Saturday Morning Western Pulp: The Rio Kid Western, September 1951

I was reading quite a few pulps earlier this year, but I got covered up with other things and sidetracked from them for a while. I plan to read more of them between now and the end of the year, and the September 1951 issue of THE RIO KID WESTERN is a good place to start. That’s my battered, stained, spine-rolled copy in the scan. I’ll put a better scan from the Fictionmags Index at the bottom of the post, but I like to show you the actual copy I read whenever I can. I’m pretty sure the cover art is by George Rozen.

The Rio Kid has long been one of my favorite Western pulp series. For those of you unfamiliar with the character, the Rio Kid is Bob Pryor, a stalwart young Texan from the border country (hence his nickname). Pryor fought for the Union during the Civil War and rose to the rank of captain as a cavalry officer serving under General George Armstrong Custer. Returning to Texas after the war, he found that his parents have been killed by bandits. After avenging them, he sets off on a life of drifting and adventuring, accompanied by a sidekick he picks up in the course of the first novel, the dashing young Mexican Celestino Mireles. The gimmick of the series is that Pryor and Celestino always find themselves involved with historical characters and settings in adventures that, if they didn’t happen, could have—and should have. The series was created by veteran pulpster Tom Curry, written by Curry and numerous others, and ran for 76 issues from December 1939 to May 1953. Quite a few of the novels were reprinted in paperback during the Sixties and Seventies by Popular Library and Curtis Books.

The Rio Kid novel in this particular issue was written by D.B. Newton, who authored a few of these pulp character novels but is better remembered for his non-series Western pulp stories and a long career turning out hardback and paperback Western novels under his own name and the pseudonyms Dwight Bennett and Clement Hardin. He was a fine writer, a little more thoughtful and restrained than some of the pulpsters, but he could still bring the fast-paced action when he needed to. His last work was creating the Western series STAGECOACH STATION, packaged by Book Creations Inc. and published by Bantam under the house-name Hank Mitchum, and writing a number of the early novels in that series. As one of the various Hank Mitchums myself, I’ve always been pleased that I got to work on a series created by D.B. Newton.

But to get to “Scorpions of Silverado” at last, it’s set in the silver mining boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. Bob Pryor and Celestino Mireles are sent for by Dave Cook, the real-life founder of the Rocky Mountain Detective Agency, who has been hired to uncover the leader of a criminal gang wreaking havoc in the town. Pryor and Celestino do so, of course (the mastermind’s identity is no secret to the reader, having been revealed early on), but not before some shootouts, fistfights, a battle in an abandoned mine, and an attempted lynching. H.A.W. Tabor, Leadville’s leading citizen, is another historical figure who plays an important part in the story, although the bad guys are all fictional. It’s fast-moving fun, pretty lightweight but very entertaining. Also, while some modern readers might be offended by Celestino’s thick accent and his sidekick status, he’s really the dominant figure in this novel, doing most of the detective work and figuring out what’s really going on. I’ve always liked Celestino. He’s much more than the comedy relief some might take him for.

Next up is “Snake Charmer”, a short story by Robert J. Hogan. Best remembered for the G-8 series and other air war yarns, Hogan wrote a lot of Westerns, too, and was good at them. This story about a mining company payroll robbery and an old-timer who used to travel with a carnival is an entertaining story with some nice twists.

Clay Randall, author of the novelette “Make a Bigger Boot Hill” in this issue, was really Clifton Adams, one of the best of the hardboiled Western writers of the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties. This tale about a Texas Ranger pursuing the outlaws responsible for his wife’s death and catching up to them in a squalid bordertown is one of the few misfires by him that I’ve read. The writing is good and the characters are interesting, but the plot is pretty thin and somehow the story just never really engaged me.

The novelette “Kill-Crazy Trail” is by Reeve Walker, a Thrilling Group house name known to have been used by Walker A. Tompkins, Tom Curry, Charles N. Heckelmann, and Chuck Martin. Other authors probably used it as well. Having read the story under that name in this issue, I don’t know who wrote it, but I’m fairly confident it wasn’t any of the authors previously associated with the name unless possibly Heckelmann. It doesn’t read at all like the work of Tompkins, Curry, or Martin. However, this tale of a young rancher forced by circumstances and his own bad judgment to turn outlaw is a good one. Despite the bloodthirsty title, it’s actually a rather mild, heartwarming yarn with good characterization. I liked it quite a bit.

