More proof, as if we needed it, of how dangerous it was to go to the barber shop in the Old West. I'm pretty sure this cover is by H.W. Scott, who did most of them for FIGHTING WESTERN during this era. Since this was a Trojan Publishing Corporation pulp, it's not surprising that a couple of the authors were also stalwart contributors to the Spicy/Speed pulps. E. Hoffmann Price is on hand with a Simon Bolivar Grimes story, and Victor Rousseau has two stories, one under his own name and one as by Lew Merrill. Prolific Western pulpster and genuine cowboy Chuck Martin is in these pages, too, and there's a Johnny Hardluck story by Branch Carter, apparently that author's real name. Who's Johnny Hardluck, you ask? I don't know since I've never read any of the stories about him, but Carter wrote nine Johnny Hardluck yarns, all of which appeared in 10 STORY WESTERN except this one, which happens to be the second in the series. I may have some of his 10 STORY WESTERN appearances; I'll have to check and see.
This is the first issue of LEADING WESTERN, a late entry in the Western pulp field from Trojan Publishing Corporation, the outfit behind the Spicy and Speed pulp imprints. I like the cover (I don't know the artist), and there's a strong line-up of authors inside. The lead novella is by L.P. Holmes, and also on hand are Giff Cheshire, Laurence Donovan, Victor Rousseau writing as Lew Merrill, and Tonto Green, author of only a handful of stories, all for the same publisher, which makes me think that might have been a pseudonym or house-name. Either way, the other authors in this issue are enough to make it worth reading.
Circus themes show up now and then on pulp covers. Here's one on an issue of SPEED ADVENTURE STORIES. This issue has a story by E. Hoffmann Price and three by Victor Rousseau: one under his most common pseudonym Lew Merrill, one as by Hugh Speer, and one as by R.T. Maynard (a reprint of a story previously published under the Lew Merrill name). The other story is by Robert Ahern, a little-known pulpster who published only a couple of dozen stories between the late Twenties and the mid-Forties.
The cover on this issue of FIGHTING WESTERN is just oddball enough that I really like it. Inside are stories by E. Hoffmann Price (one of his Simon Boliver Grimes series), Chuck Martin, Branch Carter, and two by Victor Rousseau, one under his own name and one as by Lew Merrill. This looks like a good issue of a generally underrated Western pulp.
