Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Golden West Magazine, February 1937

That's a pretty graphic clinch for a Western romance pulp cover. It was painted by Harry Fisk, who did several dozen pulp covers and interior illustrations. I wasn't familiar with his name or work, but he seems to have been a decent artist. This incarnation of GOLDEN WEST MAGAZINE didn't last very long, only half a dozen issues in 1936 and '37. There's a later GOLDEN WEST ROMANCES from the Thrilling Group, but it also ran for only six issues in 1949 and '50. But to get back to this one, there are only four stories in it, three of them by fairly well-known Western authors: Charles M. Martin, W.D. Hoffman, and Kenneth Sinclair. The fourth story is by Lulita Crawford Pritchett, who published quite a few stories in RANCH ROMANCES among other Western romance pulps. I don't recall ever hearing of her, though. I was curious enough to do a little investigating and found that there's a website devoted to her and her work. Pretty interesting stuff, too. You never known what you're going to find when you start looking into the backgrounds of some of these pulp authors.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Slice of Hell - Mike Roscoe (John Roscoe and Mike Russo)

During the Fifties, following the huge success of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels, everybody was looking for more books in the same vein, including Spillane’s own publisher. Mike Roscoe contributed to the cause by writing five novels featuring tough Kansas City private eye Johnny April. One difference is that “Mike Roscoe” is actually a pseudonym for two real-life private investigators, John Roscoe and Mike Russo. And to me, “his” work seems to be influenced not so much by Spillane, but by the author some people consider an influence on Spillane as well: Carroll John Daly.

SLICE OF HELL is the first Mike Roscoe book I’ve read, although it’s the middle book in the series. In this one, Johnny April is hired to leave his usual Kansas City stomping grounds and go to San Francisco to investigate a crooked trucking company executive who’s rumored to be on the verge of expanding his operation to Kansas City. Since he’s going to San Francisco anyway, Johnny takes on another case that has come his way, a low-paying job for an elderly woman who wants him to arrange a funeral for a friend of hers who has just passed away.

Well, you don’t have to have read many of these books to know that those two cases are going to wind up being connected. The predictability of the plot is one of this book’s failings. So is the overall thinness of the story. And a lot of the tough guy dialogue doesn’t really resemble anything that might actually come out of a human mouth. “Mike Roscoe” has the same sort of tin ear for dialogue that could be found in much of Carroll John Daly’s work.

So why am I recommending this novel? Well, it’s written in an odd, punchy style that takes some getting used to but is very effective once you do. Even the stiff dialogue didn’t bother me as much after a while. And I wound up liking big, dumb Johnny April. (But, Lord, he really is dumb.) The authors keep the pace moving nicely. April has a touch of the same vigilante mentality as Race Williams, and there’s a scene that seems like a direct homage to one of Daly’s stories. Really, that’s a good yardstick. If you enjoy Carroll John Daly’s work, which I certainly do, then you’ll probably enjoy the Mike Roscoe novels, too.

(I'm a little surprised I haven't read any more of the Mike Roscoe books since this post first appeared in somewhat different form on February 6, 2009. Despite my quibbles about the plot, I seem to have liked it pretty well, and overall, I enjoy books with a distinctive voice. I'm pretty sure I own at least some of the other books in the Johnny April series, so maybe I'll dig out one of them. I'm kind of surprised they haven't been reprinted as e-books. By the way, that's a Robert Maguire cover on the Signet edition pictured above. Maguire did some great covers, and this one is very dramatic and eye-catching.)

Review: On the Dodge - D.B. Newton

Jim Bannister rides into the town of Antelope, Colorado, on the morning of the Fourth of July, but he’s not there to celebrate. Bannister is a fugitive from the law, the victim of an unjust murder conviction and a death sentence. But he escaped from jail and is now on a quest to clear his name, and there’s a chance that a man he hopes to find in Antelope can help with that goal.

Unfortunately, there’s a range war brewing in the area, and even though the town is full of Independence Day festivities, trouble is lurking right under the surface and quickly crops up, catching Bannister right in the middle of it.

I’ve been a fan of D.B. Newton’s Western novels for more than forty years. I first discovered them in the late Seventies when he was writing hardback Westerns for Doubleday’s Double D line under the pseudonym Dwight Bennett (his first and middle names, of course). It wasn’t long before I found out that he was also a prolific contributor to the Western pulps and even wrote a few of the Jim Hatfield novels in TEXAS RANGERS under the house-name Jackson Cole.

Eventually, when I became a writer myself, my first Westerns were entries in the Stagecoach Station series, which was created by D.B. Newton, who also wrote a number of them. I’ve always liked the fact that I shared a house-name with someone who wrote Jim Hatfield novels.

In the Sixties, Newton wrote an eight-book series for Berkley featuring a hero named Jim Bannister who was a fugitive from the law but not really an outlaw. ON THE DODGE is the first of those novels, all of which are in the process of being reprinted by Piccadilly Publishing. I just read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Newton drops the reader down at a point where all hell’s fixin’ to bust loose, and I always appreciate an author who doesn’t waste any time getting the story going. Newton is from the same school of Western writing as L.P. Holmes and T.T. Flynn. He uses traditional plots but elevates them to a higher level with fine writing, well-developed characters, and moral and emotional complexity. ON THE DODGE has a real air of Greek tragedy about it, along with plenty of action and a very human and likable protagonist.

I had a paperback copy of the Berkley edition of ON THE DODGE for many years but never got around to reading it. That’s a good thing in a way because now I can read the new editions as they come out from Piccadilly. This one is a superb hardboiled Western that’s available in e-book and paperback editions. It gets a high recommendation from me. 

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Clues Detective Stories, March 1941

I don't know who painted the cover on this issue of CLUES. It's okay, but I'm not overly impressed with it. However, I am impressed with the contents. There's a Race Williams novella by Carroll John Daly, a novelette by Norvell Page, and short stories by Lawrence Treat and Edward S. Aarons writing as Edward Ronns. That's a pretty good lineup!

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Texas Rangers, December 1945

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my brittle, battered, and tattered copy in the scan. The dramatic, eye-catching cover, as usual, is by Sam Cherry, who never painted a bad cover as far as I’m concerned, although of course I like some better than others.

