10 Story Western Magazine, July 1942
If you can avoid the Black Friday media blitz, Thanksgiving naturally offers an opportunity to reflect and, hopefully, look at things more deeply, with more thought, than usual. That in mind, I turned to a pulp I’ve been hoping to review since summer, the July 1942 issue of 10 Story Western Magazine, and after a cursory overview, went back and gave each entry the reading it deserves.
The Cover
I once took a design class where we sat around and stared at a given piece of art for two or three days, trying to divine every last possible bit of information from each stroke of the pen, each pass of the brush, each flaking dried stain of ancient patina. By the second day we were weaving stuff from the ether or pulling it straight from our butts, (”Oh, yes, I do so indeed see the ornate juxtaposition of impressionistic stipple with German expressionist shadow to achieve an emphasis on naturalistic subject matter vis a vis the concept of time flowing in reverse.”) and, by the third day, brains dripping out our ears, we started to hallucinate. We not only said it, we actually believed what we said.
And sometime during the course of the semester, what we said and what we saw stopped being imaginary, and we learned to really stop.
And look at the art.
And really see what was going on.
Fast forward to now and 10 Story Western Magazine, its cover illustration deceptively innocuous, a more or less typical painted pulp style action scene.
At first glance.
There’s no hyperbolic headline, no over-the-top bannerific prose: a small two lines of type sorta clumsily declare “10 Fiction Bull’s Eyes,” and ten tiny targets quietly list the contents. Really, the cover is dominated by its illustration. Giving it the treatment I practiced in that design class carried me back to what it must have been like in the summer of ‘42, to glimpse the blistering red and dazzling gold at the newsstand, to grab up the thick, square bound treasure and to savor that painting, to take in the action as surely and completely as one of the written stories within.
Though the picture is frozen to the page, the slice of time here moves and tics through the milliseconds thanks to its gifted creator. As if by unwritten law, working artists during the Golden Age of pulp magazines and comic books didn’t get a byline. Some pushed for it, some signed their work unobtrusively, but most were unknown to anyone but the editor and the bank which cashed the all too meager checks. So it is here.
The hero wears red, and with no mask, he’s clearly differentiated from the villains, a bad news quartet with indistinct features. But he’s also minus a hat, which subtly lets us know we’re coming to a scene already in progress. The leader of the rannies doesn’t wear a mask, though his full face is also obscured by an eye patch –maybe he’s infamous for the patch. We know he’s the leader because he’s right up front, directly confronting the hero, but we also know that at core he’s a coward, allowing his second to mount the stage first, while he cautiously lays back, hat still securely tied around his chin.
As evidenced by the sandy hued background of rocky peaks, the surrounding area is desolate, probably deserted. Was the hero already aboard the B&G Stage when the two foreground characters launched their attack? Or did he come upon the malevolent action and jump in to lend a hand (or fist)? Either way, the first owlhoot seems surprised at a blow to the jaw. Even as he swings, the hero is fired upon by the leader (because he’s the hero, he wouldn’t shoot first –would he?) and returns fire almost simultaneously. Will the villain’s bullet strike home? And even if it doesn’t, and the villain drops away, look at the two desperadoes coming up close behind, riding fast as displayed by the cloud of dust surrounding them, already slinging lead.
It’s a cover that tells a story and, since it cannily isn’t made clear which interior piece it belongs with, makes you want to plunk down your dime and carry the book home.
Next Up: Man Branders of Dodge City, and more!
9 Responses to “10 Story Western Magazine, July 1942”
Laurie Powers - November 24, 2009
Beautiful post. The first time I think I’ve ever seen a pulp cover deconstructed. Love it! I want more!
Evan Lewis - November 24, 2009
Nice analysis. And – I see our hero is wearing chaps, which wouldn’t make much sense if he were the stage driver, guard or one of the passengers. And this is way up on top of the luggage rack, which is strangely free of luggage. So I’m thinking maybe he saw the guy in the Lone Ranger mask throwing bags off the stage, leaped like Yakima Canutt from his speeding steed and landed on top, losing his Stetson in the process (because real men don’t wear chinstraps).
Rich - November 24, 2009
Thanks, Laurie! Definitely more fun than water lilies!
Nice job, Dave. I second the chinstrap observation. It might be fun to host a short story challenge based on free-floating pulp covers (i.e.–illos that don’t otherwise have stories attached).
David Cranmer - November 24, 2009
Damn! Terrific evaluation.
Rich - November 24, 2009
Thanks, David. Much appreciated!
Charles Gramlich - November 24, 2009
Yes, I don’t think I’ve seen such a thorough analysis of a cover in a long time.
Walker Martin - November 25, 2009
I collect these old pulp westerns and Popular Publications had a policy of colorful covers with a distinct background in order to catch the newstand buyer’s eye. For instance Dime Western had yellow backgrounds, Star Western had a red background, 10 Story Western used yellow, etc. In fact I love these covers so much that I started to track down the original paintings that were used for the covers. Westerns have not been that popular for many years, so I was able to buy many for reasonable prices.
Rich - November 25, 2009
Thank you, Charles. Safe Thanksgiving travels.
Walker, I much appreciate this sort of info. Somewhere around here I still have a scrapbook where I pasted examples of the DC bullet and Marvel Comics logo from the respective company’s comics through the ’50s, ’60s, and into the ’70s.
When you do track down the original paintings, is it difficult to discover the actual artists?
Walker Martin - November 25, 2009
Often the paintings are unsigned and the magazine content’s page might not credit the artist, so then the artist is unknown. However, some pulp artists have very distinctive styles and I’ve learned to figure out the paintings of such top of the line artists like Walter Baumhofer, Norman Saunders, Raphael Desoto. This particular cover might be by Richard Lillis who lived a long life dying finally in the 1990’s at age 95. He did alot of pulp western paintings but has received very little notice among pulp collectors and scholars. However we can’t be absolutely sure if it’s Lillis without his signature or credit on the content’s page.
Comments are closed for this entry.