Six-Gun Heroes #17

When Lawyer Grey urges Sheriff Hopalong Cassidy to crack down on the crooked gambling running out of Slim Jamison's hall in Twin River, Cassidy sets a trap—but what begins as a simple raid spirals into something far more dangerous. As Slim is about to reveal the identity of the real mastermind behind the operation, a mysterious assassin strikes from the shadows, and Cassidy finds himself caught between a killer determined to stay hidden and a secret panel that holds the key to everything. It's a race through the gambling hall's back rooms and cellars as Cassidy pursues an unseen enemy whose true identity remains cloaked in mystery.

Ten Gallon Tex shares a groan-worthy joke about ants with a fellow traveler in this lighthearted western romp. When the punchline lands (or doesn't), the two are back on the trail with a cargo of bubble gum and an eye toward the road ahead.

Smiley Burnette, the struggling editor of the Burnette's Bugle, unwittingly hires a smooth-talking advertising salesman who uses the newspaper as cover for a sinister blackmail scheme targeting the town's shadiest characters. When the con is exposed and bullets start flying, Smiley must rely on quick wits, his new feathered friend Doodle Duck, and whatever's at hand to stop the crook and his desperate victims before the whole town explodes.

In this one-page western gag, Lamebrain Lem enjoys a slice of pie a little too enthusiastically—then discovers he may have made a stomach-turning mistake about what he actually ate. A quick, punchy punchline that proves even in the frontier, it pays to know your dessert from your dinnerware.

When a prospector stumbles into the wilderness with a terrible toothache, Sappy Nappy figures he's got just the remedy—frontier-style dentistry. This 1952 one-pager from Six-Gun Heroes delivers exactly the kind of broad, groan-worthy humor you'd expect from the era, complete with a punchline that's more concerned with practicality than patient comfort.

Lash LaRue arrives in Gopher Valley to investigate a gang of local troublemakers, only to find himself caught in a clever scheme when a man posing as honest optometrist Dave Sprecher uses the gang as an unwitting distraction for his own bank robbery. With the law chasing one crime, the imposter makes off with loot from a second bank, and Lash must track the real culprit to a neighboring town before the scheme's web of deception destroys an innocent man's reputation.

Lamebrain takes on a simple job washing the boss's windows, but his logic about which side needs cleaning is so twisted it leaves the boss absolutely speechless. This quick-witted frontier humor tale shows why sometimes the simplest task can turn into pure comedy gold.

Rocky Lane discovers the body of a visiting lawyer strangled by raw cattle hide—and suspects his host, rancher Dalton, of the murder to avoid paying a debt. When Dalton's suspicious answers don't add up, Rocky's investigation forces the desperate killer to act, leaving Rocky himself tied with the same deadly method and left to die under the scorching sun. Racing against time and the shrinking rawhide around his neck, Rocky must find a way to escape before it's too late.