BLAZING SIXGUNS! #12 (1963)

This comic book (published by Super Comics, Inc.) appears to be a reprint of Bullseye:  Western Scout #3, orignally published sometime in the mid-Fifties by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's Mainline Comics;  Mainline published 5 issues of Bullseye before the company went belly-up in 1956; two further issues were published by Charleton.  Super Comics evidently did not bother to give Blazing Sixguns! end sale dates so the nearest we can pinpoint this issue is sometime in 1963.  Jack Kirby did the artwork.

This was one of the few comic books that dared to mix western action with pterodactyls.

"In the valley of lost trails...in the hot country of the blowing geysers, the famous scout, Bullseye, tracks down a terrifying and unbelievable creature..."  Bullseye ropes the creature and he and his two Indian companions, Running Deer and Strong Bow, manage to secure it to a large rock, hoping to be able to get away from the beast before it frees itself.  The Indians tell Bullseye that the "Devil Bird" does not leave the valley.  When Bullseye tells his old frien "Book-Larnin'" Brody about the beast, Brody is eager to see it.  As they head out to the valley, they are followed by two desperados, the dude Sparkler and his crony Rifle; Sparkler overhear Bullseye's description of the valley and realizes that its blue clay soil may hide a wealth of diamonds.  Once they locate the valley, they plans to kill Bullseye and leave all the pickings for themselves.  Murder is done.  Jusrice is served.  Bullseye once again ropes the Devil Bird , and Book-Larnin' decides to stay on in the valley to study the creature.  

Bullseyes wears a red mask, a la the Lone Ranger, and has a red bullseye target tattooed to his chest.  In On Target," we learn a bit about his origins.  The greatest sharpshooter in the west was the grandson of the legendary Deadeye Dick, who taught the boy "all the secrets that made him the deadl;iest shot in the west."  Bullseye's parent were mudered by renegade Indians when he was an infant; Deadeye raised the child.  Deadeye hunted down Yellow Snake, the Indian who had killed Bullseye's parents, but was slain in an ambush.  Bullseye, still a boy, was caught and Yellow Snake branded him with the bullseye on his chest so the "I may know you when you are old enough for me to kill you!"  When he got older, he had a showdown with Yellow Snake and beat him to the draw.  No word on whjy he wears the mask, though.

In "Ghosts of Dead Center," a villain named Hardy Grabber has been taking over all the land by hook or by crook -- most often the latter.  In his guise as Panhandle Pete, the roaming hardware peddlar, Bullseye suspects that there is something wrong about Grabber and decides to investigate because of "his determination to stamp out injustice wherver he found it."  Hardy (in one panel mistakenly called "Harry") has found that the railroad is planning to run a line throught the ghost town of Dead Center, which is why he has been gobbling up all the surrounding property.  Dead Center was the town where Bullseye's parents were killed and where Deadeye Dick had raised the boy.  Since Dead Center is a ghost town, Bullseye decides to manufacture a few "ghosts" to spoil Grabber's plot.

The final story in the book, drawn by Leonard Starr, tells "The Adventure of Sheriff Shorty."  Shorty is a Walter Mitty-esque dreamer who stumbles into becoming the sheriff of Rimfire through a series of comic accidents.   When Shorty falls for the lovely Penny, gunslinger Dean challenges him to a gun fight.  Shorty has two coices:  run, and lose Penny forever, or stay and be planted in a pine box.

A great issue, made all the better by Kirby's artwork.

Enjoy.

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