Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns
Page 21
Horrors of the Wasted West
[RPG book; WW]
Authors: Aaron C. Acevedo, Aaron Rosenberg; First publication: 2002; Setting: Deadlands: Hell on Earth; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Revision and adaptation of the book Monsters, Muties, and Misfits for the Core D20 conversion game system.
Hosteen Storm
[Book character; SW]
First appearance: 1959; Creator: Andre Norton; Publisher: New York: Harcourt, Brace.
Navajo born “Amerindian” Hosteen Storm, forced to flee his native Earth, finds a new home on the distant planet Azor. Able to communicate with the animals, he becomes known as the Beast Master. Storm's closest animal friends include Baku the eagle, Surra the dune cat and Hing and Ho the meerkats.
Author Andre Norton explores themes of colonization of the American West by European settlers and places them in an alien landscape with the Native Norbies and the Terran settlers placed in an uneasy relationship. By placing Navajo-born Hosteen Storm in a role as the settler in a foreign land, Norton approaches the classic Western formula from a new angle.
The Hounds of Skaith
[Novel; SW]
Author: Leigh Brackett; First publication: New York: Ballantine Books, 1974.
With the help of a beautiful woman, a group of bloodied insurgents and nine telepathic ferocious hounds with the power to kill with their thoughts, Eric John Stark seeks to remove the corrupt Wandsmen from power. But he must also win over the nomadic Hooded Men, the winged Fallarin and the meek populace in his quest to bring freedom to the people of Skaith. The second book in the Skaith trilogy.
See: The Reavers of Skaith
Howard, Robert E.
(1906-1936) [Pulp author]
Born in the small town of Peaster, Texas, Howard is best remembered today for Conan the Barbarian and his association with “sword and sorcery” fiction. But during his short lifetime he was a prolific writer who wrote for many genres including horror, science fiction, fantasy, boxing, spice, detective fiction, historical adventures and the Western.
In correspondence with fellow author August Derleth, Howard wrote, “I don't want to live to be old. I want to die when my time comes, quickly and suddenly, in the full tide of my strength and health.”
Howard's wish was self-fulfilled when on June 11, 1936, he calmly walked out of his house, opened the door to his Chevrolet, sat in the driver's seat and shot himself in the head. He survived for eight hours in a state of unconsciousness. His ailing mother, who had been in a coma, died the following day. The mother and son were buried together. Howard was only 30.
Author L. Sprague de Camp was primarily responsible for preserving Howard's work following his death by editing and completing many of Howard's Conan stories.
Selected works: Beyond the Black River (1935).
Howdy Pardner
[Comic book]
The humorous comic adventures of singing cowboy Howdy Pardner, his girlfriend Flower and the Speagle Brothers.
“HOWDY PARDNER IN GHOST TOWN GLEE CLUB” [WW]
First Published: #1 (1999); Creator-Story-Art: Andrew Brandou; Publisher: Robot Publishing.
Howdy Pardner comes to the aid of a lady haunted by ghosts in her Old West home.
Hucksters & Hexes
[RPG book; WW]
Author: John Goff; First publication: 1998; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Hucksters are natural poker players who use their skills as the gateway to the realm of the demonic manitou. Includes the adventure “Abracadabra and an Arab Cadaver” by Tony Lee and the secret hexes in Hoyles Book of Games.
The Huge Hunter or The Steam Man of the Prairies
[Dime novel; SPW]
Author: Edward Sylvester Ellis; First publication: Irwin P. Beadle's American Novels #45 (August 1868)
Johnny Brainerd, a teenage hunch backed dwarf inventor, builds a ten-foot-tall iron Steam Man capable of traveling at 30 miles per hour. Complete with stove-pipe hat, the Steam Man pulls a passenger wagon carrying Ethan Hopkins, Mickey McSquille and Baldy Bicknell as Johnny Brainerd ventures across the prairie fighting off Native Indians and buffalo in their search for gold.
