The Pilot was first published on 5th October 1935 by the Amalgamated Press and ran for 131 issues before being amalgamated with the Wild West Weekly on the 5th October 1935.
The Three Cowboys story in the Pilot
The Three Cowboys serial appeared in issues
1-14 of the Pilot, you can download the individual issues from the table below
or the whole story
here.
This story shares some locations with the
Rio Kid.
This story was reprinted in the
Boys Friend Library issue 557 (second Series).
Will Hay in the Pilot.
In his autobiography Frank Richards recalled the Will Hay stories with pleasure. In the late 30's Will Hay was at the peak of his fame so what better new feature could there be than a series of school stories of him at Bendover School? Will Hay arrived at Bendover in Pilot No 72 on February 13th 1937 and stayed until issue 129. An interesting article by Bill Lofts appeared in Collectors Digest 237. In this article Bill suggests that some of the later stories were written by editorial staff. This ties in with an interview with W. L. Catchpole that appeared in Collectors Digest 160 where he claims to have written a number of Will Hay stories for the Pilot.
Some of the stories were reprinted in the 1938 Boys Friend Library issues 647 and 649. Howard Baker later reprinted the two Boys Friend stories in a single volume.
Scans courtesy of Allan S, Nandu and Harmsworth.
Issues that
have been scanned in full are indicated by PDF and/or CBR icons-
Issues that include a scan of the Hamilton story only are hyperlinked
