Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns
Page 18
Contemporary story mixing science fiction, gangster and Western genres about a deadly radium tube that causes mail planes to crash in the Shiloh mountains. G-Man Tim Caverly poses as outlaw Tim Toomey to try and capture the gang robbing the mail from the wreckage of the planes.
Special electronic effects for the radium tube were provided by Kenneth Strickfaden, famed for his work on Frankenstein (1931).
“Ghost, Ride with Me!”
[Pulp fiction; WW]
Author: Lon Williams; Character: Lee Winters; Real Western Stories (June 1953)
His route wound precariously along three miles of precipice and cliff, through shadow and soughing winds. He came to a treacherous turn round jutting rocks, where a misstep could have sent mount and rider plunging in space to a depth of two hundred feet. Cannon Ball, Winters' big, rangy horse, was taking it easy round this turn, when a ghost rose from nowhere and seated itself behind Winters.
The Ghost Rider
[Comic book character; Film; WW]
First appearance: Tim Holt #11 (October 1949); Creators: Vincent Sullivan, Ray Krank, Dick Ayers; Art: Dick Ayers; Publisher: Magazine Enterprises; Marvel Comics; AC Comics.
1. The Calico Kid, a strip that began in Tim Holt #6, morphed into The Ghost Rider in #11. After killing the Calico Kid's faithful steed Ebony, the Calico Kid (alias Federal Marshal Rex Fury) and his Chinese sidekick Sing Song are thrown over a cliff into the “Devil's Sink” whirlpool by Bart Lasher and his Indian renegade friends. They both emerge from the whirlpool into an underground cave. Fury plans his revenge by faking his death and adopting a new identity as his own spirit, the Ghost Rider.
Writer Gardner Fox offered a supernatural explanation for his origin in Ghost Rider #1 (A-1 Comics #27). Clinging to life after his emergence from the whirlpool, Fury is visited by the ghosts of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Marshal Billy Tilghman, Kit Carson and Pat Garrett. After he is taught various survival and shooting skills by the spirits, Hickok introduces Fury to a white stallion whom he names Spectre. When Fury awakes, he considers his ghostly visits merely a dream until he encounters Spectre when he exits the cave.
Co-creator Vin Sullivan's influences for Ghost Rider included Walt Disney's Sleepy Hollow-Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman and the Vaughn Monroe song “Ghost Riders in the Sky.”
2. With the lapsing of the copyright of the Magazine Enterprises character, Marvel Comics decided to re-launch Ghost Rider in February 1967 with original co-creator Dick Ayers supplying the artwork and Gary Friedrich and Roy Thomas providing the new storyline. The first version of Ghost Rider from Marvel was a throwback to the movie serials where the hooded ghostly phantom was nothing more than a cowboy or outlaw wearing a costume. Phosphorescent dust from a meteorite provided by Indian medicine man Flaming Star created a ghostly glow to the Ghost Rider's horse, mask, hat and lariat. Marvel's attempt to revive the character was a failure with the title only running to seven issues. In its short run, Ghost Rider came up against villains Tarantula, Sting-Ray (originally known as the Scorpion in Two-Gun Kid) and the super-strong Indian, Towering Oak.
3. In 1972, Marvel decided to kill the character of Carter Slade and replace him with the Phantom Rider. In the same year Marvel updated The Ghost Rider to a contemporary setting and re-invented him as demon-possessed stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze.
Carter Slade re-surfaced in 1981 in issue #56 of the revamped title as a spirit possessing the Phantom Rider and in the same year as a member of The Rangers.
In 1974 Marvel reprinted their original Ghost Rider stories under the new title Night Rider to avoid confusion with the revamped Ghost Rider. With Marvel owning the trademark to Ghost Rider, the original 1950s Magazine Enterprise comic book strips were reprinted by Bill Black's Paragon Publications starting in 1971 under the title The Haunted Horseman. Original artist and co-creator Dick Ayers contributed new material to the AC Comics reprint title in the 1980s and 1990s. The Haunted Horseman was subsequently succeeded by The Haunter in the pages of Femforce.
4. [Film; 2007]
Premiere: February 16, 2007; Main Cast: Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider, Eva Mendes as Roxanne Simpson, Sam Elliott as Caretaker, Brett Cullen as Barton Blaze, Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles; Story-Director: Mark Steven Johnson; 114 min.; Columbia Pictures Corporation, Marvel Enterprises; Color.
