Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Fox Feature Syndicate, golden age, norman rockwell

Norman Rockwell's Nephew in Fox's Women Outlaws #6, at Auction

Norman Rockwell's nephew Dick Rockwell had an extensive career in comic books that includes Fox Feature Syndicate's Women Outlaws #6.

Published Thu, 09 Feb 2023 09:32:09 -0600

by Mark Seifert

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At the height of the late 1940s crime comic and good girl art boom, Victor Fox covered all of the bases. Not only did he publish comic books featuring a combination of those things, like Crimes by Women and Famous Crimes, but he even had a title that also combined them with another popular genre of the era, the western. Fox Feature Syndicate's Women Outlaws title is exactly what the title implies, a comic book featuring female outlaws of the old west. Like much of Fox's crime comics output, many of these tales were purported to be based on real-life criminals. But even when Fox Feature creators made up fictional women outlaws for this series, there's plenty of historical interest here, such as the work of Norman Rockwell's nephew Dick Rockwell's work on the "Bronco Moll" story in Women Outlaws #6 and the Wally Wood and Mike Esposito art in Women Outlaws #4. These two issues are up for auction in the 2023 February 9 Good Girl Art in Comics Valentine's Showcase Auction #40216 from Heritage Auctions.

Women Outlaws #6 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1949)

Primarily remembered today as a longtime assistant on Milt Caniff's Steve Canyon newspaper strip, Dick Rockwell kept a hand in the comic book industry for most decades from the 1940s to the 1990s. Rockwell worked for a wide range of publishers in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including Marvel, Hillman, Fiction House, Street & Smith, Fox Feature, and Quality Comics, but his highest volume of work during this period came from Lev Gleason. The artist contributed to titles such as Crime Does Not Pay, Daredevil Comics, Boy Comics, and many others for Lev Gleason during that period. According to GCD, Rockwell has a handful of credits for Charlton and Gold Key during the Silver Age and then turns up in comics again in a few issues of Action Comics Weekly in 1988. His last non-reprint credit in comics appears to be for Valiant's The Legend of Zelda in 1990/1991. Rockwell was also a longtime courtroom artist and magazine illustrator.

There are only two higher-graded copies of Women Outlaws #6 CGC 7.5 up for auction in the 2023 February 9 Good Girl Art in Comics Valentine's Showcase Auction #40216 from Heritage Auctions. Check out Heritage Auctions' FAQ on the bidding process and related matters to learn more.