MOG-AN-AH The Mound Builder, 1952-53

(Continued from FRONTIER TALES, 1953)

As I noted in the KIT CARSON pages, for a stretch there in the early 1950s, the western comics in BOYS' LIFE magazine sure had a lot of violence and killing, while consistently casting Native American Indians as thieves and killers.

That all started to change when the Johnstone & Cushing 8-page color comics supplement debuted.  Like THE UNTOUCHABLES in its 4th season, both Indians and violence in general began to vanish, before KIT CARSON disappeared entirely.  Meanwhile, the month the color comics section started, one of the brand-new features was a comics series that portrayed American Indians in a far more positive light.  MOG-AN-AH The Mound Builder, by Irving Crump, based on a book from 1931, focused on a pair of Indian tribes, one peace-loving, and the other war-like.

The series only lasted 10 episodes, but was soon replaced by another similar one that was aimed even more at young boys.

MOG-AN-AH The Mound Builder
September 1952  /  Episode 1  /  ["The Wolf Slayer"]  Part 1
story by Irving Crump  /  art by ??

October 1952  /  Episode 2  /  ["The Wolf Slayer"]  Part 2

November 1952  /  Episode 3  /  ["The Wolf Slayer"]  Part 3

December 1952  /  Episode 4  /  ["The Cougar Hunt"]  Part 1

January 1953  /  Episode 5  /  ["The Cougar Hunt"]  Part 2

February 1953  /  Episode 6  /  ["The Cougar Hunt"]  Part 3

March 1953  /  Episode 7  /  ["The Deer Hunt"]  Part 1

April 1953  /  Episode 8  /  ["The Deer Hunt"]  Part 2

May 1953  /  Episode 9  /  ["The Deer Hunt"]  Part 3

June 1953  /  Episode 10  /  ["Mok-Lee The Long-Head"]  Part 1

And that's it for MOG-AN-AH... unfortunately, the series was cut off abruptly one episode into a new multi-part story.  (Don't you hate when that happens?)  But I'll be back soon with more FRONTIER TALES, this time starring a young Native American boy!

Copyright (C) 1953 by Boys' Life magazine

Raw scan of the 1931 book from the Trussel.com site
Raw scans of the comic from the Boys' Life / Wayback Machine website
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about Irving Crump at the Trussel.com site!
Read about The Archeology Of Arizona at the T-Rat site!

Read SPACE CONQUERORS! at this blog!
Read STORIES FROM THE BIBLE at this blog!
Read Old Timer Tales of KIT CARSON at this blog!
Read FRONTIER Tales at this blog!