Gunmaster And Bullet The Gun-Boy!

Once upon a time western heroes ruled the day. Pulps, radio, films, and ultimately television and comics were dominated by the genre which generated hundreds of iterations of the western hero. One of the most distinctive to appear from Charlton Comics, one of the last bastions of the western was Gunmaster. A western hero with a superhero flavor, Gunmaster straddled the transition from the dominance of the one genre into the dominance of the other.

He first appeared in the fifty-seventh issue of Charlton's Six-Gun Heroes which also starred Annie Oakley and Wild Bill Hickock, among others. Quickly though Gunmaster came to dominate the covers and eventually the entire comic. Gunmaster was the masked identity of Clay Boone, a gunsmith who traveled the western landscape plying his trade and seeking justice where he could. Eventually he would need help in this work. More on that below. 

To read Gunmaster's origin story by Joe Gill, Dick Giordano, and Frank McLaughlin go here.

For now enjoy some vintage Charlton covers featuring one of their most distinctive heroes, one who doesn't get a lot of attention. More details to follow as well. 

Eventually the Gunmaster series in Charlton's Six-Gun Heroes was thought to require a boost, and it got it in the addition of the then-obligatory boy sidekick, another element which pushed the series to the superhero side of things. Bob Tellub (ahem...really?) learned of Gunmaster's dual identity and almost immediately was brought into the fold as "Bullet the Gun Boy". He did add a dash of action and the series featured some of the best covers Charlton had to offer thanks to the art of Dick Giordano, Rocke Mastroserio, Pete Morisi and others.

Eventually Gunmaster and Bullet were given their own self-titled comic which lasted four issues.

But given that this is a Charlton publication, it needed some added confusion to the numbering so without missing a beat nor a month, the series adopted the numbering of the old Six-Gun Heroes series in mid-stride.

The series came to an end in 1966 in time to make way for another master of fighting, a martial artist set in World War II by the name of Judomaster. We're familiar with him around these parts.

Gunmaster did not go gently into that goodnight though and one year later in 1967 one more issue of the series was published. And in vintage Charlton fashion they numbered it eighty-nine, a number they'd already used for the debut of the Judomaster series two years earlier.

Sigh. This did prove to be the last hurrah for the western superhero who had managed to eke out an existence on the comic racks for nearly a decade, no mean feat.

To read some delightful Gunmaster and Bullet Boy adventures go here.

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