Gunsmoke, Volume 1, Number 1

Gunsmoke, Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1953 The issue features several Western short stories and novelettes. "The Man Who Had No Thumbs" by Noel Loomis opens the magazine: scalp-hunter Jonas Marson leads a mixed outfit of white men and Delaware Indians into Chiricahua territory during the Mexican bounty period, collecting Apache scalps for one hundred pesos each from the Chihuahua government. When Marson's former partner Al Hobart appears half-starved from the desert, claiming escape from Apaches after four days, Marson suspects him of spying and threatening betrayal. The narrative establishes tension within the outfit over the morality of scalping women and children. Other credited stories include "Judg" by Jack Schaefer, "The Boy Who Smiled" by Elmore Leonard, and "The Killing at Triple Tree." The issue also includes features on Western cinema and subscriber information. (OCR quality varies; some author names and page numbers remain unclear.)