I enjoyed that Masked Rider novel by Donald Bayne Hobart I read recently enough to read another one. I don’t own the January 1944 issue of MASKED RIDER WESTERN, but I read it on the Internet Archive. (Actually, I read a downloaded PDF on my Kindle Fire. I’m not a fan of reading books or pulps on the computer.) I believe the cover is by George Gross.
The Masked Rider novel in this issue, “The Devil’s Range”, finds the Masked
Rider and Blue Hawk in South Dakota, which places the action after November 2,
1889, when Dakota Territory became the states of North and South Dakota. The
cattlemen in the area are being plagued by a gang of rustlers known as the
Black Band because of the black masks they wear. They’re also having trouble
with a price-gouging town boss who controls the flow of supplies in the area.
The Masked Rider and Blue Hawk operate separately for the most part in this
yarn. Blue Hawk trails the rustlers to locate their hideout and winds up in a
heap of trouble. The Masked Rider, in his Wayne Morgan identity, investigates
the crooked town boss and winds up infiltrating his gang—and pinning on a badge as
the local sheriff. It’s an odd role for the notorious Robin Hood Outlaw to
play, but Hobart spins the plot strands of this one very skillfully. While some
of it was pretty predictable, there are some twists that actually took me by
surprise, and that’s always a very welcome bonus. Hobart’s distinctive style
has really grown on me. He’s becoming one of my favorite Western pulp authors,
and “The Devil’s Range” is a very solid entry in a good series.
H.A. DeRosso has a well-deserved reputation among Western fans as being one of
the finest authors of Western noir stories and novels. His short story in this
issue, “Killers Also Die”, doesn’t really fit in that mold, although it does
have a hardboiled tone. It’s a more traditional tale about a young man seeking
vengeance on the man who murdered his father. However, things don’t turn out as
they first appear to be. What actually
happens is very predictable, making this a story in need of a twist that never
happens. It’s well-written, though, and an entertaining traditional Western
story, but not one you’d give to someone who’s never read DeRosso before as an
example of what he’s known for.
I’ve seen Clinton Daingerfield’s name in many Western pulp TOCs, but I don’t
recall ever reading anything by him until now. In his story “Lone Hand for
Liberty”, a young cowboy is framed for the murder of his wealthy cattleman
uncle. The protagonist stands to inherit the murdered man’s ranch, so he has a
good motive for murder and witnesses saw him clash with the older man, too.
Even though it’s pretty obvious what’s going on in this story, and one bit of
business requires a pretty big suspension of disbelief, Daingerfield keeps
things moving at a nice pace and I wound up enjoying the story quite a bit.
I’ve read a few stories by Mel Pitzer and thought they were okay. “Fangs of
Freedom” starts out as a humorous animal story, and I had my doubts about it. It
becomes more serious as it goes along. There’s a romance angle that would have
made it a good fit in RANCH ROMANCES, but it’s secondary to the story of a
collie being accused of turning into a cattle killer. Things come to a
satisfactory conclusion, making this a minor but reasonably entertaining yarn,
which seems to be a good description of everything I’ve read so far by Mel
Pitzer.
Stephen Payne was a prolific and widely respected Western pulp author. I have
one of his novels and several collections of his stories but haven’t read any
of them. I know his reputation, though, which is why I was pretty disappointed
in his novelette “Borrowed Hosses” in this issue. It's a slapstick comedy about
two cowboys named Bucko and Gumbo, in much the same vein as Syl McDowell’s Swap
and Whopper stories. (The illustration that goes with Payne’s story is by the
same artist who did the illustrations for McDowell’s series.) I thought this
one was just terrible and only made it a few pages before giving up. However,
it prompts me to want to read one of Payne’s more serious stories to see if I
like it better, or if he’s just one of those popular authors who don’t connect
with me for some reason.
Since most of the pages in this issue are given over to a good Masked Rider novel,
I have to say that I liked it overall, although none of the other stories are particularly
outstanding and there was the one I didn’t finish. I’ll probably read something
else by Donald Bayne Hobart in the near future, but maybe not another Masked
Rider novel so soon. I make no promises, though.
