A controversial five-issue miniseries, "Rawhide Kid" (vol. 3) (April–June 2003), titled "Slap Leather" was published biweekly by Marvel's mature-audience MAX imprint. Here, the character was depicted as homosexual, with a good portion of the dialogue dedicated to innuendo to this effect. The series, which was written by Ron Zimmerman, and drawn by artist John Severin, was labeled with a "Parental Advisory Explicit Content" warning on the cover. Series editor Axel Alonso said, "We thought it would be interesting to play with the genre. Enigmatic cowboy rides into dusty little desert town victimized by desperadoes, saves the day, wins everyone's heart, then rides off into the sunset, looking better than any cowboy has a right to."