The Jim Hatfield novel in this issue, “The Timber War”, has been attributed to Tom Curry, but I believe that’s incorrect. I’m convinced this one is actually by Leslie Scott. The terms “skalleyhooting” and “big skookum he-wolf”, common in his work, are used numerous times. There are quite a few vivid descriptive passages, although maybe not as many as you often find in a Scott novel. My theory is that Scott could always fill a few pages with description when he needed to, but also that whenever an editor needed to cut a few pages, those lengthy portraits of the landscape would be his first target. The plot, which finds a hidden criminal pitting two opposing forces—in this case, loggers and cowboys—against each other for his own benefit, is also classic Scott. To be fair, that’s a common Western plot no matter who the author is. I’ve written a few loggers vs. cowboys yarns myself. But this one, including the villain’s identity and the motivation for his scheming, is pure Scott and easy to see coming if you’ve read as many of his novels as I have. As further evidence, most of Curry’s Hatfield novels feature a proxy hero who winds up with the pretty girl. That happens in “The Timber War”, too, but it’s pretty much an afterthought, not a major part of the plot like it usually is with Curry. That’s my reasoning, but basically it boils down to knowing a Scott novel when I read one, and that’s what I think this is.

But is “The Timber War” any good, you ask? Oh, heck, yeah. Hatfield is sent to get to the bottom of the trouble brewing between Justin Flint’s logging crew and Clyde Cranley’s Double C ranch outfit. Sabotage has taken place on both sides. Tensions are running high and threaten to break out into open warfare. Hatfield gets ambushed a few times, helps out both sides, and figures out what’s really going on. There’s plenty of well-written action, and the pace never lets up for long. It’s formulaic, but nobody ever worked that formula better than Scott. I had a great time reading this, as I nearly always do with his work.

“Tenor on Horseback” is the only credit in the Fictionmags Index for Matt Sprague. Was that a pseudonym, or just the only story that Matt Sprague managed to sell? I don’t know, but I can say that this story about a couple of ranchers getting mixed up with an opera company touring the West is pretty polished and entertaining. It’s a humorous yarn without ever descending into slapstick, and there’s a nice twist at the end. I liked this one more than I expected to.

The issue wraps up with a story by an author I always expect to enjoy, Johnston McCulley. “Merry Christmas, Ranger” is about a Texas Ranger’s encounter with two outlaws when all he wants to do is make it home for Christmas so he can propose to the girl he wants to marry and then resign from the Rangers. The plot is pretty simple, but McCulley executes it very well and his fast-moving prose is always fun to read. The holiday is just a minor plot device; the story could have been written just as effectively without it. But the whole thing is enjoyable, and I’d say it’s another winner for McCulley.

This whole issue is a winner, in fact. All three stories are top-notch, and I greatly enjoyed reading this pulp. It’s well worth your time if you have a copy.

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope it's a great 250th anniversary of our country's founding for those of you in the United States, and a great day for those you elsewhere, as well. This is the Second July 1922 Number of SNAPPY STORIES with a cover by Carl Becker, an artist I'm not familiar with. I've never read or even seen an actual issue of SNAPPY STORIES as far as I recall, and the only authors whose names I recognize in this one are J.U. Giesy and C.S. Montanye. So it's not a pulp in which I have a particular interest except for the covers . . . and this one ain't bad. Again, Happy Fourth of July to one and all!  

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Way Station - Clifford D. Simak

Tucked away in an isolated corner of Wisconsin farmland is an old house that dates from before the Civil War, but it’s strangely unchanged in all that time. So is the man who lives there, Enoch Wallace, who fought with the Union Army in that conflict and is now still alive more than a hundred years later and apparently not much older than when he fought at Gettysburg. Enoch’s secret is that inside the house is an intergalactic transport apparatus, and he’s the keeper of Galactic Central’s way station on Earth.

That’s the set-up of Clifford D. Simak’s Hugo-winning novel WAY STATION, first published in 1963 and reprinted several times since. Simak was a veteran of the science fiction pulps dating back to before what’s now considered the Golden Age of those magazines, and as the pulps faded he made a seamless transition to writing well-received hardback SF novels. Although he wrote some Western stories for the pulps and later dabbled in fantasy novels as well, he’s best remembered for what some have called pastoral SF – stories and novels usually taking place in rural settings, with low-key, somewhat unsophisticated (at least on the surface) protagonists. WAY STATION fits neatly into that sub-category and may well be the best example of it I’ve encountered.

Simak was never a flashy writer. His prose style is functional and plain-spoken, like the people he writes about. In WAY STATION, the story unfolds in a gentle, leisurely fashion, with the main elements of the plot never really getting into gear until about halfway through the book. Most writers today couldn’t get away with that, but Simak makes it work. And once things do start rolling, the scope of the story rapidly expands, with the fate of entire galaxies ultimately at stake, even though all the action takes place here on Earth.

When I was younger, I read a number of Simak’s novels, and while I enjoyed them, he was never a particular favorite of mine. I think maybe I just wasn’t ready to appreciate his virtues. WAY STATION is a fine novel and has dated hardly at all. I plan to read more of his work soon.

(I swear, if I had the attention span even of a six-week-old puppy, I might be dangerous. Despite my good intentions, I haven't read anything else by Simak since this post first appeared on January 30, 2009. I still plan to one of these days, though. Bill Crider recommended CITY to me at least 40 years ago. I'll get to it.)

A Middle of the Night Music Post: Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet

I heard this song on the radio and was reminded of how much I like it, especially the intro. I had to look it up and was a little surprised to see that it came out in 2003. Seems like I've heard it around for longer than that. But I'm always glad to listen to it again.

Review: American Treasure Hunters #2: The Boston Tea Party Conspiracy - Andrew M. Dare

I really enjoyed the first book in the American Treasure Hunters series, THE HUNT FOR CONFEDERATE GOLD. The second book, THE BOSTON TEA PARTY CONSPIRACY, finds our three teenage heroes—brainy Ben Prescott, brawny Porter Rockwell, and jack-of-all-trades Latch McCrae—investigating another historical mystery. This time they’re trying to discover whether Samuel Adams had an ulterior motive for orchestrating the Boston Tea Party. Evidence has surfaced that Adams was really after some sort of treasure that may have been hidden among the tea, and striking a blow of American independence may not have been the reason he organized the Sons of Liberty.

So off go the trio of treasure hunters from their homes in North Carolina to Boston, where their investigation involves them with a tech mogul, a pretty history professor (there’s not even a hint of romance despite the fact that she’s only about ten years older than the guys, because these are very clean books), assorted bruisers who also believe there’s a treasure to be tracked down, some Freemasons, and at least one 250-year-old murder to be solved. Author Andrew M. Dare keeps the action racing along and also peels away the layers of the mystery in very satisfying fashion.

