WESTERN TRAILS - June 1936

WESTERN TRAILS
June 1936, Vol. XXIII, No. 1
Magazine Publishers, Inc.
Editor A.A. Wyn, Associate Editor Harry Widmer
Cover art by William Fulton Soare

This pulp magazine first appeared in October 1928 and ran for 124 issues, this last issue being published in April 1949. I don’t believe there were any British editions.

The opening novelette is Kid Thunderbolt by Frederick C. Davis. This is the second of six stories he wrote for Western Trails featuring The Jingling Kid. When Jingle finds a notorious dying killer, Kid Thunderbolt, the lightning-fast gunman gives Jingle his guns, horse, hat and instantly recognizable vest and asks him to pretend to be him and help a young woman who has asked for his help. Jingle accepts these gifts and mission. Jingle is a no-account drifter, a young man scorned and ridiculed by others, but know under his new persona he relishes in the adulation he receives and finds a new confidence in himself and sets out to help Donna Dexter. 

The story is fast moving, contains mystery as to who is killing Donna’s ranch hands with knives in the back. It also seems there’s a traitor among Donna’s crew as the enemy seem to be one step ahead of them. There’s plenty of action – gunplay, a jailbreak, a town on fire and chase sequences. I was waiting throughout for someone to expose this new Kid Thunderbolt as an imposter and I got my wish. I haven’t read anything by Davis before this, and found Kid Thunderbolt to be a very entertaining read and look forward to reading another soon. 

Double-Cross Brands by L.P. Holmes is next. Holmes was a prolific author for the pulps with around 600 being published, most of which were westerns. He also had many paperbacks published too. Going by how many stories he wrote, and how long I’ve been reading westerns, it may come as a surprise when I tell you I haven’t read anything by him before. 

Double-Cross Brand features the much-used plot of a young man and a young woman in love with each other but unable to act on these feelings due to being son and daughter of families that have been involved in a very long-running feud that began before either of them was born. When Jerry Bennett is offered his father’s ranch with the provision that he keeps the feud going Bennett refuses the gift, saying he wants to end the feud so he can be with Arlie Condon. When calves belonging to each side are discovered wearing the oppositions brand accusations fly thick and fast and it looks like the feud isn’t due to end anytime soon. Jerry sets out to solve the mystery of the branded calves and end the feud. Yes, everything played out as I expected but I had great fun reading it and am now eager to try another story by Holmes.  

The third story is another novelette, Destiny Rides the Lobo Pass by Peter Germane. Peter Germane is a thinly disguised pseudonym used by Peter Germano before he switched to the now much better-known penname of Barry Cord. Under the Germane name he had around twenty stories published in a variety of western pulp magazines.  

Destiny Rides the Lobo Pass is a gritty tale with a dark theme of a father being set up to kill his son who he thought dies years ago. The son believes an outlaw is his father and rides with him and his gang. Both are extremely fast draws and the father has become known as Senor Death of the years. This twisting tale provides a gripping read as Germane builds the tension to snapping point. There’s plenty of gunplay, an exciting knife fight, and a kidnapping. Hatred fuels many of the cast of characters with Senor Death being driven by the thirst for revenge too. The story has a bittersweet ending. This has to be one of my favourite tales I’ve read by Peter Germano. 

Hellion’s Lash by Phil Richards is a short story by an author unknown to me. An escaped prisoner, Randen, tries to discover why his friend helped frame him for murder but is forced to kill him. This makes Randen even more determined to find the person behind his prison sentence. For such a short story, Richards involves a lot of people, meaning I had to pay attention to who was who and why they were included in the tale. The story involves a judge and his daughter (who’s sweet on Randen), lawmen, wealthy businessmen, prison guards (one who’s very handy with a whip), and bounty hunters. With so much going on I found it hard to connect with any of the characters but was intrigued enough to read on as I wanted to see how Randen cleared his name and who the bad guy was. Hellion’s Lash was an ok read but I doubt I’ll be hunting out more of Richards’ yarns anytime soon.

After Hellion’s Lash, and presumably just included to fill the second half of a page, comes an account of a tale of an extraordinary roping feat by a man called Don Manuel Acuna. This piece doesn’t have a writer’s name attached to it. This true story or completely fictional tale stretches belief a lot. If it is true then damn, it’s amazing. If fictional it’s ‘is that possible even in your wildest dreams?’

Next, we have a three-page true story King Fisher by Charles Kenmore Ulrich. This is subtitled Romances of the Old Frontier No. 21. As you’d expect this is told in a factual way and covers Fisher’s life from a young age until his death. The author adds some imagined dialogue which brings some life to this historical article that got me interested in reading more about King Fisher. According to an information box, Ulrich only wrote about people he’d met in person. 

Boot-Hill Carnival by Clyde A. Warden is a novelette featuring the author’s series character Bert Little. Warden wrote 78 stories starring Little, all of which were published in Western Trails.

Colonel Andrew Dexter makes the mistake of trying to hire Little for his guns but Little refuses as he doesn’t kill for money. Unsurprisingly, Little gets involved anyway after an attempt on his life. This story is about making Barry Sanders pay for murdering the brother of Dexter, so this is a revenge tale that, of course, includes a pretty girl who is the daughter of the dead man. Little finds himself riding alongside a man called Cactus, who has a rep as a troublemaker. There’s plenty of gunplay as Little and Cactus try to track down Sanders. The story played out pretty much as I expected until the end where twist upon twist that took me completely by surprise turning a routine yarn into so much more. 

Boot-Hill Carnival was a very readable story with a memorable ending that left me looking forward to read more tales about Bert Little soon. One thing that confused me though was the title as Boot-Hill doesn’t feature in the story and neither does a carnival. Maybe the editors didn’t like Warden’s original title and changed it without reading the story? I guess that’s something we’ll never find out 90 years after this magazine was published. 

We then get two regular columns that I didn’t read. These being July Roundup of Western Trails which tells readers what they can look forward to in the next issue, and Stampede by Powder River Bill, which is a few pages of letters asking for pen pals.

Six-Gun Shadows by Carl Mck. Saunders brings this issue of Western Trails to a close. It’s a short story about a man called Andy Hall who steals the loot from outlaws. We meet him just after he’s run off with the money from a train robbery and is being hunted by the furious thieves, which is a big problem for Hall as he doesn’t have any bullets in his guns. Carl Mck. Saunders is a pseudonym used by Philip L. Ketchum and on the strength of this short story I would certainly read him again even though the twist in this tale was easy to spot coming and me not being a fan of ‘in-the-nick-of-time’ endings. 

This issue of Western Trails was a very enjoyable read with all the stories holding my attention well and it has me wanting to read my only other copy of this magazine as soon as I can.