EXCITING WESTERN - August 1954

EXCITING WESTERN

British Edition, Vol. III, No. 7

Atlas Publishing, August 1954

This issue of Exciting Western contains five stories, all taken from the American edition of July 1948. Of the eight tales that are in the America version, only five made it into the British edition. None of the American columns, articles or the quiz appear either, and the only illustration to make it is for the lead story in the British publication, Outside the Law, which was drawn by C.A. Murphy. The cover art is the same, although it is presented in a different way – I’ve included this at the end of the review.

The opening novelette is Outside the Law by Jackson Cole. This is one of the fifty Navajo Tom Raine: Arizona Ranger tales that appeared in Exciting Western. The real author behind the pseudonym of Jackson Cole is unknown to me.

Raine is in town to take a vacation, a few days of fishing is what he’s looking forward to. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t how things work out as a number of people believe he’s come to town to track down the missing Gordon Meade. Does the town boss, Stephen Waldron have something to do with his disappearance? He certainly wants to stop the growing romance between his daughter and Meade. Waldron has also posted a reward for Meade’s capture as he says Meade is a rustler. Raine reluctantly finds himself sorting this mess out, having to use his brains and guns to do so and a neat trick with the reward money brings the tale to a close on a happy note. This ending was a little too perfect for my taste, particularly as one person seemed to have a sudden change of temperament to allow this to happen.

This was the first time I’ve read a Navajo Raine story and I liked his character enough to want to read more, something I hope to do soon.

Trigger Trouble in Tejon by W.C. Tuttle is the next novelette and this features his range detectives Tombstone and Speedy who are trying to patch up a range feud and solve a rustling puzzle. Tombstone and Speedy don’t seem to be the brightest pair of sleuths to ride the range, but their conversations were always fun, as was their explanation for being in the area; to count horned toads for the government. There’s a couple of well-written action scenes, and I especially enjoyed the outcome of a fight in a hotel room. It’ll come as no surprise that they crack the case, more by luck than judgement. This was an entertaining story that left me looking forward to reading more tales about Tombstone and Speedy, or other stories by Tuttle. 

The first short story is Hymns for Hell’s Basin by Robert J. Hogan. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Hogan so far and this tale is no exception. Under the spell of a girl’s smile, cussin’ cowpoke Johnny Rand helps a passel of nesters find new homes. Pastor Freeman and his flock have a grant from the Government giving them permission to stake a claim to an area of land for their new homes. Trouble is the local townsfolk and cattlemen want that land for their own use and begin staking their own claims to the land, which is all legal according to a lawyer. Rand has to think fast to stop all the promised land being taken. All this because one of the female members of the wagon train showed some interest in him, something no girl has done before. The story didn’t end quite how I expected but it was a fitting conclusion to this tale.

Louis Dearborn LaMoore is much better known as Louis L’Amour and he also wrote stories under the name of Jim Mayo. The final two short stories in this issue of Exciting Western both come from him, one as L’Amour and the other as Mayo. 

There’s Always a Trail by Jim Mayo is about a drifter who had a gun job to do before he could settle down and grow roots. This drifter tells people his name is Handy, but it’s obvious that this is a pseudonym to hide his real identity and that his true name will be discovered at some point. Handy says he’ll track down some outlaws and retrieve the money they stole in exchange for half-ownership of a ranch, even though he’s told the robbers haven’t left a trail to follow. Handy soon proves them wrong and tracks the outlaws and everything ends with an exciting gunfight. 

The last story is The Nester and the Piute by Louis L’Amour. For such a short story (it’s only five pages long), L’Amour packs a lot in making this yarn a gripping read. This tale is told in the first person through a young man who decides to follow Bin Morley as he tracks a Piute whose done him a wrong. Quite what that crime is, isn’t revealed until the very end and that left with a big grin on my face. 

All the stories in this issue of Exciting Western are well written and easily held my attention. L’Amour’s tales contained the most gunplay but all had intriguing plotlines that engaged my imagination and kept me reading in a need to know how they ended. Overall, I found this to be a very good collection of stories that kept me entertained throughout. 

THE OUTLAW HERD

 

THE OUTLAW HERD

By Peter Field

Cover art by John Duillo

Pocket Books, February 1976

Originally published by Jefferson House, 1962 

Crusty, outspoken Ma Russell was in deep trouble. Killer Cagle had shot down her foreman in a saloon brawl. Her husband was up north with a busted leg, and Ma wanted to drive a herd of cattle across a thousand miles of wild, strange mountains. Without proper help she’d never make it, so Pat Stevens and his sidekicks Sam and Ezra decided to ride along. But Cagle and his desperadoes had other ideas. They menaced the cattle drive all the rugged way until – in a final action-packed showdown – one of Peter Field’s best Westerns comes to a roaring climax.

This book is part of the long running Powder Valley western series that began in 1934 and finished in 1967 and saw 80+ books published. Originally put out by Morrow before Jefferson House took over, all the books were published as hardbacks. They were later republished as paperbacks.

Peter Field is a pseudonym shared by a number of authors, the first of which was Francis Thayer Hobson. Other authors include Harry S. Drago, Davis Dresser, Fred East, and Robert J. Hogan. From the 35th book all the titles were written by Lucien W. Emerson. Emerson wrote The Outlaw Herd and it was the 76th entry into the series. It is the first Powder Valley western I’ve read.

I’ve never been a massive fan of cattle drive stories, but it had been a while since I’d read one so I decided to give The Outlaw Herd a chance. I needn’t have worried, as the cattle drive takes place over just a few pages with most of the book covering why the cattle drive was needed and where the cattle would come from. Also, there was the added complication of Cagle and his gang. These owlhoots also provided a mystery element to the tale as to the reason they were so interested in the Russell’s Spider ranch.

I got the impression that Stevens, Sam and Ezra are the main characters of the series, although there was little backstory revealed about them, or Powder Valley for that matter. I also noticed that Emerson rarely shares his characters thoughts – I only learned what they were thinking when they decided to explain something to other characters. This allowed the author to spring a couple of surprises without me having any idea they were coming. 

None of the characters really stood out to me. I’m still not sure what to make of Stevens as he seems too good to be true. He certainly never seems to doubt himself. Some of the plot stretched my belief somewhat, such as the acquisition of the outlaw herd. I’m not sure a rustler would hand over a herd on a promise of payment once the cattle had been sold to someone he didn’t know. This did add an extra element to the end of the story where Stevens came over as wearing a whiter than white hat. The story did move forward at a fair clip. It contains lots of dialogue, mainly threats and bluster. There’s not a lot of gunplay or other action. The blurb promised ‘a final action-packed showdown’ but that didn’t seem to happen. Yes, there was a shootout involving rustlers and a posse, but it was over fairly quickly and didn’t bring the story to an end as there were more plot threads to tie up before the close of the tale.

I realize I’ve said quite a few negative things about this book, but none of them put me off reading it. The main plotline was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages, as were a couple of subplots, such as how the relationship between the constantly bickering young cowboy and the Russell’s daughter would turn out, even though it was easy enough to work out. Steven’s plan to sneak off under the noses of Cagle and his gang was well done too.

Would I read another Powder Valley western on the strength of this one? Yes, probably, but maybe not for a while. I do think it would be interesting to read how some of the other authors behind the pseudonym tell their stories about Stevens, Sam and Ezra, especially those written by Robert J. Hogan and Fred East as I’ve always enjoyed their work.

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.