Desperado not surprisingly is spun off Crime Does Not Pay as an anthology of nothing but Wild West crime stories after CDNP ran them every so often. With #9 Desperado became the Western masked hero book Black Diamond Western.
In lieu of CDNP's Mr. Crime, the lead story of most issues of Desperado was narrated by an object--a gallows, a coin, a boot--long before that became a staple of the DC war books. Here a gun is narrating "Joe Slade" in #1.
Desperado Anthology Stories
Written by Robert Bernstein
| June/48 | 1 | Joe Slade |
| Sam Bass, the Cross Eyed Dead Shot | ||
| Aug/ | 2 | Teton Jackson |
| Sep/ | 3 | The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang and Its Leader "Kid" Curry |
| Crazy Sam Brown | ||
| Johnny Ringo | ||
| Oct/ | 4 | "Doc" Holliday |
| Wes Hardin | ||
| Nov/ | 5 | King Hunter, the Self-Proclaimed King |
| Clay Cottrell | ||
| "Rattlesnake Jake" Fallon | ||
| Bat Slater | ||
| Dec/ | 6 | Joe Bowler |
| Sheriff Ted Tucker | ||
| Burly Will Grady and His Band of Ruthless Rustlers | ||
| Jan/49 | 7 | One Man Against Two Armies |
| "Buckskin" Frank Combs | ||
| [WESTERN WHODUNNIT?] | ||
| Feb/ | 8 | Cesar Leporello and the Phony Diamond of the Rio Grande |
| Fools' Gold | ||
| Blind Man's Bluff |
