Two Gun Kid #40

History

The issue was written by Stan Lee and features pencil and ink contributions from three artists: Joe Maneely (who also drew the cover), Chuck Miller, and Alfonso Greene, with coloring by Stan Goldberg and lettering by Artie Simek. It was released to newsstands on October 12, 1957, carrying a February 1958 cover date — standard Atlas practice of the era. The book was produced during the difficult aftermath of the 'Atlas Implosion' of 1957, in which publisher Martin Goodman had canceled roughly 70% of his titles after losing his distribution deal; Two Gun Kid was one of the few Western titles to survive, and Lee was relying heavily on Maneely to anchor its storytelling quality. Maneely's unexpected death on June 7, 1958 — just months after this issue shipped — meant that issue #44 would be the last drawn by him on the title, making the cluster of issues surrounding #40 the final sustained chapter of their collaboration on the character.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Cover date: February 1958; on-sale date: October 12, 1957; published by Atlas Comics (the pre-Marvel imprint of Martin Goodman's company), under the editorial direction of Stan Lee.
• Lead story: 'Man Without Guns!' — scripted by Stan Lee, penciled and inked by Joe Maneely; it is noted in the Marvel Database as the first issue since Two Gun Kid #23 in which the Clay Harder Two-Gun Kid kills an opponent with his guns, representing a relaxation of the title's post-Comics Code Authority restraint on lethal gunfighter violence.
• The issue is an anthology: additional stories include an untitled cattle-rustling tale featuring the Kid and his friend Dusty, 'Blazing Colts!', 'Branded!', and a text story titled 'The Circus Man,' with art distributed among Joe Maneely, Chuck Miller, and Alfonso Greene.
• Joe Maneely drew the cover as well as the lead story — consistent with his role as Lee's primary artistic collaborator on the title during this period. Maneely died in a commuter-train accident on June 7, 1958, only months after this issue shipped, making these issues among the final works of his career.
• Stan Lee is sole credited writer; the issue's production credits also include inker/colorist Stan Goldberg and letterer Artie Simek — a recurring Atlas bullpen team of the era.
• The Clay Harder version of the Two-Gun Kid who stars in this issue would be retconned out of the series entirely in Two Gun Kid #60 (November 1962), when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby replaced him with the masked lawyer Matt Hawk, giving the title a superhero-style secret-identity structure.
• Issue #40 falls within the post-Atlas Implosion period (from 1957 onward) when Goodman had sharply reduced his line; the Two Gun Kid title was one of a small number of Western books to survive the cuts, and Lee and Maneely's concentrated run on it — issues roughly #39–44 — represents the last high-quality artistic chapter of the Clay Harder era.
• No notable reprint of issue #40's specific content has been documented in the sources reviewed; the series as a whole was repackaged beginning around issue #93 (July 1970) when it transitioned to being primarily a reprint title.

Full credits

Key issues in Two Gun Kid

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#60 1st appearance — Matt Hawk