[crashryan]

Another nice Drury art job on a less than terrific story.

According to Wikipedia, "James Warner Bellah was the author of 19 novels, including The Valiant Virginian (the inspiration for the 1961 NBC television series The Americans), and Blood River. Some of his short stories were turned into films by John Ford, including Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande. With Willis Goldbeck he wrote the screenplays for Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)."

The inherent racism that underlies all cavalry-and-Indian stories is laid on so thickly here that the story was hard to finish. Even putting that aside, I find it hard to believe that five bands of angry, revenge-hungry Indians, including the chief who launched the vendetta, would suddenly drop the whole thing and shamble away to go on a bender.

Another odd thing is the choice of character names. Maslin Rattay, Sgt. Jarboe, Mason Steece...it's as if Bellah's editor told him, "Make sure you don't use any real persons' names. We've been getting complaints."

Link to the book: Thriller Comics Library 083 - The Apache Curse