EXCITING WESTERN - October 1953

 

EXCITING WESTERN
British Edition, Vol. II, No. 9
Atlas Publishing, October 1953

The British edition of Exciting Western started by taking it contents from the American pulp of the same name with the occasional stories sourced from other American western pulps. As time went on most of the stories came from other western pulps. This is the case with this issue of Exciting Western as all the contents, except one, were taken from the Spring 1953 issue of Thrilling Ranch Stories. The other tale, Fiddle-Foot was taken from Exciting Western, March 1953. 

The opening novella is Rustler’s Run by Lewis B. Patten. Burt Norden is doing his best to look after his mother whose gone into a state of depression since her husband died. Burt is sweet on one of the neighbouring rancher’s daughters, Lucy, but the path to true love isn’t running smoothly. Lucy’s mother is dying and another young man, Mitch Riorson is showing interest in her. Mitch is always picking fights with Burt and they are getting more vicious each time fists fly. It seems it won’t be long before one kills the other. On top of all this is the mystery of missing cattle. Patten’s portrayal of human emotion is first class and his action scenes are well depicted. The story was a little predictable, but even so, still made for an exciting read.

Next comes the short story Fiddle-Foot by Ben Frank (real name Frank Bennett). Freddy had some strange help: a stuffed gorilla, a pet skunk – and Stella’s red-hot skillet! This tale is told in a light-hearted tone throughout and contains quite a few amusing scenes. It tells the story of how the Foster Memorial Museum came to be in the basement of the Courthouse in Mumblepeg. It involves a couple of old-timers, an attractive housekeeper, and a stolen windmill, as well as the already mentioned gorilla, skunk and skillet. This story would fall into the category of comedy westerns, and I felt that it was the perfect length for this type of tale, any longer and it would have outstayed its welcome. 

Paul Randell Morrison’s novelette Grip of the West followed. This is set in the time of automobiles and telephones, but once the opening scene is played out, I could easily imagine it as a western taking place in an early time period. The main character is well-to-do Gary Cortland who, whilst drunk, is dumped on a train heading west as a prank. Cortland ends up working on a ranch, saving the day when a river threatens to burst its banks, and falls in love with the rancher’s daughter, Peggy. Cortland also discovers that he enjoys the harder life of a cowboy than living in a city where everything is done for him. All through the story I was waiting to see if Cortland would get revenge on his two friends who put him on the train and how he does that was amusing and just. Entertaining.

The fourth and final tale in this issue of Exciting Western is the short story The Ranger Takes a Wife by Frank P. Castle. Flounces and frills, ruffles and lace – To her they were pretty. To him a disgrace! Tough rancher Chris Talley decides he needs a wife to keep house and do chores. A homeless girl struggling to survive fits the bill and after a quick wedding they are married. That’s when differences in their outlook to life emerge, things Chris can’t accept. There’s also the Guerra family who Chris believes are cattle thieves. More trouble erupts when his wife Loretta befriends Victoria who is one of the Guerra clan. This is a tough tale that contains some harsh dialogue and scenes. I was never sure how this tale would end. The conclusion was a little to perfect as Chris changes his viewpoint all too suddenly. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading the story and would like to check out more of Castle’s work.

The last page is taken up with the article Rope Rascality by Ferris Weddle. I usually don’t read these parts of the pulps but I did this time. It proved to be a collection of tall tales of when a lasso was used, a couple of which made me smile. 

Overall, this was an enjoyable issue of Exciting Western. For me, the best two stories were those by Patten and Castle.

Thrilling Western May 1958

British edition, Vol. 9, No. 12

Contents:

Featured Novelette

Holdup at Stony Flat

By Clair Huffaker

Taw was being framed, Christine warned . . . but how could he believe a woman who had already betrayed her own husband?

Short Stories

To the Last Man

By Ben Frank

A man should be ready to shoot, if need be, to uphold his family’s honor . . . but Johnny had to have a better reason before he could kill.

Track the Man Down

By Robert J. Hogan

Grace was all the things Vermilion Smith wanted in a woman . . . and the sister of the man he had to shoot on sight.

