Billy the Kid #45

Charlton's Billy the Kid #45 delivers a jolt of frontier tension right on its cover, where a blue-jacketed figure throws a punch at a bandana-masked man in a saloon doorway while startled onlookers shout "Look! Sibo! It's Billy!" — apparently shocked to see someone the barker had just been boasting he'd killed. The cover, penciled by Pat Masulli and Dick Giordano with inks by Giordano, captures that charged split-second perfectly, drawing readers straight into the story titled "Smash the Fighting Heart." With writing by Joe Gill and interior art by Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio, this 1964 twelve-cent issue is a solid entry in Charlton's dependable run of Western adventure.