Rex Allen #19
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeRex Allen #19 is a solid mid-run entry in Dell's longest-running singing-cowboy licensed title of the 1950s, a series that helped codify the formula of the real-person Western comic — photo covers, morally uncomplicated heroes, and self-contained adventure stories aimed squarely at young readers. Published in November 1956, the issue sits in the heart of Dell's deliberate post-Comics Code posture: rather than submitting to the Comics Code Authority, Dell doubled down on its own 'Pledge to Parents,' and issues like this one served as physical proof of that brand promise, closing out with the pledge printed in the final panel. As part of a 31-issue run that stretched from 1951 to 1959, the series as a whole documents the tail end of the singing-cowboy phenomenon in American popular media, bridging Rex Allen's Republic Pictures career and his later television and Disney narrator work.
Rex Allen pursues a female outlaw who has impersonated him and stolen his outfit, leading a gang and causing trouble in town. After ambushing and capturing the judge presiding over her trial, the woman escapes with stolen money but is tracked by Rex to the Tieipp Ranch. Rex encounters a group of mountain climbers led by Wyatt Wiggins in the hills, and together they help him apprehend the criminal gang, forcing the outlaws to surrender their weapons and submit to capture.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The Rex Allen comic series was produced under the Dell/Western Publishing partnership, with Dell distributing and Western Printing & Lithographing Company designing and producing the books — an arrangement that had been in place since 1935. Issue #19 was published in November 1956 with interior art credited to Sparky Moore and Nat Edson, two of the workhorse artists who rotated through the title across its run. The series began with a tryout in Dell's Four Color anthology (#316, February 1951) before graduating to its own numbered series with issue #2 in late 1951; by the time #19 appeared, the title was a well-established fixture of Dell's Western lineup alongside Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Wild Bill Elliott.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published November 1956 by Dell; produced by Western Printing & Lithographing Company.
- Interior stories and art credited to Sparky Moore and Nat Edson.
- 32 pages, full color; photo cover featuring Rex Allen.
- Story contents include 'Trouble in Devils Gate Pass,' 'Koko Gets His Man,' and 'The Telltale Scar,' plus a Rex-helps-a-freight-hauler plot and a sheepherder-vs.-cattlemen conflict.
- Rex Allen's horse Koko appears as an active story participant — cornering a horse thief in the 'Koko Gets His Man' segment — reflecting the series' consistent use of the animal companion as a co-hero.
- Issue closes with Dell's 'Pledge to Parents,' the publisher's in-house alternative to the Comics Code Authority seal, promising 'clean and wholesome juvenile entertainment.'
- Dell famously declined to join the Comics Code Authority (formed 1954), relying instead on its Pledge to Parents; Rex Allen #19 is one of many Dell titles of this era that carried the pledge in lieu of a CCA stamp.
- The Rex Allen series ran 31 issues (counting Four Color #316 as #1) from 1951 to 1958–59, making it one of the longer-running real-person Western titles in Dell's catalog of that era.
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