Undead in the West II

Cynthia J. Miller is the editor of Too Bold for the Box Office: The Mockumentary from Big Screen to Small (Scarecrow, 2012), and co-editor, with Julie Anne Taddeo, of the award-winning Steaming Into a Victorian Future: A Steampunk Anthology (Scarecrow, 2012).A. Bowdoin Van Riper is the editor of Learning from Mickey, Donald and Walt: Essays on Disney’s Edutainment Films (2011) and author of A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and TV since 1930 (Scarecrow, 2011).Together, they are the editors of Undead in the West (Scarecrow, 2012) and 1950s Rocketman TV Series and Their Fans: Cadets, Rangers, and Junior Space Men (2012).

Focusing 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.

• Foreword: In the Beginning—Frederick Faust’s Western Fantasies William F. NolanAcknowledgments IntroductionCynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van RiperPart I: Pioneers on a Wide-Open FrontierChapter 1 Vaqueros and Vampires in the Pulps: Robert E. Howard and the Dawn of the Undead West Jeffrey Shanks and Mark FinnChapter 2 Weird Western Comic Books of the 1950s Paul GreenChapter 3 Filling Up the West with Dead Folks: Joe R. Lansdale Cynthia J. MillerChapter 4 On Death’s Horizon: Wandering Spirits and Otherworldly Landscapes in Western Art and Cinema Courtney FellionPart II: Lawmen and Gunmen in the BadlandsChapter 5 Genre Exchange on the Supernatural Frontier in Stephen King’s The Gunslinger: The GunfighterArchetype Meets the Ravenous Other Adam S. KozaczkaChapter 6 Vampires and Vermin: The Ambivalence of Historical and Generic Revision of the West(ern)in Darkwatch Christina V. CedilloChapter 7 Finding a Noble Purpose in the Postapocalyptic Zombie West: Identity Development in JonathanMaberry’s Rot and Ruin Julia SaricChapter 8 Allegorical Confrontation Meets Gaming System: Rhetoric and Trauma within Red Dead Redemption / Undead Nightmare M. Melissa ElstonChapter 9 Go West, Young Fang! Skinner Sweet as Outlaw and American Vampire Andrew John Sneddon and Aspasia StephanouPart III: Men of God on Hallowed GroundChapter 10 A Baptism of Blood: Priest and the Regeneration of Violence on Min-Woo Hyung’s Frontier William GradyChapter 11 Ghosts of Texas: The Duke, the Vampire, and the Saint of Killers in Preacher Jim Casey and Marc PetersenChapter 12 “And Hell Followed with Him”: Gothic Economics in Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider (1985) John Edgar BrowningChapter 13 Scratching Open Old Wounds: The Supernatural Brujo and the Undead Body in The Missing andThe Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Jericho WilliamsPart IV: Communities at the Edge of the UnknownChapter 14 Days Gone Bye: Robert Kirkman’s Reenvisioned Western The Walking Dead Jeffrey A. SartainChapter 15 Genre Mashing in the Role-Playing Game Deadlands: The Weird West, the Horror Steampunk Western Rachel Mizsei WardChapter 16 Unsettled: Ghosts, Zombies, and Indians in the American West C. Richard KingChapter 17 Undead and Online: Fan Communities and the Undead Western Matthias Stork and A. Bowdoin Van RiperAfterword Paul O’ConnorIndex About the Contributors About the Editors