The issue wraps up with “Old Pete”, a short story by one of my favorite Western authors, A. Leslie Scott, writing here under his A. Leslie pseudonym. The title character is a roadrunner who plays a vital part in the showdown between a young lawman and a gang of bank robbers. The story doesn’t have much of the flowery description that’s a hallmark of Scott’s prose, but it does have some nice action and humor. He could spin a yarn, that’s for sure.

Overall, this is a solid issue of THE RIO KID WESTERN. None of the stories are great, but they’re all good. The Clifton Adams story is the weakest of the bunch (there’s a sentence I’ve never written before and possibly never will again), and it’s certainly not terrible, just not quite to my taste. Other readers might like it the best because Adams has a really nice hardboiled style. If you have this issue on your shelves, it’s well worth reading.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Air Trails, July 1931

Frank Tinsley provides a dramatic cover on this issue of AIR TRAILS, Street & Smith's entry into the aviation pulp market. There are some top-notch writers in this issue, too: Raoul Whitfield, George Bruce, Arthur J. Burks, Robert J. Hogan, and the lesser-known Kirkland Stone, Warren Elliot Carleton, Kent Sagendorph, and Barry Thompson. I've read only sparingly in the aviation and air war pulps, but I've enjoyed what I've read.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Exciting Western, September 1948

Ah, the old "shooting behind your back while your hands are tied and you're burning the ropes on a candle" trick! The bad guys never see that one coming. This is probably a Sam Cherry cover, but that's not confirmed. What I can confirm is that there are some good authors in this issue, leading off with one of W.C. Tuttle's Tombstone and Speedy yarns, which ran for a long time in EXCITING WESTERN, and followed up by stories by D.B. Newton, Chuck Martin, Nels Leroy Jorgensen, Robert J. Hogan, and a Navajo Raine story under the Jackson Cole house-name.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: War Birds, April 1933

I was in the mood for an aviation pulp cover this morning, and I picked this one by George Rozen from WAR BIRDS because I don't recall seeing many observation balloons on pulp covers. Also there are some good writers in this issue, including William E. Barrett, Robert J. Hogan, Robert H. Leitfred, and one better remembered for his excellent Westerns, Allan R. Bosworth.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Thrilling Western, September 1950

This is a pulp I own and read recently. The scan is from my copy. I don’t know who the artist is, but if you check the lower right corner, you’ll see that this is an Injury to a Hat cover. I’ve been reading issues of THRILLING WESTERN for years now and always enjoy them, although there are usually one or two stories in each issue I don’t care for.

This issue leads off (as most issues from 1940 to 1950 did) with a Walt Slade, Texas Ranger story by Bradford Scott, who was really the highly prolific and distinctive A. Leslie Scott. “The Sky Riders” is one of the last stories in the pulp series. There would be only two more after it. But a few years later Scott began writing paperback novels for Pyramid Books featuring the Walt Slade character, mostly originals but some expansions from pulp yarns. That paperback series ran even longer, all the way into the early Seventies. There’s a Walt Slade novel from 1968 called THE SKY RIDERS, and while I haven’t read it, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s an expansion of this pulp novella.

This one opens with a very evocation scene involving a killing on a high natural bridge running between two sides of a canyon. Scott always wrote good action scenes and good descriptions of the settings, and both of those elements are on display here. Walt Slade, an undercover Texas Ranger who most folks believe to be the notorious outlaw El Halcon (The Hawk), witnesses that shooting, and his investigation plunges him into the hunt for a gang of owlhoots known as the Sky Riders because they’re usually spotted riding along some rimrock, silhouetted against the sky.

Anybody who’s read more than one or two Walt Slade yarns will know exactly what’s going on in this story and will pick out the hidden mastermind of the outlaws with no trouble. The geography of the region plays a big part in the plot, as it often does in Scott’s stories, and he handles it very well, resulting in some vivid scenes. Sure, the whole thing is formulaic, but I always enjoy Scott’s work anyway. It’s pure comfort reading for me.

