Every month the Black Horse Western group airs western related issues, whether they be on books, magazines, comics, tv series or films. Here is round-up of some recent items :

Favourite western theme?

Charles Whipple: One man (and friends) against the world. The man can be a lawman, a rancher, a footloose rider, whatever. I haven't tried a Western with a woman hero yet, but someday . . .

Karl Rehn: If I'm faced with a pile of books by unknown authors and I have to pick solely on basic plot, I'll pick a range war story or gunfighter story or lawman story.

Dave Whitehead: One of my own favourite themes is simply that of a westerner who's growing old, but who somehow manages to prove in the end that he can still cut the mustard. It doesn't matter to me if he's an ageing lawman, a soldier, scout of whatever. I just feel that older characters lend themselves to a better turn of phrase and somehow have more depth to them.

Rashid Rasool: Town lawman.

Derek Rutherford: I like a good traditional lonesome hero...

Mike Linaker on TV series the High Chaparal

"The High Chaparral" was both the title of the series and the name of the ranch owned by the Cannon family in the Arizona Territory during the 1870's. Stubborn, determined, 50- year-old John Cannon is the patriarch of the family with ambitions to establish a cattle empire while finding a way to co-exist with the Apaches and the Mexicans just across the border. To help him, he has his younger brother Buck, who can out-drink, out-shoot, out-fight, and when motivated, out-work any man alive. He also has his son, Billy Blue, a young man in his early 20's, whose mother is killed in the first episode. In an arranged marriage intended to keep peace with the neighbors, John then marries an aristocratic Mexican beauty, Victoria Montoya, daughter of Don Sebastian Montoya, a wealthy Sonoran rancher. Her brother, Manolito, accompanies Victoria to the Cannon ranch as her guardian, staying on as a member of the household even after the arranged marriage turns to one of substance and trust.

I recall this as a dramatic, tough, well scripted TV Western when it began, but as the series went on my feeling was it lost its way and became, in my eyes, more of Western soap. Stories became too cosy and it lost its sharp edge. But this is often the way with some US series. They hit hard to gain popularity, then become watered down once they have their place. Look at "Starsky and Hutch". The moment the softy whiners got their way the "action" show became a sloppy, no- violent scenes parody, with the cop partners forever breaking down and hugging each other and attempting, and failing miserably, to inject humor into the stories which became increasingly enbarrasing to view. Seeing old episodes now produces a high voltage cringe and only contracts and money could have been the reason the actors stayed with it. "High Chaparral" had one of the best music openings ever. Shame it lost its way.

JUL063037 - LONE RANGER #1 by Brett Matthews, John Cassaday, Sergio Cariello, & Dean White. The Lone Ranger #1, Year One

The Origin is a powerful tale of the Old West and begins the origins of the Lone Ranger in a way never before presented. Evoking shades of such powerful Westerns as Unforgiven, the tone of such powerful modern interpretations of the Old West as Deadwood, and written in the most reverential way, this is the must-read comic of 2006. Written by Brett (Firefly) Matthews and art directed by John (Astonishing X-Men) Cassaday - who also provides each 'dynamite' cover for the series. Lone Ranger #1 also features the interior veteran illustrator Sergio Cariello and colorist Dean (Punisher) White. Also available in a limited silver 'bullet' foil edition!"

Movie remakes

Broken Trail - It premiers on AMC at the end of this month Sunday the 25th, starring Robert Duvall. It's picking up some good critical reviews. This is the cable channel's first venture into movie making and it's odd they'd pick a genre that supposedly doesn't attract viewers or readers.

Have gun will travel - And then there's the news I heard yesterday of the movie version of 'Have gun, will travel'. After the chat here recently about who was the ideal modern western movie star, this one stars someone who wasn't on many people's list - Eminem. Shudder!

3:10 to Yuma: I wonder if anyone heard Elmore Leonard's interviews on BBC Radio last week. Amongst other things, he discussed his early westerns and the fact a new version was to made of 3:10 To Yuma (the original starred Glenn Ford — still going strong at 90). Leonard (himself now 81) said the remake would star Tom Cruise. Interestingly, Leonard said he only received $4,000 in rights for the original film and, apparently, a contractural agreement means he'll receive only 50 per cent of that for the remake. If the movie is remade with the hugely bankable Cruise, though, it should give the genre a well-deserved boost.

Wild Bunch: It seems that the remake of 'The wild bunch' is not exactly getting approval. Especially as it is being remade as a contemporary violent thriller set in Mexico. To make a thriller and say the idea is based on 'Wild Bunch' is, I suppose, acceptable - but to call it a remake!

Review: Bandera Pass - L. J. Washburn - M. Evans and Company, 1989

    Bandera Pass is a solidly written, highly entertaining traditional Western story. The author gives us two very likeable heroes in Texas Rangers Joe Casebolt and the main protagonist of the story, young Ranger Hank Littleton.  Their assignment to track down former State Policeman turned outlaw Isom Whittaker provides enough action to satisfy any fan of fistfights and shootouts. I can't go into much more without spoiling the book for anyone who would like to read it, but the story ends with a very unexpected twist. And for those of you who may not be aware of this, L.J. Washburn is James Reasoner's wife Livia, and she's a great author in her own right. I highly recommend Bandera Pass to anyone who loves a good traditional Western.

