Comic Info
Comic Name: Showcase/Bat Lash/DC Special Series/Jonah Hex
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Sergio Aragones/Nick Cardy/Dennis O’Neil/Len Wein
Artist: Nick Cardy/Mike Sekowsky/George Moliterni/Dan Spiegle
# of Issues: 12
Release Date: 2009
Showcase #76
Reprints Showcase #76, Bat Lash #1-7, DC Special Series #16, and Jonah Hex (1) #49, and 51-52 (August 1968-September 1981). Bartholomew Alouysius Lash is a strange man. He likes a fresh flower in his hat and enjoys his journeys through the West on his horse Daisy. He might not always do the right thing, chases the women, and often has the women (or their fathers) chasing him. Will he save the West—or ruin it?
Written by Sergio Aragone, Nick Cardy, Dennis O’Neil, and Len Wein, Showcase Presents: Bat Lash is a DC Comics Western collection. The collection features art by Nick Cardy, Mike Sekowsky, George Moliterni, and Dan Spiegle and like other Showcase Presents, the stories are presented in black-and-white.
Bat Lash was a strange comic and character. He surfaced with other harder hitting Westerns in a little Western boom for DC in Showcase #76 in August 1968. His character was a lighter comic side compared to later, darker characters like Jonah Hex and Scalphunter. The character is played with humor and almost is like Groo is to Conan the Barbarian. Even when Bat Lash does something wrong for his own profit, he usually ends up not getting ahead. Despite the humor aspect of the character, some of the stories were quite serious.
Bat Lash #7
A good comparison, it almost appears Bat Lash was modeled after James Garner’s Maverick which ran from 1957-1962. Both Bat Lash and Maverick were fun, but they got involved in serious events often because of their nature. While Maverick is enjoyable, I kind of have a hard time with Bat Lash. The character isn’t developed enough and never really had a chance to develop.
I will say, that the art in this series is more developed than some of DC’s other art at the time. The panel set-ups and framings are much better than a lot series at this time. It is interesting that comics like Marvel’s Conan (with Barry Windsor Smith) and series like Bat Lash are more advanced than some of the mainstream comics at the time.
Showcase Presents: Bat Lash isn’t the best collection you’ll ever get, but it also is pretty affordable. This is one of the shorter Showcase Presents titles and has a lower price. It does contain most of Bat Lash’s adventures so I also see it as a stand-alone volume in the Showcase Presents series. I can’t really recommend this, but it also isn’t much of an investment of time or money.
