It’s a Patreon-inspired Spotlight episode covering GREG SAUNDERS – THE VIGILANTE! Ranger Gord and The Irredeemable Shag saddle up for a spotlight on this JSA-adjacent character in VIGILANTE: BIG CITY, PRAIRIE JUSTICE #1–4 (1995) by James Robinson & Tony Salmons! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback, Pardner!
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wow another dc from the 90s I had no idea about and that’s weried cuz it was not like i only read huge dcs. I READ Both the Question and the Shadow strike
The real question is have you watched all the shadow movies as there is two black and white movies , a movie serial and the 90’s movie .
And the fact the shadow only has his powers in the 90’s movie and have played the shadow snes game .
Of the shadow .
I didn’t have hearing a Corb Lund song on a Shag podcast in my entire stack of bingo cards. Bravo Ranger Gord!
He’s the last of singing cowboy singing songs of inspiration of joy !!!.
This was great episode I’ve had issue 3 of this series for while after hearing this I’ll definitely have tracked down the rest of the series so I can read it all the way through. I didn’t realize Busey Seagal played such a big part in it . i’ll have to check out the Bugsy .
Here’s a secret question for you shag :
If Greg sanders his buddies Burt gun and the china town kid had come in to comic shop that worked at. This is in the dc universe how would you react remember this is the version of that worked in comic shop in 90’s and what comics or manga would recommend for vigilante, Bart gun and stuff
Based on there personalities you listened to prairie Justice so I’m sure you know their personalities as well as I do.
Oh and would you ask for there autographs ?
Since they’re real people in the DC universe?
2 thoughts on this episode.
1st) i wish Prairie Justice was available on Spotify. Ive been looking for awhile, only to be told no.
2nd) this is one of two podcasts that I pull out of order to listen to. This and B-squad hotrod. But that’s because I sometimes guest host on that one.
Ok. Ive now watched the Vigilante serial. Better than most because the cliffhanger endings aren’t fudged like most. And Stuff has to be the worst sidekick name ever
This episode was phenomenally entertaining AND INFORMATIVE! Ranger Gord brought a ten gallon hat full of knowledge to the show. I was simply blown away away by all the Las Vegas nuggets he was dropping completely off the cuff. I was only slightly considering looking for these comics before listening, now I am on the hunt! Tip of the hat to both Gord and Shag for this one – it was a real pleasure tuning in.
Great episode all around!
First off, fascinating that there was so much ‘true crime’ in this with all the Bugsy Siegel. As Gord said, so many characters in the Godfather are based on real life folks. Mo Green for Bugsy. Hyman Roth for Meyer Lansky. And yes, Beatty’s Bugsy had recently come out so maybe he as back in the zeitgeist.
Chiarello was DC’s art director for a long time. I like his style on the covers, unique, an almost old-school movie poster style. He did interior art on a Batman/Houdini Elseworlds if you want to see more.
But I have to say the internal art just doesn’t do it for me. For sure, there is a heavy Miller feel to it but just a feel. Not the real thing. And I wonder if the color compounds the problem. I wonder if this would have worked better as a black-and-white.
Anyways, great discussion around Vig!
I finished listening to this episode this morning and it was a hoot. It was fun to hear Ranger Gord just talk, but it was even more fun to hear him sing! It was a great show about a “V-list” character that I also really like – I mean, a cowboy on a motorcycle, what’s not to love? – but I was not a fan of this mini-series when I bought it and read it back in the day. I loved James Robinson in the 90’s and I loved the golden age characters, so I thought it was going to be amazing. However, like Dr. Anj above, the art of Tony Salmons just did not work for me. It was hard for me to even figure out what was going on, at times. I know art is subjective, so I also know this is somebody’s all-time favorite mini-series, but not me. Regardless of this, both Shag and Ranger Gord made it a joyful episode. Thanks for the fun, pardners!
I wasn’t aware of this series, but now I want to check it out. James Robinson was hitting on all cylinders in this era. I think that I first encountered Vigilante during one of his appearances in one of the anthology books. The country singer secret identity is one of the more interesting backgrounds of the Golden Age. Great job, Ranger Gord! (and Shagg).
Ranger Gord, you’ve never seen a lever action shotgun? I highly suggest you check out a small, independent film I saw in the early 90s. The governor of California goes back in time to save a teenage white supremacist from Peacemaker’s dad (who is not a white supremacist yet). At one point he’s shooting an 1887 lever action shotgun while riding a motorcycle. The director went on to make a long, boring movie about a boat sinking years later. You may have seen that one. But, seriously, great job guys. And thank you, Gord, for ensuring that prairie justice was said correctly throughout the episode. My introduction to Vigilante, Stuff, and The Dummy was in the World’s Finest issue you mentioned. Maybe it’s because I was watching reruns of the Lone Ranger Saturday mornings, or maybe it was the Chinatown-noir look Gray Morrow gave that story, but I thought Vigilante was awesome. A couple years later, I picked up one of my first issues of Detective Comics and his nephew, The Swashbuckler, appeared and talked about his uncle Greg. I was like, “I know that guy!” I thought Swashbuckler was so cool that I’d pretend to be him. I was disappointed to find out later that he was not a big part of the DC Universe (massive understatement). Anyways, almost 50 years later and the cover photo to my Facebook page has been The Dummy running from Vig and the Seven Soldiers. I could go on waxing your iron steed some more, but instead I’ll say, “Happy trails, pardner!”
