Wild Western #25

The Black Sombrero

Kid Colt rides into a Mexican town and finds that there is a rodeo going on and agrees to participate. He goes up against El Jaguar who arrogantly challenges the Kid to pluck a chicken from the ground without it loosing any feathers. Both men manage to succeed in doing so, When El Jaguar insults Kid Colt he throws a chicken in the outlaws face and leaves town.

Furious, El Jaguar gets a posse of men and follows after the Kid in order to get revenge. They try to ambush Kid Colt along a narrow canyon, but the Kid fights back. The odds are against him and Kid Colt is eventually roped up by El Jaguar and his men and is about to be executed when he is suddenly rescued by a masked Mexican gunfighter called the Black Sombrero. The Black Sombrero helps free Kid Colt and the pair wipe out El Jaguar and his gang.

In the aftermath of battle, Black Sombrero takes off his mask and reveals to Kid Colt that he is Don Jose Del Iturbide. He explains that he came to Kid Colt's rescue to ask him to meet his sister, who was smitten by Kid Colt after his display at the rodeo. Thankful for the Black Sombrero's help, Kid Colt gladly meets his sister and spends a few more days in Mexico before returning to the United States.

Recurring Characters

• Kid Colt

• Steel

Bullets and Ballots!

With an election for the county marshal, the race between the candidates becomes bloody when men begin killing each other and blowing up rivals in the streets of Caliber City, apparently the work of potential candidate Henry Brandt. Riding into town are Lance Temple and his blind father Zane who learn about the current spate of violence from the local newspaper boy. Getting a newspaper, Lance reads a classified add asking the Texas Kid to meet with Jesse Devlin the local banker. After learning about who Devlin is from his father, Lance witnesses as the newspaper office is blown up by another apparent Brandy follower.

Lance decides to see what Devlin wants and rides out to Hidden Valley to change into the Texas Kid. Paying a visit to Devlin at his ranch house, the Texas Kid learns that Devlin wants the Texas Kid to endorse Henry Brandt and asks the Kid to name his price, learning that Brandt and Devlin thirst for power and wealth and that the election for marshal is only the first step in their quest for power. The Texas Kid refuses to have his vote bought and is about to leave when Devlin orders his men to slay the masked hero. Although the Kid manages to gun down a large number of the men, he is knocked out by a bullet that creases his skull.

Devlin mistake the Texas Kid for dead and leaves his men to dump him out in the woods. However, the Kid revives and fights free. Before the outlaws can gun him down, Emilio and Red Hawk arrive with guns blazing, saving their friend. They inform him that they came to his aid after reading the same classified ad from the local paper that the Kid had read. However, they spare one of his men named Kelsey after they learn that Brandt intends to assassinate his chief opponent.

The pair rush off to where the election is taking place but are unable to stop Brandt and his men from killing his rival Frank Foster. But they do arrive in time to mete out justice gunning down Brant and his men. Later, the Texas Kid attends Frank Foster's funeral where Jesse Devlin attempts to shoot the Texas Kid in the back for foiling his political aspirations. Before Devlin can shoot the Kid in the back, Kelsey arrives and shoots him dead in return for the Texas Kid sparing his life earlier.

Recurring Characters

• Texas Kid

• Zane Temple

• Emilio Diaz

• Red Hawk

• Thunder

The Mystery of Skull Creek!

Natchez Nate was a cool blooded killer who was given his comeuppance: buried up to his neck in sand he was left to be eaten alive by both the desert ants and the vultures. However, that night Nate was discovered by a gold prospector who found that even though the ants had consumed his upper lip and his eye lids, he was still alive. The disfigured outlaw then repaid this kindness by overpowering the prospector and burying him in his place.

Later, in the town of Santa Sierra, outlaw Blackie Horne and his men are celebrating after betraying Natchez Nate and leaving him to die in the desert. However they are shocked when their partner appears in the saloon and are horrified by his mutilated face. Nate guns down most of the gang and then orders the rest of them to stand by him. Nate then terrorizes the town with his outlaw gang, burying his enemies up to their necks in the dirt, leaving them to the same fate that they had left him.

Nate then begins trying to start a range war between the local cattlemen and sheep herders by kidnapping key members of each side and burying them out in the desert and blaming the disappearances on the two feuding groups. When Kid Colt rides into town and learns of the impending war he decides to investigate locating the dead bodies of all of Nate's victims. Kid Colt faces Nate alone and wipes out the outlaw and his entire gang and then exposes the plot to the ranchers and herders who end hostilities and agree to work together and share the land.

Recurring Characters

• Kid Colt

• Steel