I have the opposite reaction to the Swap and Whopper series by Syl MacDowell, which ran even longer than the Walt Slade series, starting in 1939 and continuing until 1952. Slapstick Westerns are a hard sell for me to start with. The Swap and Whopper stories feature a couple of saddle tramps, one tall and skinny, the other short and fat, who always wind up in bizarre situations. Part Mutt and Jeff, part Abbott and Costello, and well written enough by old pro Syl MacDowell, but dang, this series just doesn’t work for me. I’ve started dozens of them and finished only a few. The one in this issue, “The Talking Bear”, is not one that I finished.

Nels Leroy Jorgensen wrote scores of stories during a pulp career that lasted approximately thirty years, from the early Twenties to the early Fifties. He turned out detective, aviation, adventure, and war stories in addition to Westerns. I first became aware of him as a Western writer but later discovered that his work appeared frequently in BLACK MASK during the Twenties and Thirties, most notably with a series about a gambler named Black Burton (a series that wound up in BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE during the Forties). Jorgensen’s novelette in this issue, “Gunstorm on the Wagon Trail”, has a good title and the plot, about a couple of guys who own a freight company trying to get a wagon train full of badly needed supplies (including medicine) through a gauntlet of Mexican bandidos and Apache renegades, is interesting as well. I thought the actual writing was pretty bland, though, with lots of long paragraphs of the protagonist thinking about what’s going on. I finished the story, but it never really caught my interest much.

I’ve never read a story by Johnston McCulley that I didn’t like, and “Agency Injun” continues that streak. It’s a minor yarn about a cavalryman trying to prove that a friendly Indian didn’t commit a murder at an army post, but McCulley tells it well. This one has an illustration by the great Nick Eggenhoffer, too, which certainly doesn’t hurt anything.

I read a story by L. Kenneth Brent in an issue of THRILLING WESTERN last year and enjoyed it. His tale in this issue, “Gunsmoke Freeze-Out”, is even better. It’s a “small rancher vs. cattle baron” story, with the added complication that a rustler the small rancher testified against in court has gotten out of prison and is coming back to try to kill him. It’s a standard plot, but Brent’s writing is good and he creates some genuine suspense along the way. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more of his stories.

Like Nels Leroy Jorgensen, Harold F. Cruickshank had a pulp career that lasted from the Twenties to the Fifties. During that time he wrote several hundred stories, specializing during the first part of his career in war and air war stories before branching out into Westerns and sports yarns. He was a highly regarded air war writer, but I haven’t read any of those stories. In Westerns, he had a long-running back-up series in RANGE RIDERS WESTERNS about the settlers in Sun Bear Valley. I’ve read some of these (also known as the Pioneer Folk series) but never cared much for them. His novelette in this issue, “Branch Line to Hell”, is a stand-alone about a railroad surveyor who’s trying to survey a spur line over the opposition of a ruthless local cattle baron. It’s a good title, but unfortunately that’s the best thing about this story. Cruickshank’s writing just doesn’t appeal to me, and all the technical details of surveying and railroad construction are just confusing, so I wasn’t quite sure what was going on some of the time. I think maybe I’ve read enough of Cruickshank’s work, although I am still curious about his air war stories.

So far this issue of THRILLING WESTERN is batting .500. I’ve liked three of the stories and disliked the other three. But there are four short stories left.

I don’t know anything about Dupree Poe except that I’ve seen his name in various Western pulps. He sold several dozen stories to the Thrilling Group in the late Forties and early Fifties, along with a few to MAMMOTH WESTERN and the Ace Western pulps, WESTERN ACES and WESTERN TRAILS. His story “Hangman’s Tree” in this issue is a little unusual for the era in that the plot revolves around a rancher’s suspicion that his wife is having an affair with an outlaw who’s hiding out on the ranch and pretending to be a cowhand. This sets off a string of events that include a lynching, a visit by another outlaw, and the rancher’s near death in quicksand. (Quicksand, of course, is one of the things that improve any story, and if the greatly missed Bill Crider was still with us, I have a hunch he would agree.) Anyway, there’s also a good dog in this story, and that helps, too. “Hangman’s Tree” is almost too grim, but I wound up thinking that it’s a decent story.

