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Silver Buck. Silver Buck was created by James P. Olsen (Satan Savage, Sonora Smith) and appeared in five stories in Western Dime Novels, Silver Buck Western, and Red Star Western from 1940 to 1941, beginning with “The Silver Buck” (Western Dime Novels, May 1940).

Silver Buck is a Costumed Avenger Wanted Man. Dade Solo is the mysterious, masked vigilante “Silver Buck,” who rides from county to county across the American Southwest, capturing lawbreakers and leaving a silver dollar behind to mark his passing. Solo’s father had been a cattle baron, and his men had taught Solo many things. Because these men were card sharks, shootists, former prize fighters, and a Chinese cook, what Solo learned from them ranged from jiu-jitsu to prestidigitation to guitar playing. He went to work for a traveling carnival and rode in a Wild West Show and then, as an adult, returned to the ranch.

But no sooner does Solo arrive at the ranch than his father is killed by a crooked deputy sheriff, who then frames Solo for the murder. He escapes from jail, now with graying hair and a scar on the temples. He swears to have revenge on those “who done him wrong,” and puts on a rawhide mask to do so: “with the mask on, he looked like a desert-dried body, his eyes gleaming through the holes.” He always keeps a lockpick in his boot.

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