# A Sub-Genre: The Weird West--more titles, please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956 "2006-01-01T14:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/1 "2006-01-01T14:37:21Z")
I’ve been forming a little collection on my bookshelf. It consists of collections of short stories & graphic novels that are Western in theme, but cross over into Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror or other forms of Fantastic Fiction. There seems to be a certain body of work in this general area. Examples in my collection include [ul] [li]_Trails In Darkness_ by Robert E. Howard. Howard, of Conan the Barbarian fame, grew up in Cross Plains Texas, & there were many people still living there that helped make the West Wild. Short horror stories around a Western theme, including Cthuhlu Mythos items.[/li][li]_Mad Amos_ by Alan Dean Foster. About a Mountain Man who deals in magic.[/li][li]_War Of The Worlds: Global Dispatches_. One short story deals with how a Texas town copes when confronted by the arrival of a Martian Cylinder & attendant Tripod invasion.[/li][li]_Daisy Kutter: The Last Train_ by Kazu Kibuishi. Set in a futuristic New West, a female bandit, retired, is forced into one last train robbery. But all is not as it seems. Very good graphic novel, with an Old West feel to it.[/li][li]_Weird Trails_. Edited by Michael Szymanski. Fantasy, Dark Fantasy & Horror. A nice short story collection.[/li][li]_Mutant Texas_ by Paul Dini. Fun graphic novel set in a bizzare corner of Texas.[/li][li]_Wild West Show_. Edited by Richard Claw. Graphic Novel. Collection of short items.[/li][li]_Far West_ by Richard Moore. Graphic Novel, set in a West populated by Elves, Trolls, Dragons & Bear People. Two bounty hunters are the protagonists. Sexual themes. Overall, good art/stories.[/li][/ul] I’m interested in more titles, graphic novels, short stories, novels, novellas, whatever. Any suggestions, Buckaroos? ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/2 "2006-01-01T14:59:12Z")
I think anything by Joe Landsdale would qualify. He’s the master of Western-horror fiction, and he wrote the short story that inspired the Bruce Campbell movie Bubba Ho-Tep. He’s also written several Vertigo miniseries, including Weird Western Tales, and a few Jonah Hex miniseries dealing with horror elements. In addition, I recommend the nine Preacher trade paperbacks, written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon. Preacher isn’t for everyone (certainly not the religious or the easily-offended), but it’s a wonderful Western-crime-horror-romance-comedy-buddy-action epic, and a love letter by an Irish comic book writer to the American Western films he loves so much. Finally, for a musical recommendation, the band Ghoultown, who play “Gothabilly”: a blend of rockabilly, Johnny Cash-style country, twangy surf, and mariachi music, mostly dealing with fantastical or horror themes set in a mythical Old West. ---
**Author:** ![fighting\_ignorant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ac8455/32.png) [@fighting\_ignorant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fighting_ignorant)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/3 "2006-01-01T15:39:48Z")
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/4 "2006-01-01T15:51:56Z")
Devil’s Tower and Devil’s Engine by Mark Sumner. Kind of alternate-reality western novels where magic and demons and gods all arose during the Civil War—Gettysburg IIRC—and remade the country in a very weird image. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/5 "2006-01-01T16:05:37Z")
•_The Haunted Mesa_ by Zane Grey •_Skinwalkers_ by Tony Hillermann •_Dry Water_ by Eric S. Nylund •Any number of short stories by Frederic Brown ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/6 "2006-01-01T16:43:45Z")
Grim Praire Tales is a horror/western anthology movie starring James Earl Jones. Kind of Tales from the Darkside type stories. I remember one story as being kind of freaky. The story has a young man escorting a pregnant woman across the plains. One night she seduces him and while engaging in sex… Her vagina eats him. Her pregnant bulge is actually her digesting her last victim. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/7 "2006-01-01T17:39:59Z")
There’s the [Deadlands](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlands) RPG system. There might be novels based on that, too. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/8 "2006-01-01T17:57:22Z")