Although the film is primarily based on the 1970s biker version of Ghost Rider, it does include a re-imagined Carter Slade as Caretaker of the local cemetery. The film includes a memorable scene of the Western Ghost Rider (dressed in black instead of the traditional phosphorescent white costume) and the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider riding side by side.
The end title song “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” about the "devil's herd” of cattle being chased endlessly across the sky by damned ghost cowboys on horses “snortin' fire,” was composed by park ranger Stanley Davis Jones in 1948 while he gazed at the sky overlooking Death Valley on his 34th birthday.
The following year the song was a number-one hit for Vaughn Monroe on RCA Victor Records. Bing Crosby's version, released by Decca Records one month later (May 1949), peaked at #14 on the Billboard charts. Other versions that have made the Billboard charts were by Burl Ives (the first to be recorded), Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash. In the United Kingdom, The Ramrods peaked at #8 in 1961 and an instrumental version by The Shadows reached #12 in the UK charts in 1980.
Gene Autry featured the song in the movie Riders in the Sky (1949). Australian rock band Spiderbait recorded a version of the song for Ghost Rider (2007) starring Nicolas Cage.
Ghost Riders
(1987) [Film; WW]
Premiere: 1987; Main Cast: Bill Shaw as the Rev. Thadeous Sutton/Prof. Jim Sutton, Jim Peters as Hampton, Cari Powell as Pam; Producers: Thomas L. Callaway, James Desmarais, Alan Stewart; Story: James Desmarais, Clay McBride; Director: Alan Stewart; 85 min.; New World; Color.
Hanged outlaws from the 1880s terrorize the descendants of those responsible for their deaths.
Ghost Town
(1988) [Film; Juvenile book; WW]
1. Premiere: 1988; Main Cast: Catherine Hickland as Kate, Franc Luz as Langley, Bruce Glover as Dealer, Penelope Windust as Grace; Producers: Charles Band, Timothy D. Tennant; Story: Duke Sandefur, David Schmoeller; Director: Richard Governor; 85 min.; Empire Pictures; Color.
Officer Langley is stranded in an abandoned ghost town stuck in limbo and haunted by outlaws from the Old West.
2. Author: Annie Bryant; First publication: Lexington, MA.: B*tween Productions, 2007.
While vacationing on a dude ranch in Montana, Beacon Street girls Maeve, Avery, and Charlotte become stranded in an old Montana ghost town during a snowstorm and they encounter a real ghost. Book #11 in the Beacon Street Girls series.
Ghost Town: A Novel
[Novel; WW]
Author: Robert Coover; First publication: New York: Henry Holt, 1998.
A small Western town recedes into the horizon as a horse and rider approach. They finally reach the mysterious town as it rolls under the horse. An ever shifting story sees the sheriff become an outlaw, the unnamed cowboy declared sheriff by drunken gamblers and buildings changing position as in a dream.
Ghost Town at Sundown
[Juvenile book; SFW]
Author: Mary Pope Osborne; Illustrator: Sal Murdocca; First publication: New York: Random House, 1997.
Jack and Annie travel back in time to the Old West via their Magic Tree House. The tenth book in the “Magic Tree House” series.
Ghost Towns
[RPG book; WW]
Authors: Nancy Amboy, Andrew Bates, Derek Pearcy, John Wick; First publication: 1998; Publisher: White Wolf Publishing.
Crossover story supplement for Werewolf: The Wild West and Wraith: The Oblivion.
Ginga Tetsudô Three-Nine
(1979) [Anime; Japan; SW]
Premiere: August 4, 1979; Creator: Leiji Matsumoto; Director: Rintaro; 126 min.; Toei Animation Company; Color.
In the yea
r 2121, following the murder of his mother by cyborgs, a young boy travels on a galaxy-hopping steam locomotive in the hope of reaching a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy that offers a free cyborg body and near immortality. A beautiful, mysterious woman named Maetel offers Tetsuro a free pass to travel on the train if he will accompany her.
In the Old West–styled town of Trader's Fork on the planet Heavy Melder, Captain Harlock comes to the aid of Tetsuro in the local saloon. Tetsuro meets Tochiro Oyama, the designer of Harlock's spaceship Arcadia of My Youth and is told the Mount Gun Frontier will hold the clue to the mechanized, soulless man who murdered his mother, Count Mecha.
