There was a brief discussion last weekend about whether the TOP-NOTCH cover I posted Sunday was painted by William F. Soare. Well, here's a STAR WESTERN cover we know was by Soare, and I like it quite a bit. Inside this issue are some fine writers, including Walt Coburn, Ray Nafziger, Cliff Farrell, and Robert E. Mahaffey. The lead story is a novella called "The Rider From Hell" by Robert Ormond Case. I love that title. Case is one of those writers whose name I've seen hundreds of times, if not more, but I don't recall ever reading anything by him. Come to find out, there's an e-book edition of "The Rider From Hell" available, and not only that, I already own the blasted thing! Maybe I'd better get around to reading it, huh? We'll see.
This looks like a pretty good mid-Thirties issue of WESTERN TRAILS, with a cover by William F. Soare and entries in two long-running series, Duke Buckland by Frederick C. Davis and Bert Little by Clyde B. Warden. The other authors on hand are all top-notch pulpsters, as well: Philip Ketchum writing as Carl McK. Saunders, Frank Gruber, James P. Olsen, Peter Germano (as Peter Germane), and Bruce Douglas.
Nice, colorful cover by William F. Soare on this issue of SHORT STORIES, and a really fine group of writers inside: H. Bedford-Jones, William MacLeod Raine, Frederick C. Painton, Robert H. Leitfred, R.V. Gery, Captain Dingle, H.S.M. Kemp, and a couple I've not heard of, Patrick O'Keeffe and O.A. Robertson. That Bedford-Jones story is part one of a serial, and I like the title: "The Hour of the Eclipse". I don't recall that one being reprinted, at least not under that title. I'm intrigued.
