Description
Book SynopsisThis companion to Undead in the West (Scarecrow 2012) explores the blending of the Western genre with zombies, vampires, mummies, ghosts, and spirits in comics, graphic novels, literature, games, new media, fandom and material culture.
Trade ReviewFocusing on portrayals of the western frontier and the undead in cinema and television, the first Undead in the West (2012) book confined its analysis to a specific medium. Here, Miller and Van Riper widen their editorial scope to essays examining a myriad of Western genre bending formats: pulp fiction, comics, board games, video games, and blogs. The volume is thematically partitioned into four segments, each reflecting an iconic element of traditional Western narratives: pioneers, lawmen and gunmen, men of god, and communities. The first collection of essays examines the pioneering work of Robert E. Howard, Joe R. Landsdale, and many other writers, in broadening the boundaries of the Weird Western. Complicating the simplistic binary of 'good guy versus bad guy' in the Western narrative, the second collection of essays critically assess the genre hybridity of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, the development of steampunk horror, and the ideology of Red Dead Redemption. Encounters with the undead by men of faith shapes the third part of the volume, exploring Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider and the graphic novel Priest. Analyzing the concept of community in AMC’s The Walking Dead, the role-playing game Deadlands, and fan Websites, the authors in the final section of the book parse concepts of gender, race, and national memory in portrayals and fans of the undead. Coupled with the first volume, Miller and Van Ripper have created a work of broad historical and critical synthesis. Ranging from pulp to video games, this robust collection of essays provides a much-needed foundational text in this ever-evolving genre. This work is recommended for both public and academic libraries, given the breadth and depth of the topic. * American Reference Books Annual *
The Western is dead: pundits have forever proclaimed such. So it seems both ironic and absolutely logical that in the postmodern era the form should be seen as vitally undead. Moreover, volumes like this one demonstrate that the Western's scholarship continues vigorously alive. -- Jim Kitses, author of Horizons West, Gun Crazy, and The Western Reader
Fans of comic books have no problem embracing stories that mash-up genres in an un-ironic way. I think these kinds of mash-ups can revitalize the genres being played with. Taking Western genre characters and placing them in non-genre stories or placing non-genre characters into Western genre settings is a great way to keep these stories fresh. -- Scott Stewart, writer, producer, director (Legion, Priest)
This book proves that the dead and the undead are the most alive things in the West. -- Stephen Graham Jones, author of Zombie Bake-Off, All the Beautiful Sinners, and The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong
Recommended for students of the horror genre and those who know vampires and zombies belong in the Old West mythos. -- Rocky Wood, president of the Horror Writers Association, and author of Stephen King: A Literary Companion
Table of ContentsForeword: In the Beginning—Frederick Faust’s Western Fantasies William F. Nolan Acknowledgments Introduction Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper Part I: Pioneers on a Wide-Open Frontier Chapter 1 Vaqueros and Vampires in the Pulps: Robert E. Howard and the Dawn of the Undead West Jeffrey Shanks and Mark Finn Chapter 2 Weird Western Comic Books of the 1950s Paul Green Chapter 3 Filling Up the West with Dead Folks: Joe R. Lansdale Cynthia J. Miller Chapter 4 On Death’s Horizon: Wandering Spirits and Otherworldly Landscapes in Western Art and Cinema Courtney Fellion Part II: Lawmen and Gunmen in the Badlands Chapter 5 Genre Exchange on the Supernatural Frontier in Stephen King’s The Gunslinger: The Gunfighter Archetype Meets the Ravenous Other Adam S. Kozaczka Chapter 6 Vampires and Vermin: The Ambivalence of Historical and Generic Revision of the West(ern) in Darkwatch Christina V. Cedillo Chapter 7 Finding a Noble Purpose in the Postapocalyptic Zombie West: Identity Development in Jonathan Maberry’s Rot and Ruin Julia Saric Chapter 8 Allegorical Confrontation Meets Gaming System: Rhetoric and Trauma within Red Dead Redemption / Undead Nightmare M. Melissa Elston Chapter 9 Go West, Young Fang! Skinner Sweet as Outlaw and American Vampire Andrew John Sneddon and Aspasia Stephanou Part III: Men of God on Hallowed Ground Chapter 10 A Baptism of Blood: Priest and the Regeneration of Violence on Min-Woo Hyung’s Frontier William Grady Chapter 11 Ghosts of Texas: The Duke, the Vampire, and the Saint of Killers in Preacher Jim Casey and Marc Petersen Chapter 12 “And Hell Followed with Him”: Gothic Economics in Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider (1985) John Edgar Browning Chapter 13 Scratching Open Old Wounds: The Supernatural Brujo and the Undead Body in The Missing and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Jericho Williams Part IV: Communities at the Edge of the Unknown Chapter 14 Days Gone Bye: Robert Kirkman’s Reenvisioned Western The Walking Dead Jeffrey A. Sartain Chapter 15 Genre Mashing in the Role-Playing Game Deadlands: The Weird West, the Horror Steampunk Western Rachel Mizsei Ward Chapter 16 Unsettled: Ghosts, Zombies, and Indians in the American West C. Richard King Chapter 17 Undead and Online: Fan Communities and the Undead Western Matthias Stork and A. Bowdoin Van Riper Afterword Paul O’Connor Index About the Contributors About the Editors
