During the 1950s, when most Golden Age superheroes disappeared — at least for most or all of the decade — there were plenty of fantastic alternatives on the newsstands. I’ve found these to be fun to collect — heroes of science fiction, the supernatural, the jungle, and of city streets. And, of course, the glamorous masked heroes of the Old West.

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Did you know there have been well over 500 issues of comic books devoted to masked heroes? The vast majority were published in the 1950s, bridging the Golden Age and the Silver Age. The Lone Ranger was the first to have his own comic book and in the 1950s became by far the most famous — surpassing Zorro (who came first). Zorro was created by the prolific Johnston McCulley for the pulps following the end of World War I, and he was still publishing original Zorro stories more than 30 years later. Fran Striker created the Lone Ranger for radio in the early 1930s (and soon followed with his nephew, the Green Hornet).

The Lone Ranger, though, made a much bigger impression than Zorro in the comics, both as a Sunday newspaper strip (reprinted in King Comics in the 1930s and 40s) and as the longest-running masked western hero of the comic books. Some collectors find the Lone Ranger stories too dull, since Dell Comics never got involved in extreme violence or exploitation, but I’ve always enjoyed them. I’ve slowly been building a Lone Ranger set, picking up several issues at each major convention I attend.

You don’t need to worry about the two pricey Large Feature Comics and the two Feature Books published in 1939-41. Those are for Lone Ranger completists.  There were also seven Lone Ranger issues in the Four Color series between 1945 and l947, and, although not as expensive, those are for completists, too. The first 37 issues of the regular Dell series, which started in 1948, are also newspaper reprints but worth picking up for the cool covers. For me, the Lone Ranger series really starts with original stories (mostly by the prolific Paul Newman) in # 38 (Aug. 1951), along with nicely painted covers.

Though the series ran through #145 in 1962, some collectors prefer to focus on the nostalgic photo covers of TV series star Clayton Moore. He was featured in # 112-145 (Oct. 1957through May-July 1962). Ironically, the original run of the TV series lasted from 1949-57, but endless re-runs were a treat for the Baby Boom generation and thus Dell decided Clayton Moore’s image would help sell the title. Dell also produced three Lone Ranger 25-cent giants in 1956-58, which are among my favorite 1950s comics. I heartily recommend them. I don’t find the 1950s runs of Silver and Tonto as interesting, but they do have many wonderful covers. If you haven’t stopped to peruse the covers, check them out.

Zorro, hugely popularized by Walt Disney’s adaptations in the late 1950s, starred in 22 Dell comics from 1949-61.  I highly recommend each and every one!  Dell published seven independent Four Color issues, including three by the masterful presidential portrait painter Everett Raymond Kinstler. Beginning in 1958, Dell turned out seven more, based on the Disney series, along with # 8-15. Alex Toth and Warren Tufts did most of the art and turned out some of the coolest comics of the period.

Almost every best-selling comic book trend or character spawned numerous knockoffs, and the Lone Ranger was no exception.  Interesting Lone Ranger knockoffs abound, and I’ve found they’re also fun to collect.  Return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear…

Timely, soon to become Marvel and Atlas, created the Black Rider — a Batman of the Old West — for the first issue of All-Western Winners (# 2 Winter 1948/49).  The series ended with # 4, but the Black Rider appeared in dozens of stories in Marvel’s ensuing western titles. His own series (# 8-31) in 1950-55 is lots of fun, along with the one-shot Black Rider Rides Again! by Jack Kirby in 1957.  If you like funky western fun, you can’t miss with any issue of The Black Rider. It’s not an easy series to complete, however. It took me a good many years. It’s an old story: many comics of the 1950s are actually tougher to find than the better sellers of the 1940s. That seems counterintuitive, but it’s true.

Even before the Lone Ranger debuted on TV in the fall of 1949, Lev Gleason came up with a surprisingly successful knockoff with the creative name of The Black Diamond. His horse had one of the best of all names — Reliapon! Black Diamond ran 52 issues (# 9-60) from 1949-56. These tend to be wordy, with cartoony art, but they still have an odd appeal. Gleason titles, regardless of genre, featured some of the best story-telling in comics.

ACG produced 12 issues of The Hooded Horseman (# 21-27, # 18-22) from 1952-56 after originally running the quirky character in the anthology title Blazing West from # 14-20 in 1950-51.  These stories, featuring the typical ACG flair for irony, plot and sometimes humor, were generally much different from the crime-oriented western features of their era. They’re something of an acquired taste, but I like them.

Magazine Enterprises, so well remembered by Bill Black’s AC Comics line, featured the female version, Black Phantom, in a 1954 one-shot (A-1 # 122) and in a few issues of Tim Holt’s series. The Durango Kid, of course, ran in 41 issues of his own title and in other M.E. titles. M.E. did many of the best westerns, as Black had so often noted. I highly recommend both the originals and the AC reprints, and you can learn a lot more from his firm.

Premiere, a tiny firm related to Story Comics, also a small company, produced The Masked Ranger # 1-9 in 1954-55. This title also featured The Crimson Avenger, another masked hero. Great title! On the other hand, Ajax’s Lone Rider # 1-26 (1951 -55) is for masked western completists only, though it wouldn’t hurt to check out the occasional issue. The same could be said for Charlton’s Masked Raider, which ran# 1-8 in 1955-57and # 14-30 in 1958-61. A lot of those issues of Masked Raider are surprisingly scarce, but they are invariably cheap.

Gunsmoke, a title produced for 16 issues by Youthful Magazines in 1949-52, featured an odd character called The Masked Marvel (no relation to the original Centaur hero). The few issues I’ve seen are interesting, but for some reason tend to be more expensive than they’re really worth. There were, of course, a handful of other masked western heroes, including several little-known features buried in the back pages of anthologies. Bet you had no idea there were so many versions of the Lone Ranger!

This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.