Tag: matt hawk

INTERLUDE: Two-Gun Kid #60

The Beginning of the Two-Gun Kid

Featuring: Two-Gun Kid
Release: August 2, 1962
Cover: November 1962
12 cents
Stan Lee + J. Kirby
Ayers
13 pages

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Two-Gun Kid #1PRELUDE
Fantastic Four #8Reading orderJourney Into Mystery #86

Back East, I remember reading about a fictitious gun-fighter named the Two-Gun Kid! I don’t know whatever happened to him, but I think I’ll borrow the name!

We see the signatures for Lee, Kirby, and Ayers. The GCD credits the coloring to Stan Goldberg, and the letters to Artie Simek.

We just met Marvel’s original Two-Gun Kid, Clay Harder from 1948. In 1962, Marvel introduced the new Two-Gun Kid. Marvel had been reviving the idea of superheroes with the Fantastic Four and Hulk. And just two months earlier introduced Thor, Spider-Man, and Ant-Man.

Stan and Jack bring the sensibility that had been working for them on the superhero titles to the western genre as they reimagne the Two-Gun Kid. For example, this new one will have a mask and secret identity.

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INTERLUDE: Two-Gun Kid #77

The Panther Will Get You If You Don’t Watch Out!

Featuring: Two-Gun Kid
Release: June 1, 1965
Cover: September 1965
12 cents
Edited by: Stan Lee
Written by: Al Hartley
Pencilling by: Dick Ayers
Inking by: Carl Hubbell
Lettering by: Artie Simek
17 pages

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PRELUDEMystic Comics #3, Story B
Daredevil #9Reading orderJourney Into Mystery Annual 1

He wore two guns and a mask?

We are reading Marvel’s superhero line, which they started back up in 1961. We’ve occasionally read stories older than 1961 that seem vaguely relevant, and refer to those as PRELUDE posts. We occasionally read stories long after 1961 and call those POSTLUDE posts. We will also be doing INTERLUDE posts, which we will read at the time they came out, but are disconnected from the normal superhero universe.

If you’ve been following along, this will be the first INTERLUDE post you’ve come across. But I’ve retroactively made a few other posts be INTERLUDE posts. Those stories featuring Medusa, Merlin, Odin, or Zeus that weren’t really properly connected to the superhero reading.

Superheroes are on the rise and starting to crowd out other genres, but Marvel is still publishing its romance and western comics. Marvel had a single western hero, the Masked Raider, way back in the beginning in Marvel Comics #1. But they’ve been regularly publishing westerns since 1948, starting with Annie Oakley and the Two-Gun Kid.

That’s the original Two-Gun Kid, mind you. Not to be confused with the character we are about to read about. The original Two-Gun Kid was Clay Harder.

In 1962, Lee and Kirby introduced a new hero with the same name, lawyer Matt Hawk.

Marvel’s other continuing western titles are Rawhide Kid, and Kid Colt: Outlaw.

Former western heroes include Wyatt Earp, Apache Kid, Outlaw Kid, Blaze Carson, Tex Morgan, and Tex Taylor.

One of Two-Gun Kid’s steadfast allies is Boom-Boom Brown, a former boxer turned blacksmith.

His most trusted ally of course is his horse Thunder.

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