The Old Way (2023)

What can I say? I like Nicolas Cage movies. They’re not always great or even good, but they’re usually interesting. THE OLD WAY is his first Western. He plays a ruthless, deadly hired gun who puts all that behind him, settles down, runs a store, marries, and has a daughter. With a set-up like that, what do you think is going to happen? Maybe some threat from his past is going to reappear with tragic consequences and force him to strap on his guns again? Admit it, you’d be disappointed if that didn’t happen. I certainly would have been.

Luckily, in THE OLD WAY we get that classic revenge plot as the son of a man Cage’s character killed twenty years earlier shows up looking to settle the score. He’s an outlaw who has three other owlhoots with him, and they wreak bloody havoc when they come calling. The script by Carl W. Lucas throws an unexpected twist into the story, though, as Cage is forced to take his 12-year-old daughter along with him on his vengeance quest. He’s really not suited for parenting, but when it comes to teaching somebody how to survive, he’s pretty good at that.

THE OLD WAY has a lot of things going for it. Brett Donowho’s direction keeps things moving along at a nice brisk pace, and the movie looks great with its Montana scenery and excellent photography. The cast is top-notch with Nick Searcy playing a federal marshal on the trail of the same outlaws Cage is seeking, Clint Howard (who I still remember as a very little kid actor!) as a grizzled old owlhoot, Abraham Benrubi as another member of the gang, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who absolutely steals the movie as Cage’s daughter. By the end of it, you’ll believe that a 12-year-old girl can be a badass when she needs to be, and there are some funny scenes along the way that demonstrate how the character has inherited some of her father’s borderline sociopathic tendencies.

I really enjoyed THE OLD WAY. It’s a well-made traditional Western with a few oddball qualities, and I found it very entertaining and well worth watching.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Private Detective Stories, May 1939

H.L. Parkhurst provides the eye-catching cover for this issue of PRIVATE DETECTIVE STORIES. "Intimate Revelations of Private Investigators", indeed! The cover story by Roger Torrey is a novella, and knowing Torrey's work, it's probably good. There's also a novelette by Edwin Truett Long writing as Dale Boyd, a novelette by Howard Wandrei writing as Robert A. Garron, and a couple of stories by forgotten pulpsters George Shute and James H.S. Moynahan. Quite a few issues of PRIVATE DETECTIVE STORIES can be found on-line, but this doesn't appear to be one of them. Looks like an issue worth reading if you ever come across a copy. 

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Star Western, April 1936

A dramatic cover by Walter Baumhofer graces this issue of STAR WESTERN, my favorite Western pulp published by Popular Publications. A look at the authors inside will tell you why I feel that way: T.T. Flynn, Ray Nafziger, Luke Short, W. Ryerson Johnson, Robert E. Mahaffey (twice, with a short story and a novelette), William F. Bragg, and Foster-Harris. I also like STAR WESTERN because it ran more novellas and novelettes than short stories. I like short stories just fine, but I think the novella is just about the perfect length for all types of genre fiction.

Tex: The Lonesome Rider - Claudio Nizzi and Joe Kubert

Joe Kubert was one of the first comic book artists whose style I could recognize immediately, based on my reading of his Sgt. Rock stories in OUR ARMY AT WAR and then a little later the Enemy Ace stories in various DC war comics. I loved his work in those comics and then later when DC began publishing TARZAN and Kubert both wrote and drew the stories.

A recent discussion on the WesternPulps email group about Western comics published in Europe reminded me that about twenty years ago, Kubert illustrated a long graphic novel about Tex Willer, a Western hero who’s been appearing in Italian comics for more than fifty years. TEX: THE LONESOME RIDER is one of the few Tex Willer stories that’s available in English, and I’d been meaning to read it, so I found an affordable copy on-line and ordered it.

Tex is both a Texas Ranger and an honorary chief of the Navajo tribe, but that’s really all I know about him. In this book, he’s out of his usual bailiwick since he’s going to visit some old friends of his, a married couple with a beautiful daughter. But when Tex arrives at their ranch, he discovers that the whole family has been murdered by four hardcase drifters. He sets off on their trail after burying his friends and vowing to avenge them.

The script by veteran TEX writer Claudio Nizzi plays very much like a Spaghetti Western movie (well, duh) or a Piccadilly Cowboys paperback from the Seventies. Tex trails one of the killers to a town run by the outlaw’s brother and a corrupt sheriff. Another section of the book takes Tex to a showdown in a ghost town, and then he ventures into an Apache village where he winds up fighting for his life against another of his quarry. There’s nothing in this story that Western readers haven’t seen many, many times before, but of course, how well it’s executed means everything.

