So, this morning I was headed to Lacrosse, WI. to unload and was heading back to the castle here and I get distracted when I don't have anywhere to go right away; I stop at a antique mall It's one I stop at cause its easy to park at and I have gotten pulps there before. But nothing turns up, a few Colliers and a Liberty, I'm trying to stay with pulps as I like the stories better. The art in the slicks(Colliers) is pretty cool I have to admit, but that's another story, so to speak! On down the main drag to my hacienda and I know there is another older store down the road that I drive on every single week and its always closed, I mean its been 10 years going back and forth past that place, never, ever open. Its Memorial Day weekend and I think, yeah, if anytime its now. WOW, yup, by god its got an open sign out front of the joint! Some of you may know that I drive a 80 foot long red monstrosity that's friggin' hard to park, but I ain't missing this guy being open, not in your life. I park it on the side of the highway as far as it will fit and not be in the ditch, put the flashers on and go in. Pretty cool when there is a very large stash of Life and Look and Colliers, and American Boy and just a huge bunch of magazines in the first row. Got to be some pulps here, hey? Well, the first thing I see is 2, foot high stacks of Railroad pulps, neat, but not my thing. Next to them is the above stack of 7 nice westerns 30's and 40's! Right on top is the Fifteen Western Tales, great cover by Robert Stanley I think, would have bought it in the day. I love interior art in these Popular Pulps, like this:
The art could be Gerald McCann, who had a very nice style and a excellent design sense. Any time I can score a Masked Rider pulp is a good day for me, and it'll rise to the top of my pile of reads, very fine cover probably by George Rosen, kinda dark figures seems to be his color choice. You can double click on the group shot and see his signed one on the Western Romances, I like the equal opportunity covers for the Romance titles.
This is the first time I've turned up any Dell Pulps,in the real world, the WR and the All Western are both by them and look like interesting reads, I mean the WR has a Anthony M. Rud Story, the guy wrote everything from SF to Romance and was an editor also! I love the trimmed edges lots easier to page though and looks better to me. Still, got to have a place in your head for the rough edges too, a true pulp!
Seems to me the earlier pulps like the All Western and the copy of West, both from the 30's had less interesting art, but the stories are such Golden Age greats, that is,it doesn't matter! More on the stories in part 2 of this and when I get to reading them.
West has a great cover, very different from the others and striking to me, would have glommed on to that right away, and really the stories look like great reads too! I have not done any research on these yet, so will be checking them out over the next few days for info. The Star Western claims to have 6 complete novels and its less than 100 pages,(Was issues) about 15 to 18 pages each! Cool! Let's close with a interior from Star Western, another McCann pen and ink.
Good stuff, just a fun find, how can you miss on this stuff? Anyone read any of these?