Unusual Tales - The Only One

"Unusual Tales", a series presenting Steve Ditko's comics from 1957 to 1959 that are in the public domain.

The 5-page "The Only One" is one of the few westerns not starring a horse that Ditko did in those early years, from Charlton's TEXAS RANGERS IN ACTION #8 [1957]. It features the story of "King" Anderson, a cattle man who rules his region of the west with an iron fist, ruthlessly chasing off anyone who tries to settle in the land he claims for his cattle.  After we find out exactly what events early in his life made him so hard and cold, he then encounters the one thing that can change his ways.


A nice heart-warming story, and Ditko does a great job with the characters in this one, especially "King" Anderson. As I've said before, Ditko's westerns are generally pretty strong, and I wish he had done more of them.

Some links to check out:
Buy Ditko's creator-owned work
100+ new pages in 2009, plus lots of classics available
Find out about the fanzine DITKOMANIA
New issue in January on Ditko's independent work
Check out new and upcoming Ditko publications
The Creeper inches ever closer
Download public domain comics, likely including the one this story is from
Scans in this series generally adapted to my personal tastes from those copies

Click images to big-up.