Border Vengeance by John Theydon (UK: 1948)

Way back in 1996 I attended my first PulpCon in Bowling Green, Ohio with my brother. The Bowling Green location was close enough that Canadian collectors and dealers attended and sold their goods, too. One table was littered with British publications, mostly common stuff, but a battered western priced at a couple of dollars arrested my attention. I made the purchase and later that night (in a dorm room) I read the paperback-format magazine.

The image depicted is an old pic of my copy from that convention. Someone had ripped the sticker-price off the cover. At the time it had confused me as I couldn’t tell what prices were shown. It looked like the item had been printed originally with a 2/- cover price and then a red star over it indicating a lower price. The sticker likely was a used dealer sticker. It would be nearly 25 years later that I’d solve that mystery.

And boy was I in for some surprises. The spine read Round-Up Magazine No. 1 while the cover simply stated Round-Up as the title, with Action Yarns in the lower left with Ace-High Western Adventures in the bottom strip. The title page says Round-Up Library.

The publisher was given as The City Libraries (337 Victoria Road, Glasgow, Scotland) and made (printed) in Eire, but the printer’s name and address was not provided. I suspect Round-Up was published in 1948 as I’ve located this address advertised in The Bookseller for that year; the publisher may have suffered financially as there was a massive distribution strike that year.

The rear cover stated in bold letters Magazine Fiction Group and noted 3 more issues of Round-Up Magazine were forthcoming along with two issues of Red Dime Detective, one issue of True Love Stories, and one issue of Western Romances also in the works. At the bottom, they claimed that these titles were all “real American bulk magazines.” Well, the first issue in my hands clearly discredits that statement but I suspect it was used to finance the rest of the publications which would not come out via the 337 Victoria Road address. Instead, they would come out via the Magazine Fiction Group as full-size magazine format with an address given as 333 Victoria Road, likely all in 1949 or early 1950. This address was also given for the publisher Cartoon Art Productions.

The first one I ever spotted and owned would be Yankee Magazine Fiction. Inset was the reprinted cover to the American pulp fiction magazine Dime Detective Magazine (March 1948). This publication mostly reprinted stories from that same dated issue and two extra pieces from the April 1948 issue.

One I have never personally seen (save for online) is F.B.I. Detective Case Stories, partially reprinting the February 1949 issue. Remarkably, at least one issue of Red Dime Detective did get published, partially reprinting the April 1948 issue. Western Romances and True Love Stories have yet to be sighted by me, though the latter does exist via the Trent Book Company, circa late 1940s to early 1950s; it printed comic strips and some text articles, etc.

As if the western magazine I was holding was not odd enough with three different titles: recap (Round-Up, Round-Up Library, and Round-Up Magazine) I was in for a bigger shock. It wasn’t a magazine. Pages 5 through 98 was comprised of one novel: Border Vengeance by John Theydon! I fondly recall reading that novel through the first night of our attendance at PulpCon and the next day revisiting the seller’s table in the hopes of obtaining more obscure items. Sadly, he had been cleaned out, but as aforementioned, most of his English publications were standard fare. Disaster struck during the late 1990s. I was forced to sell 99% of my collection and this worn copy made its way West, sold to a friend who to this day still has it in his possession. But I never gave up hope in locating another copy.

In May of 2023 I struck pay-dirt. An English bookseller turned up a copy, and in much better shape. This one has some ancient water stains along the upper pages, but is a sound, firmly intact paperback with supple pages. Naturally, I immediately set to work reading it, right? Nope. It languished on the “to be read” pile of books until March 2024. I devoured it in three nightly installments. And the mystery of the cover price was also solved. Clearly the publisher had a 2/- perhaps in the blue circle or an American 25 cents price, then the red-star priced 1/- slapped over that to make it look like they were giving the buyer a bargain. Sadly, I’ve no clue who the illustration artist is as the work is not credited nor recognizable to me.

The story opens with deputy Steve Dawson angry with his best friend since childhood, Sheriff Matt Wyatt. The disagreement is over a girl. She’s never identified in the story. The town knows of their heated quarrel and Dawson’s verbal assaults. So, when Wyatt is shot down in cold blood, Dawson arrives on the scene and fires one shot after the fleeing killer. Wyatt gurgles about the killer riding off on a branded “Bar S” horse then dies. The residents in town cluster about and discovering one cartridge recently fired from Dawson’s six-gun, proclaim him Wyatt’s killer and demand a lynch party. Dawson fights his way free, hops aboard Blackie, his super-fast horse, and flees both for his life and to track down Wyatt’s killer.

Three years pass and Steve Dawson has made no pretense to disguise his identity, hide behind an assumed name, etc. Instead, he’s traveled the entire West in search of ranches that sport the “Bar S” brand in search of Wyatt’s killer. Down in the Rio region he comes into a town to discover a ranch with the Bar S brand. The center of his deadly focus is clearly about to be annihilated. Seeing an unfair gunfight irks Steve Dawson to the point he joins in. The rest of the story rapidly speeds up with Steve uncertain of his alliances between two apparently warring ranch factions, rustlers, banker greed, crooked lawmen, and his desire to seek vengeance marred by his affection for the crew that might be responsible for his best friend’s death. It’s a messy situation that could land him dead, in jail, or captured and beaten close to death.

In the end, we learn there are 3 key villains, and Steve doesn’t earn the right to exact revenge on the trio. But two out of three isn’t half bad, and the third earns a knife in the back for besmirching a Mexican’s honor and the mistreatment of his daughter. Steve doesn’t get hitched to a female critter. No, instead, Steve finds himself offered the town marshal job. He accepts on the grounds that the barkeeper with a murky past is his deputy.

Overall, a fun western, and the first of several westerns I eventually went on to read by John Theydon, the alias of John W. Jennison of Thunderbirds fame.