Monte Hale Western #86

Charlton's Monte Hale Western #86 puts the "biggest and boldest real-life cowboy" front and center, as a red-shirted Monte Hale leaps dramatically from a hitching post, delivering a flying kick to two would-be bank robbers — one clutching a money bag — right in the dusty main street outside a frontier bank. Dick Giordano's pencils and Vince Alascia's inks give the action a crisp, kinetic energy, while a photo inset of Hale himself reminds readers that this hero stepped straight off the silver screen and onto the printed page. At a dime a copy in 1955, this Comics Code–approved issue looks like a thoroughly satisfying serving of Western adventure.