I think I enjoyed THE BOSTON TEA PARTY CONSPIRACY even more than the first book in the series. There’s more action as the boys find themselves up against some ruthless adversaries, and the historical mystery is intriguing and well-developed. I also liked the fact that all three of our heroes pitch in on the brain work. They’re all very likable guys. The large supporting cast from the first book is mostly absent this time around and I kind of missed them, but it was also nice seeing Ben, Porter, and Latch operating mostly on their own.

If you’re an old codger like me and grew up reading boy’s adventure series such as Rick Brant, the Hardy Boys, and the Three Investigators, the American Treasure Hunters series definitely should be on your radar. If you have young friends or relatives who are big readers, or even who aren’t, these books are aimed squarely at them. The hardcover edition of THE BOSTON TEA PARTY CONSPIRACY is already out, and the e-book edition will be released on July 7. I had a great time reading it and give it a high recommendation.

And next time around, the guys are headed for Texas and the Alamo. I can’t wait.

Review: The Case of the Lazy Lover - Erle Stanley Gardner

Erle Stanley Gardner is one of the authors I’ve been reading on a semi-regular basis for the longest time. It’s been more than sixty years since I checked out one of his Donald Lam and Bertha Cool novels from the bookmobile, and most of the years since then I’ve read at least one or two of his novels or collections.

Which brings us to THE CASE OF THE LAZY LOVER, a 1947 entry from Gardner’s Perry Mason series. As usual, this yarn gets off to a running start with Mason receiving two checks, both in the same amount but drawn on different banks, from a potential client. This puzzles Mason enough for him to do a little investigating, and he discovers fairly quickly that one of the checks is a forgery. Now he has to know why and what’s going on.

Well, also as usual, it ain’t simple. I learned a long time ago not to try to summarize the plots too much in these reviews of Gardner’s novels. They’re just too dizzying. This one involves mining claims (a favorite plot element of Gardner’s), double identities, seedy tourist courts in the mountains, a barking dog, and the old amnesia bit. And murder, of course. Got to have a murder. And naturally, Mason’s client is the one who’s arrested and charged with the crime, and for a change, it looks like he’s blundered and helped the police draw the noose even tighter around her neck!

A three-chapter-long courtroom scene forms the climax of this book, and with the able assistance of Della Street and Paul Drake, Mason saves his client and uncovers the real murderer . . . maybe. This is a rarity for Gardner, a novel in which the killer’s identity is left a little muddled. I think I know who it was, and I even figured out the most likely solution, also a rarity. But there’s no denying that the ending is a little unsatisfying.

On the other hand, Mason’s receptionist Gertie, who remains a cipher for much of the series, plays a major part in the plot of this one and turns out to be a real hoot and a great character. The long scene in which she’s involved is the high point of this book. Man, Gardner really should have made more use of her! Or maybe the fact that she hardly ever makes an appearance makes her more effective in this one, who knows.

THE CASE OF THE LAZY LOVER is a middling Perry Mason novel, to be honest, but that means it’s still more entertaining and downright fun to read than many of the current mystery novels I read (or try to read). If you’ve never read any of the series, I wouldn’t start with it, but if you’re already a long-time fan, like me, it’s well worth your time.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Summer 1944

Let's see, we have a beautiful space babe, a stalwart hero, a ray-gun, and an octopus-like alien. Man, I love Earle Bergey's covers. The lead novella in this issue of THRILLING WONDER STORIES is by Ross Rocklynne, an author I've always found to be pretty entertaining, although I haven't read a great deal of his work. Also on hand are two well-known names in the science fiction field, John Russell Fearn writing under his pseudonym Polton Cross and Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, as well as Paul S. Powers, much better remembered these days for his stories about Sonny Tabor and Kid Wolf in WILD WEST WEEKLY. Rounding out the issue are stories by the lesser known Albert De Pina and Frank Ferry, along with an article by my old editor/mentor Sam Merwin Jr. If you'd like to check out this issue, the whole thing can be found on-line at the Internet Archive.

Now Available: The Art of Ron Lesser, Volume 3: Wild, Wild Westerns - Robert Deis and Bill Cunningham, eds.

THE WEST WAS WILD!

And no one could visualize its raw, untamed fury and pioneer spirit like artist RON LESSER. From 1959 to today, Ron has painted hundreds of book covers, movie posters, advertisements and gallery artwork depicting the drama, the people, and the colorful vistas of the Old West.

In this 3rd volume of our The Art of Ron Lesser series we examine his portfolio of work in the Western genre illustrating some of the classics from writers like Luke Short, Louis L'Amour, John Benteen, J.T. Edson, and many more. This volume is a unique look into the life and work of an artist who had a powerful impact on our pulp culture, and framed how we look at that period of American history.

The Art of Ron Lesser Vol. 3: Wild, Wild, Westerns is a companion to Vol 1: Deadly Dames and Sexy Sirens and Vol. 2: Dangerous Dames and Cover Dolls. All three showcase and provide insight into the 65+ year career of the artist and his groundbreaking work within the art, publishing, advertising, and entertainment industries.

This 3rd volume feature 150 pages of full color artwork and commentary by one of the masters of the western genre. It is a unique art book of a unique artist.

(I'm extremely proud to be part of this project. It boggles my mind a little to look at all the cover images in this beautiful volume and realize how many great books I bought and read over the decades had covers by Ron Lesser. Being able to help pay tribute to him and his work is very gratifying. If you're also a Lesser fan or just a fan of iconic paperback art, this volume is available on Amazon or directly from the publisher.)

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Six-Gun Western, April 1950

We're still dealing with medical issues here, but I'm trying to get things back on track as much as I can. What better way than with a rather risque cover from a Trojan Western pulp? I feel like I should know who did the lurid artwork on this SIX-GUN WESTERN cover. Joe Szokoli, mebbe? I just don't know. The lead novella by E. Hoffmann Price is actually a reprint from the January 1939 issue of THRILLING ADVENTURES. Ray Gaulden, another consistently good writer, is also on hand, along with house-name Ralph Sedgwick Douglas, Frank Morris (who might well have been Mickey Spillane), and little-known Charles Getts and John White. I hope to read another Western pulp and write an actual review of it soon.