Fair Warning

By Larry Powell

To Dave Morris, there was a right and a wrong way to act . . . even if doing the right thing meant he would have to kill a man.

As far as I understand it, Thrilling Western continued in the UK after its original American run came to an end. This is one of those later issues. Were the stories written for the UK publication? Nope, they are taken from other American pulps, namely Ranch Romances. The first three stories all coming from the April 1957 issue of Ranch Romances and the final tale from the November 1956 issue. 

I’ve included the cover of the April 1957 issue of Ranch Romances as it shows how the cover art has also been re-used too, or at least a new version of it painted – if you look at them closely, you’ll see there are a number of differences between the two. 

But what of the stories themselves? I’ve read work by three of these authors before, the odd one out being Larry Powell. Ben Frank (r.n. Frank Bennett) I’ve only read in a similar pulp, whilst the other two I’ve read in full length books and greatly enjoyed, so I was really looking forward to trying some of their earlier work.

I found all four tales to be entertaining reads, but did enjoy those by Huffaker and Hogan more than the other two. I do wonder if this is because Frank and Powell’s tales are much shorter so their storylines weren’t as complex. Hogan’s tale had the most memorable ending for me due to its hard-hitting nature. To say all these tales came from a publication with romance in the title I did wonder whether they would be more of a love story than an action packed western but this wasn’t the case. Yes, all the tales have some element of romance but they are traditional westerns filled with twisting plots and plenty of gunplay. On the strength of these four stories, I’ll certainly be on the lookout for more work by all the authors.

I have quite a few western pulps and my enjoyment of this one has me eager to read some more as they certainly contain some first-class western entertainment. 

It would be remiss for me not to add some further comments about the Huffaker novelette, Holdup at Stony Flat. This would later become a full-length novel under the title of Badman which was published in 1958, the year after it first appeared in its original shorter form. Later, in 1962, Huffaker wrote a screenplay based on Badman and in 1967 the film The War Wagon was released, directed by Burt Kennedy, it starred John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. Later publications of the book saw it have a name change to The War Wagon. 

Although I have the full-length book version, I’ve never read it, so what has been added to lengthen the tale I couldn’t say. It’s also been many years since I saw the film and I don’t remember much about it, but from what I can gather it differs quite significantly after the opening scene which closely portrays the start of the original short-story.

Exciting Western, June/July 1960

British Edition Vol. 5  - #7

Contents:

Coon Hunter by Ben Frank

     Gummy Wilson always figured nothing was trickier than a coon – till he met up with a killer and a spunky red-haired gal.

An Old Cold Trail by H.A. DeRosso

     Ernie had paid for his crime, and figured it was time now for someone else to do a little paying.

Freight-Line Killer by Garold Hartsock

     Keen wits are sometimes better than blazing guns to trip a killer.

Purple Whisky by Frank Scott York

     Lou Fox knew all about redeye but – Purple Whisky – was a bay horse of a different colour!

Featured Novelette:

The Killer Sheriff by George Kilrain

     To young Hod Wesley, a lawman was only as big as his gun was fast. He had to learn that it took a bigger man not to use a gun at all.

Published before I was born, this pulps’ stories are written by writers that are mainly unknown to me. I say mainly because I do recognised one of the above names, that of H.A. DeRosso. So I approach these pulps with an open mind, not having any idea as to what to expect.

I think this is the first pulp where I’ve actually read all the stories from beginning to end. I found them all to be of a fairly consistent quality, and not to heavy on the ‘old West lingo’ I often find difficult to make sense of without having to re-read the sentences. I was also surprised to find that two of these stories, Coon Hunter, and Purple Whisky, contain a lot of humour, in fact the latter is a comedy out right.

Did I have a favourite story in this issue? Yes, two in fact, that are both very different to each other, these being Purple Whisky and An Old Cold Trail. The story I liked least was the featured novelette: The Killer Sheriff.

The great thing about these old pulps is that I find them a great way to try authors new to me, and I often discover one or two that I’d like to read more by. In this case there are three I’ll be hunting through my collection to see if I have more by them, these being Ben Frank, H.A. DeRosso, and Frank Scott York. If anyone has any info on the first and third of these then please add it to comments.