Red Mask #51
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeRed Mask #51 (September 1955) marks the debut of the Presto Kid, one of the most deliberately unconventional western heroes of the Golden Age: a masked lawman who carried no gun and instead subdued outlaws through stage illusions and sleight of hand — a direct creative response to the Comics Code Authority's restrictions on violence in comics. The issue also signals a turning-point for the Red Mask title itself, as this was the issue in which the long-running Ghost Rider backup feature was retired and replaced by this fresh, Code-friendly concept, making the book a quiet but telling document of how the CCA reshaped editorial strategy in mid-1950s genre comics. Black Phantom — already an established presence in the series as one of the era's rare recurring female Western protagonists — continues her role as Red Mask's partner, a character arc with few parallels in period cowboy comics.
Red Mask pursues robbers who have stolen money from a stagecoach and replaced it with purple gloves as a calling card. After finding the purple gloves at a crime scene, Red Mask deduces the culprits are four different people using aliases and working under one mastermind. Red Mask follows the trail to a small Western town where the criminals plan to rob the bank, and after a series of confrontations in the mountains, he pursues them to recover stolen property and bring them to justice.
Red Mask accepts a dangerous assignment to guide a gold wagon through outlaw territory, only to discover his enemies have orchestrated a deadly gauntlet of explosions and a devastating flood to stop him. After surviving the ambush that claims the shipment, he must track the criminals to their hidden hideout using nothing but his wits and the rugged mountain terrain. It's a tale of survival and cunning as Red Mask races to recover the gold and bring the gang to justice before they vanish into the wilderness.
Red Mask puzzles over a baffling string of robberies—each one marked by the mysterious calling card of a purple glove left behind—until a frightened man from town reveals the truth: they're the work of "King" Gordon, a vengeful outlaw Red Mask arrested years ago who swore to settle the score. As Red Mask races to stop Gordon before he can silence his informant, he finds himself trapped in quicksand, forced to fight his way free against impossible odds.
When an old prospector sells his stake in a worthless mountain for quick cash, Red Mask smells a setup—and soon finds himself tangled in a thirty-year-old mystery of hidden gold and murder. As outlaws scheme to own Beartooth Mountain at any cost, Red Mask must uncover why a barren glacier holds such deadly value. The answer lies buried deeper than anyone expected, frozen in ice and shaped by forces of nature that no man can control.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The Red Mask title was itself a continuation of the Tim Holt comic (launched in 1948), retitled with issue #42 in 1954 when Tim Holt's movie-star draw began to fade alongside declining box-office fortunes for RKO Westerns. For issue #51, Magazine Enterprises editor and founder Vin Sullivan's team assembled the Ghost Rider's own creative partnership — writer Gardner Fox and artist Dick Ayers — to launch the Presto Kid as the Ghost Rider's direct replacement in the anthology's rotating backup slot. The series ran under the Red Mask banner through issue #54 in 1957, after which Magazine Enterprises ceased publishing entirely in 1958.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Presto Kid (secret identity: Jeff Grant, a blacksmith in the town of Red Gulch), debuting in Red Mask #51, September 1955.
- The Presto Kid was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dick Ayers — the same team that had produced the Ghost Rider backup strip that immediately preceded the character in the anthology.
- The Presto Kid carried no firearm; he relied entirely on prestidigitation, stage illusions, and mechanical gadgets to capture criminals — a deliberate workaround for Comics Code Authority restrictions on gunplay violence.
- Red Mask #51 is the direct successor issue to Red Mask #50, which contained the final appearance of Magazine Enterprises' Ghost Rider character (whose horror-influenced design had already been altered to comply with the Comics Code).
- Black Phantom — real name Helena — continues to appear in this issue as Red Mask's crime-fighting partner; the character had originated as a villain in Tim Holt #25 (1951), created by artist Frank Bolle, before undergoing a villain-to-hero redemption arc.
- Jeff Grant (the Presto Kid) appeared in all four remaining issues of the Red Mask run: #51 through #54, the final issue of the series (1957).
- The Presto Kid stories were later reprinted by AC Comics in Presto Kid Western #1 (1989), which also included a profile of artist Dick Ayers.
- Magazine Enterprises' comics, including this issue, are considered public domain due to apparent non-renewal of copyright, making the characters available for revival and reprint.
Cast · 4 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Cowboy Action #16 (1957), Red Mask #2 (1958), Tomahawk #3/1968 (1968), Tomahawk #1/1969 (1969), Great American Western #2 (1988), The Presto Kid #1 (1989), Redmask of the Rio Grande #2 (1992), Best of the West #70 (2008), Action Series #4
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