Black Diamond Western #27

Charles Biro's cover for this October 1951 issue drops readers straight into the rapids as a red-shirted cowboy on horseback plunges through churning white water, lasso in hand, while Native American warriors with drawn bows close in from the foreground and others watch tensely from the far bank. A speech bubble captures the urgency perfectly: "This lasso is our only hope, Reliapon! If we fail this Indian task, we die!" At a dime for a full 52 pages, Black Diamond Western #27 delivers the kind of high-stakes frontier action that made Lev Gleason Publications a staple of early 1950s comics readers.