From their inception, comic books were never exclusively about superheroes. Although Action Comics #1 established the new medium as a legitimate source of entertainment with the first appearance of Superman, other genres soon emerged to go along with the superhero, from romance to war, horror to science fiction.
Westerns also became popular, and by the time World War II ended, all the major publishers had their own line of comic books dedicated to the Old West. DC launched Western Comics in 1948, for instance, and the series lasted until 1961 before giving way to a renewed interest in superheroes.
Like with most things, what goes-around-comes-around within the comic book industry, and DC again began publishing western comics in 1972. Although Weird Western Tales initially centered on bounty hunter Jonah Hex, a new hero – Scalphunter – was created in 1977 to take over the reins of Weird Western Tales when Hex was given his own series.
Scalphunter was born Brian Savage, and his origin story tied into the Western Comics of the 1950s by establishing that Savage’s father was Matt Savage, the final main character in that particular series. Abducted by Native Americans as a child and raised by Kiowa Indians who named him Ke-Woh-No-Tay, Brian Savage later made his way back to white society, donned the moniker Scalphunter, and fought against injustice throughout nineteenth century America.
In a 1980 issue of Weird Western Tales, meanwhile, Scalphunter’s journeys led him to the Steel City. “Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on a gray day in mid-December 1862,” Weird Western Tales #66, subtitled “The Devil’s Pay,” announces on its opening page. “It lies embraced by two gleaming rivers, the Allegheny and Monongahela. A spot of almost unparalleled natural beauty, a beauty marred by the billowing clouds of black smoke which pour from the city’s foundries, like an oily smudge on the face of a young woman.”
Scalphunter was injured during the previous issue, shot by a Confederate Patrol during the early days of the Civil War. Burning with fever, he makes his way to Pittsburgh in search of medical attention but is immediately ambushed by three muggers upon his arrival. Although Scalphunter tries to defend himself, it takes the intervention of a Scottish immigrant woman named Candace to ultimately rescue him. As Candace nurses Scalphunter back to health afterwards, feelings between the two begin to grow.
“There is something about the quiet strength of this woman which reminds him of the squaws in the Kiowa Camp where he was raised,” it is explained within the pages of Weird Western Tales. “A sense that she, like the squaws, had been born to a life of struggle and suffering, and yet somehow, despite the daily anguish, she has found a peaceful place within herself where, at day’s end, she can retreat and become whole once more.”
After recovering from his wounds, Scalphunter decides it is time to earn his keep and repay the woman who gave him food to eat and a place to rest. In 1862 Pittsburgh, employment meant the foundries where iron was forged into weapons of war. In the “factual” world as well as the “fictional” of Scalphunter, the Steel City was the central arsenal for the Union during the Civil War, producing over 3,000 cannons from 1861 to 1865.
“The work is hard, the foundry is hot, and before an hour is past, Ke-Woh-No-Tay is almost blind from the sweat and the soot,” the comic book notes. “Around him, the other workers have expressions like those of dead men – blank, hopeless, despairing. For what have they to hope for but work where one mistake can cost a man his limbs or even his life?”
When Candace accidently spills water on a foreman and is accosted as a result, Scalphunter immediately goes to defend her in much the same way that she rescued him upon his arrival in Pittsburgh. Instead of gratitude, however, Scalphunter is met with pleas from Candace to stop as the Scottish immigrant is worried that she will lose her job if he continues to antagonize the manager.
“This war between your people,” Scalphunter replies. “Is it not fought to end slavery? But how can this be, when children are forced to work here, and women are treated like property, and men are killed and maimed?”
Pittsburgh was a different city in the late 1800s than it is today and life in the region, as Scalphunter discovers, was not an easy one. It wasn’t just the steel mills that were polluted – the three rivers of the Steel City were likewise fouled by the factories while the air was thick with smoke. Long hours in the mills, low pay, and unsafe work conditions were likewise the norm.
To Scalphunter, it was the same as slavery and a contradiction to the moral campaign of a Civil War in which he himself fought. Scalphunter thus flees Pittsburgh, leaving his newfound love behind, as he cannot bear to live in a place where the people blindly accept their fates.
“There is nothing more to be said, and a great sadness tightened in Ke-Woh-No-Tay’s breast,” ends the narrative. “For he knows now that for some in this world, there will always be a gulf between what they desire and what they can do, and the name of this gulf is fear. Fear not just of the unknown but what tomorrow might bring, and ultimately fear of their own ability to cope and to change the life they have been born to. For these people, the war will change nothing – it brings neither hope nor freedom, neither revolution nor change. Their war must be fought in their hearts and souls, with victory ever in doubt.”
Change eventually arrived in Pittsburgh when the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, with better work environments at the mills and a concerted effort by elected official to clean the air and water. Over 150 years have passed since Scalphunter’s fictional visit to the Steel City, but if he were to return today, the former Brian Savage would no doubt be proud of the region and more forgiving of the people who toiled for decades – including a red-haired Scottish immigrant named Candace.
Anthony Letizia