Sanjulian- Euroart meets the Western, Part 2 (NSFW)

I mentioned in my last post that I had run across a terrific Spanish painter named Sanjulian who does cover work for a variety of genres, including westerns.  It appears that standards for what can go on covers is a little different in Europe than in the United States, because these paintings are a little beyond the taste of what Americans will take on a Walmart book shelf.  

This last one is from Thuvia, Maid of Mars, an Edgar Rice Burroughs planetary romance, but was too good to pass up here.

Sanjulian- Euroart meets the Western, Part 1

While looking for some images for this blog, I came across some great artwork from a Spanish painter named Sanjulian.  He has done the covers of lots of fantasy and science fiction novels, and as it turns out quite a few westerns.  Here is some of his artwork (at least that which I can show with a NSFW label; those I’ll save for the next post).

Peter Brandvold- Writing Westerns for D&D Geeks

I’ve said in several past posts that Peter Brandvold is one of my favorite authors currently writing.  He made it easy for me to transition from a sword and sorcery fantasy reader to a western fan.  Here’s the reason why, from an interview in Western Fiction Review:

What appeals to you about the western genre?

 "The land, the men, the women, the lack of civilized law and boundaries. It's really a mythic place, sort of like Robert E. Howard's Hyboria."

I got yer tomahawk right here!

Lou Prophet- Jonah Hex meets Maverick

With 10 books written and still going strong, Peter Brandvold’s Lou Prophet: Bounty Hunter series is easily one of the favorite ongoing series in any genre.  The books have been well written from the start, but somewhere around the fourth book the series found its voice and took off with a shot.  Action packed with a lot of funny and a little touching (of both the romantic and randy kinds) the series gets better with every book.

Lou Prophet is an interesting twist on the traditional western bounty hunter. He is not a steely eyed killer or do-gooder. He mostly does his job to support his sins. After the Civil War, Prophet made a deal with the Devil (at least in his mind) that as long as he could spend the rest of his days in this life whooping it up enough to forget the war, he'd gladly spend his next life shoveling coal in Perdition. As the series has progressed, Brandvold has started sticking his toes over the line into the world of the "adult western", but his writing is so good that it just feels a part of Prophet's visceral now as he tries to forget his past.

In Prophet's world, towns are a place where you collect your bounty, find a saloon, and spin the world into a haze of vice until you run out of coin. Then it's back on the owlhoot trail, with saddle sores, coyotes, and freedom from the maddening crowd; at least until whiskey and jerky run out. Think Jonah Hex without the psychosis, or Maverick without the snobbery, class, and a bit less conscience. It is a pleasantly simple world, which is accessible to the reader, a joy to move around in for the duration of the read, but with enough realism that we don't want to trade places with Prophet.

This image by Carles DeMiguel doesn't actually appear in and Lou Prophet novels, but it easily could

Top Ten Western Comics

Can’t take credit for this one- click here for a great review of western comics through the ages.

Fear of a White Hat

Good guys wear white hats, bad guys wear black hats.  Simple, formulaic, and true.  Like a passion play, or Commedia dell'arte, traditional westerns lay out a clear formula for us to follow and from which to learn.  Take Winchester ’73- Jimmy Stewart white hat clearly marks him as different from the villain, setting us up for the great moral lesson of the film: knowing when not to shoot is as important as knowing how to shoot.

For a long time we have distrusted the white hat hero.  The good, pure(ish) cowboy, paladin, or caped crusader felt insufficient in the complexities of modern life.  The black hat anti-hero and masked vigilantes have ruled comics for decades.  Almost a decade ago we looked for a hero, and a cowboy with a white hat came riding out of Texas to show us what was right and true.  But he was only human, and flawed, and we expected better of him.  It has taken us a long time to trust a white hat again. 

I think that we are coming back to a place where we can start to trust the white hats again.  The latest incarnation of the Rawhide Kid is without a doubt a white hat- a solid, morally upright paladin of the plains, if also incredibly conceited and self centered.  The Lone Ranger run in Dynamite may stray into a dark territory now and again, but overall the tone of the story is that of a man trying to do good from outside of the law.  They exist in a time when the traditional comics heroes are starting to shine again.  After decades of bloodbaths and superheroic nihilism, there is suddenly room for heroes again.

Streets of Glory- A Derivative Mess

There are not many comic book writers out there that have a keen interest in the western.  Jonah Hex continues (despite the movie), Rawhide Kid makes an occasional appearance, and Two-Gun Kid still manages to find a place in modern Marvel comics, but it is rare that you read a comic and feel that the writer is clearly in love with the western.  Garth Ennis, an Irish writer who’s love of sarcasm and violence brought him into the comics spotlight in the 1990’s, is one of the few comic books writers today whose craft is immersed in and informed by westerns.  Some of his best works are inspired by or referential of Lonesome Dove and Blood Meridian.   His works in Preacher, particularly the Saint of Killers miniseries, are an awe-inspiring love song to the genre.  It was therefore with great enthusiasm that I picked up the Streets of Glory miniseries, Ennis’ first foray into a pure western.

Unfortunately, Streets of Glory felt like a mishmash of movies or books that Ennis has read recently (frankly, that is true of a lot of his work lately).  Look, there’s the kid from Shane, and Woodrow Call, and that cocky gunslinger from Joe Kid with his land grabbing boss, and they are out after Blue Duck, so cleverly disguised here as Red Bird.  There is nothing original here, except perhaps some really graphic gunplay and torture scenes. The big mystery (this can hardly be called a spoiler) is about chasing settlers off their land so a rich easterner can buy it up and sell it to the railroad.  I think I’ve seen that plot before.  

The things that you want in a Western are all here.  As Ennis says in this interview, a good western should have "plenty of country. Tough guys; good and bad. Clanky old Colt revolvers. Duster coats. Stetsons. A gal or two. And big, big sky."  And he delivers all these things you want in a western, it's just that I've seen them all before in other westerns.  

 Ennis can be an inspired writer, but this unfortunately was not the place to find it.  For a good Ennis western, try reading the Saint of Killers story from Preacher Vol. 4: Ancient History.  Again, it starts off like another film, this time Unforgiven, but soon spins off into places both demonic and metaphysical.  Try that one before reading Streets of Glory, and hope the inspiration strikes Ennis’ sixgun another time.

Did I mention there's a little violence?