Review: Liberty and a Law Badge - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

For those of you who don’t know, prolific Western author and occasional commenter on this blog Chap O’Keefe is really Keith Chapman, who’s been writing and editing a wide variety of genre fiction in comics, magazines, and books for many years now, in addition to his work as a journalist. LIBERTY AND A LAW BADGE is another adventure of range detective Joshua Dillard, a former Pinkerton’s operative with tragedy in his past that drives him to fight outlaws of all stripes.

As the book opens, Dillard is on his way to his latest assignment, stopping a range war in Montana and finding out who’s been rustling cattle from his employer’s ranch. Pretty standard stuff, you say? Well, maybe at first glance, but not by the time Chapman gets through throwing twist after twist into the complex plot. The Liberty of the title is actually a young woman who’s been blackmailed into a sordid affair with a crooked sheriff, who’s the brother-in-law of the cattle baron who hired Dillard, who owns the cattle that Liberty’s husband is accused of stealing. Got that? Then there’s the cattle baron’s sister, who’s married to the crooked sheriff, and she goes on a rampage when she finds out about her husband’s adulterous affair with Liberty (said affair really being nothing more than a series of rapes). Add in a brutal deputy with an agenda of his own, and there’s a whole lot for Dillard to untangle before he can straighten everything out. Naturally, that untangling involves a number of fistfights and shootouts.

This book is a lot of fun, pulpish but with a sharp, contemporary edge. The dark, complex plot, the emotional angst, and the gritty storytelling remind me very much of many Westerns published in the Fifties by Gold Medal, by authors such as Lewis B. Patten, Dean Owen, and William Heuman. The pace is very fast, the action scenes are handled well, and Joshua Dillard is a very likable hero, tough and competent enough to handle just about any situation, despite his occasional self-doubts, but not a superman by any means. You can order LIBERTY AND A LAW BADGE here or at Amazon, and if you’re a fan of hardboiled action Westerns, I definitely think you’ll enjoy it.

(This review originally appeared in a somewhat different form on December 21, 2009. I'm rerunning it now because there's a brand-new edition of LIBERTY AND A LAW BADGE available with an entertaining bonus essay about how and why the book came to be written. You can order it at the links above, they're the current ones, and I can only second my own recommendation from 2009. It's an excellent Western action yarn.)

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: New Western Magazine, November 1952

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan. Like all the Western pulps from Popular Publications, NEW WESTERN MAGAZINE consistently delivered good authors and stories, and most of the covers were pretty good, too. I have no idea who painted this one. It’s not one of my favorites, but it’s certainly not bad.

I’m not sure why I haven’t read more by George C. Appell. Every story I’ve read by him was very good. I own several of his novels but haven’t gotten around to any of them. His novelette “Hired Gun!” leads off this issue, and it starts off as a very standard story about a gunfighter, in this case a Texan named Hayes Hockaday, going to work for a corrupt saloon owner/cattle baron but having second thoughts about it when he starts falling for a girl who works in the local mercantile. Appell has a very effective twist up his sleeve in this story, though, and he enlivens the plot with some gritty action scenes and some good descriptive writing. This is a top-notch yarn.

Leonard Huish published only three stories, according to the Fictionmags Index, and I don’t know a thing about him. “The Terror of El Toro Blanco” in this issue is a humorous story about a widow with an axe destroying the various saloons where her late husband quenched his thirst for tequila. El Toro Blanco is one of those saloons, located in a Texas border town. There’s also a bet between a couple of Mexicans with murder as the stakes. My tolerance for comedy Westerns is pretty low, as I’ve said many times, but this one isn’t bad. The author avoids goofy slapstick for the most part and even manages to strike a poignant note or two. This story surprised me by being worth reading.

When you see a story in a Western pulp bylined “Doc Winchester”, your first thought is that the name has to be a pseudonym or house-name. Mine certainly was. But that turns out not to be the case. The author of the novelette “Pit of the Living Dead” in this issue is actually Charles Ward “Doc” Winchester, born in Nebraska in 1888, who appears to have spent most of his life in Wyoming and then died in New Mexico in 1954. Other than that, I don’t know anything about him. Was he actually a doctor, or was that just a name he or someone else hung on him? If anyone knows I’d be happy to learn more. As for the story itself, which is the first one I’ve read by Doc Winchester, it’s about a couple of men doing some scouting, surveying, and mapping for the government who run into an archeologist and his beautiful daughter who claim to have found Cibola, the fabled lost city of gold. It’s an interesting plot, and there’s even a Lost Race to liven things up (I love me some Lost Race yarns), but the whole story is rather muddled and the prose just isn’t very good. I wanted to like this story just because it’s by somebody called Doc Winchester, but unfortunately, I didn’t.

Hascal Giles was a long-time newspaperman in Tennessee who wrote more than 60 stories for various Western pulps in the Forties and Fifties, including several Masked Rider and Range Riders novels. After retiring from newspaper work, he wrote several more novels published as paperback originals in the Nineties. I haven’t read much by him. His story in this issue, “Reunion in Blackjack”, finds two ex-cons, recently released from Yuma Prison, heading back to the town where they have a grudge against the sheriff. They have very different plans on how to proceed once they get there, however. This is a well-written story, and I admire the way Giles tries to give its resolution a fresh angle, but I’m not sure it really works. I really ought to read one or two of his novels, though.

Bruce Cassiday wrote dozens of Western and detective stories for the pulps in the Forties and Fifties, but I know him mainly for the many paperbacks he turned out later in his career. He wrote some of the Nick Carter, Killmaster novels, entries in the Phantom and Flash Gordon paperback series under the name Carson Bingham, and quite a few softcore novels, also under the Bingham name. His novelette in this issue “The Bigger They Are—” is interesting in its approach. For once, the point-of-view character is the bad guy, a cattle baron/town boss who brings in a town-taming lawman to enforce his will, only to have things not go the way he’s expecting. It’s kind of a gamble to tell a Western pulp story like this, but Cassiday makes it work for the most part with interesting characters and top-notch writing. I read some of his Carson Bingham books years ago and enjoyed them. He’s a mostly forgotten writer, but I think his work is worth reading. (Bold Venture Press has reprinted some of his mystery novels, and I really need to read them.)

“Nobody’s Pardner” by Stone Cody (Thomas E. Mount) is a reprint of a story published originally as “A Maverick Fights for a Brand” in the July 1937 issue of STAR WESTERN. Mount was a top-notch Western author who has become one of my favorites in recent years. This story is about a young tinhorn gambler who has to decide whether he wants to continue his shady ways or reform and make something of himself, even though the process is definitely a reluctant and unpleasant one. While not as good as Mount’s Silver Trent or Five Mavericks stories, this is a fine yarn that I really enjoyed.

