Jonah Hex leaps from comic-book pages to big screen

Josh Brolin stars as Jonah Hex, the scarred gunfighter, in the motion picture from Warner Bros. opening this week.

The character, created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga in 1971′s “All-Star Western” No. 10, is a hard-bitten anti-hero who has been drawn by artists including Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Tim Truman, J.H. Williams III and Darwyn Cooke.

“Jonah Hex” the film also stars Megan Fox and John Malkovich.

For nearly 40 years, the untamed anti-hero has claimed his fans, whether his adventures have been straight Westerns, science fiction or supernatural in nature.

Some of the original “Jonah Hex” Western adventures have been reprinted both in DC Comics’ black-and-white “Showcase” format and in a color graphic novel, “Jonah Hex: Welcome to Paradise.”

Jonah Hex’s own series ran for 92 issues, primarily written by Michael Fleisher. After DC’s mid-1980s “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the Western character found himself flung into an apocalyptic future, in the 18-issue “Hex” series.

In the 1990s, Hex returned for three supernatural-themed Western series by Joe R. Lansdale, before returning to the main DC Comics imprint in 2005, with a new ongoing series written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.

The first issue of the series is currently available as a special $1 edition from DC Comics. It’s drawn by Luke Ross and features Hex tracking down the kidnapped son of a millionaire.