| Pecos Bill | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Pecos Bill |
|
First Appearance |
The Saga of Pecos Bill (1923) |
|
Original Publisher |
The Century Magazine |
|
Created by |
Edward S. O'Reilly |
Origin[]
Born in Texas in the 1830's, Pecos Bill fell out of his family’s covered wagon near the Pecos River and was raised by coyotes, but he later found his brother who informed him he was not a coyote. He grew up to be an American cowboy during American westward expansion into the Southwest of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. He had a horse named Widow-Maker who only Pecos Bill could survive riding and love interest named Slue Foot Sue. He was legendary for feats such as using a rattlesnake named Shake for a lasso, riding a cougar, and riding a tornado whirlwind like a bronco.
Public Domain Appearances[]
Public Domain Literaty Appearances[]
- The Saga of Pecos Bill (1923)
- Cowboy Tales (1929)
- Tall Tales from Texas Cow Camps (1934)
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- The Comics #6-11
- Tim McCoy #16-18, 20-21: Clint Harmon’s Pecos Bill appears as a contemporary cowboy, often shown filming a movie. Unlike earlier versions, he does not have Slue Foot Sue as a romantic partner, and women are depicted lining up to kiss him.
- Cowboy Western Comics #29-31, 33-34, 36-37: Continuation of the Harmon series
- Nature Boy #4
- Buster Crabbe Comics #2
- The Westerner Comics #14
- Western Fighters #v1 #6, 8
- Redskin #10: A text story, on the cover, the character is referred to as Pecos Kid.
Notes[]
- Pecos Bill is an example of fakelore, a fictional folk hero created by Edward Sinnott "Tex" O'Reilly. The conclusion that the character was an invention of O'Reilly was established by the folklorists J. Frank Dobie and Richard M. Dorson (creator of the term fakelore). As a result, O'Reilly did not retain copyright over the creation, and Pecos Bill subsequently appeared in numerous comic books and other media adaptations.
- O'Reilly had previously used the name Pecos Bill for bandit characters in short films on which he worked as both screenwriter and actor: West of the Rio Grande (1921), in which he portrayed Pecos Bill, and On the High Card (1921).
- One version of Pecos Bill was created by Clint Harmon for Cowboy Western Comics and Tim McCoy published by Charlton Comics. Harmon also produced a comic book adaptation of Paul Bunyan.
- Some sources indicate that Pecos Bill appeared in a newspaper strip written by Tex O’Reilly and illustrated by Jack A. Warren, published in The Sun around 1927 or 1929. However, according to comics historian Alex Jay of Stripper’s Guide, a strip by the same duo actually ran from 1936 to 1937, following Warren’s earlier series Loco Luke (1935–1936). The Pecos Bill strip was later reprinted in Dell's The Comics. Earlier, between January and February 1935, the pulp magazine Adventure had published four Pecos Bill short stories by O’Reilly, illustrated by Warren.
- Some sources claim that Jack A. Warren changed the character’s name to Pecos Pete due to copyright issues. Under this name, the strip reportedly ran for two years. Pecos Pete appeared in Air Fighters Comics v1 #1 (November 1941), published by Hillman. However, the alleged Pecos Pete strip has not yet been found.