Ellis's “Steam Man” was written in an era when the steam-driven engine was the new wonder of the age with its ability to power steam-ships across oceans. In 1839 the Sirius became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. The age of automation was the new reality. Inventors of steam-driven gadgets saw a new market opening up. Zadoc P. Dederick from Newark, New Jersey, was an entrepreneurial inventor who patented his “Steam Man” on March 24, 1868. The Newark Advertiser January 23, 1868, stated:
[A] Newark machinist has invented a man; one that, moved by steam, will perform some of the most important functions of humanity; that will, standing upright, walk or run as he is bid, in any direction, and at almost any rate of speed, drawing after him a load whose weight would tax the strength of three draught horses...
Ellis was clearly influenced by Dederick's creation. The description of his Steam Man shows similarities:
Several miles to the north, something like a gigantic man could be seen approaching, apparently at a rapid gait for a few seconds, when it slackened its speed, until it scarcely moved. Occasionally it changed its course, so that it went nearly at right angles. At such times, its colossal proportions were brought out in full relief, looking like some Titan as it took its giant strides over the prairie. The distance was too great to scrutinize the phenomenon closely; but they could see that a black volume of smoke issued either from its mouth or the top of its head, while it was drawing behind it a sort of carriage, in which a single man was seated, who appeared to control the movements of the extraordinary being in front of him...
Hurricane
[Comic book character; WW]
First appearance: Two-Gun Kid #70 (July 1964); Creators: Stan Lee, Dick Ayers; Publisher: Marvel Comics.
Escaping from Two-Gun Kid following a failed train robbery, Harry Kane drinks a potion (brewed by an Indian shaman) that has been struck by lightning. The potion gives Kane super-speed and the ability to outdraw his opponents. Emboldened by his new powers, Kane attempts a daring bank robbery but is foiled by Two-Gun Kid and imprisoned.
Hurricane also came into conflict with Carter Slade alias the Phantom Rider and the time-traveling West Coast Avengers.
See: Western Legends
If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death
(1968) [Film; Italy-France-West Germany; WW]
U.S. release title for Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte.
In Nome del Padre, del Figlio e della Colt
(1971) [Film; Italy-Spain; WMW]
Premiere: December 3, 1975; Main Cast: Craig Hill as Bill Nolan/Bandido enmascarado, Nuccia Cardinali as Clarissa Nolan, Ágata Lys as Antonieta, Frank Braña as Juez; Story: Arpad DeRiso, Mario Gariazzo; Director: Frank Bronston [Mario Bianchi]; 77 min.; Aldebarán Films S.A., Cooperativa Cine España (Copercines), Copercines, Cooperativa Cinematográfica, New Films; Color.
A gunfighter trails his masked outlaw brother and his gang who are involved in murder, rape and robbery. Meanwhile, in the same village on the night of Halloween, another masked assassin starts his killing spree.
Low-budget film that anticipated John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). Filmed in 1971, it had limited Italian distribution in 1975.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Colt
(1971) [Film; Italy-Spain; WMW]
U.S. release title for In Nome del Padre, del Figlio e della Colt.
Independence Day
[RPG book; WW]
Authors: Matt Forbeck, Chris Snyder; First publication: 1996; Deadlands: The Weird West Dime Novel #2; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Wyatt Earp hires a posse to maintain law and order during Independence Day and to track down a ruthless murderer.
The Indian in the Cupboard
[Juvenile novel; Film; WW]
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br /> 1. Author: Lynne Reid Banks; First publication: Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1980.
An old cupboard, a toy plastic Indian and a magic key change the life of a nine-year-old boy when the Indian comes to life.
Followed by: The Return of the Indian (1985); The Secret of the Indian (1989); The Mystery of the Cupboard (1992); The Key to the Indian (1998).
2. Premiere: July 14, 1995; Main Cast: Hal Scardino as Omri, Litefoot as Little Bear, Lindsay Crouse as Jane, Richard Jenkins as Victor, Rishi Bhat as Patrick, David Keith as Boo-hoo Boone, Vincent Kartheiser as Gillon, Steve Coogan as Tommy Atkins; Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Jane Startz; Original novel: Lynne Reid Banks; Screenplay: Melissa Matheson; Director: Frank Oz; 96 min.; Columbia Pictures, Kennedy/Marshall Company, Paramount Pictures, Reliable Pictures, Scholastic; Color.
