Discovery at Snake River – again?

Tom Morehouse is one of Jack Kirby’s biggest fans and scholars. He built a significant collection, a.k.a. his Kirby Krypt, which contained every one of Kirby’s U.S. published works (note the past tense, he sold it years ago), and continues to study Kirby’s work.

Tom recently reached out and asked “What was the name of the Australian ‘Snake River’ comic, again? Because I think I found it.” I reminded him it was “Showdown at Snake River“, and we talked more. Turns out he’d asked an auction seller about a Black Rider story that was listed in a comic they were selling. They replied it was titled “Guns Roar at Snake River!’ and sent along a low quality snapshot.

Low res, indeed!

And there it was. A Kirby splash for a previously unknown Black Rider story! The circular lower left panel was a big clue.

Cover to Black Rider #21, dated March 1954. Art by Syd Shores with Carl Burgos and color by Stan Goldberg

Some background: the first Black Rider comic book series published by Timely/Atlas/Marvel publisher Martin Goodman started with #8 dated March 1950. Publication took a hiatus between issues #18, January 1952, and #19, November 1953. Then, its name was changed to Western Tales of Black Rider with issue #28, dated May 1955, and ran until #31, dated November 1955. Jack Kirby was not involved in any of these comics. (Thanks GCD!)

Cover to Black Rider vol 2 #1, dated September 1957.
Art by John Severin and color by Stan Goldberg.

However, two years later Goodman started a new quarterly Black Rider series, dated September 1957. With a beautiful cover by John Severin, the issue contained three Black Rider stories across nineteen pages by Jack Kirby, the seven page “The Legend of the Black Rider!”, the six page “Duel at Dawn”, the six page “Treachery at Hangman’s Bridge!”, a four page story by Bob Powell, and a text story with illustrations by Gene Colan.

Title splash pages for the three Black Rider stories in vol 2 #1, dated September 1957.

The second issue… well, there was no second issue, but it appears one was planned because Goodman published three more Jack Kirby Black Rider stories totaling fourteen pages. The four page “Trouble in Leadville!” appeared in Gunsmoke Western #47, dated July 1958, the five page “The Raiders Strike!’ appeared in Gunsmoke Western #51, dated March 1959, and the five page “Meeting at Midnight!” appeared in Kid Colt, Outlaw #86, dated September 1959.

Title splash pages for the three Black Rider stories published later in the U.S..

Tom found the Black Rider “Snake River” story in Giant Western Gunfighters #4, from Horwitz Publishing. After receiving it, he graciously lent it for scanning and indexing. The comic is a mixture of Goodman-published stories, but interestingly, contains five 5 page stories, including the Black Rider, that have not been found to be published in the U.S..

Cover to Giant Western Gunfighters #4. Published by Horwitz publications, 1958. Art by Maurice Bramley.

Splash pages to the four other stories that do not appear to have been published in the U.S.

Ok, enough background – here’s the new discovery!

Yes, We have better scans… 🙂

Time to call in some art Identifying experts! Harry Mendryk, Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, and Nick Caputo all agree that the pencil art is all Kirby, while Doc V. and Nick agree that the inking is by George Klein. The lettering is still in question. Alex Jay suggests Joe Rosen, and Nick Caputo suggests Ray Holloway. If you have any thoughts, please share!

It’s somewhat interesting that two recent Kirby western story discoveries have “Snake River” in the title, and are inked by George Klein, who is now acknowledged as the inker of Fantastic Four #1. Quite a coincidence that Kirby sold both Snake River stories to Goodman’s editor Stan Lee, but neither were published in the US.

A hearty hail of gratitude to Tom Morehouse for continuing to do the deep dive! And many thanks to Harry, Nick, Doc V., and Alex for their help.

4 thoughts on “Discovery at Snake River – again?

  1. Haydn

    Joe Rosen’s letters are rounder than what we see in this story, so I’m fairly certain it’s not him. Holloway seems like a better bet, though the letters are wider than he was doing in his later credited work from the early 1960s. Another possibility is Ben Oda. The lettering resembles his 1950s work.

    Reply
  2. Mike Tiefenbacher

    I’m fairly certain it’s not Oda. Holloway was much more regular in his letterforms, almost to the point of them looking like they came from a stencil (which I’m certain they did not), which is why I would credit him with the lettering here. Joe Rosen (who was a Harvey mainstay at this point), doesn’t look like this either.

    Reply
  3. Allen Smith

    An excellent piece of Kirby research. I don’t have any Black Rider comics, but have most of the stories in scans. A fun series. Especially in the comics where John Severin would show up.

    Reply
  4. Daniel St. John

    Must it be said: ???
    I wished Marvel would reprint ALL of these stories Jack did… in affordable TPB…!!
    Can’t more be done to encourage them to reprint.??
    Where Jack only did the Covers… reprint the covers…!! … but please..Marvel… reprint.!!

    Reply

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