Paul Green - Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements in Novels, Pulps, Comics, Films, Television and Games

I would like to thank many people for their kind cooperation in the research for my book. Certain comic book artists, writers and publishers were particularly helpful in supplying me with their work and granting permission to publish it.

Jean-Marc Lofficier, editor of Hexagon Comics, for providing me with a history of various Weird Western strips from France. Bill Black, editor, writer, artist and publisher of AC Comics, who kindly contributed comic books and extensive information on Magazine Enterprises and AC Comics Western characters. Artist and writer Mike Hoffman for sending me a large box of his artwork and comic books for research and answering my questions. Italian writer Enrico Teodarani for sharing his knowledge of Italian Weird Westerns and comic book strips plus information on his own work. Russian-born artist Alex Sheikman and Italian artist Walter Venturi for providing artwork of their Weird Western strips.

Producer Clment Calvet at Gaumont-Alphanim for providing artwork of their animated series Cosmic Cowboys . Amy Huey from Dark Horse Comics Inc. Jackie Smith, senior public relations manager from FUNimation Productions Ltd. Chris Ryall, publisher and editor-in-chief of IDW Publishing. Dan Forcey, vice president of Content Development at Platinum Studios Inc. Scott Bieser, director of Big Head Press. Bill McLoughlin from Dundee, Scotland, for granting permission to publish artwork on behalf of D.C. Thomson. Paul Guinan for supplying vintage Frank Reade Jr. dime novel artwork. Fred Berney and his wife Ellen for taking the time to scan Captain Z-Ro photos and giving me the opportunity to watch vintage footage and to speak with Captain Z-Ro actor Roy Steffensen. And to my final contributor, best-selling Weird Western Romance author Madeline Bakerthanks for her kind cooperation.

I never cared much for Westerns until something hit me one day. Maybe it was old age or senility, but soon enough I was starting on solid foodold pulp Western magazines from the 1940s. I also discovered the dime novel format magazines from even earlier, from the days when youthful adventure in the great out-of-doors meant something to a kid, whether as a make-believe Arizonian cowboy or one of the Canadian Mounted. Whatever it was, the bug had bitten me.

I soon moved into paperback territory, exploring plots and locales among the myriad titles offered in the 1960s. Who read this stuff? Science fiction novels had their scientists and engineers, I figured Western readers were the outdoorsmen. I wasntmuch, so I decided to move out West and soak it up for myself. I spent six years in New Mexico as a result of a love affair with the Western.

I saw bullet holes in the bar at Tombstone, haunted ghost towns, hung out in the mining town of Bisbees Copper Queen hotel, and nearly croaked from the heat when the radiator blew outside Kingman, Arizona. A friend of mine had gone there, so enamored with the idea of going Western that he arrived with six-guns and an all-black horse. The natives overlooked his enthusiasm until he got it under control.

Death, sun, and mating tarantulas all over the roads; skies so clear at night that meteor showers lit it all up in an eerie green. Rattlesnakes and old furrows from wagon wheels headed westward; mesas, cacti of all kindsI saw it all and it burned deeply into my mind and heart. But what then?

I was approached by comics writer Barry Buchanan when I still appeared at conventions, and we soon agreed to collaborate on his Gothic Western The Ballad of Utopia . Eight issues over about three years and it was done. It had weird elements, all rightnot just madness, drugs and prostitution but also the supernatural in the form of Indian magic. Was it just a Western, or was it more?

I knew the traditional Western novel had long since waned, but the American psyche still needed its vast frontiers, though intermittently. A long, steady stream of Hollywood Westerns had petered out to a mere ebb; spaghettis rejuvenated it all for a while, then sank into the sands as well.

What did it all mean, and more importantly, as an artist, writer and publisher, what the heck was I going to do about it?

Ideas pop up all the time and I often dont know from where. I didnt question that when Madame Tarantula rode up, not did I falter when I learned she was from 4,000 years in the future! Man, if he lasts long enough, should repeat every idea eventually, and even if not perfectly, maybe enough to be recognizable, as in an SF Western?

America had been split by rising sea levels, and the West was now the New Old West; robot vaqueros tended herds of synthetic cows that left droppings of precious radiumite; a whole economy plus flora and fauna suggested itself to me. Heckfire, I had such fun making travelogues that I almost forgot about the storiesat least for a while.

Now Im back in the saddle, and just as history finds ways of repeating itself, I have resurrected Madame T. once again and begun new some new tales. Not surprisingly, shes one of my most popular characters. Some small cosmetic changes were made, but still she was true to her SF-Western origins.

Sure, I had been aware of many of the hybrid genres, like the Acid Western film El Topo or the more recent Oblivion 2: Backlash , but I had no clue as to the depth and breadth of Weird Westerns until reading this manuscript. Its sheer scope and comprehensiveness make it invaluable to this old space trail-rider, and it reaffirms my faith that the Western genre can survive and even flourish in any desert, especially with imaginative infusions of plasma from other nearby genres.

Westerns arent dead; though pocked with bullet holes, theyll probably live on as long as we can keep them new and interesting with near-infinite variations on their central themes. I think thats better than good.

And my new friend Paul Green has proved equal to the Herculean task of assembling and categorizing all of this. Some of you may already know him from his excellent Pete Duel biography, which by a mammoth stroke of coincidence, I learned about mere days before being contacted about this book. Small world, today.