Rockets and Range Riders (1957) comic books 1957

Richfield presents Rockets and Range Riders (1957) is an educational and promotional giveaway comic fully illustrated (cover and all interior art) by the legendary Alex Toth. Distributed by the Richfield Oil Company to promote Boron gasoline. A boy, his father, and his grandfather watch a rocket test in the American West. The boy tells Gramps how Boron makes rocket fuel more powerful. Gramps thinks Boron is some newfangled substance, but the boy tells him that it is element number five on the Atomic Scale, and that he has seen it before - as Borax. Gramps then tells the story of how he was a gold prospector in his youth. We see a great Western adventure sequence, with art similar to Toth's great work in the Zorro comic book. Gramps has finally found some gold nuggets, but two claim jumpers want to steal the claim from him. He barely gets away from the gunslingers. He is saved by a mule train carrying Borax, almost. The gunslingers find Grandpa, and he is wounded in a shootout. Unfortunately for Gramps, he loses his gold and ends up with a load of borax! Gramps' grandson relates that boron is considered as good as gold by many today. He tells Gramps all about the many uses of boron--in plastics, steel, medicine, agriculture, and rocket fuel! Then Dad tells Gramps and son how Boron is even more important as an additive for gasoline! We learn how Richfield makes a gasoline containing Boron. The back cover features a great ad for Richfield's Boron gasoline. The inside front cover shows a nice ad for Disney's Tomorrowland. 16 pages, full color, standard comic book dimensions, all newsprint, no cover price.