And this is where Kubert comes in. His art is extraordinary and lifts a competent script into an excellent Western graphic novel. TEX: THE LONESOME RIDER is printed in black and white, which allows Kubert to make very effective use of light and shadow and contrast. His storytelling is fantastic, which you’d expect from someone with many decades of experience in the comics business. With some comics artists, I have to look at a page multiple times and ask myself what’s happening there, but not with Kubert. The action flows clearly and effortlessly from panel to panel. His close-ups, especially in scenes where Tex steps out of the shadows to confront his enemies, are very effective. I expected to like the art in this book, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

I suspect that as an introduction to Tex Willer, THE LONESOME RIDER isn’t very typical of the character, but I enjoyed it very much and think it’s well worth reading for Western comics fans. I already have several more English-language collections from the Italian comics and I’m looking forward to reading them so that I can get a sample of Tex’s regular adventures.

Now Available: West Texas Blood Feud - James Reasoner

The Nashes and the Lockharts have been feuding so long that nobody in Pecos even remembers what fueled the bloody hatred. The patriarchs of the two families, Axel Nash and Jubal Lockhart, would like nothing better than to wipe out their enemies. But Edward Nash, Axel’s nephew, wants no part of the feud and would rather concentrate on his law practice in partnership with the veteran attorney Billy Cambridge.

But then Edward’s younger brother Johnny winds up dead, apparently at the hands of Jubal Lockhart’s son Matt, and all of Reeves County is set to rip wide open in a hot lead war between the two clans. Add in an ambitious politician, his beautiful daughter, and a twist of fate that finds Edward defending his own brother’s accused killer in court, and you have another powerful, exciting tale from bestselling Western author James Reasoner. Fists and bullets will fly before peace returns to Pecos!

Since I retired from editing and publishing and have cut back on my ghostwriting commitments, I've had more time to work on books of my own. As a result, if all goes as planned over the next few years, you're going to see quite a few more books with my name on them, starting with this one. I have a lot in the works--Westerns, crime novels, a private detective series that Livia and I are working on, science fiction/space opera . . . I might even dust off that sword and sorcery novella I started a while back and finish it. At my age, if I'm going to get these books written, I'd better go ahead and do it! I've never been very good about promoting my own work, but I'll try to get the word out whenever I have something new. For now, I think WEST TEXAS BLOOD FEUD is a pretty good Western yarn (see how I oversell it there?), and I hope some of you will give it a try and enjoy it. It's available on Amazon.

Conan the Barbarian #2: Bound in Black Stone, Part 2 - Jim Zub and Rob de la Torre

I've read the second issue of the new CONAN THE BARBARIAN comic book and continue to be very impressed. This is Part 2 of the storyline "Bound in Black Stone", which finds Conan, still a relatively young mercenary and adventurer, and his companion, the Pictish female scout Brissa, on the run from and battling a horde of undead warriors flooding north from Aquilonia into Cimmeria.

Jim Zub's script is very good, striking a perfect balance between dialogue and captions. I'm no expert on modern comics, as I've said many times, but my impression is that captions are somewhat frowned upon by many of today's writers. That makes Zub's effective use of them very refreshing to me. I grew up reading Stan Lee, remember, and Stan wrote great captions. So did most of the other comics scripters of the Sixties and Seventies.

Rob de la Torre's art continues to be fantastic. His storytelling and attention to detail are excellent. Like Zub's writing, de la Torre's art really fits this character.

If I have one quibble, it's a very minor one. The necessity to write story arcs that can be reprinted in trade paperbacks sometimes leads to a slower pace than I like. So far this hasn't been a real problem in this series, but I do feel that the story could move along just a little faster. But that feeling hasn't detracted from my enjoyment, and based on the three issues I've read so far (I read the Free Comic Book Day prequel but didn't blog about it), I give CONAN THE BARBARIAN a very high recommendation directed at long-time fans and newcomers alike. I read the digital edition of the second issue, and I've already pre-ordered the third issue.

A Gunfight Too Many - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

When it comes to popular fiction, Keith Chapman is something of a treasure. He’s a long-time reader and commenter on this blog, of course, but beyond that he’s a writer and editor whose career stretches back 60-some-odd years, to the days of Sexton Blake and EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERY MAGAZINE, of which he was the founding editor. Over the years he’s also been a prolific author of fine Western novels under the pseudonym Chap O’Keefe, many of them published originally as Black Horse Westerns by Robert Hale. The good news for Western readers is that quite a few of those novels are available again as e-books, and more are in the works.

The latest of these is A GUNFIGHT TOO MANY, originally published by Hale in 2008 and reprinted in large print by Ulverscroft in 2009. I really like that title, and it’s fitting, too, because the protagonist is Sheriff Sam Hammond, an aging lawman who wonders if he’s lost enough of his edge that one of these days he’ll come up against some badman who’s faster on the draw than he is and lose his life in a gunfight too many.

