Literature Two early examples of Western fantasy are the short story "The Horror from the Mound" by
Robert E. Howard, published in the May 1932 issue of the
pulp magazine Weird Tales, and the
novelette "Spud and Cochise" by anthropologist and
Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Oliver La Farge, published in the non-genre magazine
The Forum in January 1936. One of the earliest novels to introduce fantasy into a Western setting was
The Circus of Dr. Lao (1935), by
Charles G. Finney, which won a
National Book Award for the Most Original Book of 1935. The novel concerns the visit to a fictional Arizona town by a magical circus that features
legendary creatures from
mythology. It was later adapted into the film
7 Faces of Dr. Lao in 1963. Later novels include those by
Joe R. Lansdale, many featuring the heroic Reverend Jebediah Mercer. Lansdale has often mixed
splatterpunk with
alternate history Western. An example is
Dead in the West (1983), in which
zombies rise after an unjustly lynched Native American
shaman has cursed the town of Mud Creek, Texas. The prolific Western author
Louis L'Amour sometimes ventured into science fiction, as with
The Haunted Mesa (1987), which is set amid the ruins of the
Anasazi. Horror author
Jack Ketchum's work includes
The Crossings (2004), an
occult novel set in 1848 Arizona. Author Edward M. Erdelac's 2009 series Merkabah Rider follows a Hasidic gunslinger tracking the renegade teacher who betrayed his mystic Jewish order of astral travelers to the
Great Old Ones of
H.P. Lovecraft.
Comics From the 1940s, many
Western comics published stories in which heroes would sometimes encounter
monsters,
aliens,
supervillains, etc.
Marvel Comics featured
Kid Colt, the longest-running Western character in American comic books, from 1948 to 1979. He became a time traveller, and ultimately, a
mutant. The
Rawhide Kid, another Marvel time traveller, debuted in a 16-issue series, from March 1955 to September 1957, from Marvel's 1950s predecessor,
Atlas Comics.
DC Comics added a horror element to their Western stories by introducing
Weird Western Tales in 1972. The title of this series gave rise to the term "Weird West". It ran for eight years and 59 issues. The main character was
Jonah Hex, whose popularity secured his own eponymous series. In the mid-to-late 1990s,
Desperadoes by
Jeff Mariotte, from
Image Comics/
WildStorm Productions, returned weird Western comics to the stands at a time when none of the major publishers had Western comics in their line-ups.
Preacher Special: Saint of Killers, a 4-issue mini-series, was a spin-off from
Preacher by
Garth Ennis. While the origin of the
Saint of Killers in the Old West is the only true Western element in the comic book
Preacher, the series has been described as a "
Splatterpunk Western" or a mix of the Western with the
Gothic.
Films In film,
The Phantom Empire (1935) is sometimes considered the first fantasy Western.
Gene Autry, in his first starring role as a
singing cowboy, ventures down a mineshaft and discovers a futuristic lost kingdom of the type depicted in
Flash Gordon. Sci-fi and horror Westerns began in the 1950s with the vampire Western
Curse of the Undead, and the
science fiction Western The Beast of Hollow Mountain, about a prehistoric dinosaur in a turn-of-the-century Mexican village. This continued in the 1960s with films such as
Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966), which depicted the real-life outlaw fighting against the fictional
vampire,
Pale Rider (1985),
Ghost Town (1988),
Back to the Future Part III (1990),
Wild Wild West (1999)
, and Bone Tomahawk'' (2015).
Television series In the 1960s, the television series
The Wild Wild West brought elements of pulp espionage and science fiction to its Old West setting. The animated adventures of
The Lone Ranger followed suit, with the famous Western hero encountering mad scientists and other villains not often found in the Western genre. Additionally,
Rod Serling's supernatural anthology series
The Twilight Zone featured a handful of Western episodes, such as "
Showdown with Rance McGrew". Later series include
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993–1994), which featured
steampunk elements;
Wynonna Earp (2016), a horror Western about a present-day woman with a magic
Colt Buntline revolver who fights reincarnations of outlaws killed by her ancestor,
Wyatt Earp; and
Preacher (2016), based on the
comic book series of the same name.
Games Deadlands, first published by
Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 1996, originated as a
role-playing game which combines the Western and horror genres with
steampunk elements. It is set in an alternate 1870s America and draws heavily on
gothic horror conventions and old
Native American lore to derive its sense of the supernatural. Characters can get involved in situations ranging from bank heists to shoot-outs involving
vampires and
zombies over the course of their adventures. The Japanese RPG series
Wild Arms, although set in a world of its own, distinctively draws notable inspiration from the Wild West imagery and combines it with magical and fantasy elements which are typical to the genre.
Damnation (2009) is set in alternate universe where the
American Civil War was prolonged indefinitely due to advanced steam technology, with the player being tasked with stopping the army of a mad inventor bent on taking over the country.
Undead Nightmare (2010), an expansion to
Red Dead Redemption (2010), is a horror Western
video game. It tells the tale of an undead outbreak that has spread across the frontier. Other fantasy elements are new weapons such as holy water, and new mythical mounts, which include a
unicorn and the
Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Its sequel,
Red Dead Redemption 2, features a number of minor Easter eggs for the player to discover, such as
UFOs and the remains of a giant hominid.
Weird West (2022) is a top-down
action role-playing game with elements of the
immersive sim genre, with randomized elements through each playthrough.
Hard West (2015) is a turn-based tactical and strategic video game, as well as its sequel,
Hard West 2 (2022).
Hunt: Showdown is a multiplayer PvPvE FPS video game.
Evil West (2022) is a third-person shooter with
hack and slash and
role-playing game elements.
Blood West (2023) and additional story expansion pack ''
Blood West: Dead Man's Promise'', a first-person shooter, similarly focuses on an immortal gunslinger and Voodoo priest clashing with cursed monsters. ==Variants==