Saturday, April 13, 2019

Saturday Morning Bonus Pulp: Popular Western, January 1944


The cover of this issue of POPULAR WESTERN is further proof, as if we needed it, that every poker game in the Old West ended in a shootout or a brawl. I'm sure there are plenty of fisticuffs and gunplay in the stories inside, which are by Tom Gunn (actually Syl McDowell, in this case, with another Painted Post yarn featuring Sheriff Blue Steele), Gunnison Steele (Bennie Gardner), Laurence Donovan, Oscar J. Friend, and house-name Scott Carleton with a Buffalo Billy Bates story. I've always found POPULAR WESTERN to be a pretty good Western pulp, and I'm sure this issue is no exception.

2 comments:

Scott D. Parker said...

My historian eye zeroes in straight on the war bonds banner.

Sean McLachlan said...

From what I've read, a large percentage of Western gunfights involved either gambling or booze or both. Drinking and guns and losing at cards is a bad combination!