Michael

Kid Colt, Outlaw

Was the Longest Running  Cowboy Star In American Comic Book Publishing ! 

Kid Colt's real name was Blaine Colt.  He was a cowboy fictional character who starred in his own comic book series as well as in several other titles for Timely, Atlas and Marvel Comics, all of which were owned by Publisher Martin Goodman.

Kid Colt was the longest-running cowboy star in American comic-book publishing,  being featured in stories for a 31 year run from 1948-1979. However from 1966 to the end of 1979, most of the published stories were only reprints of earlier stories. Additionally a  brief  hiatus occurred between issues #139 (April 1968) and #140 (Oct. 1969) to interrupt the run.

Pete Tumlinson wrote and drew Kid Colt's earliest stories for Timely Comics. Artist Jack Keller began his long run with the character starting with Kid Colt, Outlaw #25 (March 1953) for Atlas. Editor Stan Lee was the writer for those stories. Early cover artists for Kid Colt Outlaw included Joe Maneely, John Severin and Russ Heath.  Jack Kirby and inker Dick Ayers took over for many of the covers from the 1959-1965 time period.

Kid Colt and his horse Steel first appeared in Kid Colt #1 (August 1948), from what then called Timely Comics. The cover logo was originally subtitled "Hero of the West", but by issue  number three this logo was changed to "Kid Colt, Outlaw".

Kid Colt's origin story, as told in Kid Colt, Outlaw  #11 (Sept. 1950), had Blaine Colt being wrongly accused of murder and becoming a fugitive from the law.

Kid Colt appeared in numerous comic book series through the 1950's, including All Western Winners, Two-Gun Western and Gunsmoke Western.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Kid Colt appeared in the reprint title Mighty Marvel Western along with the Two-Gun Kid and the Rawhide Kid. Kid Colt additionally was published in the three-issue Giant-Size Kid Colt reprint series. His long running title series ended with #229 (April 1979).

Kid Colt, Outlaw was my favorite of the Marvel Western Comics during the 1960's.  During that time there were no comic book stores to buy back issues from, thus I was never able to complete my Kid Colt, Outlaw run at that time. From this event I learned not to attempt to collect series that were long running, which is why I mainly collected Marvel Superheroes as most of the superhero titles, other than Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish and Strange Tales, had started in 1961 or later. (i.e. Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Avengers, etc.)

As a footnote, the miniseries 'Blaze of Glory' from the year 2000, by writer John Ostrander and artist Leonardo Manco, featured Kid Colt in his final adventure. This grim and gritty miniseries killed off Kid Colt in the series' conclusion with issue #4, March 2000.

For those interested in more western comic books besides Kid Colt Outlaw, we have several hundred in our eBay Featured Store. Time to slap leather Pardner! 

Michael