"THE ORIGIN OF THE GUN!"
(1996 version)
As I said in the previous post, this started out as a JOKE. It was never meant to go past the initial story. But it did.
After 50 episodes, I took a break, which lasted several years longer than I'd intended. After a 9-year break, I got back to it in 1988, with 4 new episodes, that took place 9 years after the previous story. That detailed a rather sombre period in my hero's life and career, and might have gone on longer, if it hadn't been taking me so long to write stories that were not as much fun as I'd have liked.
But concurrent with this, I started re-writing the earliest episodes, to flesh them out, and bring them up to my then-current standards. Over a few years, I re-did GUN #2, 3, 4, 5 & 6. I might have done more, except around the same time I was also doing another new series of stories, 16 in all, set a few years AFTER the ones I started in 1988.
It wasn't until 1996 that I finally got around to re-writing GUN #1. I had expanded it in GUN #38, but most of that comic contained some of my worst writing, most in need of a serious upgrade. And I'd redone the artwork full-size in early 1989, but that was a rush job done while I was under a lot of stress, and in the long run, no amount of fixes could ever bring those pages up to snuff. Which is probably why I won't EVER be posting them here. (I think it says something when my stick-figure art is more charming than full-size pages.)
After so many years of trying to figure out how to handle it, I finally rewrote #1 properly, expanding it to a full 32 pages. And I was SO satisfied with the results, I immediately launched into doing brand-new full-size art for it. I got about 2/3rds in before other things interrupted me... for about 8 years!! I finally got the art FINISHED in early 2007. And THAT is what I'm presenting here.
As you'll see, the main characters who were regulars for much of the run-- Harry, Jim & Dan-- originally not introduced until GUN #3, turn up here. As does Chief Cannon, who originally did not appear in this series (he had turned up in some of my others) until GUN #16, and then later introduced earlier in the re-write for GUN #2. Fittingly, he has a cameo in this episode as well.
WHO is The GUN!? That remained a mystery until GUN #36 came along...
and it still will be.
ENJOY!
THE GUN! #1 (1996-2007 version)
Story & Art Copyright (C) Henry R. Kujawa
All prominent characters are Trademarks of Henry R. Kujawa
Don't miss the 2nd PART of this... coming up next!!!
(Continued in The GUN! #1, 1996, Pt. 2)
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