sneak upon the heroine only to discover it is Hex in disguise. He forces the two men to dress as women to be humiliated by the men in the saloon downstairs.

Events get nastier. Hex is lured out of town and captured. He escapes leaving a couple of dead behind.

He then spends the next few weeks guarding the heroine. The Suffrage Bill fails. Hex pretends mock sympathy as he counts his money. The ranch owner rides into town intent on killing Hex in revenge for the men he has killed. Hex guns them all down. He does not notice that the rancher is still alive. The heroine kills him and as payment forces Hex to wear a votes for women armband.

WEIRD WESTERN TALES 29 - Breakout at Fort Charlotte*

This and WWT 30 explain why Hex is pursued by Quentin Turnbull. He is confronted by a youth who lost a relative in the Fort Charlotte massacre. He blames Hex. We then get a flashback.

When the Civil War began, Hex joined the Confederate Army and became a lieutenant in the 4th Cavalry. But after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Hex told his best friend, Jeb Turnbull, that he could no longer fight to defend a system that supported slavery against people who were trying to end it. Hex had seen how Quentin Turnbull treated his own slaves.

Hex went to the Union's Fort Charlotte , and after walking right into the captain's quarters, he surrendered to him. Although he refused to say where the other Confederate soldiers were camped, an orderly figured the location from examining the clay on Hex's horse's shoes.

The Union captain had the Confederate soldiers taken by surprise, and then publicly thanked Hex for his help in order to set the other men against him. Hex found an escape tunnel in his cell and used it to reach the compound where Turnbull and the other Union prisoners were being held. But Hex did not realise that the captain had planned all this as a means of ridding himself of prisoners to save on food bills.

The captain's soldiers were waiting for the prison break and shot down almost all of the escaping soldiers, including Jeb. Hex survived and shot the captain. Only a handful of other Confederate soldiers escaped to safety, and they blamed the " Fort Charlotte massacre" on treachery by Hex. Jeb's father, Quentin Turnbull, vowed revenge on Hex and became his most implacable foe.

Back in the present Hex is asked to draw by the youth. They go for their guns and the youth fires. Hex falls. The youth rides off. Hex gets up. He had staged his death to avoid killing the kid.

WEIRD WESTERN TALES 30 - The Trial*

Hex heads back to the South and Turnbull captures him and has him put on trial in a kangaroo court where survivors of the Fort Charlotte massacre act as jurors.. He is found guilty but breaks free only to be stopped by Solomon, Turnbull's black servant. Turnbull tried to kill him but Hex stabs him with a garden fork then rides off.

WEIRD WESTERN TALES 33 - Day of the Tomahawk

Hex is trying to rescue Deborah Haynes who has been kidnapped by Crazy Joe Bigfoot. Hex is captured and the two of them have a knife fight. Hex saves Joe from a snake. The Indian, as a point of honour, decides to let them go. Deborah accuses him of being an Indian lover when she is returned to her daddy. Her daddy put strychnine in the Indian's water holes to persuade them to sell their land which is why Crazy Joe is pissed. Hex rides off to capture him alive. Deb's dad gets two galoots Billy and Frank to follow Hex in order to lead them to the chief. They catch him and send him in to the chief then throw dynamite into the cave where they are parlaying. Hex and the chief escape out of another exit and take their revenge. The survivors confess to the strychnine poisoning. Hex still intends to rescue the chief for kidnapping Deborah. The chief runs, hex fires.and misses.

WEIRD WESTERN TALES 35 - The Hangman

Redeye Charlie saves Hex from drinking poisoned water. They head for town in time to see everybody picnicking whilst a young girl is hung for stealing ten dollars. Redeye offers to pay the money to save her but the Marshall tells him to mind his own business. Hex tells him to forget it - "It's their town! He's the law." As they ride of the Marshall cracks a whip and the cart moves away leaving the girl dangling - "Ha ha! She's some twitchy dancer ain't she".

In town Hex discovers that they arrange a hanging every ten days as a sort of money-spinner. Redeye gets arrested for being drunk. The bank is robbed. Hex captures one of the robbers. The robber knows the Marshall and threatens to tell. The Marshall shoots him as an escapee after he has handed him his gun. Redeye saw it so the Marshall knocks him out. Meanwhile Hex finds the other gang members, killing and capturing them all.

The Marshall is about to hang Redeye. Hex shoots the rope. The Marshall is then identified as one of the gang by another member. He is led off to be hung.

