WESTERN STORY - October 1953

 

WESTERN STORY
British Edition, October 1953, Vol. VIII, No. 10
Atlas Publications
Cover art by Norman Saunders

From the March 1953 issue the British Edition of Street & Smith’s Western Story Magazine had a name change to Western Story on the front cover and spine but the inside named it as Western Story Magazine. The October 1953 issue is subtitled incorporating Star Western Magazine. All the stories and cover art are taken from the American June 1953 issue of Star Western Magazine, which you can see below. 

This issue opens with the novelette Rough, Tough – and Kissable! by Art Lawson. I’ve not read anything by this author before so was keen to give him a go. Drifter Hugh Warden finds himself mistaken for an Association man brought in to investigate cattle rustling. Warden denies this is who he is, saying he’s just passing through on the way to his niece’s wedding, but is he telling the truth? Whilst in the area Warden gets himself involved with two very different women; one who’s tough and seems to want to kill him, and the other being a homely girl a man could settle down with. Art Lawson has created some great characters for this story that contains some lively action scenes and includes some neat twists to the tale – even if I did see a couple of them coming. Of course, Warden gets the girl at the end, but which one? Sorry, I can’t give that away here as it would be a major spoiler. On the strength of this story, I would read Lawson again. 

Next comes another novelette One Hell of a Blonde by Frank P. Castle. Iris arrives to lay claim to Bob Drummond’s ranch, saying it’s hers even though he has the deeds for it. Iris is not the only problem Drummond has. His neighbouring rancher, Sellers, wants his ranch too, and is trying all kinds of dirty tricks to get it. Why he wants it is anyone’s guess, and the author keeps the reason a secret until the very end, thus ensuring I kept turning the pages. This is only my second read of a story by Castle, and like the last one, I enjoyed it a lot. The mystery element, cracking dialogue, well described fight scenes, and some later surprises made this a memorable tale.  

The Devil’s Daughter by Will Cook is the first short story. A wagon train is heading across the mountains as winter snows threaten to cut them off. Elder Mercy won’t listen to advice and also orders a pregnant woman, Victoria, who’s been rescued from the Arapahoe, one of whom is her baby’s father, to be cast out into the snows to perish for having been with a heathen. One man, Mel Holden, stands up for her and ends up leaving the train with her. Soon the wagons are in difficulty and Mercy has to ask Holden for help if any of them are to survive. Will Holden help a man who can banish people and leave them to die without a second thought? Cook’s story raises some interesting questions and I enjoyed seeing how they would be dealt with. I did feel it was a shame the story wasn’t longer so they could be explored in more depth. As it was, I found the tale to be a satisfactory read. 

When Olga was old enough to be courted, one rough-handed suitor brought her a box of candy, a second brought her a ring, and a third – and the gentlest – six .45 bullets! This is the blurb for the next short story, Bride for an Outlaw Bride! by Frances H. Ames. It certainly had me intrigued enough to want to read this story. The three men arrive within minutes of each other at Olga’s home on her sixteenth birthday to ask, or take, her as a wife. Olga’s parents get them all to sit down for a meal that is filled with tension that threatens to erupt into violence. This it does, although that happens outside the house and the victor claims Olga. This is the second story I’ve read by this Ames and I enjoyed it as much as the previous one. His ability to build suspense is excellent and his fight scenes are well written. I look forward to reading more of his work soon.

The last tale is another short story, Girl of Outlaw Valley by Theodore J. Roemer. A girl, Rita, is taken from a stagecoach during a robbery. The gang leader, Quant, wants her for himself so decides to take her to their hideout. Already having a woman waiting there for him, he tells one of the gang members who hates women to pretend the stolen girl is his, as Quant knows his woman will kill both him and the girl if she suspects anything. Quant aims to come to Carlson’s cabin one night and take Rita. I’ve not read anything by Roemer before and I will say he certainly knows how to build an air of impending doom. The fear Rita feels comes over strongly. As the story progresses, I was soon wondering if Carlson would protect the girl, especially as it seems she knows who he really is and why he hates women so much. Everything comes together in an exciting moment of violence that brought the story to an end I expected. Roemer’s tale finished this issue of Western Story with another entertaining read. 

