Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Dogwood City A to Z: The Wild Bunch

My wife and I recently binge-watched our way through Sons of Anarchy.  We were hooked from the first episode; every evening until we finished the series pretty much came down to, "Okay, what do we need to do before we can sit down and watch Sons...?"

When I spotted a motorcycle club on the Public Domain Super Heroes site, I thought they'd be a lot of fun to add to Dogwood City.  Here they are, the Wild Bunch:


This tough crew hit comics on the heels of biker flicks like The Wild Angels, Hells Angels on Wheels, and The Cycle Savages (which even had the tagline "The Wildest Bunch of the 70's!").  They come from an era very different from that of most of Dogwood City's denizens, who hail from the Golden Age of comics.  The Wild Bunch and their colleagues are decidedly Seventies creations who just happened to be published without proper copyright notice.  (They were also published in black and white magazine form, outside the restrictions of the Comics Code.)

The Wild Bunch appear in the stories of Hell Rider, a bike-based hero that was an earlier effort of Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich.  Here's that gentleman (Hell Rider, not Gary Friedrich):


Upon returning from Vietnam, the Wild Bunch are the crew that Hell Rider alter ego Brick Reese rides with...


These badass bikers are decidedly good guys but maintain a definite tough-guy edge.  The heroic angle may be why, as far as I've seen, the Wild Bunch aren't shown to wear the traditional cuts and colors of an outlaw/1%er motorcycle club.  Those usually look pretty cool, though, so I threw something together that might resemble what they'll wear around Dogwood City...

Credit where it's due for that skull image: Cowboy Skull Free Vector from vector.me

The Hell-Rider comics can be a bit tougher to come across on the web than some of the others I've mentioned on here.  Here's a site where they can be had (check out the bottom of the page).


Animal/Deke/Slinker/Curly/Ruby (the Wild Bunch)
Each Level 3
3 Hero Dice
Defense 12

2 fists +3 (1D damage)
OR
Attack +3 (by weapon)

Mastery:  Motorcycling



6 comments:

  1. I was expecting you to step out of the golden age. Very cool stuff. I'm going to have to read more about them.

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  2. Bad T-shirt vector. I would look for a better vector. I found the vectors of the Wild Bunch theme here free vector clipart. I do not like comic books about it, I choose the Marvel.

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    Replies
    1. If you mean the cut itself, well, that was drawn in Paint in about 12 seconds and blown up to reveal all the flaws. I'll definitely find something better if I use this again. If you mean the patch...I kinda like it :)

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