Saturday, March 26, 2011

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Dime Western, June 1944

This is certainly an odd cover, one of the few I've seen other than issues of MASKED RIDER WESTERN where a character is wearing a Lone Ranger-style mask.  And then there's the badge on the shirt underneath the torn shirt.  Really makes you want to find out what it's all about, doesn't it?  I'd say a cover like that has done its job.

5 comments:

Walker Martin said...

Another trademark feature for DIME WESTERN is the yellow background. If you were a steady customer for this title, all you had to do was look on the newstand for the eye catching cover and yellow color. STAR WESTERN which was Popular's other big selling western title used the color red as a background.

I've read that the Popular Publication offices had a newstand with the different Popular titles displayed each month. At a glance you could check out the current cover, etc.

Brian Busby said...

I wonder whether the yellow was inspired by Beadle's Dime Novels. Seems almost a safe bet.

Ron Scheer said...

Interesting early understanding of branding. Also, according to color research, information in yellow and black is supposed to stay longest in memory.

James Reasoner said...

10 STORY WESTERN had the yellow background on the cover, too. Actually, I've always preferred STAR WESTERN's red background, but obviously the yellow one worked for DIME and 10 STORY, because they were around for a long time.

Cap'n Bob said...

I love the money bag with the $50 label.