Introduction   On Racism   Epigraphs   A History of the Pulps   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z   

Glossary and Character Taxonomy  Breakdown by Country of Origin   Bibliography   Table of Contents    The Best of the Encyclopedia

Six-Gun Gorilla. Six-Gun Gorilla appeared in the serial “Six-Gun Gorilla” (Wizard, Mar. 18-July 1 1939).

Six-Gun Gorilla is O’Neil, a gorilla. As a baby he is trapped in Africa and brought to the United States. In Colorado he is sold to Bart Masters, a prospector. Masters is a kind man and treats O’Neil well, and O’Neil grows up to love Masters. Masters teaches O’Neil how to dig, fetch firewood, haul up buckets of water, cook, clean, and load and fire a revolver. Unfortunately, Masters is murdered by bad man Tutt Strawhan, leader of the Strawhan Gang, for what Masters knows about "the great motherlode."

When O’Neil finds Masters’ body, he swears revenge. O’Neil straps on a bandolier and two six-shooters and begins tracking the murderers across a hundred miles of Colorado mountains and badlands. He picks them off one by one, meanwhile discovering a talent for holding up stagecoaches and using them to chase fleeing gunmen. O’Neil dies as he kills Strawhan.

* I'm including the Six-Gun Gorilla stories in the Best of the Encyclopedia list because did you not read that entry? How fun-sounding is that? Just the name of the character alone causes hearts to soar, wounds to heal, and imaginations to enflame! Breathes there a person with soul so dead that they do not begin singing the Six-Gun Gorilla theme song? I think not! (Okay, the writing is strictly average for a late-1930s story paper, and the stories never quite achieve pulp greatness the way you keep hoping they will. But sometimes strength of concept alone is enough to vault a character into the Best of the Encyclopedia list, and that's definitely the case here). 

Table of Contents / Annotations / Blog / Books / Patreon / Twitter / Contact me