*Western: Matthew Masters, a reformed outlaw turned doctor of medicine, turned his back on his former wicked ways and devoted himself to protecting his fellow man from disease and injury – but when a situation arose that couldn’t be treated by medical means, he fell back on his felonious skill set and rode out as the masked avenger of the innocent, the Black Rider! While most of Marvel’s early Western stars were known as Kid Colt, Ringo Kid, or what have you pretty much all the time, Black Rider was the first Western quasi-superhero, following the full dual-identity routine later played by Apache Kid, Ghost Rider and the second Two-Gun Kid among others. Debuting in 1948’s All-Western Winners, by issue #8 of that series, the Black Rider had become so popular that he took over the title, which ran from 1950 to 1955, though the final four were inexplicably renamed Western Tales of the Black Rider. We have twelve of the Black Rider’s own series, from #17 to the final issue, #31, in a variety of conditions, mostly mid to low grade reading copies, but with a handful of nicer examples, such as the issue #21 shown here, FN/VF at £50.