As you’ll see from the cover art below of the original Star Western publication it shouts Big Romances of the West above the title. That statement is a little misleading as there isn’t any more romance in these stories than can be found in other western pulps. I guess the only thing it tells you is that someone is going to end up riding into the sunset with the female lead. In such short stories I’m always amazed how people that have never met each other before so readily commit themselves to each other and fall in love so quickly without really knowing anything about the other person. Due to this I often find the falling in love elements a little hard to believe, but I can look past that and enjoy these pulps for what they are. 

Overall, this issue of Western Story was very readable and I enjoyed all the stories with Frank P. Castle’s tale being my favourite. 

Street & Smith's WESTERN ADVENTURE - Feb. 1957

 

Street & Smith’s WESTERN ADVENTURE
British Edition, February 1957, Vol. 1, No. 8
Cover art by H.W. Scott

As far as I can tell, most, if not all, the stories published in the 43 issues of the British pulp Street & Smith’s Western Adventure were originally published in the American pulp Street & Smith’s Western Story, of which there were over 2,000 editions. 

The cover art was altered a bit for the British pulp but this is restricted to the text so a new title could be incorporated. I’ve included an image of the original at the end of this review, with a list of the story titles and notes on where they were first published – as you’ll see they don’t all come from a single issue of Western Story.

All of the yarns in the February 1957 edition are short stories, all seven or eight pages in length. Also mixed in are five columns; Where to Go and How to Get There by John North, Mines and Mining by J.A. Thompson, Range Savvy by H. Fredric Young, Guns and Gunners by Phil Sharpe, The Roundup – author unknown. 

The opening story is Doomed Cargo by Norman A. Fox. This is a tale about a young riverboat deck sweeper who learns how to stand-up for himself when he finds the courage and initiative, he didn’t know he had, to thwart an attempt to steal the riverboat’s cargo and kill everyone onboard. I’ve only read a couple of other stories by Fox, and this is the most enjoyable so far, perhaps because I like riverboat tales.  

Hot-Lead Headliners by John Colohan is next. I’ve not read anything by him before so was interested to sample his work. The story involved committing murder to cover up a previous killing. A drunk newspaper man overhears the bad guys plotting this new assassination attempt and knows he must do something to stop it happening. How he does this adds intrigue to the tale. Colohan also has a neat surprise waiting to be revealed at the end. Colohan’s tale proved to be a fun read. 

Track Treachery by E.C. Lincoln is set in modern times and is about horse racing. Why would a leading horse suddenly turn and head to the side of the track and thus lose the race? I was intrigued enough to want to know the answer to that question so I struggled through the story to find out. The writing style didn’t click with me and I very nearly gave up with it. I probably would have done so had it been any longer. 

After the disappointing pervious story, I was hoping that Murder Gun by B. Bristow Green would be better and I got my wish. This is a bank robbery tale where an innocent stranger to town gets accused of being one of the hold-up men. His capture leads to a make-shift court being set up that provides some tense scenes and a neat twist. I’ve never read anything by B. Bristow Green before and this story left me eager to explore more of his work.  

Easy Does It by C.K. Shaw is the first of three stories she wrote that featured Windy Bill Wicks. I’ve seen a note saying that this tale was originally published as East Does It, but I think the U.K. title is correct as Wicks is told to take things easy more than once. In fact, the opening words are “Easy Windy.” The story is written in the first person and involves two sets of ranch hands at loggerheads with each other over a couple of slashed saddles and a knife that is found beside them. Of course, the knife owner says it wasn’t him and the knife was stolen. Proving this is what the story is about. This was another difficult to read tale due to its old-fashioned style. It was an ok story but didn’t make me want to read the other Windy Bill tales or any more of Chloe Kathleen Shaw work.

