Prize Comics Western was looking for something to make them stand out...
...they found it in the adventures of the first Native American Western superhero...
American Eagle proved successful enough that he retained the cover slot for the entire run of Prize Comics Western from this never-reprinted premiere tale in #85 (1951) to the book's final issue, #119 in 1956, a healthy run by any standard!
The writer was Colin Dawkins, who wrote the series moonlighting from his full-time job as a copywriter at the J Walter Thompson ad agency.
The art on the story is by John Severin (pencils) and Will Elder (inks).
The team of Dawkins & Severin also did a number of stories (mostly Westerns) for EC Comics' Two-Fisted Tales.
Around the same time, PL Publishing began a title called Red Arrow, featuring another Indian character who fought for justice.
It only lasted four issues.
While both Tonto and Little Beaver had strips and even their own titles, they were spin-off characters from other series (Lone Ranger and Red Ryder, respectively.)
There had been another Native American superhero a decade earlier, The Bronze Terror aka Real American #1, in DareDevil Comics, but he was a contemporary character operating in New York City in 1941.
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