The Legendary Belle Starr in Fox’s Women Outlaws #2, at Auction

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, and such was certainly the case for a story in Women Outlaws #2, which features one of the legendary female outlaws of the 19th century, Belle Starr.  A comic book story based on an underappreciated western legend, there’s a Women Outlaws #2 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) Condition: GD and several other issues of the Women Outlaws series up for auction in the 2022 June 12-13 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122224 from Heritage Auctions.

Infamous western outlaw Myra Maybelle Shirley was born on February 5, 1848 in Carthage, Missouri. Nicknamed Belle, the daughter of John Shirley and his third wife, Elizabeth Hatfield Shirley, Belle married Sam Starr and thus became known as Belle Starr.  While Belle regularly associated with notorious criminals, most notably Frank and Jesse James, and was certainly apprehended and arrested for numerous deeds herself, some historians feel that her reputation has outpaced her actual crimes.  Notably, her legend was promoted after her 1889 death by Police Gazette publisher Richard K. Fox, and Belle Starr has played a role in pop culture across movies, television, and fiction ever since.

Regardless of the reality behind the legend, Belle Starr has become part of the fabric of western pop culture history, and there’s a Women Outlaws #2 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) Condition: GD and several other issues of the Women Outlaws series up for auction in the 2022 June 12-13 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122224 from Heritage Auctions. If you’ve never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information, you can check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters.

Women Outlaws #2 (Fox Features Syndicate, 1948) Condition: GD. Good girl cover. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $73.