Blazing Adventures of the Wild West!
Could a six-foot, blonde-haired, country boy named Blaine Colt come from anywhere other than the state Wyoming? Of course not! And so, appropriately enough, that’s just where Kid Colt came from, the town of Abilene Wyoming (it’s fictional, no need to look it up). Kid Colt was probably the earliest of the comic-book cowboys to make it in to the later days of the revisionist era, and although he took a slight back seat to Rawhide Kid in popularity, he really was the center piece for comic-book gunfighters.
Initially unwilling to use a gun, his father was murdered, and so Blaine gave up his idealistic stance and avenged his pa. This turned him into an outlaw and began his life on the run throughout the western frontier. Or at least that’s one version, and probably the most common. Owing to a print run that goes back to the 40’s several different publishing houses, there have been some variations on the Kid’s story. However, one thing has always stayed true and that is Kid Colt’s moral compass. Ever-virtuous, the Kid never let’s his label of outlaw lull him onto a path of easy living at the expense of others. Whether his title was earned or not, he continues to stand for what’s right.
One twist to this characteristic, however, is that unlike Rawhide Kid and Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt had a minor paramour. She only showed up in the early days long before Marvel started publishing the title, and then wasn’t heard from again after the revamp, but nonetheless, it can be said that Kid Colt had a sweetheart, that sly dog.
His adventures were the common fare of the time, having to best a camp tough, or out-gunning a ne’er do well with too much skill in his guns and not enough goodness in his heart, all while staying out of reach of the law. It was a lonely road for Kid Colt, but yet somehow predestined for someone named Blaine Colt. With that name, it was either be a desperate western character or play college football for Oklahoma, and he was clearly better with a six-gun than with a pigskin.
Kid Colt didn’t have as many crossover adventures with real life characters, but he did have to face John Hardin, and also had an adventure in Leadville, home to Doc Holliday and Luke Short. He hosted Rawhide kid several times in his own book, and they had a sort of colleague-friendship, but this was after the obligatory fight-it-out-then-become-pards interaction. He also teamed up with Two-Gun Kid in a couple of stories and later shared a reprint book that contained individual stories of the two of them as well as Apache Kid.
His adventures ran into the late seventies making him the longest-running western comic hero. In 1966, however, his stories began to be reprints with the exception of the occasional new story thrown in. Unfortunately, unlike the Rawhide Kid, he was never given a follow-up story to give us an idea of what happened to him. But of course that’s ok, we all know he’s still out there standing up to owl-hoots and varmints, wherever they try give a quiet town a whole passle of trouble.
Here’s some additional covers for a samplin’ of Kid Colt’s greatness…
Handy With A Gun...! 