Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns
Page 40
Nicknamed “ľindiana bianca” (the white Indian woman), Vartan—the daughter of a Sioux princess and an English lord—prefers to dress as an Indian girl.
The sexually adventurous blonde gunslinger Vartan was involved in the occasional supernatural adventure involving monsters and vampires during the 200-issue run of her comic book. Her name and looks were loosely modeled on those of French female singer Sylvie Vartan.
Vengeance of the Vapor
[Comic book; WW]
First comic book publication: May 2007; Story: Sal Cipriano; Art: Jok; Publisher: Markosia Enterprises.
The mysterious masked and cloaked figure known as the Vapor takes on the Heavy Gang who have gained control of the former gold mining town of Tin Cup. A mix of spaghetti Western and masked vigilante.
The Vigilante
[Comic book character; WMW]
First appearance: Action Comics #42 (November 1941); Creators: Mort Weisinger, Mort Meskin; Publisher: National Periodical Publications–DC Comics.
A contemporary Western featuring singing cowboy Greg Sanders [Saunders]. Following the murder of his father Sheriff Sanders during a stagecoach robbery, Greg moonlights as cowboy crimefighter The Vigilante, pursuing his prey on his motorcycle.
The Vigilante possessed no extraordinary powers but had great skill as an expert marksman, motorcyclist, horseman and musician. A member of the All-Star Squadron and the Seven Soldiers of Victory and an honorary member of the Justice League of America, Greg Saunders spent almost twenty years in the Old West of the 1800s in a revised history (retroactive continuity) of the Vigilante.
The comic strip was adapted into the 15-part Columbia Pictures serial The Vigilante: Fighting Hero of the West. To celebrate the achievement National Periodical Publications published a one-shot free souvenir issue of Action Comics featuring The Vigilante on the cover.
See: Justice League Unlimited; Pulp Heroes; Seven Soldiers
The Vigilante: Fighting Hero of the West
(1947) [Film serial; WMW]
Premiere: May 22, 1947; Main Cast: Ralph Byrd as Greg Sanders, Ramsay Ames as Betty Winslow, Lyle Talbot as George Pierce, George Offerman Jr. as Stuff, Robert Barron as Prince of Aravania; Producer: Sam Katzman; Story: Lewis Clay, Arthur Hoerl, George H. Plympton; Director: Wallace Fox; 285 min.; Columbia Pictures; b/w.
Loosely based on the DC Comics character appearing in Action Comics. A Western film actor described as the “Prairie Troubadour” (changed from the comic book's radio singing cowboy) leads a secret double life as a government agent.
The Vigilante attempts to track down the nefarious X-1 and the rare “Tears of Blood” pearls that are believed to have a 1,000-year-old curse placed upon them.
Chapter titles: 1. The Vigilante Rides Again; 2. Mystery of the White Horses; 3. Double Peril!; 4. Desperate Flight; 5. In the Gorilla's Cage; 6. Battling the Unknown; 7. Midnight Rendezvous; 8. Blasted to Eternity; 9. The Fatal Flood; 10. Danger Ahead; 11. X-1 Closes In; 12. Danger Rides the Rails; 13. The Trap That Failed; 14. Closing In; 15. The Secret of the Skyroom
Viking
[Comic book character; France; WW]
First appearance: Bronco #1 (1966); Art: Annibale Casabianca; Publisher: Editions Lug.
Viking a.k.a. Rothgar fights for justice with superhuman strength in the early days of the settlement of the New World.
Viking returned to comic books in 2001 in Special-Rodeo #170 when he teamed up with one of Drago's ancestors. It was revealed that he was immortal and had traveled to America with Erik the Red.
Interior from Viking (1965). Art: Annibale Casabianca. © Mosaic Multimedia. Used with permission.
A Visit from an Incubus
(2001) [Short Film; WW]
Main Cast: Anna Biller as Lucy McGee, Jared Sanford as the Incubus, Natalia Schroeder as Madeleine, Gerald “J.J.” Johnson as Saloon Manager, Joe Babicki as Bartender; Story-Producer-Director: Anna Biller; 26 min.; Anna Biller Productions; Color.
