A cowboy western series from The Victor.

See The Victor 191 - 203; 1966.

Writer:- The Victor editorial team. Artist:- Jordi Macabich.

Main cast:- Dusty Fog, Doc Leroy, Mark Counter, Waco and the Ysabel Kid.

Time period:- North America, late nineteen century.

The Town Tamers, is a series of short stories written originally by J.T. Edson for The Victor. The author with permission from Thomson’s later used the plots and characters for a book with the same title. These characters also appear in other books written by Edson.

artist Macabich. © D.C. Thomson Co. Ltd.

The above image from the 1966 annual.

The town of Trail End is overrun by an unruly, criminal element. Various Sheriffs and Marshalls have attempted to bring order to the town, but all have failed. In desperation, the Governor turns to a young man Dusty Fog and his colleagues Mark Counter, The Ysabel Kid, Doc Leroy and Waco, known collectively as The Floating Outfit (in the books, but not I don't think in this Victor series), to take on the job of bringing law and order to the town.

The five men have a huge task in front of them. Can they tame the law breakers, arrest the guilty and bring peace to the town? Each weekly episode follows the adventures of the five men, sometimes they act together, other times the episode is about one or two of the characters.

Issue 197 is a particularly interesting episode as a female Calamity Jane, also stars in the story alongside Dusty Fog. (A woman with a leading role in a boys comic, good god!) It has to be remembered that the Victor was a young boys comic, so the appearance of women in the comic was kept to a minimum. Nothing was a quicker turnoff for young boys than to have soppy, boring girls popping up in a good story. D.C. Thomson published comics for young girls, where I assume (I haven't read any of the Thomson girls comics), boys made fleeting appearances.

The Spanish artist Jordi Macabich does a fine job with the pencils in bringing the series to life, with his eye-catching artwork.

For further information about Edson's work for the Victor please follow the link.

For those wishing to read further adventures of Dusty Fog and his colleagues, the good news is that Edson wrote many books about the characters. The majority of Edson's work is currently out of print, but those copies can be easily bought via the second hand trade bookshops.

The following adventures of Dusty Fog and his friends are from issues 191, 193, 195, 197, 200 and 203.