Based on the 1977 Big Comic strip by Leiji Matsumoto and the subsequent animated TV series.
See: Galaxy Express 999
The Ginger Star
[Novel; SW]
Author: Leigh Brackett; First publication: New York: Ballantine Books, 1974.
Eric John Stark travels to the lawless planet Skaith at the edge of the universe in search of his foster father and mentor Simon Ashton, who has been kidnapped by the Lord Protectors. Stark is hunted by the corrupt government.
The first in a trilogy of Skaith novels.
See: The Hounds of Skaith
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
(1966) [TV series]
April Dancer and Mark Slate work for the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, dedicated to protecting the world from its evil nemesis THRUSH.
“THE FURNACE FLATS AFFAIR” (1:22) [SFW]
Air date: February 21, 1967; Main Cast: Stefanie Powers as April Dancer, Leo G. Carroll as Alexander Waverly, Noel Harrison as Mark Slate; Guest Stars: Peggy Lee as Packer Jo, Ruth Roman as Dolly X, Susan Browning as Ladybug Byrd, Percy Helton as Mesquite Swede; Executive Producer: Norman Felton; Story: Archie Tegland; Director: Barry Shear; 50 min; Arena Productions, MGM Television; Color.
THRUSH wants to obtain Titerian crystals from the Utter Anguish gold mine in Furnace Flats for use in a deadly laser ray. April Dancer, races against THRUSH agent Dolly X, and Ladybug Byrd to determine ownership of the mine and the potentially lethal crystals.
Girl in Landscape
[Novel; SW]
Author: Jonathan Lethem; First publication: New York: Doubleday, 1998.
Following the death of her mother, 13-year-old Pella Marsh and her family emigrate from Earth to a new world where Pella can travel telepathically with the help of the local deer. She also discovers that her new home exhibits moral and physical decay.
Giunse Ringo e... fu tempo di massacro
(1970) [Film; Italy; WW]
Premiere: August 2, 1970; Main Cast: Mickey Hargitay as Mike Wood/Stanton.
Jean Louis as Ringo Wood/Stanton, Lucia Bomez as Pilar, Omero Gargano as Don Juan/ Alonzo, Anna Cerreto as Witch, Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia as Sheriff Sam Carroll; Producer: Umberto Borsato ; Story: Mario Pinzauti ; Director: Peter Launders [Mario Pinzauti]; La Volpe; Color.
While investigating a spate of deaths by poisoning, gunslinger Ringo aims to find out the truth behind the murder of his brother and any connection to the wealthy local landlord Don Juan. After Ringo discovers Don Juan has also been poisoned, the clues to the identity of the murderers lead to two diabolical witches.
See: Ringo, It's Massacre Time
The Gods of Mars
[Novel; SW]
Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs; First publication: Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1918.
John Carter returns to Mars (Barsoom) after a ten-year separation from his pregnant wife Dejah Thoris. Finding himself in an area known as the Martian heaven, Carter discovers “heaven” doesn't live up to the name as he faces menaces such as great white apes, Black Pirates and an evil goddess of Barsoom.
The second novel in the Barsoom trilogy.
See: The Warlords of Mars
“Golden City”
[Pulp fiction; WW]
Author: Lon Williams; Character: Lee Winters; First published: Real Western Stories (December 1954).
Eerie hallucinations and encounters with ghosts put thoughts of an early retirement to the back of Lee Winters' mind.
The Golems of Laramie County
[Novel; WW]
Author: Ken Rand; First publication: Alma, Arkansas: Yard Dog Press, 2005.
Horace Bixby lives among animated golems, dirigibles and spirit magic in Peaceful Valley, Wyoming, in the late 1800s. But the discovery of an evil undead necrogolem places everyone in danger.
Good News
[Novel; SFW]
Author: Edward Abbey; First publication: New York: Dutton, 1980.
Urban and pastoral dwellers clash in a future America where civilization has collapsed. Indians and whites work together in the wilderness of the West to create a new society. But elite urban dwellers remain to impose their order on this emerging society.
Gorilla Gunslinger
[Comic book character; WW]
First appeared: Weird Business (1995); Creator-Story: Norman Partridge; Art: John Garcia; Publisher MoJo Press.
