Cowboy stories are heavy on classic tropes, packing in everything from drunken bar brawls to taciturn bounty hunters to high-noon gunfights. However, when the tropes of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror get into the mix, they create a new setting referred to by fans and authors as the Weird West.
Thearchetypal nature of westernstories isn’t exclusive to the genre, but it does shape the nature of every entry in it. Every modern western must decide whether it’s doing the conventions straight or adding some outside-the-box element. Sometimes it’s as simple as a more accurate view of history, but sometimes the author wants to throw in ghosts, vampires, and aliens.
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The Weird West is, simply put, any Old West narrative with additional supernatural elements that radically change the setting.A regular western mightsee a stoic lawman sent into a sleepy mining town to bring in an outlaw dead or alive. A Weird Western might see that same lawman enter that same town, only to discover that his renegade charge is actually a vampire. Or that the town was built on top of a Native burial ground, leaving it lousy with spirits. Or UFOs might begin to appear overhead,leading to an alien invasion. Whenever supernatural, science fiction or fantastical elements enter the archetypal western narrative, that work is added to the Weird Western canon.
One of the first examples of the Weird West subgenre came in the appropriately-titledWeird Talesmagazine. The mainstay of 20s horror is best known for theworks of H. P. Lovecraft, but it also contained plenty of well-known authors' great works. Writer Robert E. Howard, best known for hisConan the Barbarianfranchise, crafted “The Horror from the Mound” in 1932. It tells the tale of a cowboy who gave up his cattle rustling career for a humble life on the farm. Unfortunately, the harsh Texas conditions have left him destitute. In desperation, he attempts to dig up a burial mound on his land, hoping to find buried treasure. His Mexican friend warns him of unimaginable consequences, but the old cowboy persists. Tragically, his greed leadshim to free a vampireleading to the doom of all involved. It’s more horror than western, but it’s a strong start to the world of Weird West fiction.
Weird Western stories became common and widely beloved throughout the early 20th century. It took decades for a single outlet to take the subgenre’s title for their own. DC Comics used to publish a variety of western narratives alongside its popular superhero stories. In 1972, it released an anthology series calledWeird Western Talesthat helped to define the subgenre. The flagship character of thatfranchise was Jonah Hex, though his stories were relatively straightforward in those days. Hex was like the midpoint between Batman and The Man with No Name, a superhero for the Weird West. He went on to his own self-titled solo project in the late 70s, replaced by characters like Scalphunter.Weird Western Talesfeatured zombies, spirits, and the occasional eldritch horror, all in the classic “Cowboys and Indians” setting.
Film has consistently been an unusual partner for the Weird West. It’s far less consistently present in cinema than it is in literature or comic books. 50s and 60s cinema featured entries likeCurse of the UndeadandThe Valley of Gwangi. 1966 played host to bothBilly the Kid Versus DraculaandJesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter. Clint Eastwood directed and starred inPale Rideras an Old West take on the Grim Reaper in 1985. Unfortunately, the best-known modern examples areThe Wild Wild Westand the big-screen adaptation of the aforementionedJonah Hex. Good Weird West films are tough to come by, but they’re more common in other mediums.
TV and video games love supernatural elements in their cowboy stories. TV hasPreacher, a modern western packed with angels, vampires, and religiously influenced chaos. It also introducedWynonna Earp, which pits the famous lawman’s descendent against undead criminals in a fun spooky western. Tons of long-running western TV shows likeBonanzaandThe Adventures of Brisco County, Jrwould occasionally dig into the weird elements. Video games, on the other hand, are having a great time with the format. Agame calledWeird Westlaid claim to the subgenre with a well-received adventure about supernatural bounty hunters. Closely on its heels isEvil West, which will mine many of the same tropes from a different perspective.
The Weird West subgenre is a simple concept with infinite vectors for development. Combining two genres doesn’t always work out, but this simple duo has gone on to inspire years of solid ideas. The idea of blending the horror of monsters, ghosts, and aliens with the long-established tropes of the Old West has been around for almost a century, and it’s not going anywhere.
