Western Hero #85

When Lil Buck freezes up during a classroom spelling bee, his teacher pushes him to think of a word he knows—only to have the young student blurt out an embarrassingly honest answer about where his clothes come from. It's a quick, humbling lesson in the perils of hand-me-downs and quick thinking under pressure.

Monte Hale finds himself branded an outlaw when a wanted poster bearing his name appears in Gold Dust City—but young Bob Drews knows something's not right, especially after witnessing the "outlaw" himself rob a stagecoach with impossible skill. As Bob sets out to track down the man he once idolized, he discovers that Monte's crime spree is far more than it appears, and that true justice sometimes wears an outlaw's face.

Buck uses a tall tale about his brother picking up a live wire at an electrical plant to try pulling the wool over Cluck's eyes—but when Cluck calls him out, Buck doubles down with an even more ridiculous explanation that lands him flat on his back. This two-page Western Hero tale from 1949 is pure frontier foolery, with a joke-teller getting exactly what he deserves.

Gabby Hayes dreams of striking it rich as an inventor and pitches his latest contraption—a line of trick shoes with spring-loaded soles, escalator mechanisms, and hidden skates—to a trio of Eastern shoe tycoons. When his demonstrations go hilariously awry, the slick con men Slick and Quick spot an opportunity to steal the inventions for themselves, only to find that fate has a peculiar sense of humor when those very shoes help them outrun the law.

Big Bow and Little Arrow get chased by an angry singer after a boisterous singing contest goes wrong, leading them to hide out at a woman's house—where a simple gardening job turns into a comedic disaster. As they scramble to escape both the furious vocalist and the mounting chaos they've caused, the two prove just as much trouble to themselves as anyone else.

Tom Mix tangles with a pair of clever confidence men who've duped the people of Dobie into buying worthless land by planting trees to fake the presence of an underground river. When Tom discovers the scheme and tracks down the culprits, he's determined to bring them to justice and help the folks who've been swindled. It's a race against time to catch the crooks before they slip away with their ill-gotten gains.

Cactus Brain ties a string around his finger as a memory aid to remind himself to mail a letter, but his plan backfires in the most forgetful way possible. When questioned about whether he remembered to send it, he realizes he forgot the crucial first step—he never even wrote the letter in the first place!