Gunsmoke Western #57
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeGunsmoke Western #57 (March 1960) marks the relaunch of the Two-Gun Kid — specifically, the reimagined Clay Harder version of the character — into the Gunsmoke Western anthology, making it the issue that consolidated Marvel's three most prominent Silver Age Western heroes (Kid Colt, Wyatt Earp, and the Two-Gun Kid) under a single title for the first time. The Two-Gun Kid's debut here, in a story titled 'Ambush on the Trail!', directly set the stage for the eventual retcon in Two-Gun Kid #60 (1962), which erased Harder's history and introduced the Matt Hawk incarnation who would go on to interact with the Avengers in the Marvel Universe proper. As a crossroads moment between the Atlas-era Western tradition and what would soon become the Marvel Age, the issue captures a publisher still refining its stable of cowboy heroes just before the superhero renaissance changed everything.
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Stan Lee, serving simultaneously as writer and editor-in-chief, scripted the issue's contents, including the Two-Gun Kid lead story drawn by John Severin — an artist Lee had paired with the Clay Harder character consistently across both the standalone Two-Gun Kid title and the anthology format. The cover was produced by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, who had become the house cover team for Marvel's Western line at this time. The issue was released on newsstands November 30, 1959, carrying a March 1960 cover date, and represented a deliberate editorial consolidation: publisher Martin Goodman's three surviving Western stars now shared one title, just one issue after the short-lived 'Gunsmoke Kid' feature had ended its run in #56.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: March 1960; on-sale date: November 30, 1959; published by Atlas/Marvel at a cover price of ten cents.
- Contains the first appearance of the reimagined Clay Harder 'Two-Gun Kid' in the Gunsmoke Western anthology, in a story titled 'Ambush on the Trail!' written by Stan Lee with art by John Severin.
- Also features Kid Colt in the lead story 'Outlaw at Bay!' (script: Stan Lee, pencils: Jack Keller) and Wyatt Earp in 'His Gun Is Faster!' (script: Stan Lee, art: Dick Ayers).
- Additional stories in the issue include 'The Threat of the Laredo Kid!' (Lee/Carl Burgos) and 'Showdown at Sun-Up' (Lee/Doug Wildey), plus a two-page text story 'Word of Honor' with illustration by Joe Maneely reprinted from Cowboy Action #6.
- Cover art by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Dick Ayers (inks), the dominant cover team for Marvel's Western line at the time.
- This issue brought together Kid Colt, Wyatt Earp, and the Two-Gun Kid in one title simultaneously — the first time Goodman's three remaining Western headliners shared a single ongoing anthology.
- The Clay Harder Two-Gun Kid feature launched here continued in Gunsmoke Western through issue #63 (March 1961), after which Jack Kirby took over art duties on the feature.
- The Clay Harder version of the character introduced in this issue was later retroactively written out of Marvel continuity in Two-Gun Kid #60 (November 1962), which retconned Harder as a fictional dime-novel hero who inspired the new 'real' Two-Gun Kid, Matt Hawk.
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↩ Reprints Cowboy Action #6 (1955)
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