TOP-NOTCH, despite its name, definitely played second-fiddle to ARGOSY, ADVENTURE, BLUE BOOK, and SHORT STORIES when it comes to adventure pulps, but even so, it published some good fiction. I like the title "Fandango Island", Fred MacIsaac was a dependable author, and John Coughlin's cover illustrating the story is pretty good. Also in this issue are stories by Leslie McFarlane (ghost of the Hardy Boys!), Galen C. Colin, Lee Bond with a Western novelette under the house-name Tex Bradley, Kenneth Gilbert, Tom J. Hopkins, Ben Conlon with a serial installment under the house-name Ralph Boston, and a Zip Sawyer story by Reginald Barker writing as Vance Richardson (I have no idea who Zip Sawyer was; not a bad pulp character name, though). That's a solid enough line-up I suspect this was an entertaining issue.
This cowboy's got a lot of trouble coming at him in this cover by H.W. Scott for WESTERN STORY, the granddaddy of the Western pulp genre. Inside this issue is the novella featured on the cover, "Salinas Showdown" by Bennett Foster, plus other stories by Wayne D. Overholster, Gunnison Steele (Bennie Gardner), Hapsburg Liebe, Cliff Walters, and Kenneth Gilbert. That's a solid lineup of Western authors.
Looks like trouble's a-brewin' on the cover of this issue of WESTERN STORY. I don't know if that hombre is a good guy fortin' up against the bad guys, or if he's a dirty, lowdown bushwhacker, but either way, there's gonna be powder burnin' pretty quick-like. To pass the time until all hell breaks loose, though, that fella could read stories by Frederick Faust (a serial installment under the name George Owen Baxter), Kenneth Gilbert, Lloyd Eric Reeve, George Cory Franklin, Guthrie Brown, and Adolph Bennauer. Those last two names aren't familiar to me, but they must have been all right to sell to WESTERN STORY. This is a nice, evocative cover. I don't know the artist.
We have a good cover by H.W. Scott on this issue of WESTERN STORY, as usual during this era of the magazine's run. The lead novella is by Walt Coburn and has a long but interesting title, "Bullet Holes in the Plug Hat Range". Coburn was still at a stage in his career when he was doing excellent work, and the novellas he did for WESTERN STORY are some of his best. Also on hand in what looks like a top-notch issue are Seth Ranger (Frank Richardson Pierce), Philip Ketchum, Tom Roan, Bennett Foster, and Kenneth Gilbert.
