Hey, Wild West fans! I’ve got some news about a non-SWC comic book project I’m involved in, and although it’s not a straight-up horror story, it’s got enough “dark fantasy” elements for it to qualify as a supernatural Weird Western—and it’s based on a short-lived animated series that ran in the late 1990s.
In September 1997, the Old West–themed The Legend of Calamity Jane appeared on the Kids’ WB network and presented a heavily fictionalized, heavily stylized take on the life and times of the real-life Martha Jane Canary, a gunslinging, bullwhip-toting cowgirl who was famously known across the United States as “Calamity Jane.” It starred Barbara Weber-Scaff (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) as the voice of Jane, with Frank W. Welker (Megatron and others of the Transformers cartoons and movies, Freddy of Scooby-Doo) as Jane’s sidekick, Joe Presto, and Clancy Brown (Superman: The Animated Series, Highlander) as Wild Bill Hickok.
However, the series was canceled in the US after just three weeks—possibly due to the level of violence and gunplay on display—but did complete its single-season, 13-episode run in other countries, where it built up quite a worldwide following over the years. And in recent years, people have been discovering it by watching low-res, fuzzy transfers posted on the Internet.
So now, in time to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary, Calamity Jane is riding again with a special Kickstarter campaign that just launched today, courtesy of Texas-based video game developer and current rights owner Piko Interactive and its president, Eli Galindo.
The Legend of Calamity Jane: DVD Box Set and Comic will collect the entire series, taken from the original masters and presented in its original running order. And with the box set will be The Legend of Calamity Jane: The Devil Herself, a brand-new, full-color comic book from Piko’s Virtual Comics imprint, by the Lorelei: Sects and the City and The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 team of writer Steven A. Roman (that’s me!) and artist/colorist Eliseu “Zeu” Gouveia. Hey, look—we’re working on another redheaded heroine!
Set in the present day, The Devil Herself involves Jane on the hunt for a stolen relic: a gun that belonged to her old friend Wild Bill Hickok. But more suprising than the identity of the gun’s current owner—a series villain from her past—is the even bigger mystery it sets up: How can Calamity Jane still be alive today, and not looking a day older than she did in the 1870s?
(Although the cover art has been finalized, the actual final design has yet to be done; what you see above is the basic layout for it that I cobbled together for show-and-tell.)
I had a lot of fun working on the script—I’d never heard of the series before, but I’m a fan now—and Zeu’s done a magnificent job on the cover and pages I’ve seen so far. It’s a totally different style from his work on the Lorelei and Pandora Zwieback comics—which in this case is a really good thing, because he’s absolutely captured the look of the Calamity Jane animated series, which should make Jane’s fans very happy!
I urge you to check out the Legend of Calamity Jane: DVD Box Set and Comic Kickstarter campaign that just launched today—featuring a presentation video narrated by none other than Barbara Weber-Scaff, Calamity Jane herself! In addition to the comic, Eli has plans for stretch goals involving a motion comic, a video game, an action figure, Ms. Weber-Scaff narrating an audiobook version of Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane, by Herself—Martha Canary’s actual autobiography—and possibly even a brand-new episode!
The campaign runs from October 3 to November 3. If it’s successful, we look forward to presenting further comic adventures of the Wild West’s most badass cowgirl!
