First published back in October of 1971, Issue 19 of the ‘Pocket Chiller Library’ comic series was titled ‘Billy The Kid’.
During the 1970s the ‘Pocket Chiller Library’ was a pocket-sized mainstream horror comic which ran for a total of 137 issues between 1971 and 1977. Each month, two issues of the comic were published, amounting to a total of twenty-four issues of the comic published each year.
However, it should be noted that issue 83 and then from issue 86 onwards, the publishers started reprinting the earlier stories. Of these reprints, the first 29 reprints (issues 83 and then 86 – 113) retitled the story. As such, there were only ever a total of 84 unique stories within the series, despite there being more titles.
Unfortunately, each issue was undated, making it difficult to be sure of the date for first publication of each issue. However, it is widely understood the comics were monthly publications, with two publications released simultaneously each month, with the original stories running from January 1971. Therefore, the above date of publication is a relatively reasonable assumption.
Additionally, each issue was unfortunately uncredited to either the writer or the comic artist(s).
On 17th August 1877 in George Adkins Saloon, Fort Grant, Arizona, in an altercation with a patron at the saloon, a baby-faced eighteen-year-old became a killer. That day the young man started down the dusty track to eventually become one of the most notorious outlaws to have rode the trails of the wild west.
It all started when a man named Windy Cahill lost his hand in cards and took exception to how young William Bonney looked at him. Little did Cahill know that the youngster already had a streak of coldblooded cruelty running through him, akin to a hardened killer. Without hesitation, young Billy pulled out his gun, shot and killed the man.
Making sure he wasn’t followed, Billy quickly set off across the Mexican border, towards a small out of the way town called Cananea. There, Billy came across a man named Melquiades who was working at the Four Nations Hotel. The two of them got on well, and Melquiades soon introduced Billy to a local gambler named Jose Martinez. Unfortunately for Martinez, not only does he lose against Billy in their high-stake game, but he also shortchanges Billy with his winnings. With that, Billy calmly shoots dead his second victim.
The pathway for Billy’s future is becoming set, and for a while Billy and Melquiades roam the local vicinity of Mexico, living it up with the money they rob and steal. The eighteen-year-old from New York is now a wanted outlaw. There is already a hefty price on both their heads.
Luck changes again for Billy when he meets with a man named Jesse Evans. The landowner takes Billy on to help protect his herd of cattle from rustlers. A job which eventually leads to further employment with a wealthy Englishman named John Turnstall.
Billy’s days as an outlaw appear to be over. He’s now considered a respected, loyal and hardworking man who is highly trusted by his employer.
But in the Wild West, one’s life and future can change at the drop of a hat. Especially when Billy’s strong loyalty to his employer is put to the test. He may be young, but Billy the Kid has guts aplenty. Starting a war with him, is never a wise move.
In fact, there will be many deaths before Billy the Kid is eventually taken down…
DLS Review:
Here we have another early PCL which deals with a real-life crime story (although it’s not really horror per se) – this one being the story of the legendary Wild West outlaw, Billy the Kid. It should be noted though, that as with other early PCLs of this nature, the true crime story presented in this issue contains multiple inaccuracies. For example, from the get-go, the comic details a slightly inaccurate date of birth for the American outlaw, stating it as 23rd November 1859, whereas in actual fact it was either 17th September or 17th November 1859. The comic then goes onto say his real name was William Henry Bonney, whereas that was just an alias of his. Billy the Kid’s actual birth name was instead Henry McCarty.
Similarly, while it’s known that Billy was primarily active in New Mexico and the American Southwest, there’s no recorded history of him being in the Mexican mining town of Cananea. Cananea, however, is deeply rooted in Wild West lore (the Cananea connection to the ‘Old West’ mostly revolves around the famous copper strikes in the early 1900s, long after the Kid's death in 1881).
As such, for the sake of an entertaining read, it’s worth just brushing aside all such minor inaccuracies and instead simply immersing yourself in the retelling of the legendary story, rather than fixating on all the minuscule errors and artistic liberties taken for the sake of storytelling! After all, it’s a PCL and not a history textbook!
What we have as a story is however one that tries its best to squeeze a dramatic four-year legacy into just sixty-four short pages of comic panels. It’s a tough ask, and one that results in a tad too much of a brisk outline of Billy the Kid’s story.
For much of the comic we have a litany of characters come and go, with new names thrown around willy-nilly. There are seemingly instant love interests, and abrupt changes in pace, plot and location, as the writer tries their best to shoehorn the majority of the important elements of the Billy’s story into the tale.
Nevertheless, the action sequences are handled well, with plenty of Spaghetti Western shootouts and all that spit-and-sawdust drama thrown in when the storyline dictates. Soon enough, bodies are dropping all over the place, as Billy goes from one problematic confrontation to the next.
However, it’s the journey over those four years before his eventual capture and death which makes the story as a whole such a compelling read. We see Billy go from young killer, to thief and outlaw, to an honest and loyal employee, to highly the revered right-hand-man of the town’s new sheriff, until he’s forced back into being a notorious outlaw who’s being hunted down with gusto. It’s one hell of a journey and one heck of a story, crammed into such a short page count.
I guess that’s it’s main trouble. Cramming the story into a PCL was too much of an ambitious stretch. There are just too many parts to the tale to cram in. So, the outcome is almost a bullet-pointed timeline of events, rather than a comic trying to capture the drama of this utterly thrilling story. Although the PCL does whet the appetite for further reading of Billy the Kid’s story. Which is no bad thing!
Anyway, the illustrative artwork is all pretty standard PCL stuff (in a good way). Plenty of stern expressions and bodies tumbling everywhere when the bullets start flying – all of which are depicted well. A smattering of typos scattered here and there, as well as the odd speech bubble attached to the wrong character, reminds you of the ‘churn them out’ policy of these comics, which if you ask me, only enriches the pulpish joy of reading them further.
All in all, this PCL is a bit of a curate’s egg. The real-life story’s a spectacular one, but there’s just too much in that story to cram into such a short comic. So, it suffers from that. Nevertheless, there’s enough attention put to the dramatic moments, to bring the story to life every few pages. Which works well.
The comic book runs for a total of 64 pages.
© DLS Reviews
