Tex Ritter Western #29

Stan Campbell's cover for this 1955 Charlton publication puts Tex Ritter squarely in the crossfire — badge gleaming on his chest, two guns blazing from a second-story balcony as bullets spark around him and an armed gunman corners him from a doorway with the demand, "Drop your guns, Ritter! We've got you surrounded!" It's a tightly composed scene that captures the outnumbered lawman refusing to back down, radiating the cool determination that made Tex Ritter a natural fit for Western adventure comics. At a dime a copy, issue #29 delivers exactly the kind of high-stakes frontier tension fans of the genre were looking for in 1955.