Jonah Hex is DC Comics' most popular Western character, a grizzly bounty hunter with his own personal code of honor. Since his creations, he has appeared in many different forms of media.
History[]
Jonah Hex was created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga, first appearing in All-Star Western in 1972.[1] He begins to headline the title when it becomes Weird Western Tales two issues later.[2] Albano's run on the character lasted about a year, with his last story published in 1974.[3] Arnold Drake filled in for him on one issue.[4] Michael Fleisher, the character's longest-running writer, took over duties on the next issue. This also introduced his first recurring villain, Quentin Turnbull.[5] Eventually Hex left the title, and Scalphunter would go on to headline.[6] The first Jonah Hex solo series began publication in 1977, with Fleisher writing and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez illustrating.[7] Hex's character remained a mystery until his origins were explained in a two-part story later that year.[8] Fleisher wrote the entire run, and the series was eventually canceled for editorial reasons in 1985.[9]
To keep the character in publication, Fleisher pitched the idea of putting him into a post-apocalyptic future.[10] The result was Hex, a series that lasted 18 issues with illustration by Mark Texeira, Ron Wagner and Keith Giffen before its cancellation in 1987.[11] It was never explained how he returned to his own time.
There was no Hex media published for five years following this, until Vertigo Comics revived the series. Joe R. Lansdale and Tim Truman began taking the character into the Western-Horror genre in 1993's Two-Gun Mojo, where he fights zombies.[12] Their next collaboration was 1995's Riders of the Worm and Such which dealt with a race of subterranean monsters.[13] The trilogy was concluded with 1999's Shadows West, in which he encounters spirit people.[14]
In 2006 writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti began their own Jonah Hex series.[15] They dedicated themselves to telling stories from across his entire history, including a revised origin story.[16] This series ended after 70 issues in 2011.[17] It was immediately replaced by Gray and Palmiotti's All-Star Western, a series published as part of The New 52 that brings Hex to Gotham City where he teams up with Amadeus Arkham.[18]
Related Articles
- Jonah Hex Origins
- Jonah Hex Recommended Reading
Links and References[]
Footnotes[]
- ↑ All-Star Western (Volume 2) #10
- ↑ Weird Western Tales #12
- ↑ Weird Western Tales #21
- ↑ Weird Western Tales #20
- ↑ Weird Western Tales #22
- ↑ Weird Western Tales #38
- ↑ Jonah Hex #1
- ↑ Jonah Hex #7-8
- ↑ Jonah Hex #92
- ↑ Hex #1
- ↑ Hex #18
- ↑ Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo #1
- ↑ Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such #1
- ↑ Jonah Hex: Shadows West #1
- ↑ Jonah Hex (Volume 2) #1
- ↑ Jonah Hex: Origin
- ↑ Jonah Hex (Volume 2) #70
- ↑ All-Star Western (Volume 3) #1