Cowboy Western Comics #31

When Jesse James and his gang venture into cattle rustling and encounter a wagon train in central Texas, they find themselves torn between their outlaw nature and an unexpected chance to prove their worth—as a group of settlers faces a deadly Indian attack that only the notorious gunmen can stop.

Happy Homer rides into a new town and asks a local about the "cute chicks" around—only to be led straight to a poultry hatchery, where the joke lands with a satisfying thud. This one-page western humor story plays on the classic misunderstanding between a greenhorn cowboy and his well-meaning guide, delivering the kind of wholesome, groan-worthy punchline that made readers smile back in 1951.

A towering logger and his blue ox Babe face a crisis when a twister drains the great lakes of the north woods—and Paul discovers his hungry companion has been drinking them dry. With quick thinking and elbow grease, Paul engineers an ingenious solution: he fells giant redwoods, pierces them with a red-hot iron rod, and lays them across the country as the world's first pipeline, connecting his lake to a distant mountain stream. According to this tall tale, those ancient log pipes still sustain the lakes today—and their leaks created the springs and artesian wells we know now.

Wild Bill Hickok finds himself the target of fortune hunters when a Texas rancher puts a bounty on his head, drawing two would-be killers to a restaurant in North Platte, Nebraska. After dispatching them with his legendary reflexes, Hickok's reputation only grows—attracting glory seekers eager to test themselves against the West's deadliest gunfighter, including a cocky stranger in Chicago who learns just how formidable the man truly is.