JONAH HEX 4 - The Day of the Chameleon*

Jonah Hex robs a stage shooting one of the passengers. Hex is already on the run for a murder he has not done. He is riding along when he is shot off his horse by. Jonah Hex, who is the chameleon and the real stage robber. He's left for dead. Joanna Mosby finds him and takes him back to her house. She knows who he is. She makes up to him when an old timer knocks on the door. It is the chameleon again. He then goes and tells the sheriff. A posse surround them. Hex escapes only to find his old enemy Turnbull is waiting for him. He threatens to kill Joanna Mosby. Hex is brained. When he wakes up he goes to rescue Joanna. When he gets there she is unharmed. She is in league with the chameleon. There's a fight. She brains Hex again. He wakes up tied to a chair. The chameleon has decided to kill both Hex and Joanna. He ties her up then starts a fire. Hex kicks him unconscious then rescues Joanna. She kisses him. He strikes her - "Yuh trade easy woman1 This time I'm not buying". The posse arrive and realise that Hex's scar on the wanted poster is on the wrong side so he didn't rob the stage.

Later the chameleon emerges from the burned house, horribly disfigured and swearing vengeance.

JONAH HEX 5 - Reprinted Story: "Welcome to Paradise" *

The original Hex story that appeared in All Star Western (WWT) 10 but this time framed by two pages for continuity.

Hex is on the run after an incident in issue 2. His horse is shot from under him by a posse but they cannot find him. Mrs. Thornton is riding by in her buggy. She relates how she first met Hex. Cue the flashback. Hex is of course hiding in the buggy.

So we get a scene where Hex is riding into town with some captured outlaws. The town are very pleased with his bounty hunting. At first Hex's scarred face is in shadow. It is not full revealed until later. Some of the gang are waiting for him in the saloon. He sneaks in through a saloon girls room then shoots all but one of the gang. He escapes because Hex bumps into a sassy young boy who tells him to watch his self.

Hex trails the man to the hideout where he meets up with the leader. Hex kills the first man then stalks the leader, who grabs a ranch woman, Mrs Thornton, as hostage. Hex is all for letting her get shot when her son cries out for him to help her. It is the same sassy boy. Hex kills the gang leader. The boy now hero worships him, his own father having been killed by Indians.

Back in town Hex asks about Mrs Thornton and finds out she is in debt. Hex pays it and asks about the possibility of settling in the town. They tell him nothing is available. They don't want his kind around. He rides back towards her ranch and Mrs Thornton shoots at him, thinking him a no good murderer. He also gets in another altercation with the boy and eventually rides away from Paradise disgusted, lonely and alone.

JONAH HEX 6 - The Lawman

JONAH HEX 7 - Son of the Apache*

In 1851, when Jonah was 13, he and his father had gone out west for the California gold rush. Woodson sold Jonah as a slave to ah Apache chief in exchange for pelts, and never returned. Jonah was miserably treated by the Apaches until, when he 15, he saved the chief from a puma. The grateful chief freed Jonah and thereafter treated him as a son.

Jonah became the best hunter, tracker, gunman, and rider among the Apaches, and an Indian girl, White Fawn, fell in love with him. The chief's son, Noh-Tante, grew jealous of Hex. When both turned 16, they were sent to steal horses from the Kiowa Indians as a test of their worthiness as warriors. Noh-Tante knocked Jonah out, returned to the camp with the horses, and reported that Hex had fought poorly and been killed.

JONAH HEX 9 - The Carlota Conspiracy

The opening illustration shows Hex bathing and an obviously "disguised as a man" (to us - Ernie Chan can't resist drawing a pretty girl) woman, known as Estrellita. He chases after her and upon catching her discovers both her sex and the fact that it was a trap set by one Colonel Sanchez. Hex is wanted to escort the looted gold of Archduke Maximilian's wife Carlota back to Mexico. Hex agrees then gets a hotel room where he is captured by El Papagayo (from issue 2). Apparently the girl, Estrellita, was working for both him and Sanchez. Hex is taken out into the desert and staked out. He taunts the guard and half strangles him with his own crucifix but as he rides away he is observed Papagayo - "But there is notheeng for to worry! I have heem right in my sights!".

To be continued but probably not worth paying to read. Never thought much of El Papagayo.

