With this really fun western cover, Rick Burchett becomes the second artist to create more than one Batom Comics cover. Truth be told, however, this is really more of a Rick Burchett cover than a Batom cover. When Rick and I were wrapping up the Moon Mile Meek cover, he asked about doing a western piece. I told him the the Arizona Ranger was the only western character I had and that Don Perlin had already drawn a great cover featuring him. That was when Rick suggested this cover. The Kid Kidd and a gunfight with a gorilla was too cool to pass up, so, even though it wasn’t one of my sixth grade characters, I green-lighted it. My contribution to this beauty was the star box with “The Kid battles the fallout from Radioactive Ranch”. I also shoehorned the Kid Kidd into the Batom Comics continuity by making him the Arizona Ranger when he was, well, a kid. And then Rick simply took the ball and knocked it out of the park. Sometimes it can be pretty cool to back off and let someone else (who’s really talented) play with your toys.
