Western Comics #14
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWestern Comics #14 (April 1950) sits squarely in the productive middle of DC's longest-running Western anthology, a 85-issue series that helped define the publisher's output during the postwar superhero slump. The issue showcases the full rotating cast of characters—Wyoming Kid, Nighthawk, Rodeo Rick, and Cowboy Marshal—that DC used to build an interconnected stable of frontier heroes across multiple titles simultaneously. The Wyoming Kid's concurrent appearance in World's Finest Comics during this exact period illustrates how DC cross-promoted its Western properties into its flagship anthology alongside Superman and Batman, a strategy that gave these characters unusual visibility for the genre. The issue also provides a mid-career snapshot of Howard Sherman, whose Wyoming Kid work here represents a significant portion of his Golden Age legacy at the company.
In "null," Sagebrush Sam swears he’s spotted shimmering swimming pools in the desert heat, much to Charlie’s amusement. When Charlie brings him to Doctor Millard for help, the doctor’s cure seems to work—until Sam declares he’d rather keep seeing the mirages than live in the real world.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Western Comics launched in January/February 1948 under editor Whitney Ellsworth, who shaped the title for most of its run before Julius Schwartz took over the final two years. The series was designed as a rotating anthology from the start, with Jack Schiff and Howard Sherman co-creating the Wyoming Kid as its lead feature, while Nighthawk arrived with issue #5. By the time issue #14 reached stands in April 1950, DC had settled into a reliable four-strip format—Wyoming Kid, Rodeo Rick, Nighthawk, and Cowboy Marshal—with a stable of genre-specialist artists like Sherman, Tom Cooke, Ralph Mayo, and Ed Smalle Jr. handling each character's dedicated strip.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published April 1950 by DC Comics as part of the ongoing Western Comics anthology series (volume 1, 1948–1961).
- Cover art and Wyoming Kid story ('The Siege of Prairie City') illustrated by Howard Sherman, the character's co-creator.
- Rodeo Rick story ('Rodeo Rick against Rodeo Rick') drawn by Tom Cooke; Cowboy Marshal story ('Fast Hands--Slow Death') drawn by Ed Smalle Jr.
- Nighthawk story titled 'Hannibal Hawks, Telegrapher,' illustrated by Ralph Mayo — part of Nighthawk's unbroken run from Western Comics #5 through #76.
- Nighthawk (Hannibal Hawkes) is a masked traveling repairman who fights crime in the Old West; he was later retroactively identified as a reincarnation of Prince Khufu in the Hawkman mythology.
- Wyoming Kid (Bill Polk), co-created by Jack Schiff and Howard Sherman, appeared in all 85 issues of the series AND in World's Finest Comics #42–64 (1949–1953), making him one of DC's most-published Western characters of the era.
- The series was DC's longest-running Western title, publishing 85 bimonthly issues from 1948 to 1961, with Whitney Ellsworth as principal editor.
- This issue carries the original 10-cent cover price standard to DC's Golden Age anthology output.
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Reprinted in Western Comics #14 (1950)
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