JONAH HEX 11 - The Holdout*

Hex gets in a fight and has his hands broken (shades of "One Eyed Jacks) on the orders of Preston. He is then told to get out of town before Preston returns. Characteristically he doesn't, killing Preston's gang. Joanna Mosby, last seen in issue 4, tries to help him, believing he is helpless (he has been exercising his gun hands in secret.). She guns down Preston but is killed herself. Good story.

JONAH HEX 12 - The Search For ´Gator Hawes*

A crazy untogether but marvellous attempt to deliver a "Deliverance" style tale of interbreeding and incest. Jonah goes searching for his old pal Gator Hawes and discovers he is a prisoner of a backwoods father, son and daughter. The two men like to kill captives after they have starved them a while. They are sort of like the family in Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill" Or Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". The daughter, Isabella, believes she is ugly because her brother Josh and Pappy tell her so. God knows what else they do to her.

Hex is captured, escapes, is recaptured. Despite his efforts Gator dies. Hex escapes again. There is a big fight. Then the rains come and everybody dies except Hex. Whew!

JONAH HEX 13 - The Railroad Blaster*

Hex, still on the run, is recognised by Reuben Gittes. Rather than collect the reward money and get a reputation as the man who killed Hex, he suggests that Hex help him look for the people who are dynamiting railroad track.

Hex discovers that the culprits are Roy Cooper and his young son Billy. Roy is a farmer who feels cheated by the railroad company.

Gittes then turns up, kills Roy and Billy. He also intends to kill Hex, solving the problem of notoriety by blaming the killing on Roy. Hex isn't killed. He overpowers Gittes and ties him to a railroad track to await an oncoming train.

JONAH HEX 14 - The Sin Killer!

Hex meets an old friend, Jedediah Kane, who used to be bad but then was saved by a good woman. Unfortunately on the day they were to be married she goes and gets herself gunned down by a heap of bounty hunters who were lying in wait for someone else.

Jedediah now takes his revenge by killing all bounty hunters he meets. This includes Hex. Unfortunately he picked the wrong bounty hunter this time. Hex lives to fight another day.

JONAH HEX 15 - Sawdust and Slow Death

Hex Joins the circus to evade capture. He is still on the run. Sally Colter is a sweetie who takes in waifs and strays. Hex is such a one but so are the freaks who make up part of the circus entourage. They adore her.

But what's this, Hannibal Pike, tells the freaks that the circus is losing money and persuades them to commit a string of robberies at every town they play to help Sally. When Sally finds out about this Pike kills her and puts the blame on Hex. The Freaks gather, just like in the Tod Browning movie of the same name. In the nick of time they realise Hex is innocent and go after the real culprit. Poor Hannibal. Greeble gobble, greeble gobble.

JONAH HEX 17 - Voyage To Oblivion*

Hex is enticed onto a balloon by trickery. He fights the man, who falls to his death. Hex drifts for days before landing at sea. An illegal slaver picks him up. Hex does not agree with slavery - see WWT 29. He helps the African slaves take over the ship but they kill the only man who can steer it and so are wrecked.

The survivors land on island. Hex believes they are cannibals but cannot persuade the others. He rows away, leaving them to their fate. This story is slightly longer and stranger than some

JONAH HEX 23 - The Massacre of the Celestials!*

Several Chinese immigrant workers approach O'Rourke the railroad foreman for their salary. They are led into a holding shed and murdered by Gatling gun. Wing, an old man, is told of this and, together with his young daughter Mei Ling, tries "Magnificent Seven" style to hire Hex as a gunfighter. Hex refuses as the pay is too low.

As the old man and his daughter are dejectedly exiting Jonah's room, hirelings of the railroad bosses approach them. They hand the man a gun and tell him that he should settle his differences himself, not by going to a bounty hunter. Wing accepts this stoically as part of his fate. He is prepared to die but he is murdered because the gun he was given was not loaded. The hirelings then turn their attention to his daughter but Jonah arrives. They protested that they had no quarrel with him but he still maintained, "on the count of three, draw!" In a hail of bullets Jonah killed them all except for one man. Having already thrown away his gun, he looked at Hex and threw himself on his knees begging hex for mercy. Jonah looked at him and said, "Standing up or kneeling down, you're gonna die." and promptly shot the man straight through the head.

Later Hex tries to confess his attraction to her but she silences him by saying that this is not love he feels but the tenderness released from within him

note: The term celestial refers to the old name for China - the Celestial Empire.

