Appearing in "Thunder Guns!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Walleye Williamson
- Walleye Williamson's Men
- Ike
- Mosley
- Newkirk
Other Characters:
- Marshall Steve York (First appearance; dies)
- Sheriff (Unnamed)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Massacre Hallow
- Cochise (Mentioned)
- Santa Sierra (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "Thunder Guns!"
On the trail of Walleye Williamson, Kid Colt follows them into Massacre Gulch, a haven for outlaws. As he rides through the town he feels uneasy. The Kid is saved from a bushwacker leaning out a window by US Marshall Steve York, who is also hunting down Williamson. He advises Kid Colt to clear out of town and leave him to handle the outlaw, but Kid Cold makes no promises. After setting Steel up in a livery stable he goes into action. He gets the drop on Williamson's gang and demands their leader who isn't there. Suddenly, Williamson gets the drop on the Kid from behind and is about to shoot him in the back, but the Kid is fast on his feet a whirls around and lands a sucker punch to the gut. Like greased lightning the Kid whirls back around and guns down most of the gang, he then leaves the survivors tied up for when Marshall York arrives to arrest them.
When the Marshall tries to get the local sheriff to help him bring Williamson and his men to the jail in Santa Sierra. The sheriff declines to go along but rounds up a posse of men willing to go with him. This turns out to be a trap as the sheriff and the men he hired are in league with Williamson and once the Marshall is out of town, his escorts attack, gunning down York and freeing Williamson and his gang. Shortly thereafter, Kid Colt comes across the dying US Marshall who charges the Kid with bringing Williamson and his men to justice.
Kid Colt returns to Massacre Gulch where he confronts the gang gunning down two of the men and beating a third until he reveals the location of Williamson. However his demands prove pointless as the entire gang bares down on him on horseback with guns blazing. By stroke of luck the Kid manages to gun them all down without taking a single bullet.
Appearing in "Across the Street"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Marshal Bart Green
Antagonists:
- Tug Prague/Chuck Hamen
Other Characters:
- Joe
Races and Species:
Synopsis for "Across the Street"
A rancher and his friend, a US marshal, bring in the gang that shot the rancher's father.
Appearing in "Doomsday Gang!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Satan (Ichabod)
- Emily Newcomb
Antagonists:
- Doomsday Gang
- Pete
- Grace (Impersonates Emily Newcomb)
Other Characters:
- Jed
- Huck Beecher
- Dan Newcomb (Mentioned)
- Ed
Races and Species:
Locations:
Synopsis for "Doomsday Gang!"
A stage coach is passing through Arizona territory in the midst of a string of coach robberies in the area carried out by the Doomsday Gang. Riding through a storm they spot a man out on the road signaling them with a lantern. Believing that the Doomsday Gang could not be out in such a squall they decide to pull over and help. The man on the side of the road tells them that some of his friends were bushedwacked. From inside the coach is Matthew Masters who offers his services as a doctor. However, this turns out to be a trap perpetuated by the Doomsday Gang who come out of the bushes with guns blazing, killing the coach operators. Masters shoots back and climbs up onto the coach and gets the horses to go so they can get away.
Riding into Hope City, Masters gets out of the coach to check on his horse Ichabod who was recovering in the town from a wounded hoof. Changing into the Black Rider, Masters decides to investigate the Doomsday Gang. His first stop is to the office of the Newcomb Stage Company where he questions her about a spy among the coach companies leaking shipping routes to the gang. Miss Newcomb denies it and expresses her suspicion that Huck Beecher an ex-con who runs Huck Beecher Coach Lines is the likely suspect given his criminal background and the fact that the Doomsday Gang did not appear until after Beecher showed up in town. The Black Rider goes to question Beecher at his office, and the former criminal gets so upset being questioned after trying to go straight that he pulls a gun on the Black Rider, but the hero shoots the gun out of his hand.
