BILLY JOCK

BILLY JACK (1971)
dir: T. C. Frank (Tom Laughlin)

BILLY JOCK
#168, July 1974
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres

This begins with Jean (Delores Taylor) narrating the story of Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin), half-American Indian who shows up out of nowhere and is a pacifist unless pushed.

The Senior Posner (Bert Freed) is about to shoot horses for dog meat and pressuring his son Bernard (David Roya) to aid him, until Billy Jack chases them off in defense of the land.

Barbara (Julie Webb), the sheriff's daughter, comes homes and tells him she's pregnant, and he beats her. Billy Jack finds her and gives her shelter in Jean's alternative school.

They don't mention this, but comedy group The Committee played some of the students.

They go into town and the locals don't want them there.

Billy Jack shows up and sees how the locals are picking on the students and fights them. Then he goes outside and has to fight the law.

Meanwhile, at the school Barbara has a crush on Marvin (Stan Rice) and doesn't understand why he rejects her advances.

When Billy Jack is performs an Indian ritual in the desert, Barnyard has his way with one of the students. Billy Jack shows up and instead of fighting him forces him to drive his car into the lake.

When Jean goes skinny-dipping in the lake Bernard shows up and rapes her at gunpoint, to impress his father. After he and his gang kill Marvin, one of the Native American students, Billy Jack becomes enraged. He goes to the home of Bernard while he's in bed with an underage girl and beats him up. (I didn't write the movie.)

(David Carradine was star of the TV series Kung Fu).


Billy Jack has a shootout with the authorities and won't come out until his demands for Indian rights are met.

SILLY JACK
Cracked #116, May 1974
a: John Severin

(Arthur Murray had a chain of dancing schools and for a while a TV show, which I posted a parody of late last year).

(George Wallace, one-time governor of Alabama and failed Presidential candidate, was a staunch segregationist).


BILLY JERK
Crazy #5, July 1974
w: Steve Gerber
a: Robert Graysmith

This was one one-page piece as part of an article parodying several movies. It parodied the courtroom scene that was barely covered in MAD.

“One Tin Soldier” became a popular song. This animated video was made by Fine Arts Films, the company that did the opening titles for Grease

Billy Jack was a spinoff of a biker film The Born Losers. There were three sequels, The Trial of Billy Jack, Billy Jack Goes to Washington, and The Return of Billy Jack.