Pride month is coming to a close, and unfortunately I spent most of it talking about spiders here... to be fair, most of the queer people I know like spiders (even more specifically the spiders-men), but I understand that it doesn't quite constitute representation, so I set off to find something substantive to present today! Unfortunately, most public domain heroes are quite straight, so I settled for one who happened to have "gay" in his name (but like in the old fashioned way).

Jim Collins was just your average Joe - or I guess average Jim in his case - until, one day, he got framed for a crime he didn't commit! So now he's constantly on the run, dispensing justice wherever he goes... yeah, that's a good enough reason.

Jim wasn't alone however, since he was followed by a sidekick named Patsy. Presumably Jim hoped that, if anyone tried to frame him for any further crimes, his sidekick would take the fall for him instead.

Now, looking at this comic, you might assume his stories take place in the old west... you are a fool. These stories are set in modern day 1940s America - specifically Texas - it just also happens that everything looks like it's the Old West.

THe Gay Desperado lasted for technically 13 issues, but also had several reprints under different names and with different colourations - he was also Lone Vigilante (bit on the nose), Masked Blackjack (whose real name was Tom), and Bold Buckaroo (who presumably got his cowboy name from Chuck Tingle).

Happy Pride!

Throughout this series, we've seen quite an interesting array of fashion senses displayed by various heroes, from the typical to the honestly quite cool to the frankly bizarre. I'll let you decide where the Blue Lady falls.

Lucille Martin was just your average novelist who, on a return trip, is gifted a magic Bird Ring. Later, after some other incidents, she discovers she has unlocked super strength and, after a couple of issues, she discovers she can evaporate into mist! Y'know, like birds.

Deciding to put her Bird Ring powers to good use, she takes up the moniker of "The Blue Lady" and makes her own costume... complete with a bird hat for some reason.

Unfortunately, she only lasted for 3 issues.

As we've seen plenty of times by now, sometimes the superhero's powers aren't entirely congruous with their name. Case in point: the Spider.

Not to be confused with pulp hero Richard Wentworth (who is also technically public domain, though I've not seen anyone make use of that fact), Tom Hallaway was just your average extraordinarily rich guy who wanted to eliminate crime. Fortunately, he was a great shot with a bow and arrow, which is his main weapon. Obviously, this is why he's called... the Spider.

I've got no clue. Like, his costume is barely spider-themed (though he does try, with spider arrows and a car named "Black Widow")... granted, the other vigilante known as the Spider uses guns, but that somehow feels less incongruous than a bow and arrow. Like, that weapon is so distracting that it really ought to be part of your theme.

Somehow, the Spider survived for 30 issues.

Many people have been discussing various web slingers this month due to a certain movie release... I don't think Spider Queen was in it, but I wouldn't know since I haven't seen it.

Shannon Kane was just your average wife to a chemist working for the US government until, suddenly, BANG! A pair of lowly criminals shot him in the back, leaving Shannon a widow who exclusively wore black (as widows do). Looking through the room where her husband once worked, she discovered his notes detailing a new adhesive substance strong enough to swing with! Using these notes, she invented bracelets which shot out this adhesive like spiders shoot webs (this was 21 years before Amazing Fantasy #15 introduced Spider-Man by the way).

The widow Shannon noticed the similarity between this device and spiders, and from it created a crime-fighting persona. One ready and willing to do anything to stop criminals like the ones who killed her husband and made her a widow. She was Black Wido- sorry, she was Spider Queen. She chose the name Spider Queen, obviously.

Spider Queen only showed up in 3 issues, though she's one of the more well-known superheroes who have fallen into the public domain. Perhaps most notably, Marvel made use of her in the 1993 mini-series "The Invaders" where she was reimagined as a villain working with the Nazis. She's also allegedly popped up in Webcomics, but I can't actually find what they are (I'm only a mortal man).