Popular Western Cover Art by George Rozen

This is a tightly rendered pencil prelim cover to the Popular Western Pulp magazine by the great George Rozen (THE Shadow artist to many)

The image was eventually published. I'm told it did in fact grace the cover of a Popular Western... BUT my research shows in Feb. 1945 Rozen published a nearly identical cover for Rio Kid Western. It's nearly exactly the same right down to the cows, the poses... everything EXCEPT, the gorgeous woman on the horse was replaced by a man! There's no doubt that this prelim was used for this cover.

Also in 1949 Rozen contributed another similar cover to Popular Library #199 "Whispering Range". It's possible Rozen did a self-swipe on that Whispering Range cover.

As you can clearly see, back in the days of the Pulps is was not uncommon for a cover to be submitted to, say, "Dime Westerns"... but ultimately appear on "Spicy Western", "Thrilling Western", or any of the other myriad titles that appeared throughout the Pulp years.

Please go to my main gallery, if interested, to see the two published covers.