Repaneled is a most excellent blog where cartoonists/illustrators take a crack at reimagining classic or obscure comics panels. And this week they served up a doozy, above. That’s the original from “Silver #22” but the reimagining by Robert Goodin is even more disturbing — please click on the link to enjoy!

But we couldn’t help wondering…what is this “Silver”? An early comic by Jim Woodring or Hans Rickheit? The work of an unknown cousin to Fletcher Hanks? Or a spin-off from KRAMERS ERGOT? Surely only the fecund imaginations of a contemporary indie cartoonist could imagine a calfskin giving birth to an Indian, face first, through a large vagina in its throat. Right?
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After a bit of digging we found that the comic was actually about the Lone Ranger’s horse, Silver, and was called “Hi Yo Silver.” The issue in question was published in 1957 by Dell Comics. Of course, this called for a visit to Cover Browser to learn more about the adventures of Silver, a beast intelligent enough to rescue the Lone Ranger on several occasions and star in 32 issues of his very own comic book.

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He was, it seems, a fighter. Who was brave enough to take on a wildcat…
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…or a bear…

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….or another stallion…

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…or another wildcat when they forgot what they had on the cover a few months earlier. Or maybe it’s the SAME wildcat — perhaps Silver has an ARCHENEMY.

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But he did not shy away from protecting the weak, either, whether it was a trembling colt…

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…or another bear. Because not all bears are bad and were big enough to eat Silver.
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Clearly, HI YO SILVER was a repository for non-stop rearing-up horsey action — nothing but the most brutal hoof slashes and neighing here. The series was written by Gaylord DuBois, a Golden Age writer who wrote some 3000 comics, including many animal tales, like Trigger, about Roy Rogers’ horse, and even the Roy Rogers comic itself. Perhaps after writing thousands and thousands of pages of this stuff, DuBois came up with the face in the vagina. He probably — we cannot know for certain — did not intend for it to be a face in a vagina…but it came out that way. Rather then get all psychoanalytical here, let’s just acknowledge that it happened, and be happy that it did.

1 COMMENT

  1. Ah, yes, the lesser complicated days of yore, when a comic could be about a horse. And there were no parallel universes or glorified creative teams. No multi-issue crossover arcs.

    And when a comic starring a horse could probably sell, what, 60,000 copies?

  2. >> And when a comic starring a horse could probably sell, what, 60,000 copies? >>

    Way more than that. In 1970, X-MEN was canceled when it dropped below 200,000 copies.

    60,000 would have been far below cancellation level in the 1950s.

  3. Heidi, if I know anything about Rob, he’s going to absolutely love your interpretation of that panel.