Lucy McGe, is transformed from a shy, nervous female into a self-confident Old West song-and-dance saloon girl following repeated nightly visits from a demonic incubus.
Voyagers!
[TV series; SFW]
Main Cast: Jon-Erik Hexum as Phineas Bogg, Meeno Peluce as Jeffrey Jones. Creator–Executive Producer: James D. Parriott; 20 × 60 min.; James D. Parriott Productions, Scholastic Productions, Universal TV; Color.
The time-traveling adventures of former pirate Phineas Bogg and the Voyagers and their mission to correct the mistakes of history.
“BULLY AND BILLY” (1:03) [SFW]
Air date: October 24, 1982; Guest Stars: Gregg Henry as Theodore Roosevelt, Frank Koppala as Billy the Kid; Story: B. W. Sandefur; Director: Virgil W. Vogel.
Arriving in Santiago, Cuba, during the Spanish-American War, Phineas and Jeffrey discover the Spanish are winning and that Billy the Kid killed Theodore Roosevelt in 1880. They decide to travel to 1880 and the Old West to prevent the presidential assassination.
“BUFFALO BILL & ANNIE OAKLEY PLAY THE PALACE” (1:12) [SFW]
Air date: January 9, 1983; Guest Stars: Diane Civita (Cary) as Annie Oakley, Robert Donner as Buffalo Bill Cody, Lurene Tuttle as Queen Victoria; Story: Jill Sherman Donner; Director: Alan J. Levi.
Phineas and Jeffrey help Annie Oakley with her performance in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in England.
La Vuelta del Charro Negro
(1941) [Film; Mexico; WW]
Premiere: June 18, 1941; Main Cast: Raúl de Anda as Roberto / El Charro Negro, El Chicote as El Chicote, Agustin Isunza as Emeterio, Gilberto Gonzalez as Doctor, Carmen Conde as Marta, Fernando Fernández as Fernando; Producer-Story-Director: Raúl de Anda; 92 min.; Producciones Raúl de Anda; Spanish; b/w.
In this modern Weird Western, Roberto a.k.a. El Charro Negro discovers that graves are being desecrated by body snatchers. His attempts to corral the culprits lead him to a mad scientist (Gonzalez) who is experimenting on bringing the corpses back to life in his laboratory located in an abandoned monastery.
Comic relief is supplied by El Chicote and Agustin Isunza reprising their roles from El Charro Negro (1941).
Wa-Tan-Peh
[Comic book character; France; WW]
First appearance: Special-Rodeo (2003); Art: Luciano Bernasconi; Publisher: Semic Comics.
Spin-off series of Ozark. Wa-Tan-Peh is a young apprentice shaman to Ozark in the Old West.
Wa-Tan-Peh in “Le Totem.” Story: Jean-Marc Laine; Art: Luciano Bernasconi. © Mosaic Multimedia. Used with permission.
Walking Wolf: A Weird Western
[Novel; WW]
Author: Nancy A. Collins; First publication: Shingletown CA: Mark V. Ziesing, 1995.
Billy Skillet, a white man raised by Comanches, is traveling companion to a vampire cowboy and part-werewolf.
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
[Comic book]
This anthology title featured a Zorro comic strip based on the Disney TV series.
“GHOSTLY CONFESSION” [WMW]
First publication: #275 (August 1963); Publisher: Dell Publishing Co.
After Zorro saves an innocent man from execution, the real killer believes the man he framed has returned from the grave as a ghost to seek vengeance.
Wanted Across Time
[Novel; WWR]
Author: Eugenia Riley; First publication: New York: Avon Books, 1997.
Annie Dillon, travels through time to 1885, where she is mistaken for outlaw Rotten Rosie and taken prisoner by bounty hunter Sam Noble.
Wanted Undead or Alive
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Paul Rickert; First publication: 2001; GURPS Deadlands Dime Novel #2; Publisher: Steve Jackson Games.
Sean Bailey seeks revenge on those who caused his death. Bounty hunter Caleb Harling must stop him before Bailey's End becomes a literal ghost town.
