Wild Western #6

Slaves of the Six-Gun Empire!

Two-Gun Kid is riding along the range when he suddenly spots a wagon riding out of control. He stops it and rescues a woman named Claire inside. He learns that the other occupants of the wagon, including her father, were captured by a bunch of armed men and that she managed to escape when the horses bolted. Two-Gun agrees to help the girl find and rescue her father and their party.

Following the back trail they are captured by outlaws who are party of the Six-Gun Empire of Hidden Valley, who answer to a man named Whip. Two-Gun tries to fight back but he is forced to stand down when they threaten to shoot Claire. Disarmed, Two-Gun and Claire are brought to Whip who informs them that they will be slaves working for their outlaw function. When Claire spots her father and tries to run to him she is whipped. The Kid tries to attack the Whip, but is subdued and sent to the grist mill. There he is forced to work alongside Claire's father. He convinces Claire's father and the other slaves to revolt and they manage to get the drop on their guard.

They then use the grist mill wheel to smash their way into the armory and obtain guns which they then use to storm Whip's cabin. Outnumbered and outgunned, Whip and his men surrender peacefully, but Two-Gun gets a lick in for good measure. After Whip and his men are turned over to the authorities, Two-Gun is thanked for his help and the hero once more rides off.

Recurring Characters

• Two-Gun Kid

• Cyclone

Two-Gun Terror Rides the Range!

Blaze Carson has returned to Red Dog after once more unsuccessfully trying to capture Luke Matson and his gang, who the locals are coming to believe is a modern day Robin Hood as he gives some of his stolen loot to the poor people of the community in exchange for cover. Arriving back he is informed that Luke Matson and his men robbed the Express Office and gunned down Jay Callen when he tried to stop them. Hoping this will finally convince the locals that Luke Matson is a cold blooded killer, Blaze follows Matson's trail to Carvell's Canyon owned by Silas Carvell. Silas refuses to led Blaze search his property for Matson and his men, whom he is secretly hiding out.

Knowing he won't get through without trouble, Blaze decides to give up for the time being. He rides around to the other side of the canyon and spies on Silas' canyon and spots Matson and his men coming out of hiding. Silas questions Matson about shooting a man in cold blood, but fast talking Luke smooths it over by offering him money and placating the poor farmer.

Returning to town, Blaze begins contemplating how he can show the locals that Matson is not someone to revere. When a gold shipment is being taken out of Red Dog by train, Blaze decides to ride along with it. Sure enough, Matson and his men derail the train and rob it. Blaze is thrown clear from the wreck but is too late to stop Matson and his men from escaping. With one of the engineers shot dead in cold blood, Blaze takes the surviving operator to Carvell's Canyon. There Carvell is more willing to listen to Blaze after hearing the engineer's story. Blaze searches the house and finds the stolen gold. When Matson and his men try to ambush Blaze from the attic, Carson proves a faster draw and guns Luke's men down.

Luke tries to make an escape by taking Carvell's wife hostage, but Carvell -- realizing the errors of his ways -- attack Luke and in the ensuing scuffle, Blaze guns him down.

Recurring Characters

• Blaze Carson

Gun-Hungry Ghosts!

The people of Deadwood City are fleeing their homes in droves, catching the attention of cowboy Tex Taylor who decides to ride into town and see what the problem is. He finds the town deserted except for the saloon where an actor named Tennyson R. Barbell informs him that the locals have fled due to the fact hat their home has apparently become haunted by ghosts. He explains that he has stayed behind because he was hired to look after the local theater and that he would not shirk his duty.

Two rough customers enter the saloon and ask Barbell to put on a performance for them, but when they grow bored of it they begin shooting at his feet. Tex Taylor, not liking this forces them out of the saloon and the warn him not to stay in town. That night, Tex retires in the local Inn and is suddenly visited two figures trying to pass themselves off as ghosts. Realizing that they are just men in white sheets, Tex tosses his lantern at them, and chases them as the burning "ghosts" flee the inn.

He loses their trail and is distracted when he hears Tennyson reciting Shakespeare in the theatre and decides to go in and look around. The outlaws are hidden in a mine shaft under the the theater and hear Tex and Barbell talking and decide to ambush them. Their ambush proves fruitless as Tex manages to get the upper hand, shooting down most of the gang and discovering that they were driving everyone out in order to claim the miner rich mines that are under Deadwood. With the surviving gang members apprehended, Tex helps the people of Deadwood return to their town. There is a huge celebration and the locals all claim a share of the newly found wealth. When calls to have Tex elected mayor are made, they realize that the cowpoke has ridden out of town without so much as a thanks.

Recurring Characters

• Tex Taylor

• Fury

Gun Guilty!

Kid Colt is riding through the range when he suddenly hears gun shots and decides to go an investigate. He spots a coach being attacked by some outlaws and tries to stop them. He guns down most of them, but one of the gunslingers manages to wing the Kid's shoulder. Kid is taken to the home of Jeb Merrit and his wife Martha and has his wound patched up. They explain that they have been attacked by that gang -- led by Kid Colt they say -- whenever they tried to pay their mortgage to local banker Cash Logan. Kid Colt finds this interesting and decides to investigate who is using his famous name for their own criminal ends.

As he is preparing to leave the Merrit ranch, he is confronted by Trigger Bones and Cash Logan who are the masterminds behind the gang and were using Kid Colt's name to instil fear. They explain that they have been trying to force locals off their land and repossess it and ask Kid Colt to join them. The Kid refuses and tells Trigger that he is going to run him in. Trigger laughs and tells the Kid that he will have a hard time capturing them when the sheriff things he's involved with the gang.

Nonetheless, Kid Colt tracks Trigger back to his hideout and guns him down and captures the rest of the gang. The Kid then hands the outlaws over to Merrit and tells him to collect the reward and clear his name. Suspecting that Cash Logan will try to free his men in order to avoid being implicated in their crimes, Kid Colt rides into town and catches Logan hanging out back of the court house. Spotting him dumping the contents of a briefcase into the open window, Kid Colt -- thinking they're guns -- pushes Logan through the window as well. As it turns out they were rattlesnakes which Logan hoped would kill his minions. In the confusion Logan leads his men on a daring escape and end up running right into the blazing guns of Kid Colt.

With Kid Colt's name cleared, and Logan's caper revealed, Kid Colt once more rides out of town.

Recurring Characters

• Kid Colt

• Steel

Buckaroo Badmen of Big Rock!

Tex Morgan and Lobo are asked by the governor to track down the outlaw known as Bighead and his gang who had recently stolen a shipment of Springfield Rifles that were being shipped to the army. They meet up with Baxter, the purchasing agent and they gather a posse to track down Bighead and his gang. They track them down to the hills outside of the town of Mud Creek, gunning down sentries as they go.

They find the outlaws hiding in a valley and learn that they are also led by a masked man calling himself the Masked Rider who is organizing them for another job. Tex and Lobo lead their posse to attack the gathering of outlaws and succeed in mowing them, and Bighead down, but the Masked Rider manages to escape.

Following the Masked Rider's back trail, Tex realizes that Baxter was not present during the fight and deduces that Baxter was really the Masked Rider and he was the informant who had been leaking information to the outlaws. Jumping Baxter, Tex fights him until Baxter takes a misstep and falls over the edge of a cliff to his death.

Recurring Characters

• Tex Morgan

• Lobo

• Lightning Cloud