This isn't the short-lived but highly-regarded digest magazine GUNSMOKE, published in the Fifties by the same outfit that did MANHUNT, but rather the first issue of a pulp from Trojan Publications, publishers of SPICY WESTERN, SPEED WESTERN, and various other Western pulps. I have no idea how long it lasted, nor do I have any idea who these authors were: John R. Phillips, John Slater, Robert Flemings, Wallace Kayton, Luke Terry, and Joseph McKay. I'd be willing to bet that most, if not all, of them are pseudonyms, so there's no telling who the real authors are. But at least I've heard of the cover artist for this issue: George Rozen. And as always with Rozen, it's a pretty good cover.
7 comments:
James, you are so right about the digest GUNSMOKE. It only lasted two issues but was very interesting because of the unusual and different western fiction that it published. My theory is that because of this unusual approach western readers did not like the magazine and that is why it was a failure. I guess in the early 1950's most readers still wanted the same old western formula.
Getting back to the January 1947 issue, according to the pulp reference books, this was the only issue of GUNSMOKE WESTERN. However, there was an earlier GUNSMOKE WESTERN in the late thirties that lasted a few issues. Published by Manvis Publications(Red Circle), we are not even sure of the total number of issues.
So three GUNSMOKES. Unlike the TV show, they were not successful.
8 issues of "Gunsmoke Western" by Red Circle have been found.
Re "Gunsmoke Western" by Red Circle: 8 issues have been discovered.
Hello James,
to my knowledge are Luke Terry and Walter Kayton Pseudonyms of the same guy who wrote a lot of Spicys as Cary Moran, Dale Boyd a.s.o. As I know there's no trace who that guy really was. But he was very good in all what he wrote.
Best regards
Thomas Block
Would love to read through one of these.
Thomas,
Thanks for that info. I've read quite a few of the Cary Moran stories and enjoyed them.
I still suspect that the Flying Eagle GUNSMOKE digest was chased out of existence in part by some action by CBS...the well-established radio series as well as the nascent tv series were probably set to license any magazines they could. Two issues is a pretty quick kill even in tough times, and Flying Eagle was doing pretty well for itself.
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