The Warlords of Mars
[Novel; SW]
Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs; First publication: Chicago: A. C. McClur
g, 1919.
His quest to rescue his wife, princess Dejah Thoris, from the Temple of the Sun takes John Carter to the polar regions of the north and a defining battle.
The third novel in the Barsoom trilogy.
Warpath
[Comic book character; SFW]
First appearance: New Mutants #16 (June 1984); Creators; Chris Claremont, Sal Buscema; Publisher: Marvel Comics.
James Proudstar, the brother of original Thunderbird John Proudstar, is an Apache who possesses superhuman speed, reflexes, strength and flight. His initial thirst for revenge over his brother's death led him to adopt the name Thunderbird but he soon realized that Professor Charles Xavier was not responsible for the death. After discovering his Apache tribe had been slaughtered on their reservation, he joined the X-Force to locate the killers.
Waste Warriors
[RPG book; WW]
Authors: John Hopler, Jay Kyle, Jason Nichols; First publication: 2000; Setting: Deadlands: Hell on Earth The Wasted West; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Includes martial arts and combat rules for the Waste Warriors of Hell on Earth, plus a history of the final days of the Last War.
Wasteland
[Comic book; SFW]
First publication: July 2006; Story: Antony Johnston; Art: Christopher Mitten; b/w; Publisher: Oni Press, Inc.
Surviving humans adapt to a desolate America one hundred years after the Big Wet enveloped the land and destroyed civilization. This post-apocalyptic series has been described as a cross between Preacher, Mad Max (1979), Deadwood (2004) and Dune.
“The Water Carriers”
[Pulp fiction; WW]
Author: Lon Williams; Character: Lee Winters; Real Western Stories (August 1956).
Myra's books inspired in him nightmarish thoughts; even more disturbing were Forlorn Gap's empty, gaping houses, eerie noises and pervading loneliness. It seemed to him–especially when he rode alone—that he lived in a world where he did not belong, or in a time long departed.
This feeling of unreality sometimes made him think that possibly he had already died before some wanted monkey's smoking gun, and rode now as a ghost of his former self.
The Way of the Brave
[RPG book; W]
Author: Fred Jandt with Paul Beakley; First publication: 2002; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West; System: d20; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
The Native Americans of Deadlands d20 including Guardian Spirits, Sacred Objects and Secret Societies. Based on the Deadlands: The Weird West book Ghost Dancers.
The Way of the Dead
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Fred Jandt with Lester W. Smith, Shane Lacy Hensley; First publication: 2002; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West; System: d20; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
New powers for the Harrowed in the Weird West. Includes the adventure “Dark Canyon.” Based on the Deadlands: The Weird West book Book o' the Dead.
The Way of the Gun
[RPG book; WW]
Authors: Steven Long, Steven Walmsey with John Goff, Shane Lacy Hensley, John Hopler; First publication: 2001; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West; System: d20; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Weapon tips and maneuvers to become the fastest gun in the Weird West.
The Way of the Huckster
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Fred Jandt; Based on original material by John Goff; First publication: 2001; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West; System: d20; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
The haunted history of the huckster. Based on the Deadlands: The Weird West book Hucksters & Hexes.
The Way of the New Science
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Lucien Soulban; Based on original material by John Hopler; First publication: 2002; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West; System: d20; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
Elixirs and Mad Scientists. Based on the Deadlands: The Weird West book Smith Robards.
The Way of the Righteous
[RPG book; WW]
Author: Fred Jandt; Based on original material by John Goff; First publication: 2003; Setting: Deadlands: The Weird West; System: d20; Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group.
D20 class book for the Blessed characters of the Weird West plus the enemies of the faith. Includes the adventure “The Mission.” Based on the Deadlands: The Weird West book Fire & Brimstone.
Weird Business
[Comic book anthology; WW]
First publication: 1995; Editors: Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Klaw; Publisher: MoJo Press.
Twenty-three tales by fantasy, science fiction and horror authors including Robert Bloch, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, Nancy Collins, Howard Waldrop, Poppy Z. Brite and artists John Lucas, Omaha Perez, John Bergin, Miran Kim and Dave Dorman. Includes Norman Partridge's Weird Western strip Gorilla Gunslinger.