Film adaptation of the novel that explores the relationship between two young boys, a Texan cowboy from 1879 and an 18th century Iroquois Indian come to life.
Infestations
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Charles Ryan; First publication: 1999; Deadlands: Hell on Earth Dime novel #2; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
The continuing Wasted West adventures of Teller.
Inn of the Damned
(1975) [Film; Australia; WW]
Premiere: November 13, 1975; Main Cast: Judith Anderson as Caroline Straulle, Alex Cord as Cal Kincaid, Michael Craig as Paul Melford, Tony Bonner as Trooper Moore; Producers: Rod Hay, Terry Bourke; Story-Director: Terry Bourke; 118 min.; Terryrod; Color.
In this horror Western variation on the Psycho theme, the Australian outback serves as the backdrop to a story of an inn with a history of missing guests and grisly murders.
Interplanetary Lizards of the Western Plains
[Comic book; SFW]
First appearance: 1992; Story: J. Allen Cogliette, Glenn Boyd, Alan Jude Summa; Art: Glenn Boyd, Alan Jude Summa; Publisher: Leadbelly Productions.
Humor strip featuring cowboy lizards Doc, Rattler and Tumbleweed, stranded in the Old West by a time probe from an alternate reality.
Into the Badlands
(1991) [Telefilm; WW]
Premiere: July 24, 1991; Main Cast: Bruce Dern as T.L. Barston, Mariel Hemingway as Alma Heusser, Helen Hunt as Blossom, Dylan McDermott as McComas, Lisa Pelikan as Sarah Carstairs, Andrew Robinson as Sheriff Aaron Starett, Michael J. Metzger as Red Roundtree; Executive Producers: Josh Kane, Michael Ogiens; Teleplay: Dick Beebe, Marjorie David, Gordon Dawson; Director: Sam Pillsbury; 89 min.; MTE, Ogiens/Kane Company; Color.
Three tales are interwoven into the main story involving the mysterious bounty hunter T. L. Barston and his hunt for wanted outlaw Red Roundtree. Horror Western based on short stories by Will Henry a.k.a. Heck Allen (The Streets of Laredo), Marcia Muller (The Time of the Wolves) and Bryce Walton (The Last Pelt).
Iron Oasis
[RPG book; WW]
Author: John Hopler; First publication: 1999; Setting: Deadlands: Hell on Earth The Wasted West; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Location book for the Wasted West city of Junkyard, the main setting for Hell on Earth.
Iron West
[Graphic novel; SFW]
First publication: July 2006; Story-Art: Doug Tennapel; b/w; Publisher: Image.
Outlaw Preston Struck encounters an army of mechanical men. With the help of a shaman and his sidekick Sasquatch, Struck attempts to stop the robots from destroying central California.
Jack Wright
[Dime novel character; SPW]
With the continuing success of Frank Reade Jr., Frank Tousey knew he had a successful formula in the traveling boy inventor. Luis Senarens was called upon to create Jack Wright, who first appeared in The Boys' Star Library #216, July 18, 1891, in “Jack Wright, the Boy Inventor; or, Hunting for a Sunken Treasure” and was later featured in Tousey's Boys of New York before ending his run in Happy Days. Between 1891 and 1896 he appeared in 121 stories.
Jack Wright and His Electric Stage; or, Leagued Against the James Boys
[Dime novel; SPW]
Author: “Noname” (Luis Senarens); The Boys' Star Library. #344, September 14, 1894.
Swindling Jack Wright out of $5,000, the James Boys are pursued by Wright to Missouri with the help of his electric stage known as the Terror.
“...For a long time I have tried every means to capture those bandits. But they slip away from me with the most remarkable ease every time I feel surest I've got them. There's a reward of $5,000 offered by the governor of the State for their capture, and I and a Pinkerton detective named Carl Greene have been making the most desperate efforts to capture the James Boys, and break up their gang. We have thus far failed to do so.”
“Why has it been such a difficult task?” asked Jack.
