Saturday, August 23, 2014

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Triple-X Western, November 1931


I love the way the stampeding bull on this cover by Denton Clark seems to be looking right at the reader. That would have caught my eye for sure. So would the presence of a W.C. Tuttle yarn. Other authors in this issue whose names are at least somewhat familiar are Stephen Payne, Jay Lucas, and Carmony Gove. TRIPLE-X WESTERN, published by Fawcett, started out as a general adventure pulp called TRIPLE-X MAGAZINE but changed titles and focus from one month to the next in the spring of 1931, after which it ran for several more years.

3 comments:

Walker Martin said...

TRIPLE X was one of the better pulp titles and ran for several years and over 100 issues. But it is very hard to find nowadays and quite rare. You don't see many copies for sale at the pulp conventions.

David Lee Smith said...

As Walker said TRIPLE-X (WESTERN) MAGAZINE rarely shows up at conventions (never seen one at PULPFEST yet) or on eBay.

A smattering of 41 showed up on eBay in July, August and Dec. of 2013 and the ones in great condition went for tons of money at $150.00 and above. The lesser conditions still made a pretty penny ($25.00 for a beat copy to $100.00).

I only have 5 of the 103 issues of the title (all Rozen covers). For so many issues it sure is scarce now.
May 2012 I picked up my first, which was an April 1926 issue, with stories by the prolific Captain Dingle (a sea story, of course) and Arthur Guy Empty. Also a story about Buffalo Bill Cody by Cody's PR man, Frank Winch. At $76.55 I knew not too many would find their way into my collection.

From the grouping of 41 I managed to obtain just 4, but in the very best conditions. At the prices they went for I could only afford four, but I'm happy with those.

TRIPLE-X MAGAZINE - March 1930 sold for $76.00 with a cover by George Rozen (gangsters and plane;
"Mystery of the Scalping Blade" (Part 2 of 4) by Murray Leinster,
"The Flying Detective" by Thomson Burtis , "The Border Murder" by Raoul Whitfield;

TRIPLE-X MAGAZINE - April 1930 sold for $161.39 with cover by George Rozen (cowboy and gangsters);
"Mystery of the Scalping Blade" (Part 3 of 4) by Murray Leinster,
"The Man From Arizona" by H. Bedford-Jones,
"Galloping to Glory" by Arthur Guy Empey,
"The Border Sky-Jacker" by Thomson Burtis;

TRIPLE-X MAGAZINE - July 1930 sold for $141.39 with a cover by George Rozen (gansters in boat battle cops in patrol boat);
"Racketeer" (Part 1 of 4) by H. Bedford-Jones,
"The Great Air-Mail Robbery" (Part 3 0f 3) by Raoul Whitfield,
"To the Front in a Hearse" by Arthur Guy Empey,
"Gangsters of Water Street" by Lemuel De Bra,
"Brothers of the Sword" by Tom Roan; and

TRIPLE-X MAGAZINE - Aug. 1930 sold for $158.05 with another cover by George Rozen (Classic image of Black Clad, Masked Man on rearing brown horse, firing at another (villain ?), while still another cowboy is tied to a post. This was one of the very best covers),

"Racketeer" (Part 2 of 4) by H. Bedford-Jones,
"The Robbery at Coyote Ford" by J. Allan Dunn,
"Battling Buddies" by Arthur Guy Empey,
"The Wreck of the Jessamy" by Captain Dingle.

by J. Allan Dunn, "Battling Buddies" by Arthur Guy Empey, "The Wreck of the Jessamy" by Captain Dingle).

TRIPLE-X was a strange title as they combined the Westerns with Aviation stories. It even advertised for such stories in ad magazines, wanting "Cowboy westerns with an Aviation theme"; no as two separate stories are one would think.

ENJOY PULPS (& always the search) - David Lee SMith

Walker Martin said...

David missed this year's Pulpfest but my friend The Major found a copy of TRIPLE X at the convention. A very hard pulp to find but one that is worthwhile collecting. As David's list shows they are not inexpensive.