Saturday, March 31, 2018

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Real Western, November 1937


Did any stagecoaches in the Western pulps ever get where they were going without being attacked by bad guys? Judging by the covers, the answer is no. Here's more evidence on the cover of the November 1937 issue of REAL WESTERN. The art looks like the work of H.W. Scott to me, but I could be 'way off about that. Inside are stories by Eugene Cunningham, William Patterson White, Jack Bertin, and someone named Frank Cox, who published only a handful of stories in the late Thirties. Jack Bertin has an interesting background. According to the Fictionmags Index, his real name was Giovanni Bertignono. He published several dozen Westerns and a few detective and science fiction stories in the decade between 1928 and 1938. I seem to remember that he was also the uncle of the much more prolific Peter Germano, best remembered under the pseudonym Barry Cord, but I could be wrong about that. There's some connection, though, because Germano is credited with writing two science fiction novels in 1970 that were published under the name Jack Bertin, possibly based on outlines written by Bertignono. I have a copy of at least one of those and ought to read it.

3 comments:

Jim Griffin said...

It alwasy amazes me that 99% of the time the bae guys chased aftr the stagecoach, instead of just waiting in hiding, then riding out in front of it.

Sheila Vanderbeek said...

Pretty sure the cover is by: A. Leslie Ross

James Reasoner said...

Thanks! Artist identifications are usually a best guess situation with me. I often get mixed up between Ross, Scott, Tom Lovell, etc.