The Weird, Weird West
[Juvenile book; WW]
Authors: Johnny Ray Barnes Jr., Marty M. Engle; First publication: San Diego CA: Montage Publications, 1996.
An earthquake releases zombie gunslinger Clayton T. Motley from his grave and his first thought is for revenge. Two-hundred years ago, one of Shane Reece's ancestors shot Motley. He fled to a cave where he died, but the bullet possessed strange properties that had an unusual effect on Motley. Now Fairfield is his destination and Shane Reece is his target.
Book 16 of the Strange Matter children's book series.
The Weird Weird West: Marvel Superheroes
[RPG game; WW]
Release date: 1989; Role-Playing Game; Design-Author: Ray Winninger; Publisher: TSR, Inc.
Dodge City, Kansas, 1871: Due to a temporal time slip, the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, and Alexander the Great are engaged in battle with each other.
Thrown into the mix are Marvel super-villains Doctor Doom, Mysterio, Black Knight, Scorpion and Sandman plus dinosaurs, alien invaders, a Mark Twain android and Albert Einstein.
The Avengers find allies in Ghost Rider, Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, Texas Twister, Red Wolf and Shooting Star to defeat the armies and return the Old West to normal.
The second in the three-part 'Time Warp' series of adventures.
Weird West
[Comic book; WW]
1. First publication: 1994; Creators-Story: Noel K. Hannan, Rik Rawling; Art: Rik Rawling, Tom Simonton, Derek Grey, John Weldind, Kevin Cullen; Three-issue mini-series; Publisher: FantaCo Enterprises Inc.
Hobo musician Johnny Tumbleweed and reluctant shaman Joseph Thunderhead are featured in this mini-series set in the Supernatural Disaster Zone (SDZ) of the southwestern United States, otherwise known as the Weird West.
In the year 2066, Chief John Rainsong of the Apache Nation leads his people across state lines into the SDZ and initiates a new Indian Nation in the Weird West.
2. [RPG game; WW] Authors: Andrew Hackard, Stephen Dedman; First publication: 2001; GURPS Deadlands series.
The American West in 1877 is populated with undead gunslingers, malevolent Indian spirits and the malicious Reckoners.
Weird Western Adventures of Haakon Jones
[Book anthology; WW]
Author: Aaron B. Larson; First publication: Shelburne, Ontario: Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1999.
Leaving his farm in Minnesota, Haakon Jones encounters many weird adventures as he journeys throughout the American West and beyond.
A collection of 36 Weird Western stories featuring Jones and his sidekick Small Jumper, originally published in Classic Pulp Fiction Stories, Double Danger Tales, Of Unicorns and Space Stations and Trails.
Weird Western Tales
[Comic book; WW]
1. First publication: #12, June-July 1972; Publisher: DC Comics.
Following the successful launch of Weird War Tales in September-October 1971, DC Comics decided to attempt the same format with their Western line-up. Weird Western Tales evolved out of All-Star Western and continued the numbering sequence of that titl
e. The first issue featured Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, El Diablo and Pow Wow Smith. It became apparent that Jonah Hex was the most popular character in the comic book. His name soon dominated the covers and continued until his final issue #38 in February 1977. Scalphunter replaced him as the cover feature for the remaining 32 issues. The series had a respectable eight-year run before its final issue #70 in August 1980.
2. First publication: April 2001; Publisher: Vertigo.
Four-issue anthology mini-series includes the talents of Dave Gibbons, Rick Burchett, Joe R. Lansdale, Paul Gulacy, Bruce Jones and Peter Milligan.
Welcome to Blood City
(1977) [Film; U.K.-Canada; WW]
Main Cast: Jack Palance as Frendlander, Keir Dullea as Lewis, Samantha Eggar as Katherine; Executive Producer: Stanley Chase; Story: Stephen Schneck, Michael Winder; Director: Peter Sasdy; 96 min.; Stanley Chase Productions, EMI; Color.
In a strange and unfamiliar Western town, a group of strangers discover the only way to survive is by killing each other.