Don’t know if you’re aware of Xum, and now Isumu Yukinori doing a fan based version of Who’s Who, with characters that were left out of the original series. Issue 3 will have a profile of Swashbuckler.
I’ve got both issues and can’t wait for the third. Thanks!
I gotta admit, this is a blind spot for me as this is a mini-series I don’t see many people talking about. A Vigilante series written by James Robinson in the nineties? How did I miss this?! That being said, I have to track down the single issues or the trade paperback for this one as this sounded AMAZING! And while the story takes place in the forties with gangsters and Las Vegas, I’m a sucker for a story with a gunslinger. There’s something classic about a Western hero no matter what era he’s in. And kudos to Ranger Gord for the excellent use of the word “Gunsel”
Between this and the recent Doctor Mid-Nite episode, I’m loving these spotlight episodes on mini-series that would’ve otherwise been lost to time. Keep up the good work!
Great episode! Ranger Gord was a great guest. I remember liking this mini back in the day, but I agree with Anj that Chiarello did some great things as art director, bringing in talent, cover schemes etc., but I didn’t warm to his art either.
Great episode as always. I didn’t realize there was a Greg Saunders Vigilante mini-series in the 90’s, but now I need to seek out a copy. This story sounds right up my alley with it’s neo-noir gangster trappings and themes about the hollow taste of revenge and obsession. I really loved hearing Ranger Gord on the episode. He brought some meaningful insight to Greg Saunders that I wasn’t aware of. I mentioned this over on bluesky, but this episode also made me want to check out the Bugsy movie that Ranger Gord was talking about. I’ll admit being a youngster at the age of 35 a lot of the early 90’s films are a blindspot, but I am surprised this one has managed to slip past me.
Impressive podcast most impressive. Cool a Vig story . Yeah here’s the thing the Winchester had a level action 1887 shot gun and there was a 1887 one. Still cool podcast and Awsome to here podcast about the Vigilante. He was cool on JLU and in the few comics I’ve read him in.
Geez his partners name was stuff? I thought wing was bad. Still the comic is good and I like how Vig was featured in it James Robertson was the king of 90s comics. Not sure what happened.
Good art work in this comic, yeah looks like he wanted to tell a buggy’s story, And vigilante was just the way into it. Still not a bad comic. I can understand Stuff’s motivation. Sometimes happened to the woman he loved.
That would piss anyone off. And I get the Vigs motivation as well. His best friend is dead. Glad he took out buggsy but yeah sounds like this was more a Buggy’s story than a Ted one. Anyway can’t wait for the next episode.
Great episode, guys! It was a ton of fun and very informative.
This series had been on my “want to get” list ever since Starman was coming out, but I never managed to track it down. After listening to this episode, I finally sought it out and was excited to read it. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to the version I’d built up in my head, and that’s probably on me.
That said, I really enjoyed the story it told and the inclusion of real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel. Weaving a historical figure into a superhero story reminded me a bit of how Oscar Wilde was incorporated into James Robinson’s Starman alongside the Shade. As you both mentioned on the episode, though, this feels more like a Bugsy Siegel story than a Vigilante one. Speaking of which, now I have to track down Bugsy.
Where the comic falls a little short for me is the artwork. I do enjoy Tony Salmons’s style, and I see quite a few similarities to Tim Sale’s work. Unlike Sale, though, I think Salmons struggles to make his characters visually distinct. The heavy use of shadows also made it difficult to tell characters apart, which made the book a tougher read than it needed to be. I’d turn the page, see a new scene, and find myself wondering whether I was looking at the same character or someone else. Sometimes it was the same character, and sometimes it wasn’t. The frequent scene changes also could have benefited from a more distinctive color palette to provide visual cues about shifts in location and time.
The artwork reminded me of some of the fill-in artists on the early Sandman Mystery Theatre issues I’ve been reading with “Sandman Slept Here” when Guy Davis wasn’t drawing an arc. It had many of the same issues.
Reading this book also reminded me of an interview with Geoff Johns in which he talked about rereading his scripts after receiving the finished artwork. He would tweak or cut dialogue that had become unnecessary because the art was already telling the story. I think this book could have benefited from a similar approach. Adding a few narration boxes to smooth the transitions between scenes and locations also would have helped.
All that said, I enjoyed it enough to add the movie to my watchlist, and if they ever did a follow-up comic, it’d be on my pull list.