The Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns has a second printing!

If you didn't already know, Paul Green's The Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns is THE reference of all things Weird in the Western genre. This is a fantastic book that came out last year, and has now moved into its second printing! If you haven't had a chance to pick it up, you should, its an essential part of any Weird Western fans night table reading.

From automatons to zombies, many fantastic elements have been cross-pollinated with the western genre. This A-to-Z encyclopedia of the Weird Western covers film, television, animation, dime novels, pulp fiction, comic books, novels, short stories and video and role-playing games.

I blogged about it when it first came out last October, and I still love it. Its a great reference for when I'm doing research for The Emporium, or just feel like getting lost some Weird Western minutia for a while.

You can also order the book from its publisher, McFarland and Co. Inc.....and you can visit Paul at his website, The Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns which, like The Emporium, is one of the few sites dedicated to Weird West goodness online; and acts as sort of an addendum to the book.

If you haven't pick this up yet, you should do it today! And Congratulations Paul, you've written a durn fine book there, pard!

New Set Photo from Cowboys and Aliens!

Collider reported today that Noah Ringer, who is starring in Cowboys and Aliens, tweeted a new photo from the set. Looks cool! Kinda.... Is it just me or does this particular shot look like the set from a 2 O'clock Wild West show at Tombstone or Knott's Berry Farm? It looks a little fake, especially the back buildings, with their thin structures....unlike the previous photo which was a great shot from set. I'm sure lighting and camera work can do wonders....or who knows, maybe this is meant to be blown up in the alien invasion! Or.....Maybe I'm just being to picky......We shall see..

You can click on the above Photo for a better look!

New Weird West comic book series The Sixth Gun!

I could honestly kick myself. Doing research for Yesterday's post I came across the cover of a new Weird Western comic called The Sixth Gun from Oni Press. The reason for the self kickage-ness is that they released the entire first issue, absolutely free, on Free Comic Book Day 2010.....which I purposefully missed due to a lack of titles that I was interested in...I suppose I should have done better research...

If you can't tell by the name, Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday in May when comic book companies release free issues of certain comics to promote them. The Sixth Gun was a good choice because it has just begun an ongoing run last month.

Oni Press decribes the title like this:

During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. The Sixth Gun - the most dangerous of the weapons - has vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Villains thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing anyone in their path. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunslinger with a shadowy past, stands in their way.

Nice! and as luck would have it, all is not lost. Robot 6 has posted the entire first issue online for our weekend reading pleasure (in two formats even, you can read it right on the site, or download a PDF of the issue to keep forever and ever).

Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun is 32 pages of Weird West awesomeness...And it can be read right HERE....Enjoy!

The Weird West on Deviantart!

Sometime contributor and friend of the Weird West Emporium, Ashe Armstrong, has started a Weird West group on Deviantart.

I have to admit, I haven't flirted much with the site. Its great for looking up pictures and such of my current obsessions, or for images for the Emporium, and even professionals post their work there. Looking for a certain picture online tends too be eased by going to the artists page on Deviantart and seeing if the picture in question was posted there.....Its hit or miss, but there's no denying that the site plays host some REALLY talented artists.

The weird West group is small right now, but its growing...and the work that's there shows the high quality and talent I was speaking of previously.

This is what Ashe has to say about it:

Over on deviantart, [I've] started a Weird West group, http://theweirdwest.deviantart.com/. It's still in its infancy but come check it out and if you have a dA account, join up and help it grow!

So far I'm liking what I'm seeing, You folks should head on over and check out the group....and if you happen to be part of the site, well..you know what to do!

The Weird West in DC comics...

Two new books have come out from DC comics recently and both seem fairly rooted in the Weird West! The first is issue 4 of the mini series The Return of Bruce Wayne and the other is Secret Six #24 - Unforgivable.

If you dont know, last year sometime Bruce Wayne was killed (or was thought to have been) and for the past year people have been racing to reestablish Batman's presence in Gotham City. The story is a bit complicated so in a nutshell, Bruce wasn't killed, he was catapulted back into time to the stone age.....and now, for some unknown reason, he's being pulled irresistibly forward to his correct time (Our present) stopping in certain eras as he goes. The current issue has him stopping in the Old West. I haven't read the issue yet, but from the following preview the opening is a doozy!

Grant Morrison’s can’t-miss Batman story rolls on as Bruce Wayne’s next stop on his amazing journey through time brings him to the Wild West – but will he escape alive? Artist Georges Jeanty joins Morrison to take The Dark Knight on a ride.

You can check out the exciting opening pages to issue 4 right HERE



The second book that came out last week is Secret Six: Unforgivable.

I dont know a lot about the Secret Six, except that they are a group of Super villains who are trying to make good.....or at best are Anti Heroes. Since I dont read the series I'm not sure where a Western Adventure fits in.....but I'm not complaining!

I like the art work and I like the dialogue in the opening pages. The Cowboy is a villain named Deadshot (he's one of the "six") and it seems MORE than appropriate to recast him as Gunslinger. Here's what DC has to say about the issue:

In a small, corrupt mining boom-town, six remarkable strangers who hate each other band together in a bloody last stand against an army set on destroying them all!

The issue was written by Gail Simone and drawn by J. Calafiore and you can read the first 4 pages right HERE!

DC Showcase - Jonah Hex!

After the disappointment that was the Jonah Hex movie, DC and Warner's take another crack at the character and hit it out of the park. The new DC Showcase Jonah Hex animated short is everything the Jonah Hex movie should have been. Here there is no bringing back the dead "powerz" or iffy origins, just a straight ahead Jonah story with a deliciously dark edge, some great music, and fun performances.

The tough-as-nails bounty hunter always gets his man - until someone else gets to him first - in this case a murderous madam who wants to steal more than just his bounty from Jonah Hex. Based on a story from the award-winning Jonah Hex comic series, and scripted by world-renowned author Joe Lansdale. The voice cast is led by Thomas Jane (Hung), Linda Hamilton (The Terminator), Michelle Trachtenberg (Mercy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Michael Rooker (Days of Thunder).

Currently, the short film is available in two ways, Its a bonus feature on the Batman: Under The Red Hood DVD that just came out last month, and then it is going to be part of the DC Showcase DVD that is coming out later this year.

Honestly I dont know how long it is going to be online, so you should check it out as soon as you can, and maybe even support its release with a purchase! Maybe we'll see more of Jonah's adventure in the future when DC and Warner's realizes that we actually DO care about the character......when he's treated right.

You can see all of the awesome Jonah Hex action right HERE! Enjoy!