This Australian comic published by Horowitz Publications is an English language version of an Italian comic, "La Legge Del West" (The Law of The West). Or, perhaps it's the other way round!. This version features Kirby art which might have been added to or amended - I leave it to others to decide. The cover is not Kirby. Many, many thanks to Australian Panther for finding it and DownunderDan for the information. I found the scan on an obscure site. Having done a lot of digging, I can find no Atlas/Marvel listing for this title or comic. Done for the European market? There is more information about this book at the bottom of the page
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I should add that the Australian Panther pointed this out to me. Credit where credit is due! Exciting to have a new Kirby to read
By SuperScrounge
Seems the Kirby Museum did some research on this. https:kirbymuseum.org/blogs/effect/2019/01/13/discovery-at-snake-river-again/
By FraBig
I found this blog article that may shed some light on the Italian version of this comic.
https:westernsallitaliana.blogspot.com/2016/01/european-western-comic-books-la-legge.html
By crashryan
This is a very interesting book. It has not only great Jack Kirby art but also a good story, much better than typical Stan Lee & Co. Atlas westerns. Whip McCall's ambiguity adds a bit of depth to the tale. The writer makes good use of all 26 pages. He give us some nice cinematic moments like McCall's surprise death. I'm no expert but I have the strong impression that Kirby wrote this as well as pencilling it.
After reading the links to discussions about the strip's origins I suspect it was an unpublished story produced by Atlas/Marvel for whatever reason (a proposed one-shot, maybe?), that was lying around the Marvel archives. British publisher Alan Class described buying the material in his comics from a middleman who packaged stuff from American publishers for sale overseas. It came in the form of a random stack of photostats from which Class picked what he wanted to print. The packages were a hodgepodge of stuff from different publishers: Marvel, Atlas, ACG, Tower, even some Golden Age leftovers.
Comics researchers have demonstrated that artwork on foreign Marvel covers were sometimes earlier versions of the covers of the American editions. At other times they were art that was unpublished in the USA. I speculate that "Showdown at Snake River" happened to be in one of these export packages which found its way to Italy and Australia. That's my guess anyway.
By TrueScot
This western is the best. Kirby is a master of the genre, art wise. Who ever wrote the script is as well. And I get to do the colouring myself!
Additional Information
Publication
[1957] | Price: 1'- [0-1-0 AUP] | Pages: 1
Notes
Prior indexer thought the art was by Maurice Bramley. However contemporary reprints of the cover feature John Severin's signature
Credits
Letters: typeset
Content
Genre: Western-frontier
Notes
Prior indexer thought the art was by Maurice Bramley. However contemporary reprints of the cover feature John Severin's signature
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