Billy the Kid stars in the First Issue of Death Valley!

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Billy the Kid, Death Valley, first issue, golden age, Inferno, Mike Esposito, Ross Andru, western

Let’s rock this tale of Billy the Kid with artwork by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. Yes, they would later go on to do some of your bronze age favorites from Marvel and DC in the 1970s. Here they are in a golden age western!

Collector’s Guide:
– From Death Valley #1; Comic Media, 1953.

All Hail the First Issue of Kull the Conqueror!

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first issue, Kull, Kull the Conqueror, Kull the Destroyer, origin, Ross Andru, Roy Thomas, Wally Wood

The first issue of Kull from 1971 packs so much action that we’d almost rather you just skip this exposition and get right into it. Roy Thomas gives the reader a novel’s worth of story in less than 25 pages. Hard to believe that fans got all that for 15 cents in 1971, when Marvel usually gives us 1/6 of a story for $3.99 now!

If you’re thinking Kull was just another Conan rip off, skip ahead to the last page in our gallery and get hip. Kull came first!

We love everything about this issue: Kull’s explanation that only the weak live in fear of words. Kull’s fatal solution for a girl sentenced to be burned alive. Kull’s entire mercenary career rendered in a splash page by Ross Andru and Wally Wood.

But most of all, Kull has one major cool factor that Conan lacked: He’s got magical powers from the Tiger Goddess. Yes! It sends us into a geek frenzy when Kull goes tiger-power! Dig page 9 where Kull explains the moral superiority of the tiger, then gets apotheosized with the moon and a ghostly tiger form. Whoa! As much as we love the monsters, mayhem, and manning-out of this series, the Tiger Goddess really rocks our world.

Collector’s Guide:
– From Kull the Conqueror #1; Marvel, 1971. (Later, Kull the Destroyer.)
– As they’ve done with Conan, Dark Horse reprinted the Kull series in high quality collections: The Chronicles of Kull TPB.