Later, the Black Rider goes to the local newspaper to read their morgue files and also learns that the Newcomb Coach Company was once run by Grace Newcombs uncle until she came to visit him and he was murdered by the Doomsday Gang, leaving his niece to inherit the company. Somebody starts shooting the Black Rider from the roof of the roof of the newspaper, but when the hero gets up to the roof he finds the shooter has fled, but left a ring with the initials "H.B." engraved on it. The Rider believes whoever left the ring was to convince him that Beecher was the killer, however the Black Rider recalls that Beecher did not wear jewelry and the scent of perfume on it. Rushing over to the Newcomb office, the Black Rider learns that Miss Newcomb has taken the Flagstaff Coach out to meet a friend from the east. The Black Rider races after the coach.
Aboard the coach, Grace is returning into town with her Emily Newcomb who wants to meet their uncle, but Grace tells her that he has moved further west but that she'll meet him soon. The coach is soon attacked by the Doomsday Gang but the Black Rider arrives to defend the coach. While he is doing so, Grace lights a bundle of TNT in the coach and abandons it. When the driver asks Grace what she is doing, she reveals that she is not the real Newcomb survivor that the real deal is in the coach and that she posed as a member of the Newcomb family to steal the business and its wealth. The Black Rider catches up with the coach and defuses the TNT then rounds up the last of the gang. When he goes looking for Grace, he finds that she died of a broken neck when she jumped from the speeding coach.
Appearing in "The Long Gun!"
Featured Characters:
- Cal Summers
- White Eagle (Billy Summers)
Supporting Characters:
- Mary Summers
Antagonists:
- Sioux Tribe
- Tall Feather
Other Characters:
- John Finley
Races and Species:
Synopsis for "The Long Gun!"
Cal Summer's son is abducted by the Sioux and treated as one of their own, many years late Cal finds himself in a battle with his own son who is wielding their "long gun". He runs up to Billy who has since been called White Eagle and the two make peace with the Sioux.
Appearing in "Spurs West!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- White Chief (Collins) (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Caguyas
- Broken Spear
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Timber Valley
Synopsis for "Spurs West!"
A group of Caguya Native Americans attack a caravan of wagons. The attack is interrupted by the arriving Apache Kid who tells them to hold off their attack or disrupt the peace treaty they recently signed with the white men in the area. When the Caguyas refuse to stand down, the Apache Kid aids the wagon train, but soon all the men are killed and the Caguyas converge on the Apache Kid, forcing him to flee. The leader of the war party tells his men that the Apache Kid needs to be slain for their leader, the so-called White Chief.
The Apache Kid rides into Timber Valley, leaving the Caguya's to believe they can catch up and capture him. However, as the Apache Kid slips out of sight he changes into his alter-ego Aloysius Kare. Kare's appearance throws off the Caguya's and they believe him when he tells them that the White Chief sent him to get them. When they return to report back to their leader, Kare is surprised to find that the Caguya are being led by a white man in cheiftan garb. However, Kare's trick is exposed when the White Chief questions his presence in their camp.
Kare tries to escape, but Nightwind is wounded by a bullet forcing Kare to jump off his steed. Aloysius jumps into a canoe and pilots it away. While he is hidden behind some rocks he changes back into the Apache Kid. When he comes out from under cover, the White Chief is there ready to fire an arrow at him. Shocked to see the Apache Kid in the place of Aloysius Kare, he is shocked enough to allow the Apache Kid to knock him out with his canoe.
Later, the Apache Kid and his father Red Hawk deliver the unmasked White Chief to Bill Gregory who recognizes him as a man named Collins a soldier from Fort Madison who deserted his post. Being turned over the army, Collins admits that he developed the identity of the White Chief to stir up a war between the Caguya's and white men so he could sell both sides guns.
Notes
- "Spurs West!" is reprinted in Western Gunfighters (Vol. 2) #9 & Western Gunfighters (Vol. 2) #31.
- The Black Rider's story :"Doomsday Gang!" seems to have happened in the period, 1877-80, since that it happens in Hope City, Arizona, and the railway arrived to Arizona first in 1877. This date is consistent with the custom of Robert Berstein of writting an experienced Black Rider having adventures in the timefame 1870-77.