Hey, everybody! Let's get our our crayons again because this time we're gonna color country music superstar and legend
Buck Owens!
From Hee Haw #1 (July 1970), art by Frank Roberge
What? There was a comic book based on
Hee Haw? The CBS (then syndicated for two decades) down-home country comedy variety hour set in the fictional
Kornfield Kounty? Why, yes. And not just for one issue, but for
seven...bringing us country-fried comic book comedy from the good ol' boys at Charlton Comics. (oh, c'monwho
else woulda published this?)
But 'round about now you may be having some problems coloring Buck Owens because you don't know what he looks like in real life. Well, let me help you little 'uns there. Right here's a
gen-u-ine photgraphical picture of Mister Buck Owens in all his sartorial splendor, so you can see him in real life an' all. It's straight out of the comical book, too! (Okay, I promise to stop talking like this.)
So get out your grey, black, and white crayons, and get to work? What's that? My goodness, I never heard so much squawkin' from y'all since the chickens got ahold of the truck keys and headed on down to the Country Roadhouse Bar. (No, seriously, I
will stop talking cornpone any minute now, promise.) Well, for those of you who have those new-fangled color tellyvisions and comic books, here's the way Mr. Owens oughter be colored, just like he is in this here cartoon. Ladies and gentlemen...Buck Owens!
Yup, that's about the type of humor you're gonna get on
Hee Haw, broad, slapstick, and...dare I say it...
corny. Take it away, Hee Hawwers!
(Click picture to farm-subsid-size)
Yup. That..............'s about the size of
that. Still, it's easy to mock
Hee Haw because of its redneck country humor. Go ahead! I'll be right here while you do!:
Um, yeah. Grant Morrison, this ain't. But
Hee Haw the comic book has a certain goofy charm, and while you can poke fun at the TV show, you can't fault it for one of its great achievements: long before CMT or The Nashville Network and
way before
American Idol, it brought the great stars of country/western music to your television once in a week. And I
do mean
great stars:
Johnny Cash! (video opens in a new window)
Tanya Tucker (14 years old in this appearance!)
Charley Pride!
Kenny Rogers!
Chet Atkins!
Dolly Parton!
Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson!
And of course...ladies and gentlemen...Mister Buck Owens!