Ben Frank is the pseudonym of Frank Bennett, an author who wrote under his real name for both the pulps and the slicks in the Forties and Fifties. He was more prolific as Ben Frank and is best remembered for a back-up series that appeared in many issues of TEXAS RANGERS featuring a cagey old-timer known as Doc Swap. He also wrote a comical Western about a deputy named Boo-Boo Bounce. As I mentioned above, with a few exceptions (Robert E. Howard and W.C. Tuttle come to mind), I’m not much of a fan of comedy Westerns. I don’t care for the Boo-Boo Bounce stories at all. The Doc Swap yarns are at least readable because they’re usually well-plotted. Frank’s stand-alone story in this issue of THRILLING WESTERN, “One Man Justice” features another old-timer and his attempt to bring to justice the man who tried to murder his son-in-law. This isn’t a comedy; Frank plays it completely straight and gives the tale a nice hardboiled, suspenseful tone, as well as a twist or two. This one took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting to like it, but I did, quite a bit.

Robert J. Hogan was the author of G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES, of course, along with a lot of other air war stories, but he also wrote a considerable number of Westerns. His story in this issue, “Badge for a Bandit”, uses the old plot of an outlaw trying to go straight. In this case, the young man has even become a deputy, but then his old gang shows up intending to rob the bank. I generally enjoy Hogan’s stories, but I never could work up much interest in this one.

The final story is “Heading Into Trouble”, a short, simple yarn about a bank messenger, a stagecoach driver, and a shotgun guard trying to get a stagecoach carrying a lot of money through a gauntlet of outlaws. It’s almost non-stop action, which is good, and the writing is okay. The by-line is the house-name Jackson Cole, which was often used when an author had more than one story in an issue. In this case, though, the style doesn’t strike me as being similar to any of the other authors in this issue. In fact, it reminded me of the work of Charles S. Strong, an editor at the Thrilling Group who wrote Western fiction under the name Chuck Stanley as well as detective and adventure yarns under his own name. That’s just a guess on my part, however. It could have been someone else who wrote “Heading Into Trouble”. Whoever did, I thought it was an okay story.

Overall, I’d say this is a below average issue of THRILLING WESTERN. The two best stories are the Walt Slade novella and Ben Frank’s story, and there are several I don’t think are very good at all. But considering the sheer number of Western pulps published, they can’t all be great. I’m confident that I’ll have better luck the next time I take one off the shelf.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Giant Western, October 1950

As usual, the poker game gets interrupted by a gunfight. Makes you wonder if they ever finished a hand in the Old West without burning powder. But there are some good authors in this issue of GIANT WESTERN, starting with two of my favorites, Walt Coburn and Leslie Scott (writing as A. Leslie this time around). There are also stories by Robert J. Hogan (probably best remembered for his aviation stories, including G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES, but he wrote a lot of Westerns, too), Ben Frank, Francis H. Ames, and house-names Sam Brant and Clay Starr.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Dare-Devil Aces, April 1937

Hmm, I don't remember ever reading anything in the history books about an aerial dogfight like this over Manhattan, but that sure looks like the Empire State Building. There's a lot going on in this cover by Frederick Blakeslee, and I like it! Inside are stories by air-war pulp stalwarts Robert J. Hogan, Robert Sidney Bowen, William O'Sullivan, and others, plus a letters column known as the Hot Air Club, conducted by Nosedive Ginsberg (no doubt some assistant editor hiding behind that colorful moniker). I have to be in the right mood for aviation and air-war pulps, but when I am, I really like 'em.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Exciting Western, July 1948

Stagecoaches show up a lot on Western pulp covers, and there's usually some sort of action going on. This one from the July 1948 issue of EXCITING WESTERN is no exception. Authors responsible for the action inside are Louis L'Amour (with two stories, one under the Jim Mayo pseudonym), my old favorite W.C. Tuttle, Robert J. Hogan of G-8 and His Battle Aces fame, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, and a couple of house names, Jackson Cole and Reeve Walker.