The next story was much better than the previous one. White Water Run by Hugh B. Cave is about a Mountie tracking down a murderer. It contains some gripping scenes of canoe travel through treacherous waters, surprises and a neat twist to the end. This was by far my favourite story in this issue of Western Adventure. 

The final tale is Dead Man’s Horse by J. Lane Linklater in which a man has to make a choice of whether to hinder or help the law. Whichever way he chooses will mean a change to the way of life he has known which sees his word ruling the lives of those that live in and near Quiet Gulch. People can be safe there, whether good or bad as long as there aren’t any killings. Then a body is found… Linklater’s story is fast-paced and gripping and even though events play out as I expected I still found it to be a fun read.

For me, this issue of Western Adventure proved to be a patchy read in terms of quality of storytelling but the good far outweighed the bad. I’d only read stories by one of the authors before (Norman A. Fox) and have now added a couple more authors to my want to read more of list. 

Doomed Cargo by Norman A. Fox – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, January 1941

Hot-Lead Headlines by John Colohan – original publication unknown

Track Treachery by E.C. Lincoln – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, January 1941

Murder Gun by B. Bristow Green – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, December 1942

Easy Does It by C.K. Shaw – Street & Smith’s Western Story, December 1942 

White Water Run by Hugh B. Cave – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, February 1942

Dead Man’s Horse by J. Lane Linklater – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, February 1942

WESTERN STORY - March 1949

WESTERN STORY

British Edition, Vol. VI, No.5

Atlas Publishing, March 1949

Cover art by William R. Leigh

This publication of Street & Smith’s Western Story is a partial reprint of the American issue from September 1948. The UK version first appeared in 1939 and continued, with slight changes to its title, until 1961. By my count, there were 167 issues. 

We start with the short story Light Up Your Six-Gun by Ralph Yergen. He’s a new author to me who wrote just over 100 stories for the western pulps. This quick paced yarn is about a cigar salesman, Horatio Oberlander Holyoke, who finds one of his best customers, Blaine, in jail accused of murder. Holyoke sets out to prove Blaine is innocent. Whist doing so, we find that Holyoke is very handy with a gun. Holyoke has to save himself from a death trap and the explanation of how he realized he was in grave danger is linked to his profession and that put a grin on my face. I also laughed out loud at the final line of the story, that even though I knew it was coming, I still found it funny. This was a very readable tale that left me wondering if Holyoke appeared in any of Yergen’s other stories cos I’d certainly like to read them if he did.

Peter Dawson’s novella, Retribution River, is next. Dawson is a pseudonym used by Jonathan H. Glidden, who had over 100 stories published in the pulps. His story is a land grab tale. A ranch owning banker, Cavendish, decides he wants more land and sets about driving other ranchers away. The main character is Pete Sarran and he teams up with another couple of men who’ve been driven out. Riding with them is a man named Brazos who none of them know. Brazos talks them into getting back at Cavendish by robbing his bank. The raid doesn’t go according to plan and Brazos rides off with the loot. Sarran was right to mistrust Brazos and sets out to find the double-crosser and there’s a surprise waiting for him when he does track down his quarry. I’ve not read many stories by Glidden, but I’ve enjoyed the handful I have, and Retribution River was just as good as any of them, even though it did have a predictable plot. 

Another novella follows, Mavericks of Moonrock Range by Rod Patterson, who is another author I haven’t read before. Patterson had over 200 stories published in western pulps. Patterson pulled me into his tale immediately with questions that needed answers. Clyde Desbrow sees a note in a newspaper telling him to return to his father’s ranch by a specific date if he wants to claim his inheritance. What he finds at the ranch shocks him but he intends to sort out the wrongs he sees happening in his home. Patterson’s writes well, his prose creating a dark tone to a story filled with tense scenes and intrigue. I can’t really say anymore without spoiling it other than to say I wasn’t a fan of the nick-of-time ending which made me think the author did this as he was running out of pages. This story, for me, would have been much better longer with a bit more explanation as to why certain characters did what they did. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this tale a lot and am eager to read more of Patterson’s work.

