Saturday, March 20, 2021

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Lariat Story Magazine, May 1944


As usual with a Fiction House pulp, the cover of this issue of LARIAT STORY MAGAZINE features both exciting action and a pretty girl. I don't know who the artist was, but I think he did a good job. Inside are stories by top Western pulpsters Wayne D. Overholster, J.E. Grinstead, M. Howard Lane, and Curtis Bishop, as well as house-name John Starr (if I had to guess, I'd say Bishop, but that's purely a guess) and much-better-known-for-his-science-fiction Clifford D. Simak. I've read a few of Simak's Western stories and found them to be very good. I like the title of that John Starr yarn: "Six Sins in My Holster". The editor must not have been quite at the top of his game, though. That title really needs an exclamation mark at the end of it.

UPDATE: The cover art is by Norman Saunders, used originally on the October 1937 issue of ACTION STORIES. Thanks to Sheila Vanderbeek for the info!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know that John Starr is an house name but I wonder if this one is the same guy:

Catalogue of Copyright Entries 1969:
DANIELLE, Original Story by John Starr: Screen Adapation by Milton M. Schwarz & John Starr; 12B 1.
Copyright Milton M. Schwarz & John Star 19May69, DU 74547

John Starr, THE PURVEYOR, The Shocking Story of Today's Illicit Liquor Empire,
First Ed. Holt, Rinehart & Winston;
Copyright John Starr, 7Apr61, A501500

Best,
Tiziano Agnelli

James Reasoner said...

I kind of doubt that there's any connection, but in the writing business, you never know!