Jim Larrimore was a hard working rancher in the wild west who from time to time found he had to don a black hood and ride out on his wonder horse Lightning against bandits, desperados, renegade Indians, and Dr. Chuda, an immortal Cro-Magnon with the powers of mesmerism, telepath, and emotion control who had been sowing chaos and mayhem for at least 50 thousand years.
The only people who knew Larrimore was the Lone Rider (other than Dr. Chuda we suppose as he WAS after all a telepath) was guitar playing ranch-hand and the Lone Rider’s sidekick from Mexico Diego and his sometimes companion and Indian blood-brother Golden Arrow, who's name was later changed to Swift Arrow.
Return with us now…
Comics, along with the movies and television, is among the few media where those to labor in it, actively try to be the first to be the second at doing something.
So that once something succeeds elsewhere you can count on a troop of imitators to be following swiftly on it’s heels.
That was the case with The Lone Rider, at first glance a pale imitation of the Lone Ranger it was given a creative boost by being created by Jack Kirby who added the immortal Dr. Chuda to his line up B-Western baddies.
Jack however did not stay with the comic very long, after him however came Jack Kamen who stayed with the character though most of his incarnations. Kamen, most famous for his grisly art work in the EC horror and realistic shock / suspense lines, made The Lone Rider one of the most bloodthirsty anti-Indian campaigners among the pre-code Western heroes.
Making it more than a touch ironic that when his comic went down with issue # 26 he ended up concluding his career in the back pages of the comic given to his sometimes companion Swift Arrow.
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