Western Adventures #1

Featuring stories of the Cross-Draw Kid and Sheriff Sal, Ace Comics’ Western Adventures series was one of the earliest western comics series. Beginning in 1948, the comic’s main characters became instant classics that inspired other characters in different publishers’ western series. Having inspired characters like Apache Kid, Rawhide Kid and Two-Gun Kid, Western Adventures’ Cross-Draw Kid was a young vigilante with a quick draw. After seeing his father shot in the back by a desperate bushwhacker, the young hero practiced and perfected the cross-draw, earning him his feared nickname. Western Adventures also boasts one of the first and only female gunslingers, Sheriff Sal. After the town of Red Dog elected Sally Starr its sheriff, laughter rang out across town square, over the canyon and past the grazing lands. Outlaws and desperados headed toward the “easy target,” but Sally and her stallion, Big Red, stood up for justice and defeated any outlaws that came their way. While Ace Comics only produced half a dozen issues of Western Adventures, the series had quite an impact on the fan base and comic world, inspiring several western comic collections to appear on shelves in the early 1950s.