Dead-Eye Western Comics #4

In 1859, prospector Seth Adams leads a party of ten men deep into the desert, hoping to find the source of gold that Apache traders possess—a sacred mesa the tribe refuses to reveal. When a white man named Roy Graham escapes from Apache captivity and claims he can lead them to the treasure, Adams seizes the opportunity, but the harsh desert and Apache warriors prove far deadlier than any gold strike.

Thomas J. Hodges rides with a California-bound wagon train nursing dreams of striking it rich, but when gambling debts pile up faster than luck, the ex-doctor turns to robbing the very gambling hall that owns him. Escaping from Angel Island penitentiary with his wits and medical know-how, Hodges assumes the identity of an outlaw named Tom Bell, launching a string of holdups across the Sierra Nevada—all while the real Tom Bell prowls the same territory, leaving sheriffs baffled by an impossibly prolific bandit. When Hodges enlists a saloon keeper called Widow Hood as his partner in crime, his carefully orchestrated scheme begins to draw unwanted attention from the law.

The trigger-happy Scanlan gang strikes terror across Dakota, and when they rob the bank and kill a local man, the town's thirst for revenge burns hot—so hot that an innocent stranger named Bill Holmes finds himself caught in the crossfire of suspicion and mob justice. As a lynch mob closes in on the jailhouse and the Scanlans make their own deadly move, Holmes must prove where his loyalty truly lies to survive the night. A gritty tale of mistaken identity, frontier vengeance, and one man's desperate gamble to clear his name when the odds are stacked against him.

In 1822 St. Louis, a restless young blacksmith's helper named Jim Bridger jumps at the chance to join a seasoned trapper named John Glass and head west to Wyoming and the Dakotas, where adventure and danger await. Over the following years, Bridger traps fur, explores unmapped territory (including the discovery of the Great Salt Lake), and proves himself a skilled fighter and trader among the frontier tribes—though his courage sometimes lands him in trouble that tests his wits and nerve.

Bow-Leg Bill, the toughest cowpoke ever to roam the Old West, finds himself mysteriously shanghaied aboard a whaling ship bound for Boston—a far cry from the dusty ranges he knows. Mistaking the vast Pacific for spring floods, the bewildered giant must adapt his considerable talents to life at sea, where his raw strength and good humor prove unexpectedly useful. When opportunity strikes to leave the ship behind, Bill's frontier instincts collide with a world that has no idea what to make of a man-critter his size.

In 1889 Denver, two outlaws—the quick-tempered Red Loper and his partner Tap Weber—pull off a deadly robbery on the ridge, but a barber glimpses Red's distinctive red hair and realizes the truth. To throw off suspicion, Red dyes his hair black, then hatches a scheme to frame Jack Harley, the railroad dispatcher who happens to have similarly striking red locks. As Red and Tap execute their plan to rob a gold train, they engineer Harley's arrest—but the frame-up leaves more loose ends than they bargained for.