Cowboy Western Comics #25

In "Avalanche," Frank and Jesse race against time to protect Betty and her father after a gang threatens their gold claim. With Jesse drawing the outlaws’ attention, he leads Betty and her father into a dangerous trap while Frank rides to summon the Sheriff.

Martha Canary, known to history as Calamity Jane, grew up tough in the rough-and-tumble mining camps of Virginia City, learning to handle a rifle and ride a horse with the best of them. Yearning for excitement, she became an Army scout during Indian campaigns, and later turned prospector when gold fever struck—all while earning a reputation as a woman who could out-shoot, out-ride, and out-talk most men she encountered.

When Wild Bill Hickok rides into Canyon Gulch to find Ann Merrill, he discovers she's been arrested for murder—framed for the death of Joe Dutcher by the scheming Hank Cataldo, who wants to seize Roy's ranch for himself. As Hickok and Marshal George Riker uncover the truth, they must confront Cataldo's hired guns and expose the real killer before justice falls on the innocent.

Chuck Wagon Gus has a simple rule for breakfast service: one syrup pitcher stays empty for the cowboys who prefer their flapjacks plain. When a new helper questions this logic, Gus delivers a classic piece of camp cook wisdom with characteristic gruff humor. It's a lighthearted slice of chuck wagon life that proves even the smallest details of ranch cooking deserve a little practical thinking.

Denver Mudd, the town sheriff, discovers that Colonel Kinkle's famous Indian Health Tonic is nothing but colored water and orders the con man out of town—a challenge that lands Denver in a sunrise pistol duel he's not quite confident about. With some unexpected help from his friend Bushey Barns, Denver finds himself on the wrong end of a scheme that might just teach the fake medicine seller a lesson. This 1949 tale from Cowboy Western Comics delivers the kind of slapstick frontier justice that keeps these old stories fresh and funny.

When Dan returns to his family's struggling Bar-B Ranch after his father's death, he's shocked to find the foreman is Chris Johnson, a former rodeo queen—and even more shocked when she sees through his prank and hires him anyway. As Dan chases the wild stallion White Outlaw across the range with Chris on his trail, a rivalry that started over the ranch's fate becomes something deeper, tested by broken promises, a labor lien, and a chase that forces them to confront what they really want.

Gus trades a sack of beans to "Big Snake" for some dressed rabbits, eager to cook up a pot of rabbit stew—until he learns exactly what kind of rabbits they were, with pretty white streaks down their backs. A one-page humor tale that delivers its punchline with delicious timing.

At just fifteen, the boy the Carson family called "the Runt" left Missouri to join a freight caravan heading west—and would go on to become the most famous mountain man of his era. Through sheer leadership and a reputation for honesty that earned him respect among the tribes, he rose from freight handler to guide and peacekeeper, eventually leading expeditions against marauding Indians across the frontier.

A hopeful cowpoke lands a job at the Bar B.Q. Ranch and is sent to fetch the brandin' iron for an upcoming cattle branding—but his misunderstanding of the foreman's orders leads to a classic comedy of errors. This quick humor tale from 1949 plays on the kind of mix-up that makes western comics such a fun escape.