[Montagne]

I'm just over half-way through writing a weird west novel... and I was curious what others thought of the genre itself. Its not a very well-known sub-genre, and in fact, many literary agents and publishers (both traditional) are wary of accepting them. And in fact, there hasn't been too many novels out there of this sub-genre, which comes as a surprise really. It is after all, excellent grounds for a good science fiction/horror stories. There have been a couple - notably King's Dark Tower series (though the main character is a gunslinger... the setting itself is more post-apocalyptic rather than western), and there were some short story anthologies of weird west inspired by the RPG Deadlands... recently there's Zepplins West and Buntline Special. I'm just curious as to what everyone else thinks of the genre - and why it hasn't seen more novels in recent years (hopefully the rise of steampunk will open the doors for more...).

[Lucanus]

I was a big fan of Brisco County Jr. and the original Wild Wild West (not the Will Smith version) and I wish there was more of it out there. A vague concept of the dark things that could have been done under the guise of shanghai-ing people occasionally comes to me as sort of a horror/noir detective story. Maybe I'll write it one day.

[Montagne]

Lucanus - yeah - I loved the Wild Wild West as a kid too! Was very, very disappointed in the Will Smith movie... not that I don't like Smith, but it was a terrible movie for so many reasons that it would take a separate thread to cover :confused:

[KatG]

I just found out they were calling some things weird west recently (thanks Nick!)

Western fantasy novels have done pretty well. Weird west, I guess does more horror, steampunk? Anyway, the Western fantasies are part of the exploring America history aspect for authors. So you have Emma Bull's very respected Territory (which was supposed to have a sequel but she has not managed it yet,) Lois McMaster Bujold's Sharing Knife series, Patricia Wrede has a YA series set in an alternate Earth western frontier, Justin Allen's The Year of the Horse, Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series though that's not strictly just western, Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World, M.K. Hobson's The Native Star, The Merkabah Rider stories, Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series, and a bunch more. We'll be seeing more because historical fantasy is expanding.

[DailyRich]

Deadlands is one of my favorite RPG settings ever, and that leaned pretty heavily on horror and steampunk. In fact, a lot of "Weird West" stuff I've seen has leaned on the horror aspect. It'd be interesting to see some epic-style fantasy in a Western setting.

[Montagne]

I just found out they were calling some things weird west recently (thanks Nick!)

Western fantasy novels have done pretty well. Weird west, I guess does more horror, steampunk? Anyway, the Western fantasies are part of the exploring America history aspect for authors. So you have Emma Bull's very respected Territory (which was supposed to have a sequel but she has not managed it yet,) Lois McMaster Bujold's Sharing Knife series, Patricia Wrede has a YA series set in an alternate Earth western frontier, Justin Allen's The Year of the Horse, Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series though that's not strictly just western, Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World, M.K. Hobson's The Native Star, The Merkabah Rider stories, Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series, and a bunch more. We'll be seeing more because historical fantasy is expanding.

Yeah... I've read Card's, good stuff, agree with it not being strictly a western. You're correct in that most of the above would be considered Western Fantasy (though I'm not familiar with YA novels so I'm not sure about the above written series). I'm hoping you're right about seeing not only more of Western Fantasy but Weird West/Western Science Fiction as well... I think of it as tipping the hat to America's own science fiction heritage, the Edisonades, a gesture that's long overdue.

[Lucanus]

Lucanus - yeah - I loved the Wild Wild West as a kid too! Was very, very disappointed in the Will Smith movie... not that I don't like Smith, but it was a terrible movie for so many reasons that it would take a separate thread to cover :confused:

I remember watching it with my great grandmother as a little kid in the 80s. Jim West was still such a cool hero even then. I also like most of Will Smith's work but aside from the theme song which was fun at the time there wasn't much redeeming value to that movie. It missed the mark by a mile.

[goldhawk]

Publishers are wary of the weird west genre because of what happen to comic books and the Comics Code Authority (CCA) (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority). Apparently, America go upset because of all the gory and horror in comic books, particular the western ones and the CCA was the response. So, if you want to write a weird west story, try to avoid adding blood, gory, and skeletons for shock value; they're likely to get your story rejected.

[Montagne]

I remember watching it with my great grandmother as a little kid in the 80s. Jim West was still such a cool hero even then. I also like most of Will Smith's work but aside from the theme song which was fun at the time there wasn't much redeeming value to that movie. It missed the mark by a mile.

Agree with you 100%. What were they thinking? The script even... terrible. Looks like they had a hefty budget - surprised they could make it flop so bad.

What's weird about the Weird West sub-genre, is that even after King's Dark Tower started hitting some lists, you didn't have the usual writer bandwagons develop. And not to mention the fact that Westerns sold quite good on their own (at one time) - so you'd think a phase would have developed. But nope. Weird (pun intended, eh eh eh). From publishers I've talked to , it was largely due to the fact that they never received any "worthy" ones (eeek, am loathe to use that term but for lack of a better description...), and the fact that they were too close to the Western genre which was at the time, on a decline. Still... you'd think a few more would have slipped out...

[Montagne]

Publishers are wary of the weird west genre because of what happen to comic books and the Comics Code Authority (CCA) (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority). Apparently, America go upset because of all the gory and horror in comic books, particular the western ones and the CCA was the response. So, if you want to write a weird west story, try to avoid adding blood, gory, and skeletons for shock value; they're likely to get your story rejected.

Huh... good to know. Though the Jonah Hex graphic novels didn't shy from any of the above (and by the way... another flop on putting Weird West on the silver screen... though it was an improvement from WWW in my opinion).