This issue wraps up with a novelette, “Last of the Llano Kid!”, from another favorite, C. William Harrison. In this story, a bloody Texas feud reaches out with its violence all the way to Arizona, and as a result, an Arizona lawman trails a killer back to the Lone Star State for a showdown and gets involved with the fugitive’s beautiful sister along the way. This is a very good story marred only by an ending that’s not as dramatic as it could be.

In fact, several stories in this issue featured endings that were a bit of a letdown. I don’t know if this was something the editors at Popular Publications wanted in order to increase the realism of the stories, but if so, I’m not sure it worked. These are Western pulps! I want leather to be slapped and powder to be burned. Despite that, this is a decent issue of NEW WESTERN MAGAZINE. Not one to seek out, maybe, but worth reading if you have a copy.

Medical Matters

Posting here may be sporadic for a while due to some ongoing medical issues in the family. Not me, I'm pretty much fine, just busy dealing with real life. I looked around the hospital for Dr. Kildare and Dr. Gillespie while I was there and didn't see them anywhere. The pulp posts should return this weekend and with any luck I'll have a few book reviews coming up.

Review: Kruger's Korps - H.W. Crocker III

I’m just the right age to have been a big fan of the TV series THE RAT PATROL when I was a kid, and I read all the paperback tie-in novels based on the show, too. Plus, the first issue of SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS I bought brand-new off the spinner rack was #6, featuring the classic story “The Fangs of the Desert Fox”. Since those days, I’ve read a lot about the North African Campaign in World War II and have even written about it some in my series THE LAST GOOD WAR.

However, I’ve never read anything about it quite like H.W. Crocker III’s new novel KRUGER’S KORPS.

This yarn has a great set-up: Rolf Kruger, a young lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, looks enough like a German aristocrat and officer that he’s recruited into Wild Bill Donovan’s newly formed Office of Strategic Services and sent to North Africa to take the place of that German officer and infiltrate a special unit in the Afrika Korps. OSS spies have gotten wind of some top-secret German operation about to be launched, and they want to know what it is.

This plot strikes me as just the sort of thing you might find in a novel by Jack Higgins, Alistair Maclean, or W.E.B. Griffin, and for the first third or so, that’s what KRUGER’S KORPS reminds me of. But then Crocker veers off in another direction entirely, and wherever you might guess this novel is going . . . that ain’t it.

I can’t go into too much detail without ruining the surprises, but I will say that there are plenty of the things I love about World War II espionage novels: a stalwart but not infallible hero, some dastardly villains, murders, double-crosses, double identities, and of course, a beautiful woman who may or may not be trustworthy. Those elements are put in service of a plot reminiscent of those authors I mentioned above, but with a considerable amount of Sax Rohmer and Robert Kanigher thrown in.

This might be the first book of a series, or it might not be, but either way, KRUGER’S KORPS is a heck of a lot of fun, with plenty of action and a surprising amount of wry humor. Crocker is known primarily for his non-fiction books about war, leadership, and religion, but he’s written several novels as well, including a series of alternate history adventures starring George Armstrong Custer. I think I’m going to have to check those out. KRUGER’S KORPS is available on Amazon in hardcover and e-book editions.

Review: A Rage of Desire - Clayton Matthews

We’ve all encountered guys like Mitch Sutton in noir novels before, but there are some important differences in Mitch’s character, too. He doesn’t have a great job—he’s a used car salesman in Los Angeles—but he’s good at it and enjoys the work. He’s not exactly trapped in a loveless marriage—he genuinely cares for his wife and their twins—but there’s definitely a spark that’s missing, too. One day, when Mitch drops into a neighborhood bar for his usual beer on the way home from work, that lack prompts him to take a drink of hard liquor instead—and Mitch can’t handle the hard stuff. He knows that, but he gets drunk anyway and picks up a woman at the bar who turns out to be a high-class prostitute. Things don’t work out between them, though, because Mitch is too drunk.

He would have been luckier if things had stayed that way.

But no, the woman winds up marrying Mitch’s boss, but Mitch falls hard for her anyway, leading to a torrid affair that, sure enough, winds up with somebody dead and a murder charge hanging over Mitch’s head.

A RAGE OF DESIRE is the latest reprint from Black Gat Books. Originally published as a paperback original by Monarch Books in 1960, with a cover by Harry Barton, it’s the first novel by Clayton Matthews, who went on to a career as a prolific paperbacker over the next three decades. I’ve read a couple of other novels by Matthews, and this one is very similar, utilizing the sort of crime and noir elements we’ve seen in scores of novels but changing things up enough that the books also work as domestic dramas. Matthews was a very good writer and had that paperbacker’s knack of keeping the reader turning the pages.

Over the years, Matthews wrote Westerns, family sagas, romantic suspense, and traditional mysteries. In the early Seventies, he married author Patty Brisco, and together they produced a bunch of bestselling historical romance novels under the name Patricia Matthews. This is hearsay, or gossip, if you will, but I was told by a mutual writer friend that Clayton Matthews did nearly all the writing on those romance novels published under his wife’s name, in addition to the ones that were credited collaborations. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but the person who told me that was in a position to know.

And speaking of mutual friends, Clayton Matthews was also the cousin of my long-time friend Tom Johnson, who was one of the leading figures in pulp fandom for many years. He always referred to Matthews as “Matt” and told me that some of Matthews’ family sagas set in Texas were based on actual people and incidents. Again, I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s certainly plausible enough.

A RAGE OF DESIRE may have been Matthews’ first novel, but it’s a polished debut, no doubt about that. It’s not as hardboiled as some, but it has a gritty edge and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This novel is available on Amazon in paperback and e-book editions, and I think it’s well worth reading.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Short Stories, May 25, 1942

I don’t have this issue of SHORT STORIES, and I’m not particularly fond of that Pete Kuhlhoff cover, but Wildside Press just reprinted the lead novella, “Master of Dragons” by E. Hoffmann Price in paperback and e-book editions, and since I just read it, I want to write about it.

Price is a long-time favorite of mine. Some of his stories are better than others, of course, but it seems like he always brought a solid effort to everything he wrote, no matter what the genre or market. Many years ago I got my hands on a copy of FAR LANDS, OTHER DAYS, a massive collection of his adventure stories from various pulps, and I absolutely loved it. I own a copy of that volume now, and I ought to reread it one of these days.

