Weird West

The term is of recent coinage, but the idea of crossing genres goes back to at least the hey day of Pulp Magazines . There weas at least one series character who could be classified as a wierd west character. Lee Winters was a deputy whose adventures often involved Ghosts , Sorcery and creatures from Greek Mythology . The winters stories were published under the name Lon Williams in the 1930's . Williams seems to have been a Pseudonym or a publisher's House Name for one or more unknown authors. A few years earlier one of the oddest of all western characters, Six-Gun Gorilla . This was an actual gorilla who strapped on a pair of colts to avenge the death of the kindly [[prospector who had raised it. His adventures appeared in the pulps ''Adventure'' and ''Wizard''.

In the 1960's the television series Wild Wild West brought elements of spy stories and science fiction to the old west. The cartoon adventures of the Lone Ranger followed suit by pitting the famous western hero against mad scientists and other villains not often found in western stories. Rod Serling was fond of westerns and often used them as settings for his '' Twilight Zone '' stories.

In Comic Books a number of heroes had adventures involving Monster s, Alien s, and costumed Supervillain s. Marvel Comics characters such as Kid Colt , Rawhide Kid , and Two-Gun Kid all had such adventures. Where Marvel went in for supervillains, DC Comics added more of a Horror element to their stories such as class="copylinks">Jonah Hex . The DC Character ''Tomahawk'' Could Also Be Termed A Hero Of The Wierd West Though His Adventures Were Set In The Colonies During The Time Of The [[American Revolution .

In movies notable wierd west stories include '' The Valley Of Gwangi '' ( 1969 ) which used special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen 's talents to pit cowboys against Dinosaur s. '' Billy The Kid Versus Dracula '' ( 1966 ) pit the legendary outlaw Billy The Kid against the notorious Vampire . The same year '' Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter '' paired another famous outlaw with another fictional horror character.

Cowboy s and Gunfighter s are iconic American heores and using them as heroes in other milieus was only natural. The western uses themes that are compatable with the themes found in other genres. Like science fiction stories set on distant planets, westerns use the themes of unknown wilderness and the survival of Pioneers . Westerns also offer stories struggling to maintain social order in a lawless environment. The supernatural meances of horror fiction are easy to inject into this setting.

If anything the wierd west genre is becoming more popular. It shows the potential to inject new life at a time when few authors are working with traditional western stories.

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Weird West