“In the first place, Jesse James owns a horse named Siroc which is unequaled in speed and intelligence by any horse in the world that I know of, and he can easily outfoot the fleetest animal that ever chased him.”
“Well,” asked Jack, “suppose an electric overland engine were to chase that remarkable quadruped, don't you think he might be overtaken? The engine I refer to can run at the rate of fifty miles an hour over rough ground.”
“Any engine could last longer than a horse, and such a machine as you mention could outspeed that horse. But, of course, such an engine is an utter impossibility.”
“You are mistaken,” said Jack, quietly.
“How so?” asked Timberlake, with a puzzled look.
“Because I have got such an engine.”
Jack Wright and His Electric Stage; or, Leagued Against the James Boys by “Noname.” The Boys' Star Library 344, September 14, 1894.
Jack Wright and His Prairie Yacht
[Dime novel; SPW]
Author: “Noname” (Luis Senarens); 1894.
Wright fights Indians with the help of his Prairie Yacht.
Jack Wright's Electric Prairie Car or, Hot Times With the Broncho Buster,
Part I [Dime novel; SPW]
Author: “Noname” (Luis Senarens); The Boys' Star Library.
Jed Puma
[Comic book; France; WW]
First appearance: Pampa (2nd series) #1, Bronco #9 (1966); Art: Annibale Casabianca; Publisher: Editions Lug.
Western crimefighter Jed Puma has superhuman fighting skills and agility and takes pride in never wearing or using a gun. He is accompanied by Asian martial arts master Tashi.
Jed Puma #41. Art: Annibale Casabianca. © Mosaic Multimedia. Used with permission.
The Jerusalem Man
[Novel; SFW]
Author: David Gemmell; First publication: New York: Baen Books, 1988.
Variant title for Wolf in Shadow.
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
(1966) [Film; SFW]
Premiere: April 1966; Main Cast: John Lupton as Jesse James, Jim Davis as Marshal MacPhee, Narda Onyx as Dr. Maria Frankenstein, Steven Geray as Dr. Rudolph Frankenstein, Estelita Rodriguez as Juanita Lopez, Cal Bolder as Hank Tracy/Igor; Producer: Carroll Case; Story: Carl Hittleman; Director: William Beaudine; 88 min.; Circle Productions, Embassy Pictures; Color.
When Jesse James' partner Hank Tracy is shot in a foiled stagecoach robbery, they take refuge in a converted mission belonging to Baron Frankenstein's granddaughter and her brother Rudolph Frankenstein.
A standard “B” Western about spurned love with an over-the-top Frankenstein horror story involving a brain transplant thrown in the mix.
El Jinete sin Cabeza
(1957) [Film; Mexico; WW]
Premiere: September 18, 1957; Main Cast: Luis Aguilar, Crox Alvarado, Jaime Fernandez, Flor Silvestre; Producer: Luis Manrique; Story: Ramón Obón; Director: Chano Urueta; 95 min.; Universal; Spanish; b/w.
When a skull-masked gang, attempting to gain control of Herminio González's hacienda, captures him and chops off his hand with an axe, it takes on a life of its own. The Headless Rider appears on the scene to rescue a beauti
ful girl from the clutches of the ruthless gang and expose their true identities.
The first film in the Headless Rider series was originally part one of a three-part serial.
See: La Cabeza de Pancho Villa, La Marca de Satanás
Los Jinetes de la Bruja
(1966) [Film; Mexico; WW]
Premiere: December 8, 1966; Main Cast: Kitty de Hoyos, Fernando Almada, Dagoberto Rodríguez, Blanca Sánchez; Producer: Mário Almada; Story-Director: Vicente Oroná; 110 min.; Producciones Almada; Spanish; Color.
A witch, a death masked rider and ghost puppets feature in a tale of a rancher who is framed for the murder of a puppeteer.
John Carter of Mars
[Pulp fiction character; SW]
First comic book appearance: The Funnies #30 (May 1939); Publisher: Dell Publishing.
The Funnies (Issue's #30-56) was the first of many comic book and comic strip adaptations based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs character first introduced in Under the Moons of Mars.