The Doctor and the Kid moves the story to Deadwood, Colo., where Doc Holliday is looking to make some extra cash as a bounty hunter out to nab Billy the Kid. Thomas Edison is also a major character on hand, tasked by the government to counteract the Indian magic using science. That doesn't mean there aren't Americans in that region, though, as evidenced by The Buntline Special, in which Tombstone, Ariz., (home of the OK Corral) is the setting for a zombie showdown featuring Doc Holliday, the Earp brothers, the Clanton gang and Johnny Ringo. That's because the magical ministrations of the American Indians have closed off that territory for expansion.
#ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEIRD WEST SERIES#
Mike Resnick also has a stake in the Weird Western game with a series of Weird West novels that present a steampunk-flavored alternate 1800s in which America's borders do not extend beyond the Mississippi River.
#ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEIRD WEST CRACKED#
The sequel, Once Upon a Time in Hell, shows that Heaven may not be the place it's cracked up to be when the afterlife proves to have its own agenda and it's not altogether clear which side of reality is the best. It makes its first literary appearance in The Good, The Bad and the Infernal, which sets the stage in the Old West of 1889, where a cast of troubled characters seek salvation. It's about a town called Wormwood that only appears for 24 hours once every 100 years and is home to Heaven's doorway. The Heaven's Gate Chronicles by Guy Adams is a Weird Western series with an enticing premise. Is it any wonder Reverend Mercer has more faith in whiskey bottles and guns than he does in God? You can check out Mercer's incredibly fun (and weird) adventures in the novel Dead in the West and in Lansdale's collection Deadman's Road. His most popular Weird Western series revolves around Reverend Jebediah Mercer, a preacher who knows a thing or two about monsters, since he routinely goes up against undead zombies, werewolves, cannibals and other supernatural foes. Lansdale is a writer who writes many kinds of stories, but there's something extra special about his Weird Westerns. So let's take a quick peek at some relatively recent Weird Western releases.Īsk several people who are familiar with Weird Westerns for some example authors, and the one name that will dominate is Joe R. Nevertheless, infusing fantastical elements into Westerns creates a distinct and appealing flavor all its own that makes such stories well worth a closer look.
What makes these stories so alluring is the "weird" part science fiction, fantasy and horror elements are usually not associated with the popular "horses, cowboys and gun fighting" image of Westerns, thus the combination of the them seems a little off-putting. Weird Westerns have a long history that can be traced back to the early days of Weird Tales magazine. A Weird Western is a story that combines the tropes of Westerns with elements of the fantastic, whether those elements be science fiction, fantasy or horror. One of the most bizarre mash-ups in speculative fiction has to be the Weird Western.
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