Title/issues: Showdown at Snake River (1958)

Where: Australia

Featuring: Silver Kid

616?: Potentially.

Summary: To follow

Reprinted in United States?: No

Comments: Showdown at Snake River is a curiosity. Drawn by Jack Kirby, it is a Western tale that was never published in the U.S., but was in Australia by Horwitz Publications and, as La Legge Del West, in Italy. The exact publication dates aren't pinned down, but Ausreprints places the Australian release in 1958, while the Kirby Museum has been told that La Legge Del West came out July 1959, so it looks like the Australian one came out first. Maybe.

   Why does it potentially count as a Marvel tale? After all, Kirby drew stories for other companies too, especially in the 50s. In the Italian release a job number is visible, O-253; this is consistent with how Kirby used to number the stories he worked on for Timely/Atlas, with (for example) 0-254 being a story he produced for Navy Combat#19 (August 1958). So it seems likely this was produced for Marvel too. It wasn't uncommon in this era for writers and artists to prepare stories that then got held back as "inventory" for a variety of reasons. Indeed, some stories produced in the 1950s for Marvel's Western titles ended up being published for the first time in the 1970s. So it's entirely likely that Showdown at Snake River was one such tale, being released in overseas "reprint" titles without ever being released in the States.

Title/issues: The Fast Gun#9 (October 1960)

Where: Australia

Featuring: Black Rider, Outlaw Kid, Rawhide Kid, Kid from Dodge City

616?: Apparently.

Summary: To follow

Reprinted in United States?: No

Comments: Like Showdown at Snake River, the five stories published in Horwitz Publications' Fast Gun#9 (and later reprinted in Horwitz's Giant Western Gunfighters#4) apparently were stories produced by American creators and presumably originally intended for U.S. titles, but which were ultimately not used there and so, as of this writing, have only been published in Australian titles. Unlike Snake River, there is no doubt these are Marvel (or Atlas at the time) tales, given they feature established Marvel characters.

   Each story was five pages in length - the Kid from Dodge City starred in the first ("Go For Your Guns!") and fourth ("Trapped in a Texas Town"), both drawn by Don Heck; Black Rider in the second tale ("Guns Roar at Snake River" - no clue if this is in any way related to the other Snake River tale) which was penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by George Klein; Rawhide Kid featured in the untitled third story, illustrated by Dick Ayers; and Outlaw Kid in the fifth and last ("Fight or Run!"), with art by Doug Wildey.