Weird Westerns discussion

As I sat here at my computer browsing some Weird Western titles I asked myself, what drew me to Weird Westerns that got me interested? Another question I asked myself was what is it about Weird Westerns that I like so much? To answer my first question I was drawn to it because while I enjoyed Westerns seeing that their was another genre mixed in with all the styles that make up Westerns just really pulled me in. The unique factor of Guns and Grit with Science Fiction and Horror just sounds extremely fascinating when blended together. For my second question I would say I answered it with my first, Westerns mixed with Science Fiction and Horror means for odd eerie plots, over the top characters and plenty of gruesome Wild West action.

So what intrigues you about this genre? What got you interested in it and what is it about the genre that you enjoy so much?

I think to me personally western heroes and characters always seemed the coolest, but I'm really more of a horror guy. So it just made sense to mix the two together. You get the badass hero and you get monsters at the same time. And the western settings themselves just always appealed to me for reasons I can't quite explain.

Westerns to me are mostly about American Myth, and I'm a sucker for mythology. Sprinkle in some fantasy monsters and magic and you're doubling up on that myth juice. That's part of it for me, but I've always just liked the odd juxtaposition of those plain, straightforward Western stories made weird with horror, or sci-fi, or whatever. Just another level to make things interesting, I guess.

I feel like I should add to this thread because well the question is a damn good one. The gunslinging western hero has always been my favorite but mix that with a supernatural twist and I couldn't think of a better genre. Of course the dark tower was the instrument that started my obsession but if I had to be honest with myself it more then likely induced by the old Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns.

I too love me some Clint Eastwood spaghetti westetns. The reason I decided to write my book A Bloody Bloody Mess In The Wild Wild West was because I had just watched two of the Dollar movies and I was still so into the movies I felt inspired to write one of my one. I then watched a zombie movie which incorporated the horror aspect. Spaghetti Westerns all the way!

Haha don't get me wrong I love some sifi but it's the supernatural demon punching westerns that get me!!!

I've been chewin on how to best answer this. Still chewin but suffice to say, we share a lot of similar views.

I'd argue that the reason why the genre blend of speculative fiction and the western is so effective is because the frontier is a natural fit with the kind of edge-of-reality concepts that horror, scifi and fantasy are all about. Even traditional westerns stories that aren't about blazing a trail into unknown territories have the shadow of it in their basic make-up.

Sometimes the rendering of this isn't marvellously sophisticated (I'm thinking of, for example, Cowboys Versus Aliens, where the notion of "an alien culture" substitutes the Native American in a rather unsubtle way..!), but the potential is there generally. Couple that to the period stylistic appeal that steampunk gets such mileage out of, there's an opportunity to tell quite meaningful tales. Plus gunfights, saloon brawls, railroad heists, all that good shit!

Cowboys Versus Aliens was actually quite a bit better than I anticipated, though I found it pretty durn stupid come the final third. Beat Wild Wild West hands down, but Firefly knocks them both into a cocked hat.

Well said Andrew! Ash are you saying you and I have the same views?

I'm saying we as a group share similar views, that's part of why we're here.

I agree; we have similar views, if not necessarily the same. As I've said before, I quite blindly stumbled into this genre because of the Deadlands RPG and to research the feel of the setting I started watching spaghetti westerns. It's been a love affair ever since. I've always enjoyed a mix of the macabre, fantastic, surreal and weird in my fiction, and that classic frontier aspect that comes with the concept of the Western is just so ripe for good storytelling. I'm often surprised we haven't seen more authors try it before now.

Well I'm glad more authors haven't jumped on the weird west train because I have seen it done soooo badly sometimes but the ones that do it good thank god for them

That could be said for any genre though.

Though, i certainly hope it turns out I'm one of the ones who does it well. We'll find out in June I guess.

Another aspect I enjoy about this genre is its standing out and how it dares to be different. Like steampunk it's unique and comes to us during a time where we as people tend to latch onto a trend to which not too many people know of so tend to want to take a chance on. I for one cannot say I have read a ton of weird Webster's however having wrote it and simply taking in all I've seen on it I cannot help but be intrigued.

I just love the American monomyth, the badass gunslinger who wanders into town and sets things right, rugged individualism and all that. I also love turning genres on their head a bit. There aren't too many female heroes in Westerns, or horror and fantasy for that matter, so it was a blast to create my Jesse Parker character and watch her grow while dealing with the the scum of territorial Deadwood. (My three daughters had a big hand in nudging me in that direction.) Throw in some supernatural elements, and you have an exciting, weird story I would have loved to have read even if I hadn't written it. Isn't that the secret to a good book, anyway? Write what you love. Everything else is gravy after that.

I seemed to have swallowed the thoughts I was chewing on. Not really much more I can add to the mix though.

Hollowed ground has a girl gunslinger and true grit is from a girls point of view

I didn't say there weren't ANY Westerns from a woman's point of view, just that it's uncommon. I always liked "The Quick and the Dead." It wasn't exactly a Weird Western, but it had some weird stuff in it. Guilty pleasure.

I thought the Coen's remake of "True Grit" was a treat. I recently re-read the book. Good stuff.

Oh the quick and the dead was amazing!! Hands down one of my favorites and gunslinger tournament! What! Yep I'm watching that again tonight.

Then my job here is done. :)

Haha thanks!

I'll ecco most comments already posted and add that, for me, I love reading fantasy. my love for westerns stems from growing up in a small County town in West Virginia - milking cows (by hand) before I went to school and listening to my grandpa tell me about his moonshining endeavours. As a writer, these two genera fit together perfectly. Take your protagonist from your fantasy story, toss away his/her sword, replace it with a six shooter, and throw in a steam train for good measure. a damn fine start to any story.

Ya damn right Christopher!!! I grew up on a farm to btw lol in ga it wasn't a very big farm three cows and six horses. No chickens lol although the neighbor did

I never apreshated it then but would give anything to live that way again.
17 beef cows. 2 Milk cows. 2 pigs. 4 dogs. 1 horse. 4 gardens. and occasional chickens. ... I'm not crying... I got something in my eye

Lol iv become a city kid since then

yeah, I'm living in Wellington, New Zealand now. There are more people living in my suburb than in the county I grew up in in WV. I think I'd do fine without living in the city ever.

Christopher wrote: "I never apreshated it then but would give anything to live that way again.
17 beef cows. 2 Milk cows. 2 pigs. 4 dogs..."

Were they beef dogs or milk dogs?

They were maple hurding dogs. trained them myself. All I had to say is, "hey dog, go fetch me a maple" and he'd go do it. ... ... Until the insident with the sycamore that sad October day so many years ago. ... I'll miss that dog.

I tried that. All they'd bring is Willows. Enough to make you weep.

Like others, I think the big appeal of the genre is human vs environment plus monsters plus the ability, like science fiction, to address current social issues with a fantasy veneer to give it a little distance. Not to hit a reader over the head with a moral, but to explore themes and ideas that people are uncomfortable with tackling head-on.

Exploration of a new world, the classic good vs evil and the shades in between, etc. There's so much you can play with in a western setting, and even port the western concepts into a non-American setting.

An article on Tor.com on Six-Guns and Strange Shooters: A Weird West Primer. It also talks about other Weird West books and other types of things within the genre:

http://www.tor.com/2015/09/23/six-gun...

One thing that's intrigued me as of late is the amount of free books that are listed in the genre on Amazon. Have you ever checked it? I typed in Weird Westerns in on Amazon to check out the competition and see what I could be doing that they do and I've noticed the first several books are perma-free. Perhaps I should write another small short western story and make it perma free? I was just surprised to see the amount of free books within the genre.