John Severin's Billy the Kid The Complete B&W Collection: The Complete B&W Collection Shot from Charlton Comics Original Art Sources by Joe GillMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
John Severin's Billy the Kid: The Complete B&W Collection collects stories from issues #20-26 and #28 of Billy the Kid by Joe Gill and John Severin.
Western Comics Month started on July 1st and I was already running out of material by the 7th so I grabbed this. Until relatively recently, I mostly knew John Severin from his decades drawing for Cracked. Apparently he drew Billy the Kid for Charlton for extra work while working for Cracked in 1960. This book is produced from photocopies of Severin's original art.
The Billy the Kid of Charlton was a cousin of the original, seeking to redeem the Bonney name, which explains why he's a blonde do-gooder instead of an outlaw. The stories are nothing exceptional, generic westerns where the good guy comes out on top and the bad guys either wind up in jail or in the hoosegow.
The art is of varying quality. I have to think the quality depended on how far ahead or behind Jovial John was in his Cracked workload that month. Some of the figure work is stiff but some panels are suitable for framing, dynamic panels that hold up against any other western comics of the time period. The art is closer to his Cracked work than his EC stuff in a lot of cases, not surprising since his style had a few years to evolve since EC and he was the Cracked workhorse for 40 years.
John Severin's Billy the Kid The Complete B&W Collection is 125 pages of rootin' tootin' Western fun. Three out of five stars.
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