Western Comics #77
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWestern Comics #77 (Sept./Oct. 1959) is the origin and first appearance of Matt Savage, Trail Boss — a cattle-drive protagonist distinct from every other hero in DC's Western stable in that his job was not law enforcement but leadership on the open trail. His debut simultaneously retired Nighthawk, who had occupied the same anthology slot since issue #5, making this a clean generational handoff within DC's longest-running Western title. Savage immediately became the cover feature for the remainder of the series and was later woven into broader DC continuity as an ancestor of Scalphunter. The issue also continued the ongoing Pow-Wow Smith and Wyoming Kid features, giving collectors a snapshot of three eras of DC's Western storytelling coexisting in a single anthology package.
In December 1866, Matt Savage sets out on a long cattle drive from Texas to Kansas, guiding a herd with the skill and grit of a seasoned trail boss. As he leads his crew northward, the vast frontier tests his resolve, and the journey ahead promises both danger and the chance to build something of his own.
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Matt Savage was crafted by the same creative team — writer Gardner Fox and penciler Gil Kane, with inks by Joe Giella — that had been powering much of Western Comics' late output. Julius Schwartz, who had assumed editorial control of the title for its final years, oversaw the transition away from Nighthawk and toward a trail-drive concept that observers have plausibly connected to the January 1959 premiere of the CBS television series Rawhide, whose cattle-drive format closely mirrors Savage's fictional premise. The anthology's three-story format had been in place since issue #70, when DC reduced the page count from four or more stories per issue.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of Matt Savage, Trail Boss — created by writer Gardner Fox, penciler Gil Kane, and inker Joe Giella — in the story 'The Barbed Wire Barricade.'
- Matt Savage replaced Nighthawk as the third feature in the anthology; Nighthawk had run continuously from Western Comics #5 (1948) through #76 (July/Aug. 1959), making issue #77 his direct successor.
- The debut Savage story introduces his full cattle-drive crew, all of whom became permanent recurring cast members — the largest ensemble of regulars in any DC Western series of the era.
- Matt Savage is characterized as older and more mature than typical DC Western heroes, and his role as a cattle-drive trail boss (not a lawman) distinguished him structurally from every other ongoing character in the title.
- The issue also features Wyoming Kid (Bill Polk) in 'Clue of the Outlaw's Hat' and a Pow-Wow Smith story ('Secret of the Sheriff's Stand-In'), both written by Gardner Fox.
- The Matt Savage origin story 'The Barbed Wire Barricade' was later reprinted in Action Comics #437 (1974), with the cover of Western Comics #77 reproduced as a thumbnail inside that issue.
- Later DC continuity established Matt Savage as the father of Scalphunter and a relative of Lt. Steve Savage, the WWI aviator who appeared in All-American Men of War, connecting him retroactively to multiple DC family trees.
- Western Comics was DC's longest-running Western title, publishing 85 issues from 1948 to 1961, with Julius Schwartz editing its final two years.
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↩ Reprints Tomahawk #23 (1954)
Reprinted in Tomahawk #1 (1954), The Hundred Comic Monthly #39 (1959), Century, The 100 Page Comic Monthly #43 (1961), Tomahawk #96 (1965), Action Comics #437 (1974), Bumper Western Album #73 (1979), Trail Blazers of the West #[nn] (1981), Jonah Hex #6/1985 (1985), Jonah Hex #6/1985 (1985), Tomahawk #2/1960
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