The problem is that the contents weren't supplied by Fawcett. At the time, Gabby was being drawn there by artists like Jack Binder and Leonard Frank. In the giveaway "Accidental Sherlock" (the first one scanned and put on the Internet so far) the art is definitely not from Fawcett. I'm not too good at distinguishing the relevant artists, but this is one of Western Publishing/Dell's--Mike Arens or such. (Can somebody with a better handle on those artists make an identification?)
It's the writing that jumped out at me, as it's by Western's major writer of 50s cowboys--Elizabeth Beecher. Working from just two of her known scripts--the Disney movie adaptations The Great Locomotive Chase and Westward Ho the Wagons--I find these items also in "Accidental Sherlock": "dad-ratted," "Humph," "o'" for "of," "Ooomph," "Wal, __," and "Ye-owww" (the spelling actually "Ye-ooow" in the Gabby story, but the hyphenization the same).
From other stories I've atributed to Beecher at Western: "B'gosh," "Gallopin' gophers," "H-e-l-p," "Leapin' lizards." The exclamations that made me say "Elizabeth Beecher!" as soon as I got that far into the Gabby Hayes comic are a horse going "Whuh-uh-huh" and "Whicker-er-ee." The easiest place to find horses (and dogs) with such catch phrases is Gene Autry's Champion. At Fawcett they don't say much more than "Gulp."
Since I wrote the above, two more of these Gabby Hayes giveaways have come online: "Double Cross Brand" and "Tracks of Guilt." The art is by other Western artists or the same artist. The writing is very probably Elizabeth Beecher's, but in these two stories there are no word balloons for horses that would make the attribution the slam dunk it is on "Accidental Sherlock."