The Mighty Marvel Western

I got the first issue of this magazine the other day -- cover story featured Two-Gun Kid. I wasn't necessarily crazy about the time-travel aspects of this story (I haven't been keeping up with She-Hulk) or the continued ending. I found the Giffen back-up amusing, but not really memorable; I thought the "aged" aspect of the art was a little too much of a post-modernesque nod to cutesyness, suggesting the creators don't have any real love of western comics after all (although I may be reading this incorrectly). The Rawhide Kid reprint was fun, although I don't remember reading that many RK stories that had a fantastic element like this. The living totem pole monster might have been more at home in a story featuring Bullseye, but I'm glad to see the _real_ RK and some Jack Kirby art instead of the revisionist version from the Slap Leather miniseries.

THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON … OR DID THEY? By David Whitehead

When I wrote my first BHW, way back in 1984, I wanted the villain, a half-breed Comanchero named Nathan Rocco, to meet a particularly spectacular end. All through the book he’d worn crossed bandoliers, and at the climax of the story, the two heroes both shoot him at the same time. The bullets strike the shotgun shells in the bandoliers, and Nathan Rocco more or less explodes.

Some years later, when reviewing the book for the second edition of The Encyclopaedia of Frontier and Western Fiction (a review, incidentally, which was never actually used), Geoff Sadler commented that this particular death was a little too over-the-top, and spoiled what was an otherwise reasonable first effort.

Perhaps he was right. But then, the events and characters we portray in fiction - especially genre fiction - have to be larger than life, for one very simple reason. We read this type of fiction in order to escape from the prosaic, humdrum predictability of everyday existence. Reading about someone taking his dog for a walk, or mowing the lawn or doing the washing-up, may be true to life, but it’s never going to provide the escapism we are almost guaranteed to get from a good old-fashioned shoot-’em-up. In any case, life is by and large a fairly ordinary affair, and - perhaps fortunately - few of us ever get the chance to go out in a blaze of glory, as do the characters we like to read and write about. Take Clay Allison, for example. He may have been one of the Old West’s most colourful characters, but he met his end in a most undignified manner. Returning home to his ranch one July night in 1887, Clay’s wagon hit a bump in the road. Already as drunk as the proverbial skunk, he fell out of the wagon and rolled right into the path of its rear wheels. The snap of his neck ended the career of a man said to have killed between 15 and 24 men.

Then there was the ambidextrous Jim Courtwright. Jim did die in a gunfight - killed in a shoot-out with Luke Short in 1887 - but he didn’t exactly go out in style. Luke’s first shot took off Jim’s right thumb, and before he could bring his left-hand gun into play, Luke sealed his fate by ventilating him with three more slugs.

Then there were the Earp brothers. Virgil died in 1906, but spent the last 25 years of his life crippled after being cut down by five hidden shotguns on December 28^th 1881. Morgan Earp was playing pool one evening in March 1882 when a flurry of shots blasted through a window and caught him in the back. He died aged 31.

As for Wyatt Earp himself, well, he must have had a charmed life, because he died peacefully in 1929 at the grand old age of 80.

John “King” Fisher was killed along with gunman Ben Thompson in a San Antonio variety theatre on March 10^th 1884. Ironically, there was no grudge against Fisher. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was caught in the crossfire when friends of one of Thompson’s many victims gunned him down in revenge. Thompson was 42, Fisher just 30.

Pat Garrett, the man who famously dispatched Billy the Kid, was killed in what may or may not have been a gunfight.

There had been a disagreement between Pat and one of the tenants on his ranch. Pat was said to be reaching for a shotgun when he caught some lead from Judge Colt. But will we ever know the truth of what happened that day? He was shot through the chest - but also in the back of the head. At the trial, his killer was acquitted. That was in 1908, the year Pat turned 57.

John Wesley Hardin was one of the Old West’s most celebrated characters. He had around 40 killings to his credit when his turn finally came in 1895. But he didn’t meet his end in a gunfight. Some say Wes was armed that night, some say he wasn’t. All that really matters is that lawman John Selman shot him in the back. Hardin was 42.

Then there was... but that will have to wait for the next issue.

THE BAD JOKE CORRAL

A cowboy rode into town and stopped at the saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the locals always had a habit of picking on newcomers. When he finished, he found his horse had been stolen.

He comes back into the bar, handily flips his gun into the air, catches it above his head without even looking and fires a shot into the ceiling. "Who stole my horse?" he yelled with surprising forcefulness.

No one answered.

"I'm gonna have another beer and if my horse ain't back outside by the time I'm finished, I'm gonna do what I dun back in Texas and I don't want to have to do what I dun back in Texas!"

Some of the locals shifted restlessly.

He had another beer, walked outside, and his horse was back! He saddled up and started to ride out of town.

The bartender wandered out of the bar and asked, "Say partner, what happened in Texas?"

The cowboy turned back and said, "I had to walk home!"