This edition doesn’t include any issue numbers or publication dates. It is a partial reprint of the American Six-Gun Western published April 1950 so I assume it came out not too long after as that was usually the case with British editions of American pulps. It also seems this was the only British edition of Six-Gun Western.
The American edition had 130 pages; the British was trimmed to 100. Two stories were cut to make this possible, these being Ray Gaulden’s Once a Badge Toter and the Six-Gun Smith comic strip The Gambling Lady by Berthold Tiedemann.
This pulp differs to many that I have seen in that it features two or three drawings illustrating something that happens during each story and all the artists are named. What is a little annoying is that these illustrations often come a couple of pages before the events take place in the story so they act as spoilers. Some of the stories continue page to page and then you have to turn further into the magazine to find the last couple of pages, something I’m not a fan of. One story has its final paragraphs printed on the page before the tale begins. I just don’t understand why some of the adverts couldn’t have been moved around so the stories could be printed unbroken.
This issue opens with Cow-Country Mail Call which is made up of a few letters from readers and comments by Dobie Dallas.
Next, we have the novelette Short-Cut to Hell by E. Hoffmann Price with illustrations by William Meilink. This story was originally published in the January 1939 edition of Thrilling Adventures and was the first of four tales Price wrote featuring the character, Saul Epstein. This story was also the reason I picked out this pulp to read as way back in 2011 I read and thoroughly enjoyed the anthology Nomad’s Trail by Price which contained a number of tales featuring one of Price’s other pulp heroes, Simon Bolivar Grimes who was a series character in Spicy Western Stories.
Epstein is a secondary character in Short-Cut to Hell, who pops up a little to conveniently for me to help the main lead, Pete Barlow, take on a man who is trying to muscle in on his girl whilst they all travel in a wagon train. Epstein joins them mid-journey pushing his hand-cart from which he seems to sell everything you could possibly want. There’s also another young woman who shows an interest in Barlow and he doesn’t seem able to resist her advances. That’s not the only problem Barlow will have to deal with as there is a gang waiting to attack the wagons.
Short-Cut to Hell was an ok read and contained a fair bit of action but overall was nowhere near as entertaining as the Simon Bolivar Grimes tales I’d previously read. Epstein was a fun character though, so I can see why Price would write other tales about him.
The comic strip Tethered to Murder, featuring series character K-Bar-Kate by R. Hayden was next. This was competently drawn but the story wasn’t gripping in any way and was filled with too many nick-of-time moments for me.
The Grey Wolf by Charls Getts, with illustrations by Kingsland Ward, was much more to my taste. A mysterious stranger wearing the emblem of a wolf comes to the aid of an old settler and his pretty daughter whilst tracking down an old enemy. I guess it’ll come as no surprise that the person threatening the settlers is the man the stranger is hunting. The tale plays out pretty much as expected except for the ending and I was left wanting to read more by Getts.
Gunsmoke Tally by Frank Morris came next. H. W. Kiemle provided the illustrations. Hank Green was holed up in a cabin while his enemies scoured the countryside for him. When there came a knock at the door and a girl tumbled in, he was sure that it was just a ruse to get him where their guns could cut him down. The entire tale takes place in the dark cabin and is a very tense story that is filled with mistrust. Is the girl really who she says she is? Green doesn’t think so. Can she persuade him otherwise? Green starts to believe her but is soon full of suspicion again as his enemies fight their way into the cabin. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye-out for more stories by Morris as I really enjoyed this one.
Golden Girl by Ralph Sedgwick Douglas - a house pseudonym shared by a number of authors but I haven’t been able to discover who wrote this story. Illustrations are by Max Plaisted. The title is the name of the hero’s horse and the story tells the tale of Tuck Creighton’s return to his home spread after a year away. It seems his father is still sore at him though and there are a lot of very puzzling things happening on the be-devilled range. The author came up with some memorable characters for this tale, Whistling Willie, a youngster who can make the sounds of any bird, and a man called The Weeper who oozes evil and works for Tuck’s father. Of course, there is also a pretty girl involved. The author keeps you guessing at just what is going on and springs a couple of surprises during this well told tale, although there is a bit of an unbelievable event that helps Tuck free himself when captured and tied up. How everything was resolved was a little too perfect and involved a just-in-time intervention that for me was a bit of a let-down. I still liked this story quite a lot and would read more by this author if I ever discover who it is.
The final story is Transformation in Skeleton Flats by John White and this was illustrated by Al Savitt. Jeff Markle was the young offspring of a no-good, shiftless family, and treated with pretty low regard around Skeleton Flats. But it is sure surprisin’ what a shave, a haircut, a bushwhacking and a girl can do to affect the life of an unkempt range rannihan! Jeff puts the blame on himself when Julia Latham’s brother is shot by a gunman trying to kill Jeff as he believes this will help him get close to Julia and win her affections. A mis-guided plan if there ever was one. White tells his story well, even if it is unbelievable making this the weakest tale in this issue of Six-Gun Western.
Overall, this was a readable pulp that introduced me to a couple more authors I’d like to read more of.
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