Saturday, December 03, 2011

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Aces, February 1942

I was in the mood for a Norman Saunders cover, because you know there'll always be plenty of action going on in one of those. That's certainly true here. The inside appears to have been a good issue, with a lead novel by J. Edward Leithead, one of my favorites, and stories by Gunnison Steele, Lee Bond, and Allen K. Echols, among other, more unfamiliar names. Leithead had quite a history with WESTERN ACES during the Forties, appearing in nearly every issue with stories under his own name and the pseudonym Wilson Covert. All the ones I've read have been very good, too.

3 comments:

Walker Martin said...

J. Edward Leithead wrote an article titled, "Twenty-Five Years of Glory" about his pulp writing career. It has been reprinted in PULP VAULT 14, which is available from Black Dog Books or Amazon.com. It's 11 pages long and goes into detail about the western pulps in the twenties and thirties.

PULP VAULT 14 has been called the "greatest single pulp fanzine issue", clocking in at over 260 pages and including Mike Ashley's excellent long article about the history of BLUE BOOK magazine. I highly recommend this issue.

James Reasoner said...

I read that Leithead article in its original appearance in TRUE WEST, I think it was. Years after it appeared in a copy I got off eBay, though. I'm glad it's been reprinted in PULP VAULT 14, which I just got this week. It's going to take me a while to work my way through it, but I second the recommendation. Looks like lots of great stuff in it.

beb said...

One of the things I've learned from printing pulp covers on my PEAPS contributions -- pulps sure loved the color red. It would always go out first on my ink cartridge. This cover is redder than usual!