That worry doesn’t relieve Sam of his devotion to duty, though, and his job as sheriff becomes more complicated—and more dangerous—when a detective shows up in Rainbow City on the trail of an elusive, notorious bank robber known as Dick Slick. Is it possible that this ruthless outlaw is hiding out in plain sight in Sam Hammond’s bailiwick, posing as a respectable citizen?

Sam has to deal not only with that problem but also with a beautiful widow who has her sights set on him, an equally beautiful rancher’s daughter, a deputy who’s wounded and laid up for a spell, and various rustlers. Everything leads up to a spectacular underground showdown in an abandoned mine.

As you’d expect from his background, Chapman is an excellent yarn-spinner and storyteller. He writes books that are just plain fun to read, and A GUNFIGHT TOO MANY is no exception. The action moves along at a good pace and Sam Hammond is a really likable protagonist. The villains are properly despicable, as they need to be in a book like this. I had a fine time reading this novel and think most traditional Western fans would agree. The e-book edition is available on Amazon and several other platforms, which you can find here.

By the way, the cover artist is Duncan McMillan, and this painting appeared originally on the February 4, 1931 issue of the pulp WEST. Just one more indication that Keith Chapman is working in a legendary tradition.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Short Stories, October 10, 1935

This issue of SHORT STORIES features a good French Foreign Legion cover by Pete Kuhlhoff, although he's credited as E.H. Kuhlhoff. He was a good artist, as you can see here, but he's best remembered as a gun expert who contributed scores of articles and columns on the subject to various pulps. This issue has an excellent group of writers inside, as well: Clarence E. Mulford, Frank Richardson Pierce, J. Allan Dunn, James B. Hendryx, Bob Du Soe, Richard Howells Watkins, Henry Herbert Knibbs, and forgotten pulpsters Perry Adams, Alexander Lake, and Don Cameron Shafer. Plenty of good reading in those pages, I'll bet.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Smashing Western, June 1939

All right, who's the artist on this SMASHING WESTERN cover? There's a big letter "R" down in the lower left corner, but is that the artist's initial, or just something written on there by somebody who owned that copy at some time in the past? My first thought was A. Leslie Ross because of that hat brim, but Ross often signed his covers and his signature doesn't look like the letter on this one. The man's face reminds me a little of Walter Baumhofer or Tom Lovell without convincing me it's either of them. Many of you are better at artist IDs than I am, so I'm hoping someone knows. As far as what's inside this pulp, there are stories by three excellent Western authors--E.B. Mann, Wayne D. Overholser, and C. William Harrison--and two house names, James Rourke and Cliff Campbell. According to the Fictionmags Index, Abner J. Sundell wrote the Cliff Campbell story. I believe Campbell started out as a personal pseudonym for Sundell before becoming a house name later on. I like the cover and that's a good bunch of authors, making me think this is probably a pretty good issue.

UPDATE: This cover is definitely by A. Leslie Ross. See the comments for more info. 

Any Man's Girl - Basil Heatter

The girl of the title in this book is Lucinda Perky, a beautiful young blonde who lives at a fishing camp on Lake Okeechobee in Florida that’s run by her husband Russ. Unfortunately for Lucinda, she’s dead before the book even begins, raped and murdered, and her husband has been arrested for the crime.

Living not too far away are Dan Waxman, a scientist from New York who has come to Florida to try to perfect a new system of hydroponic farming, and his wife Martine (who goes by Marty), a lawyer who has given up her practice to accompany Dan to Florida. The Waxmans are acquainted with Russ Perky and his wife, and Marty decides she’s going to be Russ’s lawyer and defend him against the charge of murdering Lucinda. The rest of ANY MAN’S GIRL, a novel by Basil Heatter published originally by Gold Medal in 1961, revolves around Marty’s investigation into the case and her gradual uncovering of Lucinda’s past and several other suspects, all of it leading up to some extremely suspenseful scenes at the end that really had me turning the pages to find out what was going to happen.

Heatter, the son of radio commentator Gabriel Heatter, does a fine job cutting back and forth between his large cast of characters. Marty Waxman is the nominal protagonist of ANY MAN’S GIRL, but Heatter takes the reader inside the head of just about all the other characters involved in the story. This is a well-written book that does a fine job of capturing the setting and the people. Heatter does seem to be a bit biased against the South and Southerners, but I suppose given the time period and the fact that he was New England born and bred, that’s understandable.

This is a well-constructed suspense novel with some really nasty plot twists along the way. I never read anything by Heatter, although his name is familiar. I plan to give some of his other books a try. ANY MAN’S GIRL is being reprinted by Black Gat Books and is available for pre-order on Amazon. It’s a really good yarn, and if you’re a crime fiction fan, it’s well worth reading.