Hell-Rider is a short-lived, black-and-white comics

Comics

Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

 magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 published by Skywald Publications

Skywald Publications

Skywald Publications is a 1970s publisher of black-and-white comics magazines, primarily the horror anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. It also published a small line of comic books and other magazines....

, a 1970s company best known for its horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

-comics magazines Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. Like them and the similar publications of Warren Publishing

Warren Publishing

Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades...

, these were mature-audience magazines not covered by comic books' Comics Code Authority

Comics Code Authority

The Comics Code Authority was a body created as part of the Comics Magazine Association of America, as a tool for the comics-publishing industry to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. Member publishers submitted comic books to the CCA, which screened them for adherence to...

. Cover price was 60¢, typical for that format and time, during which comic books sold for 15¢.

Skywald partners Sol Brodsky

Sol Brodsky

Sol Brodsky was an American comic book artist who, as Marvel Comics' Silver Age production manager, was one of the key architects of the small company's expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate. He later rose to vice president, operations and vice president, special projects...

 and Israel Waldman are listed as publishers, with Brodsky additionally credited as editor

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

. Gary Friedrich

Gary Friedrich

Gary Friedrich . is an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics' Sgt...

 is listed as "script editor", while Golden Age

Golden Age of Comic Books

The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...

 great Bill Everett

Bill Everett

William Blake "Bill" Everett, also known as William Blake and Everett Blake was a comic book writer-artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner and co-creating Daredevil for Marvel Comics...

, creator of the Sub-Mariner in 1939, has an unexplained credit for "special effects".

Main feature

Lasting two issues, Hell-Rider (Aug. & Oct. 1971) starred the titular vigilante

Vigilante

A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....

 motorcyclist, a Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 veteran, lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

, and black belt

Black belt (martial arts)

In martial arts, the black belt is a way to describe a graduate of a field where a practitioner's level is often marked by the color of the belt. The black belt is commonly the highest belt color used and denotes a degree of competence. It is often associated with a teaching grade though...

 martial artist named Brick Reese. With his tricked-out, flamethrower

Flamethrower

A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...

-equipped bike, and temporary super-strength courtesy of the experimental drug Q-47, the Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

-based Hell-Rider battled the Claw, a masked, heroin-smuggling, secret society leader in issue #1, and a bestial rampager called the Ripper in issue #2. The stories featured scantily clad rock starlets

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 waitresses, and groovy, pot-smoking ' 70s chicks all quickly losing what little clothing they wore.

The series was created by Gary Friedrich, who would go on to co-create the far better-known, Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 supernatural

Supernatural

The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...

 motorcyclist Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider (comics)

Ghost Rider is the name of several fictional supernatural antiheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Marvel had previously used the name for a Western character whose name was later changed to Night Rider and subsequently to Phantom Rider.The first supernatural Ghost Rider is...

, and illustrated by the veteran team of penciler Ross Andru

Ross Andru

Ross Andru was an American comic book artist and editor. He is best known for his work on Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Flash and Metal Men....

 and inker

Inker

The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...

 Mike Esposito

Mike Esposito (comics)

Mike Esposito , who sometimes used the pseudonyms Mickey Demeo, Mickey Dee, Michael Dee, and Joe Gaudioso, was an American comic book artist whose work for DC Comics, Marvel Comics and others spanned the 1950s to the 2000s...

.

The title character's name is sometimes spelled "Hell Rider", without a hyphen, in the stories.

Backup features

Backup features, whose stories were interrelated with the main feature, were "The Butterfly" and "The Wild Bunch", both written by Friedrich.

The former is African-American singer/superheroine Marian Michaels, whose costume is equipped with bright lights to blind adversaries, a jet pack

Jet pack

Jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack, and similar names are various types of devices, usually worn on the back, that are propelled by jets of escaping gases so as to allow a single user to fly....

 for flying, and suction cups for climbing. The latter is a rough but basically goodhearted biker gang that Reese had encountered, consisting of leader Animal; Afro

Afro

Afro, sometimes shortened to fro and also known as a "natural", is a hairstyle worn naturally by people with lengthy kinky hair texture or specifically styled in such a fashion by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair...

-haired Deke; weaselly Slinker; tall, blond Curly; and blond biker-babe Ruby.
Art credits for the first issue's backups are disputed. The second issue's "Butterfly" story is credited to penciler Syd Shores

Syd Shores

Sydney Shores was an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America both during the 1940s, in what fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books, and during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books....

 and inker Esposito, and its "Wild Bunch" to penciler-inker Rich Buckler

Rich Buckler

Rich Buckler is an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and, with writer Doug Moench, co-creating the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25...

.

The 64-page magazine also included a motorcycle-related, Q&A and advice column, "Curly's Cycle Corner", also written by Friedrich.

Other content

A house ad for the never-published Hell-Rider #3, with cover art by Gray Morrow

Gray Morrow

Dwight Graydon "Gray" Morrow was an American illustrator of paperback books and comics.-Biography:Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Morrow is best known as art director of Spider-Man between 1967 and 1970 and as illustrator of the syndicated Tarzan, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant comic...

for a story titled "The Zodiac Killers", appeared as the back cover of Skywald's Psycho #5 (Nov. 1971).