JONAH HEX 25 - The Widow Maker! *

Hex saves his old pal Nate Ashin from a fire that had been started deliberately. Nate is a newspaperman is campaigning against the Black Hat gang who are intimidating settlers. He is glad to see his old friend but his wife Sally says he is bad news because he brings death with him - a Widow Maker.

Hex disposes of the gang but discovers too late that the leader is Simon Nader, a supposed friend of Nate's. Nader kills Nate. Hex overpowers him and then ties a rope around Nader's neck and in a brilliant sequence leads him to a tree where he proceeds to hang him. Great sequence. Eat your heart out superheroes.

He then rides off into the sunset, Nader fluttering in the breeze and Sally Ashin and her son looking on (no doubt reflecting that Hex is indeed a widow maker).

JONAH HEX 28

Hex is hired to protect a group of ranchers from an Indian who has sworn to kill them one by one. He fails miserably but also discovers that the Indian had been cheated of land and that they had killed his wife (there is even a suggestion of rape in the flashback scene)

JONAH HEX 30*

Hex refuses to join a posse but is "persuaded" to do so. Flashback to his old Civil war buddy, Edward Cantwell, who rescued him then gunned down all the Union prisoners he had taken. Cantwell is sort of like the Arthur Kennedy character in "Where the River Bends".

Also a flashback to issue 8 when Hex was given the ritual scarring - the mark of the demon.

JONAH HEX 36*

Jonah is thrown out of town as an undesirable. When a saloon girl intervenes she is thrown out as well. They don't get on too well but Hex saves her when a bridge collapses. Trouble is on the other side are some veterans from Fort Charlotte. They take them prisoner and put them in a stone hut, inviting them to try and escape. The woman knocks out Hex and takes his clothes, then leaves the hut. She gets past the gatling guns and gets to the barb wire fence. But it is all a trap and she is blown up by dynamite. The veterans depart and inform Quentin Turnbull.

JONAH HEX 39 - The Vow of a Samurai*

Hex is now age 37. Whilst trailing the Blair Farrow gang he helps a samurai in a saloon fight. The samurai is searching for his daughter Heejong who was kidnapped by the Blair Farrow gang. They journey together and later the samurai saves Hex's life when they fight Indians. They then reach the gang, killing all of them except Farrow. Turns out Heejong is now his wife and has his child. The samurai is now disgraced and demands that Hex chops his head off as he commits seppuku as payment for saving his life. Reluctantly Hex agrees then turns to Farrow who grabs Heejong and the baby as a hostage. Hex kills him leaving Heejong to mourn as he rides past the grave he has built for the dead samurai.

JONAH HEX 40 - The Rainmaker*

Hex saves a rainmaker from the Indians. Turns out that the man is the leader of a gang of robbers who rob banks whilst everyone is watching the rainmaker's stunts. Hex is shot and left for dead. He is treated but then immediately goes in search of the gang. The gang members are double crossed and murdered by their leader. The rains come as he makes his escape. He drowns trying to ferry across a fast flowing river.

This issue has extra pages and includes a Scalphunter story, presumably because Weird Western Tales had folded. Scalphunter was a white man raised among the Kiowas. He was called Ke-Won-No-Tay but his real name was Brian something or other - a bit like the Paul Newman character in "Hombre" but far less interesting.

The main reason for the extra pages was to mask the price hike from 35 to 50 cents. A common DC tactic.

JONAH HEX 41 - Two for the Hangman*

The territory circuit court is presided over by a stern female hanging judge determined to bring law and order to her part of the west. Her son is a no good spendthrift who falls for a local saloon girl. Hex has captured a gang and the saloon girl tells the son that the gang will pay £10,000 if they are sprung from jail.

He agrees but the escape is bungled and a deputy dies. It also turns out that the girl is the gang leader's woman.

Hex catches up with them and kills everybody but the saloon girl and the son. His refusal to shoot at Hex costs them their necks. The son's mother sentences the two of them to hang. The saloon girl, delightfully unrepentant to the end, berates the son for his cowardice (shades of Anne Bonny, in the Lives of the Pirates, who on seeing Calico Jack Rackham said "if he had fought like a man, he need not have been hanged like a dog.")

JONAH HEX 43 - Death by Fire

The scene opens with Marshal Hart, who dresses like the old Jock Mahoney Range Rider, being shown the body of Banker Jeffries who it is alleged was killed by Hex. Hart also has other problems in the shape of the Spast brothers, one of them being in jail. After a quick shootout he arrests the lot of them.