**The Six Messiahs** , Mark Frost’s sequel to his **The List of Seven** , has Sir Author Conan Doyle dealing with a supernatural mystery in the old west. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/9 "2006-01-01T18:30:43Z")
_The Ghosts of Manacle_ by Charles G. Finney (the guy who did _The Circus of Dr. Lao_). ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/10 "2006-01-01T19:04:19Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > Grim Praire Tales is a horror/western anthology movie starring James Earl Jones. Kind of Tales from the Darkside type stories. > > I remember one story as being kind of freaky. I know I saw that movie, but damn if I have but the vaguest memory of THAT!!! Was Brad Dourif also in it? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/11 "2006-01-01T19:16:20Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > I think anything by Joe Landsdale would qualify. He’s the master of Western-horror fiction, and he wrote the short story that inspired the Bruce Campbell movie Bubba Ho-Tep. He’s also written several Vertigo miniseries, including Weird Western Tales, and a few Jonah Hex miniseries dealing with horror elements. Yes! Dead in the West especially (zombies), and the graphic novel Red Range. Tim Lebbon is writing supernatural westerns too, novella size, and Steve Vernon – Long Horn Big Shaggy is one title. The late great Trevanian wrote a fun psycho-killer western called Incident at Twenty Mile. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/12 "2006-01-01T20:08:31Z")
Alan Moore created “The Weird Rider” as a cowboy detective who deals with the paranormal for his ABC Tom Strong title. The Rider ultimately gets kinapped by, uh, giant alien collective of, uh, ants, who uh… are trying to terraform earth… to, uh, grow a crop of alien, uh, range critters. From Dusk Til’ Dawn Taratino’s goofy Tex-Mex epic about bank robbers and their kidnapped hostages who run afoul of a saloon full of modern vampires in the sticks South of the border. The Tremors movies all deal with the Graboids in and around Perfection, Nevada. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/13 "2006-01-01T20:26:01Z")
Crossover into horror? _Blood Meridian_, by Cormac McCarthy, is one of, if not the, most horrifying books I’ve ever read. It’s wonderful, gripping, and beautiful in its atrocities, and the villain is chilling. I highly recommend it. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/14 "2006-01-01T21:11:52Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > •_The Haunted Mesa_ by Zane Grey > •_Skinwalkers_ by Tony Hillermann > •_Dry Water_ by Eric S. Nylund > •Any number of short stories by Frederic Brown The haunted mesa / Louis L’Amour ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/15 "2006-01-01T22:12:37Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > The haunted mesa / Louis L’Amour :smack: Aww geeze, I looked it up on google because I _always_ confuse the two, and then typed the wrong guy anyway. It’s a curse! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/16 "2006-01-01T22:50:05Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > :smack: Aww geeze, I looked it up on google because I _always_ confuse the two, and then typed the wrong guy anyway. It’s a curse! Be of good cheer! My library system has it, & I’ve reserved it via computer. You _helped_! 🙂 So, anybody else have titles? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/17 "2006-01-01T22:52:53Z")
If you like the New West as well as the Old West, Tim Powers’ “Last Call” is incredibly good. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/18 "2006-01-01T23:07:44Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > Tim Powers’ “Last Call” is incredibly good. LA Cigar, Too tragical? Also ‘Expiration Date’ and ‘Earthquake Weather’ Might be too modern for **Bosda** though, what with the freeways and such. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/19 "2006-01-01T23:50:43Z")
There’s a TV movie, **Purgatory** , that should suit you. It stars Eric Roberts as the leader of a gang of outlaws that stumbles into a town called Purgatory. The town seems to be holding a secret which is that all of the inhabitants committed crimes and were executed. They are then sent to Purgatory for a set number of years. If they renounce their crimes and behave themselves, they get to go to Heaven. If they transgress, they must go to Hell. Very interesting movie. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956/20 "2006-01-01T23:58:35Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > LA Cigar, Too tragical? > Also ‘Expiration Date’ and ‘Earthquake Weather’ > Might be too modern for **Bosda** though, what with the freeways and such. Much too. Nothing later than 1918, unless it comes after 2099. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sub-genre-the-weird-west-more-titles-please/337956.md?page=2)