Next we have a novelette by Wayne D. Overholser called The Long Haul. Overholser had just over 400 western tales under his own name and a more under a variety of pseudonyms published in western pulps. The Long Haul tells the tale of a decision lawman Lance Gregg has to make: does he take in a wanted man as the law says he should or let him go out in a blaze of glory taking down other outlaws? That’s all there is to the plot, but it was enough to keep me turning the pages to see which choice Gregg would make. The tales ends with a swift shootout that brings everything to a satisfactory conclusion.

Walt Coburn’s Guns Across the Rio Grande is a novella that tells the story of The Rio Kid who has been falsely accused of murdering a Texas Ranger. The Ranger’s Captain, Jess Clayton, doesn’t believe the Kid, whose real name is Carlos McCarty, is the killer. Clayton helps the Kid escape from jail and then they set out to track down and bring to justice the real murderer which involves a cattle drive to tempt some rustlers to steal the herd. This is a fast paced read that includes some great action scenes. I enjoyed reading it, even though it was obvious how things would turn out. I did have to take my time with some of the speech as Coburn writes it as his characters say it, for example the Mexican Pepe says “Por Dios, ees een my blood to be a gon fighter!” I do find this kind of writing adds flavour to these stories so it’s welcomed by me if not excessively done as it can really slow a story down if you have to re-read it to understand what is being said. Coburn was a popular author for the western pulps and had around 800 stories published in them.  

The last tale is a novella by Michael Trent called Badlands Showdown. Trent had nine stories published across a variety of western pulps so is probably the least known of the authors featured in this issue of Western Story. Jim Dunstan, foreman of the Aurora Land & Cattle Company is determined to bring an end to the rustling in the area. Trouble is, it seems a friend is passing on information to the gang of outlaws which, as distasteful as exposing who this will be, Dunstan sums it up by saying “Guilt and friendship don’t go together.” In such a short story it was easy to work out who the bad guy was and who would get the girl, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this story. 

This British issue of Western Story also includes the poem Chuckwagon Menu by S. Omar Barker and the very short column Range Savvy by Gene King, neither of which struck a chord with me.

This pulp magazine also contains a bit of information about cover artist William R. Leigh telling us he was an author as well as an artist. Leigh wrote short stories on Indian life that appeared in a variety of American magazines. The story The Western Pony both written and illustrated by Leigh was named as one of the fifty best books of 1933 by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Overall, I thought this was a good issue of Western Story as I enjoyed all the stories it contained. 

WESTERN STORY - January 1958

WESTERN STORY January 1958

British Edition Vol. 13, No. 1

The four tales within this issue of the British Edition of Western Story were all originally published in the American pulp Star Western Vol. 49, No.2 published in July 1950. The covers of both of these pulps share the same foreground characters in different settings and the girl also has a hair colour change. I’ve posted the Star Western cover below.

The opening story, which is billed as the featured novelette, is Siren of Shamrock Ranch by Joseph Chadwick. Chadwick’s tale held my attention throughout as the outcast Kincaid attempts to prove a man set to hang is innocent by finding the real killer.
Kincaid has received a letter from an unknown party asking him to help. Half a thousand-dollar bill is included with the letter too, with the promise of the other half when he finds the real killer. Kincaid’s investigations are complicated by two young ladies who seem to hate each other and his feelings for them.
Siren of Shamrock Ranch was a fun read spoiled by the publisher’s inclusion of a line drawing at the beginning of the story that gives away the identity of the bad guy, although it does capture a scene from the tale well.

Next comes the first of three short stories, although why Worth Her Weight in Bullets! By Bob Obets is referred to as a short story when it’s two pages longer than the featured novelette I’m not sure – in Star Western it is called a novelette. This is a tale of a partnership welded by blood spilled in battle and endless cruel days on the trail that becomes strained when both Tom McCabe and Turk Buckley fall for the same nester girl, which will see them on opposite sides in a cattle rustling plot.
I wasn’t as keen on this story as the previous tale, as it seemed to take forever to get to the meat of the story and I did contemplate giving up on it after a few pages. Worth Her Weight in Bullets! ended as expected.