Simian gunslinger Monjo alias Prince Kilimanjaro has a bounty of $25,000 on his head for the murder of clowns and preachers.
The Good, The Bad and Huckleberry Hound
(1988) [Animated Telefilm; WMW]
Air Date: 1988; Voice Cast: Daws Butler as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Baby Looey, Snagglepuss; Don Messick as Boo Boo, Narrator, B.J. Ward as Desert Flower; Executive Producer: Jayne Barbera; Producers: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; Directors; Ray Patterson, John Kimball, Bob Goe, Charles A. Nichols, Jay Sarbry; 120 min.; Hanna-Barbera Studios; Color.
Sheriff Huckleberry Hound loses his memory after being attacked by the Dalton Gang while Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo, Quick-Draw McGraw, Baba Luey and Snagglepuss are thrown out of town. Tied to a rocket that crashlands in an Indian reservation, Huckleberry falls in love with the chief's daughter Desert Flower, regains his memory and devises a plan to get his revenge on the Dalton Gang by haunting them as his own ghost.
See: Quick Draw El Kabong, Yogi's Space Race
The Good, the Bad, and the Dead
[RPG book; WW]
Editor: Shane Lacy Hensley; First publication: 1999; Deadlands anthology with No Name #3; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Foreword by Bruce Campbell, “Hate: Part Three” by Shane Lacy Hensley, “Talking Heads” by Matt Forbeck, “Out of the Frying Pan” by John R. Hopler, “Dead to Rights” by Philippe R. Boulle, “Playing the Game” by Don DeBrandt, “The Snipe Hunt” by Susan Griffith and Clay Griffith, “Harmony Gap Has a Bad Day” by Angel Leigh McCoy, “No Good Deed” by Timothy B. Brown, “In Search of Mr. Beaseley” by John R. Phythyon Jr., “Boneyard Train” by Lisa Smedman and “From a Fever” by Shane Lacy Hensley.
Gorilla Gunslinger: Meet Monjo ...
[Graphic Novel sampler: WW]
First publication: 1996; Creator-Story: Norman Partridge; Art: Mark Erickson; Publisher MoJo Press.
The proposed 1997 graphic novel project Gorilla Gunslinger ... The Good, the Bad ... and the Gorilla didn't progress beyond this nine-page sampler handed out at ComicCon International.
The Grave Doug Freshley
[Comic book; WW]
First publication: 2008; Story: Josh Hechinger; Art: mpMann; Publisher: Archaia Studios Press.
Shot between the eyes, Doug Freshley is shocked to find himself still among the living. But tracking down the gang who “killed” him will eventually require him to accept his destiny.
Graveslinger
[Comic book; WW]
First publication: October 2007; Story: Shannon Eric Denton, Jeff Mariotte; Art: John Cboins; four-issue mini-series; Publisher: Image Comics.
After undertaker Frank Timmons accidentally releases 117 dead killers from Hell, he tries to avoid damnation by tracking them down across the West.
Greaser's Palace
(1972) [Film; WW]
Premiere: 1972; Main Cast: Albert Henderson as Seaweedhead Greaser, Michael Sullivan as Lamy “Homo” Greaser
, Luana Anders as Cholera, Ronald Nealy as Card Man/Ghost, Toni Basil as Indian Girl, Hervé Villechaize as Mr. Spitunia; Producer: Cyma Rubin; Story-Director: Robert Downey Sr.; 91 min.; Greaser's Palace Ltd.; Color.
Christian satire in a New Mexico Old West setting centering on the saloon Greaser's Palace. This confusing film features a character (Sullivan) who is murdered and repeatedly brought back to life by his Christ-like father (Alan Arbus). Director Robert Downey Sr. finds a place in the film for his young son Robert Downey Jr.
Great Caesar's Ghost
[Novel; WWR]
Author: Cynthia Sterling; First publication: New York: Jove Books, 2000.
The spirit of a medicine show owner haunts his son and acts as matchmaker. Weird Western Romance published in the Haunting Hearts series.
The Great Maze
[RPG book; WW]
Authors: Robin Laws, John Hopler; First publication: 1997; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Location sourcebook book for California and the City of Lost Angels. Includes a full-length adventure.
The Great Rail Wars
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Shane Hensley; First publication: 1996; Setting: Deadlands; Pinnacle Entertainment Group.