''The Trailsman'' is a series of short

Western novel Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and L ...

s published since 1980 by

Signet Signet may refer to: *Signet, Kenya, A subsidiary of the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), specifically set up to broadcast and distribute the DTT signals * Signet ring, a ring with a seal set into it, typically by leaving an impression in sea ...

books, a division of

New American Library The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publi ...

. The series is still published under the name

Jon Sharpe Jon Sharpe (April 29, 1920 - November 3, 2004) was the original author of The Trailsman series of Western novels. The century series, which has run since the early 1980s, was created by author Jon Messmann, who wrote most of the first 200 books ...

, the original author of the series, although it is now written by a number of ghostwriters under contract. The publisher releases 12 editions of the serial a year, with longer Giant Trailsman titles appearing periodically. The first title was ''Seven Wagons West: Seven Ways to Die'', which was recently reissued in print. ''Trailsman'' stories are short, usually under 200 pages, and feature the hero, Skye Fargo. Skye is known for his "lake blue" eyes, and despite his sexual prowess with women, he is single by choice. His sidekick is his unnamed horse, known only as "the Ovaro", and his gun of choice is a .44 Colt. The Trailsman series was created by John Joseph Messmann aka Jon Messmann. He wrote most of the first 200 books in the series before retiring in the late 1990s. Messmann died in 2004. He also wrote many novels in the classic Nick Carter series. Messmann later created another western series featuring Canyon O'Grady, a western detective. In ''The Trailsman'' #87 Skye Fargo and Canyon O'Grady joined forces. Messmann got his start in writing by scripting comic books beginning in the 1940s. David Robbins has been the principal writer of the Trailsman books since Messmann's retirement. Authors like Robert J Randisi, J. B. Keller,

Bill Crider Bill Crider (July 28, 1941 – February 12, 2018) was an American author of crime fiction among other work. Biography Crider received a Master of Arts degree at the University of North Texas, in Denton. Later, he taught English at Howard Payne ...

, Ed Gorman, Will C. Knott, Robert Vardeman, John Edward Ames, and

James Reasoner James Reasoner (born June 5, 1953) is an American writer. He is the author of more than 350 novels and many short stories in a career spanning more than thirty years. Reasoner has used at least nineteen pseudonyms, in addition to his own name: Jim ...

have also written entries in the series. Some of the Trailsman books have been written by female novelists.

References

Western (genre) novels Novel series Signet Books books {{Western-novel-stub