Blaze Carson #3

The Button and the Badman!

With an election for a new sheriff in Red Dog, Blaze Carson stands to lose his position to the new coming lawyer "Honest" John Danbey. Looking at his election posters, Blaze finds his face familiar but cannot place it. He is confronted by one of the locals who asks what Blaze is going to do about the ground Danbey is making with his speech making. Blaze tells the man that he lets his guns and reputation speak for him. Things become more complicated when a stage coach comes in carrying an unexpected delivery: Blaze's young nephew Pete, whose mother Letty has asked Blaze to take care of him while she is getting over a sickness. Blaze finds that his young nephew as an affinity for art, a love of crayons, and not a high opinion of him being sheriff. However, when Blaze and Peter come across Danbey, the boy expresses his dislike of Danbey, much to his chagrin.

Later in the day, Blaze is shocked when Peter begins drawing on one of his own election posters. Danbey takes this as an opportunity to try and influence the way people vote. Blaze threatens to take Pete's crayons away if he draws on his posters again. Later, Danbey catches the boy drawing on his posters and cries foul, telling Blaze that he is trying to influence the vote, and Carson promises to not let the boy do it again. However, taking a closer look at the changes the boy makes, Blaze believes he has figured out where he has seen Danbey's name before. He goes looking through his wanted posters and realizes that Danbey is really an outlaw named Jesse Douglas. Before he can do anything about it, "Danbey" enters his office and admits who he really is and intends to shoot Blaze to keep it quiet. However, he steps on one of Pete's crayons sending the boy in a rage. He then tosses his box of crayons at the outlaw, hitting him in the head and throwing off his shot.

Blaze is able to incapacitate Douglas by shooting him in the shoulder and apprehends him. Later, Blaze is re-elected by a landslide.

Recurring Characters

• Blaze Carson

The Killers of Owl Hoot Gap!

Blaze Carson has a group of locals chase him as though he is an outlaw so that he can get entry into Owl Hoot Gap, a hideout from local criminals. Having convinced the guards to let him in and he is brought to their leader Oakhurst who is convinced that Blaze is an outlaw on the run and invites him. Blaze enters the local saloon where he is recognized by an outlaw named One-Eye. Blaze shoots him dead before he can say too much more, but the other outlaws grab him and bring him to Oakhurst for questioning.

When Oakhurst asks Carson if he is really a law enforcement office, Carson admits it with pride and Oakhurst "sentences" him to hang and tosses him in the jail. There, Blaze starts a fire to signal his posse to come back and attack. The outlaws, unaware of this plan, free him so that he can get hung. Blaze manages to get the drop on his guard and flees up to the pass where he gives his posse covering fire, taking down the sentries that are in place. With the posse arriving, the crooks are wiped out while Oakhurst flees the scene. Carson chases after him and both expend their ammunition. Cornering Oakhurst at a cliff, Oakhurst chooses death over capture and jumps over the edge to his death.

Recurring Characters

• Blaze Carson

Riders on the Danger Trail!

The Pony Express route between Seven Mile and Red River Bend is plagued by outlaws who kill the couriers and rob them of the gold they are carrying. Eventually Tex Morgan and his pal Lobo ride into Seven Mile and are asked by the local postal man Peters if they will carry the next shipment. Tex agrees. Tex races ahead with Lobo covering him from behind. Halfway between the two towns the gang of thieves begin shooting at Tex. Morgan pretends to take a bullet and plays possum.

When the outlaws get close enough, Tex Morgan attacks them knocking one of the men out. When the third, still on horseback, tries to shoot Tex he is gunned down by Lobo. The outlaw that is still standing rushes into a nearby cave. Tex follows after him and fights him in there. The battle ends when Tex knocks him into a bottomless pool in the cave and the man drowns.

Tex and Lobo then round out the surviving member of the gang and unmask him and are surprised to find out that he is Peters. Peters explains that he staged the robberies since he knew which ones carried gold. He then explained that he buried the gold in a secret location but refuses to tell them where it is unless they cut him a deal. Deciding that the law can get the information out of him eventually, Tex declines to make one and drags him back to Seven Mile to face justice.

Recurring Characters

• Tex Morgan

• Lobo

• Lightning

• Cloud

Blaze Carson's New Deputy!

Blaze Carson has got a new deputy an elderly gunslinger named Tumbleweed who is slow on his feet and has many tall tales to tell. The peace in town is interrupted when Baldy Brown shows up from the town of Sagebrush and tells Blaze that the bank there was held up and that Red Lannigan and Shorty Simmons, residents of Red Dog, were seen at the scene of the crime. Blaze decides to go with Baldy to investigate things in Sagebrush telling Tumbleweed to mind the town. Tumbleweed tells Blaze that he can do that even though he fumbles his gun out of the holster.

After Blaze has left, Tumbleweed goes to the local saloon and tells Red and Shorty not to cause trouble while Blaze is away. The two men decide to play a joke on Tumbleweed. Later in the day they tell Tumbleweed that the bank is being robbed. Rushing to it, he finds nobody there but the bank owner who tells him that there is no robbery is in progress. Tumbleweed falls for the prank a second time when the banker informs Tumbleweed that he is being played for a fool. However, when the bank is actually being robbed and the banker comes to get Tumbleweed to help stop it, he believes it's another prank. He is convinced he hears gunshots and rushes to the scene just in time to see Red and Shorty making a break for it. However before they can get away Blaze Carson returns and both he and Tumbleweed outshoot them, and take them into custody.

Recurring Characters

• Blaze Carson

• Tumbleweed