I've always sort of felt that a magazine called REAL WESTERN should have been non-fiction, like TRUE WEST or FRONTIER TIMES. But no, although it published a few articles and features like most Western pulps, REAL WESTERN was almost entirely fictional. And despite coming from bottom-rung publisher Columbia, it had some good covers, like this one, and plenty of good authors in its pages. For example, in this issue, Gordon D. Shirreffs, Lauren Paine, Lon Williams (with one of his supernatural-themed Deputy Lee Winters yarns), Zachary Strong (probably E.B. Mann), and house-name Mat Rand.
4 comments:
I am reading (in some cases re-reading) Lee Winters stories. Years ago Larry Estep had, I think, all of them online. Sadly he and his website are long gone. The Winters stories are best one at a time but are great fun. I can’t imagine the reaction of a Western pulp reader casually coming across one of these.
The villains are so over the top that I picture late 60s Vincent Price playing most of them. And occasionally the stories are straight supernatural such as a gunfight with a trained ghost cat.
The story by G.D. Shirreffs ( One of the best of the lot and a personal friend of mine ) became the movie The Lonesome Trail (1955),
directed by Richard Bartlett and starringWayne Morris, John Agar and Edgar Buchanan.
Best,
Tiziano Agnelli
Spike,
There's a Wildside megapack of about two-thirds of the Winters stories. I have it, and also PDFs of the stories Larry had on his website, but I've never read any of them. I have to remedy that!
Tiziano,
I never met Gordon Shirreffs, but from everything I've heard about him, he was a great guy in addition to being a fine writer. Thanks for the info about the story in this issue. I've never seen THE LONESOME TRAIL.
I visited him (with two of my friends) in Grenada Hills down the S.Fernando Valley back in 1988 and he hosted the lot of us for some days.Truly a great guy and a man of spirit. I recommend reading his quadrilogy about the Kershaw saga, plus the Apache Hunter.
He died in 1998 and despite so many years passed I miss him very much.
Best,
Tiziano Agnelli
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