In the meantime, “Master of Dragons” is a World War II espionage yarn. Naval intelligence agent Gil Jordan undergoes plastic surgery to make him look like a shady Australian who may be working as a spy for the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies in the days shortly before Pearl Harbor. When the man is murdered, Jordan takes his place and finds himself up to his neck in a dangerous investigation involving a Japanese society of assassins, a beautiful and mysterious blonde who can’t be trusted, hidden airfields, and a date with a firing squad. Price keeps things moving along briskly, and although there are definitely some pulpish elements, this reads a little more like a serious espionage story of the type that would become more prevalent in the Fifties and Sixties.

I have a strong hunch that it was written a short time before Pearl Harbor, when people suspected the Japanese were about to do something but weren’t sure what, and then the ending was revised before the story was published in May 1942. But like I said, that’s just a hunch. Either way, it’s a good story and I enjoyed it.

Elsewhere in this issue, there’s a really strong line-up of authors, including H. Bedford-Jones, Day Keene, William MacLeod Raine, Caddo Cameron, Robert R. Mill, S. Omar Barker, H.S.M. Kemp, and Phil Richards. SHORT STORIES was a consistently top-notch adventure pulp and this appears to be an above-average issue.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Max Brand's Western Magazine, October 1950

MAX BRAND'S WESTERN MAGAZINE was a reprint pulp, but it had new covers including this dandy one by Norman Saunders. Once again, trouble has reared its ugly head at an Old West poker game! MAX BRAND'S WESTERN MAGAZINE usually included a story by Max Brand, naturally, but not this time around. The stories are reprints from various 1920s and '30s issues of ARGOSY and ARGOSY ALL-STORY WEEKLY. The best-known authors are Bennett Foster and Kenneth Perkins. Also on hard are Christopher B. Booth and Carroll Lichty, neither of whom is familiar to me. Even though the stories are reprints, chances are few if any of the readers of this pulp had read them in their original appearances, so they probably got their quarter's worth.

Review: Boss of the Chisholm Trail - Guy L. Maynard

Guy L. Maynard wrote thirteen stories starring red-headed, gunslinging trail boss Flame Burns for the pulp WILD WEST WEEKLY in 1936, ’37, and ’38. But Flame also starred in BOSS OF THE CHISHOLM TRAIL, a Big Little Book published in 1939. Most of you are probably familiar with Big Little Books, those small, thick, chunky juvenile novels that featured text on the left-hand pages and illustrations on the right-hand pages. That wasn’t always the case—there are a couple of places in this book where text appears on both pages—but for the most part the books are about half as long as they appear to be, and the print is pretty big, so BOSS OF THE CHISHOLM TRAIL is more of a novella than a novel.

The question is, did Maynard adapt it from any of his Flame Burns stories in WILD WEST WEEKLY? That certainly seems possible. Most of the Flame Burns pulp stories also feature Billy the Kid as a character, and in BOSS OF THE CHISHOLM TRAIL, Flame meets Billy for the first time, suggesting that this Big Little Book may have been taken from “Trail Pardners”, Flame’s debut novelette in the February 29, 1936 issue of WILD WEST WEEKLY. Not having a copy of that issue, I can’t check for sure.

But what about BOSS OF THE CHISHOLM TRAIL, you ask? Is it any good? Well, I enjoyed it quite a bit, for whatever that’s worth. As the book opens, Flame has just arrived in Santa Fe with a trail herd he had to take over and bring in when the regular trail boss was killed. This is the first time Flame has acted as trail boss, but it won’t be the last. He soon meets the famous rancher known as “Old Man” Chisholm, whose bodyguard and closest ally is Billy the Kid. Chisholm hires Flame to ramrod a trail drive from the Texas Panhandle to Abilene.

This is as good a place as any to mention that Maynard totally mixes up Jesse Chisholm, who laid out the route that came to be known as the Chisholm Trail, and John Chisum, the New Mexico rancher who was both friend and enemy to Billy the Kid at different times. However, is strict historical accuracy all that important in a book like this? Probably not.

Flame sets out to deliver Chisholm’s cattle to Abilene, but trouble lurks along the way in the person of the evil Whiskey Dick Slavens and his gang of rustlers. Flame has a personal run-in with Slavens even before leaving Santa Fe, so the varmint has a grudge against our hero to start with. Stampedes and gunfights ensue as Flame tries to meet the challenges of his first real job as a trail boss.

Despite being aimed at a juvenile audience, BOSS OF THE CHISHOLM TRAIL is no namby-pamby, “nobody dies” kid’s book. On the contrary, guns blaze a lot, and hombres both good and bad get ventilated on a regular basis. The violence may have been toned down a little, but this is a pretty hardboiled yarn. Obviously, kids in the Thirties were expected to be tough enough to take it. The story races along and comes to a satisfying conclusion.

My copy is missing the spine and is in fairly rough shape, but the text is all there and easy to read. The cover is truly ugly. The interior illustrations are by Ralph Hitchcock, and while most of them are pretty crude, some are not bad and do a good job of capturing the action. I’m not a collector or a regular reader of Big Little Books, although I read a lot of them as a kid when they were easier to find. But when one comes my way, I’m not going to hesitate to pick it up if it looks interesting.

I had read one of the later Flame Burns stories in WILD WEST WEEKLY and thought it was okay but nothing more than that. I think I actually enjoyed this version more. It’s an oddity, sure, but an entertaining one.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Duke (2020)

The last time I did a movie post, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a film called THE DUCHESS. So what movie am I writing about today? THE DUKE, of course. Purely a coincidence, and other than both films being British, they couldn’t be more different.

THE DUKE is set in 1961 and is about an older Englishman who’s a failed playwright and has a hard time holding down a job. His long-suffering wife works as a maid to keep the family together. One son works building boats, and the other is a criminal. All the old guy wants to do is watch TV, but the British government requires people to buy a license to own a television, and as a matter of principle, our protagonist won’t pay it. (Wait, you have to buy a license to watch TV? That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!)

Anyway, the British government is really proud of a portrait of the Duke of Wellington painted by Goya that they’ve just bought to keep it out of the hands of an uncouth American, so our rabble-rousing protagonist steals it from the museum where it’s being displayed and holds it for ransom to raise money to buy TV licenses for elderly people and war veterans. A heartwarming mix of comedy and drama ensues, and as a bonus, not everything turns out to be as it appears at first.

