2019-03-01 Western Art Collector

Wagon Train Scouts, oil, 21 x 34”

The titles were almost interchangeable: All

Western, Western Story, Thrilling Western,

Western Romances, Popular Western and Wild

West Stories. Even the wood-pulp paper on

which they were printed seemed to suggest a

disposability to the magazines. After all, they

were only meant to last until the next issue.

And yet the Western pulps did last, and

today are regarded as an important cultural

bridge from real cowboys of the 1800s to

Western cinema and TV. Nowhere is this

more evident than at the A.R. Mitchell

Museum of Western Art in Trinidad,

Colorado, which celebrates the legacy

of Arthur Roy Mitchell (1889-1977), the

so-called “King of Western Pulp Covers.” The

artist, who once noted he could find eight or

more of his pulp covers at the newsstand at

any given time, is the star of the museum that

bears his name in Trinidad, where Mitchell

was born and lived much of his life.

The A.R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art in Trinidad, Colorado,

celebrates the legacy of artist and illustrator Arthur Roy Mitchell.

By Michael Clawson

PULP

COWBO

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