WESTERN ROMANCES was Dell's answer to RANCH ROMANCES, and this somewhat awkward cover certainly looks like it could have come off an issue of RANCH ROMANCES from that era. I don't know the artist. I can't complain about the quality of the authors inside: L.P. Holmes, Leslie Scott (as A. Leslie), Frank Robertson, Lawrence A. Keating, Eric Howard, Wilton West, and a couple of forgotten pulpsters, John A. Chase and William Wills Bradford. I don't own this issue, but with Holmes, Scott, and Robertson inside, I would read it if I did.
Now there's an Angry, Gun-Totin' Redhead for yuh! Thet cowboy with her don't look so stalwart, though, and there's no sign of a Wounded Old Geezer. THRILLING RANCH STORIES was the Thrilling Group's answer to RANCH ROMANCES, but the stories had plenty of action, too, judging by most of the covers. This issue features stories by L.P. Holmes, A. Leslie Scott, Cliff Farrell, Syl McDowell, Stephen Payne, Wilton West, and house-name Jackson Cole. All those hombres knew how to burn plenty of powder in their yarns.
I think that's a roulette wheel behind the cowboy in this cover by R.G. Harris, adding to our list of unsafe activities in the Old West. I've heard of losing your shirt while gambling, but I think he's carrying it to an extreme. This issue of THRILLING WESTERN includes stories by Ray Nafziger (writing as Grant Taylor), Syl MacDowell, Allan K. Echols, Claude Rister, Cliff Walters, Wilton West, Frank Carl Young, and house-name Jackson Cole. With the exception of Nafziger, MacDowell, and Echols, none of those are remembered much today, but I'm sure it was an entertaining issue.
This is the pulp in which "Ghost Mine Gold", the Masked Rider novel featured in yesterday's Forgotten Books post, first appeared. It has a decent cover, and that's actually pretty close to how I visualize the Masked Rider when I read the books. Other authors featured in this issue are Tom Curry (who wrote a few Masked Riders himself), the prolific and well-regarded Stephen Payne, Wilton West (an author I know nothing about), and the house-name Jackson Cole.