Girl Gun-Guard for the Devil! by Clifton Adams is a fast-paced short story about Morry Rockland who had sworn to kill a man and was within inches of doing so when he met the lush and tempting woman who, in her turn, had sworn the hunted killer must not die.

This was easily my favourite tale within this issue of Western Story as both Rockland and the girl have valid reasons to either kill or defend Jay Holland, and the story becomes a battle of wills.

The last tale, The Girl from Boothill by Francis H. Ames, is about a man searching for his brother’s killer. He hopes to find the truth in Pima Valley’s Boar’s Nest and conceals his identity behind a pseudonym. Trouble is a waitress recognizes him, although she keeps this to herself, but there is always the fear she will expose him for who he really is. Things are soon complicated by another young woman and there are some shocks to uncover about his brother. Everything is resolved neatly in a swift shootout.

The only author in this collection that I’ve read before is Clifton Adams. Of the others, Chadwick and Ames entertained me enough to want to read more by them. Obets’ story didn’t grab me enough to make me want to search out more of his work.

Overall, this was an entertaining enough pulp that is worth reading if you can find a copy.

Gunsmoke

By T.T. Flynn
Leisure, October 2009

The Mexicans call him Ponchito, Little Mild One. Buckshot Bledsoe knows the six-foot, scar-faced, blue-eyed man named Jim Tennant may look calm on the outside, but he’s burning with vengeance inside. Buckshot’s counting on that need for retribution to convince Jim to come back to San Angelo. Things there are bad and only getting worse. But to save the town, reclaim his lost love, and clear his name, Jim will have to face down the very men who came so close to killing him the first time—and he may not be lucky enough to survive twice.

Contents:
Dead Man Deputy First appeared in Western Story - 01/04/1941
Lodeville First appeared in Star Western – 08/1937 – as Lodeville Calls a Gun-Doctor
Shadow First appeared in Adventure Magazine – 07/23/1926
The Trail to Monterey First appeared in Fifteen Western Tales – 05/1945 – as Guns of the Lobo Trail

Before each story Leisure have included information about T.T. Flynn, for instance about his marriage to Mary C. DeRene, and, of course, about his life as a writer and how each of the four stories in Gunsmoke came about, even saying how much he was paid for a couple of them.

T.T. Flynn packs a lot into these short stories, meaning they are fast moving tales filled with action. His descriptions of both people and settings are second to none. He also uses a lot of dialogue, and it’s this that gives away the age of these tales, as there is a lot more ‘cowboy lingo’ than you’d expect to find in a western written today - not that this type of language is detrimental to this excellent collection of stories.

The first two stories fall into the traditional western category, involving revenge, rustling, stampedes and gold mining. Both these tales have touches of mystery, for instance who is the wounded stranger who arrives in Lodeville. The first story also has a superbly drawn bad guy who also seems to be one step ahead of the hero, Jim Tennant. The fourth story is set during the Mexican war and has a twisting storyline that keeps the reader – and it’s heroes – wondering just what is going on. This story also has the strongest female role.

But it is the third tale that was the standout story for me. This is set around the railroad, and involves a hardworking father of twelve who gets fired due to being drunk whilst celebrating the birth of triplets. Flynn really creates a wonderful feeling of hopelessness for this man as his world comes crashing down. The main element of the plot is a horrific fire in one of the railroad’s buildings during a snowstorm, and it’s how different men react to this that comes across so strongly, the story becoming an exceptional study of human character.

Never having read anything by T.T. Flynn before, I can definitely say, that on the strength of these four stories, I’ll be hunting through my collection of old western pulps for more of his work very soon, and checking Leisure’s back catalogue for more of his books.

Gunsmoke should hit the shelves on October 1st, although it seems to be available from Internet booksellers now.