Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Action-Packed Western, September 1954

Action-packed, indeed. ACTION-PACKED WESTERN was one of the Columbia Publications pulps edited by Robert A.W. Lowndes on a very low budget. But he always got good writers despite the pay rates. This issue includes stories by Gordon D. Shirreffs, Seven Anderton, A.A. Baker, Gene Rodgers, and Lowndes himself writing under the name John Lackland. 

The Digest Enthusiast, Book Thirteen - Richard Krauss, ed.

The latest issue of THE DIGEST ENTHUSIAST is out, and even by the usual high standards, it's just packed with good stuff. Check out this line-up.

Interview with Analog and Asimov's Managing Editor: Emily Hockaday.

Peter Enfantino reviews Manhunt-1955 part one.

Jack Seabrook investigates the mysterious true crime reports of Leo Marr for Mystery Book Magazine. Gary Lovisi reveals the highly collectible digest paperbacks from Falcon Books.

Steve Carper uncovers the genre giants of Fantasy & Science Fiction Classics.

Vince Nowell, Sr. shines the spotlight on Robert A.W. Lowndes' reign of digests.

Catch up on breaking industry news-with cover previews-from the digest world's favorite editors, publishers, and writers.

New fiction by Richard Krauss, Robert Snashall, and Joe Wehrle, Jr. with artwork by Rick McCollum and Marc Myers.

Reviews of Switchblade No. 12, Sword & Sorcery Annual, Rock and a Hard Place No. 3, and Marilyn Monroe's digest cover trading cards.

Plus over 100 digest magazine covers in full color, first issue factoids, cartoons by Bob Vojtko, and more. Cover by Brian Buniak, 160 pages, published in full color by Larque Press.

I read it from cover to cover and enjoyed it, also as usual, but my favorites this time around are Peter Infantino's MANHUNT reviews, a great article by Gary Lovisi about Falcon Books (I used to have some of those books!), and Vince Nowell, Sr.'s article about Robert A.W. Lowndes. I find Lowndes' work very interesting, especially his long run as the editor of various pulp magazines (SF, mystery, and Western) where he had to work with very low budgets but consistently made something out of almost nothing. This article is about his equally impressive work as a digest magazine editor. I don't recall ever reading any of Lowndes' fiction, and I probably should remedy that. In the meantime, this latest issue of THE DIGEST ENTHUSIAST gets a very high recommendation from me. I really enjoyed it.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Famous Western, October 1949

That's a bright, eye-catching cover on this issue of FAMOUS WESTERN. Inside there's an interesting mix of authors, too, and a story title I really like, "The Buzzard Cheaters", by Allan K. Echols. Other authors with stories in this issue include A.A. Baker and Rex Whitechurch, house-names Mat Rand and Cliff Campbell, John Van Praag (who was really Scott Meredith, later famous as a literary agent), and John Lackland (who was really editor Robert W. Lowndes). Not exactly the first string when it comes to Western pulpsters, but I'll bet there are some entertaining stories in there.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Famous Western, April 1958

This digest issue of FAMOUS WESTERN has a Norman Saunders cover, although that doesn't really jump out at me as Saunders' work. The biggest names among the contributors, at least as far as Western pulpsters are concerned, are Roe Richmond and Wade Hamilton, who was really Lee Floren. The lead novel is by E.E. Clement, a pseudonym for editor Robert A.W. Lowndes. The other novel is by Jim Mac Collister, his only credit in the Fictionmags Index. I have to wonder if he was Lowndes, too. And then there's a story by an author who probably wasn't well-known at all to Western readers of the day: Harlan Ellison. I don't know if "The End of the Time of Leinard" is his only Western, but it's a pretty good one, as I recall. It was reprinted in the anthology WESTERYEAR, edited by Ed Gorman.

Now Available: The Digest Enthusiast, Book Five

A new volume of THE DIGEST ENTHUSIAST is out, which means plenty of good reading for fans of digest magazines such as myself. For me the highlights of Book Five are a lengthy interview with Bill Crider, my oldest friend in the writing business; Gary Lovisi's review of the fine noir novel HONKY TONK GIRL by Charles Beckman, Jr.; and a couple of articles/checklists by Peter Infantino, one covering the relatively obscure crime digest JUSTICE, the other an extensive look at a magazine I've read a great deal about but never seen, MAGAZINE OF HORROR, edited by Robert A.W. Lowndes. I've long been interested in Lowndes' ability to put out some pretty entertaing pulps on tiny budgets, and he did the same with this digest. There's also a summary by DIGEST ENTHUSIAST editor/publisher Richard Krauss of a 1949 WRITER'S YEARBOOK article by Lowndes about writing fiction for the pulps. Great stuff all around, and highly recommended.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Action-Packed Western, September 1954

That's a decent cover on this issue of ACTION-PACKED WESTERN, and you know any story by Gordon D. Shirreffs is going to be worth reading. Seven Anderton is supposed to be pretty good, too (he's one of the authors I have to get around to reading), and there are short stories by veteran Western writer A.A. Baker and editor Robert A.W. Lowndes under his John Lackland pseudonym.