Hopalong Cassidy #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeHopalong Cassidy #1 (February 1943) stands as the first dedicated solo comic book for one of the Golden Age's most commercially successful cowboy heroes — a character who already had decades of prose history behind him and was, at the time of publication, in the midst of a hugely popular film career as portrayed by William Boyd. The issue effectively launched Fawcett's western comics line, years before the genre boom of the late 1940s fully overtook superhero books in newsstand sales. When Fawcett exited publishing in 1953, the title's continuity was absorbed directly by DC Comics starting with issue #86, making this first issue the root of an unbroken 135-issue run spanning two publishers across sixteen years — a remarkable feat for a licensed, non-superhero property.
Hopalong Cassidy outwits and defeats a villain named Slade in a gunfight, then rides into a dead town called Mesquite where he discovers three dangerous coyotes terrorizing the local ranchers. After a landslide traps the coyotes, Hopalong works with the townspeople to capture them, ultimately succeeding and bringing peace back to the region. The issue concludes with Hopalong being praised by the grateful citizens for his heroic actions in ridding the area of the threat.
When a young couple, Sam and Mary Shields, are driven from their homestead on Apache Creek by a masked gang, they seek protection from Sheriff Hopalong Cassidy. The sheriff, suspecting a pattern of sabotage tied to the land’s shady seller Ezra Wolfe, devises a plan to catch the attackers in the act. As tensions rise and the masked men return, the Shields prepare to defend their home, unaware of the trap the sheriff has set.
When a man is killed by a horse wielding a six-gun at the Twin River Rodeo, Sheriff Hopalong Cassidy and Deputy Mesquite Jenkins must unravel the mystery behind the deadly beast, especially as tensions flare between feuding ranchers Roman Regan and Tom Olson. With both sides blaming each other and a dangerous rivalry threatening to erupt into violence, the sheriff suspects a hidden hand manipulating the feud—especially after a new hand, Claver, and the suspicious Perron enter the picture.
Slap-Happy, inspired by Mama Five by Five’s war dance, sets out to contribute to the war effort by seeking a job at a bomber plant, where his clumsy antics lead to a series of mishaps—including accidentally boarding a test bomber and being flung out mid-flight. As he bumbles through the process, he encounters a mix of absurd situations and military humor, all while trying to live up to his self-proclaimed role in the war effort.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Fawcett had already been testing the waters with the Hopalong Cassidy license by inserting the character as a backup feature in Master Comics beginning with issue #33 in late 1942, before committing to a standalone title. The first issue, published in February 1943 with cover art and interior stories by Harry Parkhurst and Joe Payne, functioned in practice as a one-shot — Fawcett did not resume the series until 1946, at which point it ran continuously through issue #85. The book was a licensed property built around William Boyd's film portrayal of the character rather than Clarence E. Mulford's original grittier literary creation, and every issue carried a 'starring William Boyd' banner to underscore that connection. Editor Ralph Daigh and executive editor Will Lieberson oversaw the Fawcett side of the title's production.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published February 1943 by Fawcett Publications; 64 pages, full color — the first standalone comic book devoted entirely to the Hopalong Cassidy character.
- Cover art and interior stories are credited to Harry Parkhurst (cover) and Joe Payne and Harry Parkhurst (stories/art), as documented in GCD and MyComicShop records.
- The issue functioned as a de facto one-shot: Fawcett did not publish issue #2 until 1946, three years later, when the ongoing series finally launched and ran continuously to #85 in 1953.
- The issue's content includes multiple western adventure stories — among them 'Vultures of the V-Bar-8,' 'The Apache Creek Nesters,' 'Sheepman's Message,' and 'Death Rides the Rocking R!' — plus a comedic strip ('Slap-Happy Makes a War Effort') and a biographical profile of actor William Boyd on the inside front cover.
- A closing caption inside the issue cross-promotes the Hopalong Cassidy backup series then running in Fawcett's Master Comics, tying the solo debut directly to the character's existing anthology appearances.
- The comic is a licensed adaptation of the William Boyd film version of the character — a clean-cut, heroic cowboy quite different from Clarence E. Mulford's original rough-talking literary creation — and every issue of the series carries a 'starring William Boyd' banner reflecting his ownership of the character's rights.
- When Fawcett left the comics business in 1953, DC Comics (National Periodical Publications) picked up the title with issue #86 in early 1954, continuing through issue #135 in 1959, making the run that began with this issue one of the longest-lived licensed western comics of the Golden and early Silver Ages.
- A modern reprint of the series content was published by Gwandanaland Comics in 2020 (issue #558 of their reprint line), giving contemporary readers access to these otherwise scarce Golden Age stories.
Cast · 14 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Gwandanaland Comics #558 (2020)
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