RED MASK...or...MAVERICK??? Either Way, He's the "Man Who Lost Yesterday!"

We told you the tale of how 1940s Western movie star Tim Holt became comic book hero "Red Mask" HERE!

But that Masked Western Hero went through another metamorphosis, which we'll detail at the end of this story!

While this somewhat-cliched story of amnesia and imposters from Magazine Enterprise's Tim Holt #37 (1953) is a decent enough tale, what happened next was downright pitiful!

In 1971, fledgling comic publisher SkyWald, desperate for filler for their comics, used photostats and printing films from defunct comics publishers to add reprints behind 20-page new stories in their double-sized 52-page, 25-cent books!
In some cases, they used the material without any change.
In this case, Butch Cassidy #1 (1971), they re-titled the tale's lead character, and re-colored the story.
However, as you'll see, neither the editor nor proofreader did a very good job, as most of the captions and word balloons identifying the hero as "Red Mask" weren't altered!
Even the first paragraph calls him both "Maverick" and "Red Mask"...

Note: Skywald reprinted other Red Mask stories without trying to re-name the character!

TIM HOLT "Target: RedMask"

You know you've "arrived" as a hero...

...when a criminal mastermind actually sets up a training program just to teach people how to kill you!

You may note that Frank Bolle's artwork for this tale from Magazine Enterprises' Tim Holt #39 (1953) has a very "open" feel with characters constantly "breaking" the panel borders.
That's because it was created during comics' brief flirtation with 3-D in the 1950s.
The process used red and blue line-art along with red and blue glasses to create three-dimensional effects from flat artwork as shown HERE.
However, Magazine Enterprises didn't go that route!
Instead, they directed their artists to do exactly what you saw here to create a pseudo-three dimensional effect...and labeled it as "3-D in Full Color".

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THE ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER "He Who Laughs"

We end our week of Masked Western Heroes with the final tale of...

...as he returns to where he began, the back of a book starring Tim Holt!

After runs in Tim Holt, Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders, his own title, and the anthology Best of the West, The Ghost Rider finally reached the end of the trail in #50 (1955) of Tim Holt's book, which had been retitled Red Mask!

This swan song was scripted by Carl Memling and illustrated by The Rider's co-creator Dick Ayers, both of whom would be working the very next issue on a strip about another masked hero who used tricks on villains...The Presto Kid, who took over Ghost Rider's slot until Red Mask was cancelled.

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PRESTO KID "Floating Renegade"

We presented the origin of the Presto Kid, the Western hero without a gun...

...so now, we're going to show you his final adventure...and the costume he wore only once!

OK, it's not so much a new costume as a new color scheme for the old one.
Nitpick, nitpick...
From his first appearance in Red Mask #51 (1955) onward, Presto took over the cover slot, but only three issues later, the book was cancelled with #54 (1956) and both Red Mask and Presto Kid disappeared until the 1960s when some of their stories were reprinted by IW Publishing/Super Comics.
But this particular tale has never been reprinted!

Be here tomorrow for another tale of a Masked Western Hero!

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TIM HOLT "becomes Red-Mask!"

When Tim Holt #19 came out in 1950, the last page of the comic asked the question...

...when #20 came out two months later, the readers found out who the masked man was...

...Tim Holt, himself!

As we've shown in our John Wayne and Buster Crabbe entries, many Western movie and tv stars had self-titled comics that played on the conceit that the actors actually were Western characters!

But this was the only series that a "reel-life" Westerner assumed a masked identity he hadn't played on the silver screen...

The masked identity became so popular that almost every cover from #20 onward featured the masked hero, and the book was retitled Red Mask with #42!

Son of movie actor Jack Holt, who had done movie serials and Westerns in the silent and early talkie eras, Tim Holt appeared in John Wayne's breakout film Stagecoach, as well as numerous b-movies including a late 40s-early 50s series of Westerns where he played...Tim Holt!

There's dispute as to whether Gardner Fox or Ray Krank wrote this intro tale, but there's no doubt it's illustrated by Frank Bolle!

Trivia: Proofreading apparently wasn't a prerequisite in Golden Age books.

The writers and editors can't seem to decide if the hero is called "RedMask", "Red Mask", or "Red-Mask"!

(The story titles and the book itself were "Red Mask" or "Red-Mask", while the captions and balloons spelled it "RedMask"!)

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PRESTO KID "Birth of the Presto Kid"

A gunslinger without a gun...

...that was the premise of the short-lived (only four stories) series The Presto Kid!

After the Ghost Rider series was cancelled, artist Dick Ayers teamed up with writer Carl Memling on a new strip about a character who used gimmicks, like Ghost Rider, but without the scarier aspects.

While this story from Red Mask #52 details Presto Kid's origin, it's actually his second appearance!

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