Black Diamond Western #59

In Tombstone, the master criminal known as the Scorpion hires the lightning-fast gunslinger Doc Holliday to eliminate Marshal Black Diamond—the one man standing between the Scorpion and his schemes. But when Doc's attempt at a showdown goes horribly wrong, the conflicted gunman finds himself facing an impossible choice between his bargain with the Scorpion and his own conscience. An illustrated story by Myron Fass, "Hired Gun" explores what happens when a doomed man with a gun meets his match in a lawman with principles.

When three hardened convicts—Garson Kane, James Norby, and Buck Thompson—break out of Dodge City Jail, Sheriff Wyatt Earp calls on Black Diamond and his aide Bumper to track them down across the frontier. The fugitives take a young boy hostage to guide them through the desert, forcing Black Diamond to work with Chief Rising Sun and his tribe to intercept the desperadoes before they can escape. It's a dangerous chase that tests the marshal's wits and his trigger finger as the outlaws make their final stand.

When mysterious phantom horsemen terrorize Hard Luck Valley, Black Diamond and his partner Bumper investigate a spree of disasters that's driving desperate ranchers to sell their land dirt-cheap to the crooked banker Jefferson Sloane. The marshal soon discovers the ghostly riders aren't spirits at all—but uncovering Sloane's scheme and stopping his gang before they destroy the entire valley will take more than just quick fists and a sharp mind.