Despite my rather snarky tone above, THE DUKE is a wonderful movie that took me completely by surprise. It’s based on a true story, and it has great characters, nice plot twists, and top-notch acting all around led by Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren as the husband and wife. I really enjoyed this movie. Nothing flashy, no pyrotechnics or special effects, just a solid story well told. Highly recommended.

Now Available: Johnny Colt #2: No Tears in Hell

The second exciting adventure in a brand new Western series from James Reasoner!

The path to justice winds through the Gateway to Hell. Fourteen soldiers are dead, the shipment of rifles they were guarding is gone, and those responsible are hiding behind whiskey, cards, and dirty money. Johnny Colt arrives in Harker City, where nobody asks too many questions—unless they're prepared to pay for the answer. He is supposed to track down the killers and uncover the truth, but first, he needs to make them believe he is one of them.

Every man he meets seems meaner than the last, and a knife might be hiding behind every pretty smile in town. No Tears in Hell is a gritty Western about stolen guns, border bloodshed, and a Texas Ranger risking everything under an outlaw’s name. On the border, the truth often comes out with a gunshot!

(I realize I'm hardly an unbiased observer here, but I think this novel is a really good Western yarn with lots of interesting characters and plenty of fast-paced action. I had a great time writing it, and I hope many of you will have a great time reading it. It's available now on Amazon in very affordable e-book and paperback editions. I don't promote my stuff often, but if you've been thinking about buying this one, today would be a great day to do it. Release day sales always bump up the Amazon rankings, which help a lot.)

Review: Ezra Flint, U.S. Marshal: Gunfighter's Grave - Paul L. Thompson and Scott McCrea

I read one of Scott McCrea’s Ezra Flint novels a while back and enjoyed it quite a bit, so I wanted to try another book in the series. The most recent one, GUNFIGHTER’S GRAVE, finds Flint teaming up with another U.S. Marshal, Shorty Thompson, the star of his own series of novels from Paul L. Thompson, who collaborates with McCrea on this novel.

The pair of lawmen prove to be a very potent duo as they set out on the trail of a man who just may be Billy the Kid, although as far as the world knows, the notorious outlaw is dead, gunned down in New Mexico by Pat Garrett. Flint and Shorty, who are old friends, are out to rescue a young woman they both consider a niece/little sister, who has recently married this mysterious stranger who may be one of the West’s most deadly killers.

Thompson and McCrea spin a really entertaining yarn in GUNFIGHTER’S GRAVE, a story that brings in historical characters such as Dirty Dave Rudabaugh and Pat Garrett himself, retired now from being a lawman. The plot and the writing remind me a little of Bob Randisi’s long-running and legendary series The Gunsmith as the book races along in a blend of Old West history and fictional action.

What really makes GUNFIGHTER’S GRAVE stand out, though, are the characters, especially the two protagonists. I already knew I liked Ezra Flint, a brooding, stoic philosopher who enforces the law while quoting Marcus Aurelius. He always puts me in mind of John Carradine. I hadn’t encountered Shorty Thompson before, but I’m glad I have now. Small in stature but mighty tough and feisty, he reminds me of a young Bob Steele. What a great series of B-Westerns those would have been, had these books been written ninety years ago.

You can count me as a fan of both series now, and I definitely plan to read more. In the meantime, if you enjoy gritty, fast-paced Western action, I think GUNFIGHTER’S GRAVE is well worth reading. It’s available on Amazon from Dusty Saddle Productions in e-book and paperback editions.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Mammoth Mystery, January 1946

MAMMOTH MYSTERY was a fairly short-lived pulp from Ziff-Davis that put out only a dozen issues in 1945, '46, and '47. The first issue truly was mammoth at 276 pages, but by the second issue--this one--it had shrunk to 178 pages, still pretty hefty by pulp standards. This cover is by an artist named Richard R. Epperly, who's not familiar to me at all. Pretty nice back on that lady, though. The lead novel is by Bruno Fischer, an author whose work I've enjoyed quite a bit. I need to read more by him. Also on hand are Larry Holden (actually Lorenz Heller, many of whose novels have been reprinted by Stark House in recent years), Z-D regular Chester S. Geier, and lesser-known authors Phyllis Dayton and A. Boyd Correll. If you want to check out this issue, a PDF of it can be found here.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Wild West Weekly, March 12, 1938

I don’t own this pulp, but thanks to the kindness of my friend Cullen Gallagher, I was able to read a PDF of its lead novelette, “Feud of the Haunted Corral”, featuring T.W. Ford’s best-known series character Solo Strant, also known as the Silver Kid. The cover on this issue of WILD WEST WEEKLY is by H.W. Scott, and it’s an excellent illustration of the Silver Kid in action.

Solo Strant is a drifting gunfighter. He doesn’t hire out his gun, but he’s quick to pitch in when he sees someone being taken advantage of or an innocent person being threatened. As this yarn opens, that’s what happens when a gang of gun-wolves attacks a small ranch. Solo rides to the rescue, but as it turns out, he may not have done the right thing after all, since it looks like the rancher he rescued may be a murderer!

That’s the first mistake Solo makes in this story, but it’s not the last one. In fact, he seems uncharacteristically prone to making the wrong decisions. But that may have something to do with the extremely complicated plot Ford comes up with, which deals with a generations-long feud between two ranching families, assorted murders, mistaken identities, and the Haunted Corral, which is not a corral at all but rather an area of badlands where folks go in, but they seldom come out alive. The whole “shadow of the past” element in this novelette reminds me of many of Walt Coburn’s novels and stories.

“Feud of the Haunted Corral” is a fast-moving, entertaining story. Solo Strant is a likable protagonist, and I’ve enjoyed every story I’ve read about him. It’s pretty easy to spot the evil mastermind in this one, but that doesn’t take away from the pleasure of reading it. My thanks to Cullen for making that possible.

Elsewhere in this issue are stories by a number of WILD WEST WEEKLY stalwarts. Norman W. Hay, writing under the house-name William A. Todd, contributes a Risky McKee yarn. (All the Risky McKee stories are by Hay, and while William A. Todd is considered a house-name, it’s possible Hay wrote everything under that by-line. We’ll probably never know for sure.) There’s a Calamity Boggs story by Lee Bond. Guy L. Maynard pitches in with a Reckless Blaine story. (There are six Reckless Blaine stories, published in six consecutive issues of WILD WEST WEEKLY. I’d be surprised if Maynard didn’t cobble them together into a fix-up novel, but if he did, I can’t find any record of it.) J. Allan Dunn, Charles M. Martin, and Carl Raht contribute stand-alone stories. This appears to be a very good issue of one of my favorite Western pulps.