Meanwhile Hex is with Mei Ling (don't ask me how but she is in bed with a nasty sprain) - "You have found a woman whose heart sings when you are near her and who has decided that her life will not be a happy one unless she can remain with you till the end of her days".

Actually she lasts till about issue 53 before leaving him although she does crop up in his life from time to time. The problem is, as she so eloquently seems to put things - "The tree of love cannot bear her fragile fruit in a garden filled with the stench of death!" Hex plans to go straight from now on. Just one more bounty hunting job har har - to catch the murderer of Banker Jeffries.

He rides off and is roped by Marshal Hart. After disarming him and looking at Hex's Colt .44 Dragoons he suspects that he is not the killer because the bullet holes belonged to a smaller calibre - this I find quite impressive.

Meanwhile the Spast boys break out and still meanwhile Hex and Hart are attacked and captured by apaches. Cue quick flashback of how Hex was adopted by indians but betrayed by Noh Tante during a Kiowa raid. Returning from the Civil War he returned to the Apache village where he was forced to kill Noh Tante in a duel. Unfortunately he used his knife because Noh Tante had sabotaged his tomahawk. As punishment they branded him with the mark of the demon.

They are both tied to a tree to be burnt but escape and leap off the cliffs into the river below. On emerging the Spasts are waiting for them.

JONAH HEX 44 - Show Down of the Century

The Spasts open fire and Marshal Hart is hit (just a scalp wound). Hex grabs him and plunges back into the river. The Spasts, fools, think they are both dead. Hex takes the Marshal to a farmhouse, where amazingly enough their horses have wandered. He goes off to clear his name, leaving the Marshall behind. Meanwhile Mei ling goes off in search of Hex, crutches and all. She makes the mistake of walking into a saloon alone where the Spasts are celebrating. It doesn't help that she is wearing a little number that slits up her leg to the hip. One of the Spasts then makes the mistake of hitting on Mei Ling just as Hex enters. They all die. Mei ling starts complaining - "Oh Jonah! When will it end? When will we be done with hatred and violence?". To which Hex replies - "Soon sugar! Real soon! Soon's ah clear muhself of thet bank robbin' an' murder charge, ah'll never fight another gunfight again!" (Well a big har har to that one eh Mei Ling).

Meanwhile back at the farmhouse the guys who framed Hex have sent some galoots to drive the homesteaders out by setting fire to the place. They don't reckon on Hart who captures them but they won't talk. Hex and Hart meet on the street. There is a gunfight and Hex appears to kill Hart. It's all been staged. Hex gets the real murderers of Jeffries to tell him why they did it. They were burning out homesteaders because the railway was passing through and they could buy up the land and sell it for a huge profit. Hex was a thorn in their side. Hart has overheard so Hex is cleared.

Now Hex and Mei Ling ride off into the sunset and future marriage but Hart's final words are prophetic - "..some men , they take a wife, they settle down, it all seems just as right and as natural as the rising and setting of a summer sun! but other men, and I think Jonah Hex is one of em, well, it seems like the Good Lord above just did not mean for them to be happy!"

JONAH HEX 45 - Blood Wedding*

Hex and Mei Ling are getting married but the local townswomen don't approve - he's considered a freak and she is considered a small step above a negro and several below a white girl. She heads back to her brother's but Hex is bushwhacked by a couple of hombres from Jake McCaffrey's gang. They fail but he does not kill them because of what Meil ling might think. Later at Mei Ling's brother's it seems he doesn't approve of the wedding either.

The two galoots Jonah let go have met up with the rest of their gang and it looks like trouble for the bounty hunter. And the townswomen are trying to persuade the local banker not to sell a farm to the happy couple. The gang arrive. Hex kills them and apologises to Mei Ling but she loves him anyway. The banker meanwhile has changed his mind

JONAH HEX 47 - Doom Rides the Sundown Train

A gang of hombres try to shoot Hex off a roof he is fixing. He fixes them with a little dynamite. Meanwhile Quentin Turnbull has found out the whereabouts of Hex and intends to have his wife kidnapped. He hires a gang but they accidentally kill a telegraph operator, then the sheriff. Then Hex turns up. They leap on a train with Mei Ling. Hex is knocked unconscious trying to catch up with them. But he knows a shortcut and rides to head them off at the pass. He succeeds and leaps aboard the train. The rest you can guess.

