We've seen plenty of poker games interrupted by gunfights on Western pulp covers, of course, but as far as I recall, this is the first one I've run across where the same thing happens during a game of pool. This cover is by H.W. Scott, who did nearly all the covers for WESTERN STORY during this particular era. As usual, there are plenty of good authors inside including Harry Sinclair Drago, Cliff Farrell, Hugh B. Cave, Frank Richardson Pierce writing as Seth Ranger, James B. Hendryx, Lloyd Eric Reeve, and Russell A. Bankson. I don't own this issue, but it looks like a good one.
I don't own this one, but that's a heck of a cover and I'd read it if I had a copy. I don't know who did the art. Tom Lovell, maybe? But there's no doubt the line-up of authors is great: Walt Coburn, Harry F. Olmsted (three times, twice as himself and once with a Tensleep Maxon story as by Bart Cassidy), Ray Nafziger, Cliff Farrell, Robert E. Mahaffey, and Lloyd Eric Reeve. That's an All-Star bunch of Western pulpsters. And yet, it's just another issue of DIME WESTERN. What an era that was.
A poker game interrupted by gunplay and a good-looking, gun-toting redhead . . . Yep, that's got to be a Western pulp cover. The artist is probably Sidney Riesenberg. This issue of WESTERN NOVEL AND SHORT STORIES lives up to its name, as most of the pages are occupied by Clarence E. Mulford's novel HOPALONG CASSIDY RETURNS (actually a reprint from a 1923 issue of ARGOSY ALLSTORY WEEKLY). Backing up Hoppy are a couple of stories by Lloyd Eric Reeve and Samuel Taylor. I've read that Mulford novel in book form, but it's been so long ago I don't remember a thing about it.
We close out the year with a moody, evocative Sidney Riesenberg cover on the granddaddy of Western pulps, WESTERN STORY. I'm not a big Riesenberg fan, but I really like this one. You can feel that cold, rainy wind, and the blonde is impressive, no hat despite the weather and packing iron. The line-up of authors in this issue is, well, an undistinguished one. The best known are probably Art Lawson and Arthur Hawthorne Carhart, and neither of those guys are much remembered these days. Other authors on hand are John Dudley Phelps, Lloyd Eric Reeves, Eugene R. Dutcher, W.H.B. Kent, and Ray Humphreys. Lawson was usually worth reading, and I'll bet some of the other stories are good, too.
I don't know who did this cover, but dang, I like it! That hombre's gonna read 'em from the book, no doubt about it. There was a discussion about WALT COBURN'S WESTERN MAGAZINE earlier this week on the PulpMags email group, and that prompted me to take a look at the covers on that pulp and pick out one I like for this post. Seeing as how WALT COBURN'S WESTERN MAGAZINE was a reprint pulp, the editors had plenty of good stories to choose from. In this issue, we have a Walt Coburn novella, naturally, and also stories from Cliff Farrell, Ray Nafziger, Robert E. Mahaffey, Jay Lucas, and Lloyd Eric Reeve. That's a pretty good bunch of 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.
This cover has several of the things I love about Western pulp covers: a pretty girl, some action (there's gunsmoke coming from the muzzle of the cowboy's revolver), and great story titles. I want to read "Fugitive From Boothill's Ghost Legion". Better yet, I want to write that story! There are plenty of great authors in this issue of DIME WESTERN: Walt Coburn, Harry F. Olmsted, and Ray Nafziger are three of the top Western pulpsters, and backing them up are old pros Rolland Lynch, John G. Pearsol, and Lloyd Eric Reeve. I don't know the cover artist for sure, but I think it's Tom Lovell.
Also, I wanted to mention that I got curious and looked back to see if I could find when I started this series of posts. I had posted Western pulps covers before, but as far as I can tell, the first one that was called Saturday Morning Western Pulp was on February 5, 2011. I didn't realize I'd been doing it for that long. Since February 5 was last Wednesday, I'm going to count this as the ninth anniversary post. I've missed a weekend here and there, and it's possible I could have inadvertently posted the same cover more than once, but even so I figure I've posted more than 450 Western pulp covers in this series. Maybe I can remember and come up with a special tenth anniversary post next year, if I'm still at it (which I plan to be).
Oh, and the first Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp was June 10, 2012. I plan to mark that occasion, too.
