Big Tex once met the X-Men

Big Tex, the icon of the Texas State Fair, burned down earlier today.  I was reminded on Facebook by Chad Prater that Big Tex, a 52-foot-tall metal-and-fabric cowboy, once starred with the X-Men in the Dallas Times Herald supplement, “The Uncanny X-Men at the State Fair of Texas.”

This is one of the harder X-Men comics to find, though your odds are better in Oklahoma and Texas than in other parts of the country.  In the comic, Magneto is trying to recruit a new mutant in Dallas, and the X-Men go to try to head off the villain.  They end up at the Oklahoma-Texas football game as they try to warn the mutant,Daniel, whose power allows him to become a flying centaur.

The writers are Jim Salicrup and David Kraft; the artists are Kerry Gammill, Alan Kupperberg and Chic Stone.  The comic is part X-Men adventure, part travelogue promoting the Texas State Fair. The cover is by John Romita according to the Marvel 1980s blog.