Dale Evans Writer: Joe Millard

That Joe Millard was the first writer on Sierra Smith back-ups in Dale Evans (see previous post) leads to the fact that he was the first writer on Dale Evans herself. Some quirks shared among the Dale stories and the Sierra story in #1 are "Ulp," "Owoooff," and "Eeeow." "Ub-blub" or a variation is used in both strips (as well as many at Quality)—as shown here from the Sierra story in Dale Evans 7 and her own story, the first  in Dale 4. (I included part of the next panel in the Dale Evans story to show Dale herself, although in long shot and from the back, in the crane cab.) Alex Toth art on Sierra and Jay McArdle art on Dale.

A few decades after Dale Evans Comics was published, Ryerson Johnson recalled that he had written the strip, and thought that he had written the first appearance of the character Uncle Six. But the wheelchair-riding retired sheriff appears in the first story in the first issue, written in Joe Millard's style.

I had thought that the stories identified below with a question mark were Johnson's; they all seemed to match up with the style in some Wyoming Kid stories, another series he worked on. But in Robin Snyder's History of Comics, (Aug/90), the bibiography of Phil Evans' comics work shows stories (no title given) in Dale Evans 8 and 9.

Paul Talbot, in a letter to Grand Comics Database co-founder Bob Klein, recalled writing Dale Evans as well; there does seem to be at least one more writer alongside "?" after Millard leaves. I hope to sort this out in the future!

The comic lasted until #24 (July-Aug/52).

Dale Evans written by Millard and others

S-O/48	#1	Secret of Ghost Town Greed	Millard
		'Readin', Robbin' and Six-Gun 'Rithmetic	Millard
		The Spirit of Annie Oakley	Millard
N-D/	#2	Roughneck Romeos	Millard
		The Evil Eye of Eagle Eye	Millard
		The Rodeo Rat	Millard
J-F/49	#3	Diamonds Ain't Hay	Millard
		The Two-Ton Crime Wave	Millard
		The River of Never-Return	Millard
M-A/	#4	Phantom of Cactus Canyon	Millard
		Mere Slip of the Gun	Millard
		A Dead Man's Life	Millard
M-J/	#5	The Thin Air Disappearances	Millard
		Those Deadly Dreams	Millard
		Dale Evans of the Pony Express	Millard
J-A/	#6	The Horse-Thief Catcher	Millard
		The Alibi Bullet	?
		Riot at Roughhouse Rancho	Millard
S-O/	#7	The Belles of Buffalo Wallow	?
		City of Dreadful Dust	Millard
		Canyon of Disaster	Millard
N-D/	#8	Gobblers and Gold Dust	Millard
		The East Goes West	?
		Oil Is Where You Find It	?
J-F/50	#9	The Ship of the Desert	?
		On the Merry-Go-Round	?
		The Money Tree	?
M-A/	#10	Dale Evans...Mining Engineer	?
		The Senator Goes West	?
		The Prince of Bangistan	Millard
M-J/	#11	Talent Scout for Danger	?
		Bullets and Balloons	?
		The Snow Broncos of Pride Mountain	?
J-A/	#12	The Horse That Forgot to Remember	?
		The State Fair Fraud	Millard
		Fancy Footwork	Millard