Review: Chainlink - Owen Evens (Dudley Dean McGaughey)

A friend of mine recommended this Western novel, so I hunted up a copy and read it. The author, Owen Evens, was actually Dudley Dean McGaughey, one of my favorite hardboiled Western writers, best known under his pseudonym Dean Owen. He also wrote as Dudley Dean, Owen Dudley, Dean McCoy, and Hodge Evens. As far as I know, CHAINLINK is the only novel on which he used the name Owen Evens. It was published as a paperback original by Ballantine in 1957 with a good cover by Mel Crair.

Purely coincidentally, this is the second novel I’ve read this month in which a ranch is named Chainlink. The other was in T.V. Olsen’s RUN TO THE MOUNTAIN. And like the Olsen novel, this CHAINLINK is pretty bleak and grim. In the days following the Civil War, former Union officer Griff Jordan returns to the Big Bend in Texas as the partner of former Confederate Major Milo Clay, who has just bought the Chainlink ranch.

Chainlink formerly belonged to brother and sister Clyde and Lisa Benbow. Clyde has vowed to reclaim the ranch, no matter what it takes, and he’s willing to kill to accomplish that goal. Making him an even more despicable villain, he has feelings for Lisa that are anything but brotherly. Also complicating matters is Major Clay’s niece Maydelle, who’s become the madam of the local whorehouse after being seduced by Clyde Benbow when she was sixteen. And no one in the area knows that Griff fought for the Union despite being a Texan, a secret that would cause plenty of trouble if it ever came out.

It’s a set-up that’s ripe for violence, angst, lust, and tragedy, and McGaughey provides plenty of all of those as Clyde Benbow sets out to take over Chainlink again. But Griff is plenty tough and fast on the draw, so he’s well-matched in this clash with the brutal Benbow and his minions. There’s plenty of gritty action, and as in Roe Richmond’s MONTANA BAD MAN, which I wrote about last week, the sexual elements are surprisingly graphic for a paperback Western published in 1957.

McGaughey was an excellent writer, able to spin a yarn with a relentless pace and interesting, if not always likable, characters. CHAINLINK is a fine example of his work. There was a large print edition in 2001, but other than that it hasn’t been reprinted. Reasonably priced copies of both editions can be found on-line. If you’re a fan of hardboiled Westerns, I recommend it and any of the other books by McGaughey, under all his pseudonyms.

Review: The Long Vendetta - Clifton Adams

Buck Coyle is a former race car driver, a World War II vet who was the commander of a tank crew, and the owner of a successful body shop and garage in a small city. He’s a widower, his wife (also a race car driver) having been killed in a crash on the track a year earlier. But he has his successful business and a beautiful new girlfriend he intends to propose to. It’s a pretty good life.

Until somebody hires a hit man to kill Buck.

That’s the setup of THE LONG VENDETTA by Clifton Adams, the second book in the recent double volume from Stark House reprinting two of Adams’ crime novels. From there it’s full-tilt suspense and action as Buck, who is also the narrator of this novel, tries to discover who wants him dead. Sometimes he works with the police lieutenant assigned to the case, but at times, circumstances force Buck to strike out on his own. One thing is pretty sure: the origins of this vendetta go all the way back to the war and a tragedy that occurred during that conflict. Will Buck figure out what’s going on, though, in time to save his life and the life of his girlfriend?

THE LONG VENDETTA was published originally in hardcover by Avalon Books in 1963 under the pseudonym Jonathan Gant. Adams, who is one of my favorite Western authors, wrote only five crime novels, and Stark House has now reprinted all of them. This one is a great yarn with a likable protagonist. It barrels along to a final showdown that features some real white-knuckle writing from Adams. His background serving in the Tank Corps in both North Africa and Europe gives the story a gritty authenticity. For what it's worth, I figured out the big twist before the end, but it took me a while.

This edition features a fine introduction by Eric Compton, as I mentioned when I reviewed the other novel included in it, THE VERY WICKED, and that intro just makes this volume even more worthwhile. It’s available in e-book and paperback editions on Amazon, and I think it’s excellent and well worth reading.

Memorial Day

Many of the pulps had military-themed covers during World War II, such as this one by Rafael De Soto, and some of the stories in this issue of ARGOSY are war-related, too, judging by their titles: "Armchair Admiral No. 2" by Fletcher Pratt, "WACS, Macs and Warlocks" by Theodore Roscoe, "Always Victorious" by Jacland Marmur, "Red Sun Over Bengal" by Kenneth Perkins, "Flight to Nowhere" by Leslie T. White, "Hell Afloat" by Eustace L. Adams, and "Somali Contraband" by E. Hoffmann Price. I don't own this issue, so I can't check those stories to make sure they're actually war yarns, but they sound like it. I'm old enough to remember when Memorial Day was on May 31, no matter what day of the week it fell on, but I don't want to be too much of a curmudgeon and complain about how they've gone to moving holidays around.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: North-West Romances, Summer 1941

Nothing like a Norman Saunders cover on an issue of NORTH-WEST ROMANCES. The two go together perfectly. This issue features a story by one of my favorite authors, Frederick Nebel (a reprint from a 1932 issue of ACTION STORIES), as well as yarns by William Byron Mowery, Ralph R. Perry, Owen Finbar (who was really A. DeHerries Smith, who wrote a lot of stories for the Northerns under his own name), Dan O'Rourke (who was also A. DeHerries Smith), Reg Dinsmore, Evan M. Post, and house-name John Starr (quite possibly A. DeHerries Smith, too). I love Northerns and ought to read more of them.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: .44 Western Magazine, February 1941

This fine cover by Albin Henning is another prime example of how you couldn't sit down to enjoy a game of poker in the Old West without a gunfight breaking out. The hombre swinging in on a rope with his gun blazing is a nice twist, though. Some good authors are on hand in this issue of .44 WESTERN MAGAZINE: Stone Cody (Thomas E. Mount), John G. Pearsol, Eli Colter, J.E. Grinstead, Ralph Berard (Victor H. White), and the lesser known Archie Giddings and Jay A. Constant, whose story in this issue is his only credit in the Fictionmags Index.