COWBOY illustrations

I've never been a fan of Louis L'Amour books, but my father has a big stack of them given to him by the wife of a deceased friend. I think over the years dad has probably read all of them, but has no interest in me buying more of them. These days he's a big fan of Craig Johnson's Longmire series, a pseudo western. When my dad finishes reading a book he always hands it to me, no matter if I'm interested in it or not. I am the repository of books. I still say that anyone could walk into my home and find at least one book they'd like to read.

These three books were stuck in a paper bag of books I'd taken off a bookshelf when some new windows were installed last year. Yes, it's taken me this long to get the bookshelf back in place and start sorting the books. This time I'm going through and picking out stuff that will not go back on the shelf. Mind you, it's hard for me to get rid of a book. I love books, but then I'd have to since I make my living creating them.


1979 edition. Click on image to see it larger. 

What first struck me about one of these is how much one face looks like a friend's husband. Now, that would seem highly unlikely, except for the fact that he was an actor who did appear in several westerns. So maybe, just maybe, the illustrator was working from a photo of him. I've sent the image along to my friend to see what she thinks.


1985 edition. Click on image to see it larger. 

No information is ever given about the illustrators of these books, which to me is a shame. Just a brief callout on the copyright page would be nice. I'd like to be able to compare images they've done. It sort of boggles the mind how many illustrations have been done for paperbacks since their inception. Artists cranking out one cover after another, but still giving their best. A lot was riding on these illustrations, no pun intended. Point of purchase sale was the most important element behind what finally got chosen. Did the illustration capture something that would make a buyer stop and become a reader?


1979 edition. Click on image to see it larger. 

Will I toss these books as I put the shelves back together? Probably not. I'll never read them, but I do like the covers.

BUCKAROOS AND BUCKARETTES

Do you have memories of riding the range though you never left your neighborhood? You might have been a buckaroo or buckarette.

Do you remember thinking you could vanquish the bad guys with a song in your heart and a six-gun on your hip? You might have been a buckaroo or buckarette.

Do you remember singing Happy Trails and knowing all the words? You might have been a buckaroo or buckarette.

Introducing the latest volume in the Tattered and Lost series of vintage snapshot books available at Amazon. Tattered and Lost: Buckaroos and Buckarettes should easily fill that void of forgotten memories when all kids dreamt of joining their heroes Roy, Gene, Hoppy, and Annie. You'll smile, you'll laugh, you'll wonder how you ever lost the dream.

Need a special gift for someone? Tattered and Lost: Buckaroos and Buckarettes might just be what you're looking for. Sure to start conversations for people of any age.

104 pages with 94 photos, available at Amazon. Photos from the early part of the 20th Century through the early 1960s.

Jackass falling off A JACKASS

This old linen post card was mailed by my father to my mother in December 1944. The card was mailed from Orem, Utah. My mother was in Harrisburg, Pennyslvania. The following March they would marry. I do not believe the sentiment on this card is the only thing that brought them together.

Click on image to see it larger.

With GUNS ABLAZIN'...

I found this really really tattered book in a junk store, or maybe it was in the trash, a long time ago and always loved it. B-movie Western indeed. As I took it off the shelf to scan, it fell apart. This cowpoke is on his last legs. His repeater ain't goin' to be repeatin' for long.

Click on the dude to see him blazin' his guns even bigger.

The author, Lee Floren, was a slightly prolific writer in the Western genre, though apparently not a good one. He also had a penchant for writing bad soft-porn under the name Matt Harding. To see an example of his writing, if you aren't convinced that such a cheesy cover wasn't for a bad two-bit novelist, click here to see a complete story in the June 29, 1952 The Deseret News Magazine out of Salt Lake City, Utah (and yes, that's the correct spelling). Happy reading!

As to the company that published this gem:

Hillman Periodicals

Hillman Periodicals was an American magazine and comic book publishing company founded in 1938 by Alex L. Hillman, a former New York City book publisher. It is best known for its true confession and true crime magazines; for the long-running general-interest magazine Pageant; and for comic books including Air Fighters Comics and its successor Airboy Comics, which launched the popular characters Airboy and The Heap.

Founding

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Hillman competed with Bernarr Macfadden and Fawcett Publications by publishing comics, true confessions magazines (Real Story, Real Confessions, Real Romances) and crime magazines (Crime Detective, Real Detective, Crime Confessions).

In 1948 Hillman began publishing paperback books. There were several series of abridged mystery and western novels published in the larger 'digest' size. The long running Hillman paperbacks first appeared in 1948 and lasted until 1961.

Pageant and Airboy

In 1944, Hillman launched a digest-sized, general-interest, "slick" (glossy paper) magazine, Pageant, with an initial print run of 500,000 copies. To obtain the paper during World War II wartime rationing, Hillman ended his detective magazines and comics, which together brought in a $250,000 annual profit. He returned to comics in 1946, resuming some titles from the earlier series.

Like most comic book publishers during the period fans and historians called the Golden Age of comic books, Hillman's titles included costumed superheroes. As trends in the comic book market changed, the focus shifted more to crime fiction/detective stories (Crime Detective Comics, Real Clue Crime Stories), and Westerns (Dead-Eye Western Comics and Western Fighters). Hillman's most notable character, continuing in new stories by another publisher, Eclipse Comics, in the 1980s, was the aviator-adventurer Airboy in Air Fighters Comics and its successor, Airboy Comics.

Later years

Hillman ceased publishing comic books in 1953, while continuing to launch such new magazines as Homeland and People Today, while also distributing Freeman, a journal of right-wing opinion. Amid a 1953 battle for control of directors and editors, Hillman announced his resignation as the Freeman treasurer because "it has been almost impossible for the past six months to run the magazine".

The following year, Hillman said he was thinking about launching a "conservative Republican" morning newspaper in Washington, D.C., but nothing came of it.

Hillman sold Pageant to Bernarr Macfadden Macfadden in April 1961, and the magazine continued until 1977.

Alex L. Hillman

Publisher Alex L. Hillman was a noted art collector who initially developed an interest in the field when he was a book publisher, commissioning artists to illustrate new editions of classic literature. He was married to Rita Hillman. He began his collection with such American painters as Raphael Soyer and Preston Dickenson, and expanded it to included impressionist and other painters. He eventually established the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, a private foundation in Manhattan, to oversee the collection. Gary A. Reynolds, curator of the Alex Hillman Family Foundation, died July 23, 1990 at the age of 40. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

I've always hoped I'd find other books in the series because it's just so hokey, type and all. So far, nada.