Comic Title: Jonah Hex #1
Publisher: DC (DC Comics Inc.)
Address: 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY
Cover Date: Mar/Apr 1977
On Sale Date: December 14, 1976 Newsstand Date December 14, 1976
Source: Direct Currents, Amazing World of DC Comics #13

Newsstand Date December 14, 1976
Source: Comic Reader, #138

Copyright Date December 16, 1976
Source: Library of Congress, Periodicals 1977

Newsstand Date December 13, 1976
Source: Daily Planet, Vol. 76 #32
Listed as on sale the week of December 13th

Shipping Date November 23, 1976
Source: DC Coming Attractions, #1

Frequency: Bi-monthly
Cover Price: $0.30
Page Count: 32
Editor: Joe Orlando

Title: "Vengeance for a Fallen Gladiator"
Pages: 17

Feature(s):
Jonah Hex (of Earth-1)

Writer: Michael L. Fleisher
Artist: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Reprinted In:
Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Vol. 2 TPB (2014)

Feature Character(s)

• Jonah Hex (last appearance in Weird Western Tales #38; next appearance in Jonah Hex #2)

Villain(s)

• Blackie Leclerc and Charlie Mange (fight promoters; both die in this story; no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• Frederic Royden (a plantation owner; dies in this story; no further appearances)
• Tommy Royden (aka Bruiser Donovan; Frederic's son; dies in this story; no further appearances)
• Pablo Sanchez (dies in this story; no further appearances)
• Mrs. Royden (Tommy's mother; no further appearances)
• Medford, Frank, Perry, and an unnamed man (employees of Royden; no further appearances)
• An unnamed doctor (no further appearances)

Comments:
This story takes place in Tennessee and Arkansas during the Spring of 1874. Given events later in the Jonah Hex timeline, including his trip to the future in 1875, this story most likely takes place several years earlier.

Synopsis:
Jonah Hex is hired by Tennessee plantation owner Frederic Royden to find his son Tommy. The boy was kidnapped months earlier, but Hex picks up the trail which leads him to Arkansas. He finds two men running a series of fights between young boys. One of the boys tells Hex that Tommy was one of the fighters and has been killed. Jonah examines the body and confirms that the boy is Tommy.

The fight promoters, Leclerc and Mange then shoot the informant and lock Jonah in a coffin. Hex escapes. He forces the two men to fight one another on the edge of a cliff. They both fall to their doom. Hex then brings Tommy's body back home only to find the Mr. Royden has died. Hex rides off, leaving the grieving mother behind.