The Lone Ranger #1

History

Western Publishing had produced Lone Ranger comics under the Dell banner since the character's comic book debut in Dell's Four Color Comics in 1945, eventually giving him a dedicated Dell title that ran to 145 issues before folding in 1962. When Western Publishing ended its arrangement with Dell and launched Gold Key Comics as its own standalone imprint — retaining the licensing agreements for most of its properties — it revived the Lone Ranger title two years later, in September 1964. The workhorse behind the series was artist Tom Gill, whose work had defined the look of the Dell-era stories since the late 1940s, and his continued presence gave the Gold Key launch a recognizable visual continuity; the Gold Key run also carried cover art by Hank Hartman. Because Gold Key's editorial strategy for licensed Western titles in this era prioritized accessibility over novelty, the stories in this debut issue — and throughout most of the early Gold Key run — were reprints drawn from the 1948 Dell series, with writer Paul S. Newman and Tom Gill supplying original material only toward the later stages of the Gold Key run.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published September 1964 by Gold Key (an imprint of Western Publishing Company) — the first issue of Volume 2 of the Lone Ranger's comic book history, following the Dell series that ran 1948–1962.
• Cover art by Hank Hartman; all interior story art by Tom Gill, the artist who had been the defining visual voice of the Lone Ranger in comics since the Dell era.
• The debut issue opens with two consecutive origin/mythology stories — 'The Story of the Lone Ranger' (framed as a doubting Eastern reporter hearing the origin from Dan Reid) and 'The Story of Tonto' — making it an intentional re-introduction of the character's mythology for new readers.
• All stories in this issue are reprints from the 1948 Dell series; Gold Key's editorial approach for the early run was to repackage classic Dell material rather than produce new adventures, with original content not beginning until issue #22 in 1975.
• The back cover features a Lone Ranger pin-up by Hank Hartman — a Gold Key house style convention that distinguished its titles on the newsstand.
• The issue is 36 pages and was part of the wave of licensed properties Gold Key launched in 1964 alongside titles such as Mighty Samson, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and others, cementing the imprint's identity as the premier licensor of popular-culture properties in Silver Age comics.
• The Gold Key Lone Ranger series ran 28 issues total, from 1964 to 1977, making this #1 the first chapter of that complete run.
• The Lone Ranger character was originally created for radio by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, debuting on Detroit's WXYZ in 1933; the Gold Key comic book series is one of several media adaptations — alongside newspaper strips, novels, a television series (1949–1957), and later films — that formed the character's sprawling transmedia footprint.

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