JONAH HEX 48 - The Vulture Creek Magnet*

Hex's old pal Samson graves turns up. Mei Ling can't stand him. Years earlier Hex had saved him from Paiutes, but not before they had chopped off a few of his fingers. They did this because they thought he had killed a young girl.

Whilst Mei Ling does te dishes Samson tells Hex he is being pursued yet again by Crow Indians, ostensibly for stealing their water. They ride out to stop the Indians but when Hex recognises one of them - High Hands Bear - from his army days Samson starts shooting. Hexes overpowers him then the Indians approach and tell him that Samson actually slaughtered 4 children. He kills Samson to prevent the Indians from torturing him to death.

When he returns Mei Ling has left him - "I want to be married to a husband not a rifle and a pair of six guns!"

JONAH HEX 49 *

Hex and Mei Ling get frisky and go for a bathe. Unfortunately Hex has accidentally set the barn on fire. They are financially ruined. Hex straps on his guns and goes a bounty hunting to recover their losses. Mei Ling feels betrayed but then finds out she is pregnant and they reunite.

JONAH HEX 51 - The comforter*

A young gunney tries to goad Hex into fighting but he refuses. Eventually he has no choice but to kill the man in self defence. It makes him late for his son's birth but Mei Ling is too happy to care.

JONAH HEX 52 - rescue*

Hex is practising shooting with Petey, a local boy. Mei Ling asks him to watch their boy. He fails to prevent the kid being stung by a scorpion. Then whilst he and Mei Ling argue over his stupidity (blows are exchanged) Petey's mum comes and tells them the he has been kidnapped. Mei Ling says that if he goes to get Petey she will leave him. Hex goes anyway. He tracks the kidnap gang to an old cabin. He enters the cabin bit it is a trap and the cabin blows up.

JONAH HEX 53 - the haunting*

Hex ain't dead. He catches up with the gang and rescues Petey. But Mei Ling has left with her son. Hex drinks and he begins to see faces from his past.

JONAH HEX 57 - The debt*

This time Hex's mother turns up. She owes money. Then it's flashback time again folks as we read how he was abandoned when his mother ran off with another man. Despite this Hex kills the guys who are owed the money. Then he rides off promising to visit again soon..

Other issues

Hex finds out that Mei Ling has been captured and taken to China. He follows, is captured, escapes, rescues Ling and boards a ship. But the captain is not all he seems and they are prisoners once more. Then there is a storm and it's all hands to the pumps. They survive and get back to America. There Mei Ling says she never wants to see him again.

HEX 1 - 18

Jonah Hex was facing cancellation. Westerns were no longer popular, Mad Max was. But Fleisher loved Hex and so put an idea for a futuristic post apocalyptic series where characters are plucked from history to fight battles in the future as a form of entertainment.

Hex is such a man. He escapes and what follows over the next few issues is something mildly diverting as he evades capture, gets to grips with the new world, regains some six guns and falls for Stiletta, the chief love interest.

He teams up with some Vietnam Vets and has a few other adventures but by issue 10 the idea begins to pall. Superheroes get introduced, including a futuristic version of the Batman. It gets worse as he meets another uninteresting bunch, the dogs of War. It gets even worse. Mark Texeira was the illustrator and he was as good as you could hope for. He was replaced by Keith Giffen, from issue 15, whose style was more modernist. It didn't suit. The series was ended at issue 18 where Hex arrives at an old funfair and comes across himself old and stuffed (see the Jonah Hex spectacular). Being a taciturn chap he says "Guess it means I get home."

JONAH HEX SPECTACULAR 1 - First Story: "The Last Bounty Hunter!" *

Set in 1904, Hex is still alive. He is age 66 and has a new wife Tall Bird, a Comanche (she later appears as an old woman in Secret Origins 19/1). A reporter stays with him with a view to telling his story but when Hex goes into town he is knocked on the head and fatally shot by George Barrow, leader of a gang of bank robbers whilst cleaning his glasses. Lew Wheeler, owner of a Wild West Revue, shoots Barrow and steals Hex's corpse, which he has stuffed to put on exhibit in his revue. But even in death Hex manages to kill someone when his gun goes off.

The stuffed Hex later turns up in an amusement park in 1972, looking somewhat the worse for wear. Eventually Hex will encounter himself in issue 18 of Hex.

Revival

There have been various attempts to revive Hex (Two Gun Mojo). There were attempts to make the character more fashionably gritty. There were also more mystical elements added. It made no difference. Nothing matched up to the original series.