Saturday 16 July 2011

THE BALLAD OF DELTA ROSE by Jack Martin


Delta Rose and his partner, Etta James, built up a small ranch together but the urge of wanderlust and the lure of making quick money to give them a life of luxury drew Delta away.
Twenty years later and he returns. The ranch is now prosperous and foreman Steve Carter is firmly in a precarious driving seat. He has high hopes for something to happen between him and Etta but Delta's arrival seems to be about to dash his hopes.
But not all is as it seems. Delta has a problem, a bullet lodged close to his heart put there by an English gambler who accused him of cheating.
Delta is coming home to say sorry and to die.
But he has a son he knows nothing about. Matt James is a bit of a chip off the old block and is on the run for a killing that he didn't do and a robbery that he did. After him is Maxwell King, a powerful rancher, whose money he stole and Sheriff Jake Masters with a posse.
Once again Jack Martin takes his ingredients and turns them into a tasty treat. Incident piles upon incident that gathers speed until justice is seen to be done.
If you haven't read Jack Martin then you have missed a treat.

And there is more from Jack Martin at the Pattinase blog - a link to which can be found in the side panel.

The Ballad of Delta Rose is a Black Horse Western that, officially, comes out at the end of July but can be purchased through the usual outlets.

Monday 11 July 2011

RAWHIDE


Every western had an annual and 'Rawhide' was no exception.
They ran from 1959 to 1964 or 5. The one pictured is 1960 and I, also, have the 1961 annual.
Published by Dean & Sons Ltd the stories were written by Bill Pembury with illustrations by Leo Rawlings. These were black and white with either red, orange, green or blue colouring.
The stories reflect the tv series in a way that they could have made for another season in their own right.
The first story 'The Brogan Brothers' has Gil Favor and Rowdy Yates riding into the town of Pittsville to find three drovers to replace a trio of men who have become sick. They are directed, amidst a load of laughter, to a shack at the end of town where three Irish Brogan brothers, Paddy, Pat and Patrick, live. They hire on but are found to be on the idle side except when they want to enjoy a fight.
Determined to make men out of this disruptive trio he makes them ride right swing through the spooky Quanton's Canyon - a place where movement sets up weird echoes that can spook the cattle.
Enough to say that Gil Favor's ploy pays off.

But the annuals did not just tell stories. There were factual stops along the way with practical pieces about the flora and fauna to be found; the difficulties as well as the fun to be had along the trail and (in the 1961 annual) the use of sign language.

Who Bill Pembury was - I don't know except that he did the 'Tenderfoot' (Sugarfoot in the US) annuals.