NOT YOUR FATHER’S LONE RANGER

Troy D. Smith

Not your father’s Lone Ranger –and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In 2006 Dynamite Entertainment debuted its Lone Ranger comic, by Brett Matthews and Sergio Cariello. It was an immediate hit, with critics as well as fans. The title was nominated for an Eisner award for best new series, and was named “Best Western Comic Book of the Year” by True West in 2009. Matthews and Cariello have consistently managed to capture the spirit of the characters and give nods to their storied history while still providing depth and appealing to modern readers. As of this writing, in January 2011, the series has seen 24 issues and four story arcs. I would prefer to see the book coming out on a more regular basis, but waiting a couple of months for Cariello’s excellent artwork is more than worth it. The first three story arcs are available in trade paperback, and the fourth one will be soon; an upcoming miniseries will see the Lone Ranger interacting with an elderly Zorro (Dynamite also publishes Western comic series about Zorro and the Man with No Name.)

Of course, the Dynamite series is only the latest incarnation of the masked man. The character was originally created in 1933 by Detroit radio producer George W. Trendle and freelance writer Fran Striker (the two men argued publicly for years about which had the largest role.) Eventually the Lone Ranger galloped from radio to serials, movies, cartoons, and a long-running television series. He appeared in a newspaper comic strip (initially scripted by co-creator Striker, who also wrote several Lone Ranger novels) from 1938 until 1971, and again in the early ‘80s. The masked man first appeared in comic books in January, 1948; except for a brief hiatus in the early 1960s when the rights changed from Dell to Gold Key Comics, the title continued until March, 1977 (an interesting side note, at least to me: that other famous masked cowboy, Marvel Comics’ Two-Gun Kid, headlined his own comic from March, 1948 until April, 1977.) The Ranger had a brief four-color comeback in the mid-90s with a Topps Comics miniseries by Joe R. Lansdale and Timothy Truman.

The first story of Dynamite’s series closely follows the origin story from the original radio program: young Texas Ranger John Reid is the lone survivor of an ambush by the Butch Cavendish gang which kills five other Rangers, including Reid’s father and older brother Dan. The troop had been betrayed by a traitorous Ranger named Collins. The seriously wounded Ranger is rescued and nursed back to health by an Indian named Tonto, who becomes his partner. Reid buries his five dead comrades, and adds an empty grave –John Reid is dead to the world, and only the Lone Ranger survives. Before long there is a white stallion and a silver mine which produces material for the masked man’s bullets. I like the way Matthews and Carielo include more subtle Easter eggs to pay tribute to the character’s history. In the early issues he wears the red shirt which the Lone Ranger sported in the 1940s, and later switches to a more Clayton Moore-esque blue one. In one scene, the sheet music to The William Tell Overture sits prominently on a piano in the foreground. John Reid’s young nephew, Dan Jr., is obsessed by hornets –Fran Striker fans will immediately realize that little Dan will later be the father of Britt Reid, the 1930s Green Hornet.

There are a few changes, however, and a few modern touches. John Reid seems more sensitive, and less sure of himself, than the stalwart hero we are accustomed to. Like the hero of yore, he refuses to take a life –he uses silver bullets to emphasize the heavy price paid for every shot fired. I don’t remember that reasoning being part of Lone Ranger lore before, although perhaps it was there and I just missed it. The widow and son of his brother Dan are important supporting characters, and the Ranger’s tender feelings for them is a dramatic element in the series. The aging, melancholy Sheriff Loring is another prominent member of the supporting cast, providing a similar dynamic to Commissioner Gordon in Batman stories. Butch Cavendish is a far more interesting villain than he has ever been before –no longer a simple outlaw boss, he is portrayed as an unhinged, psychotic politician, given to grandiose soliloquys and sardonic conversations with God. He is sort of a cross between Al Swearingen of Deadwood and the Joker.

The biggest change –and really, how could it not be –is the depiction of Tonto. He is no longer the monosyllabic, pidgin-English speaking, loyal “Injun” sidekick. Nor does he get beaten up every time he goes to town alone, as Bill Cosby famously observed. This Tonto speaks fluent English, is a formidable and supremely competent hero, and is an equal partner –in many ways a mentor –to the Lone Ranger. He is also more likely than his partner to get the girl. Critics of the character have for decades pointed out that the very name “Tonto” is condescending, as it is a Spanish word meaning “fool.” Matthews’ script makes it clear that Tonto is not the man’s given name: “You can call me Tonto. People used to.” We later learn that he is an outcast from his tribe (hence the name Tonto, perhaps, as Apaches often spoke Spanish –though that has not yet been clarified in the comic.) At one point his old friends deride him for being a “faithful Indian companion.” It is only fair to point out that Lansdale and Truman’s 1994 version of Tonto was also articulate, capable, and aware of the public’s racist view of him: "Of course, Kemosabe. Maybe when we talked I should use that 'me Tonto' stuff, way they write about me in the dime novels. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

I hear that some fans of the traditional Lone Ranger have complained about the violence in the latest comics version. To be certain, this is not the kids’ TV show or the 1970s cartoon; comics today are primarily aimed at people college-age and older (the younger kids are busy playing with their wiis.) The action and language are more realistic –one storyline involves catching a serial killer. Even so, this incarnation of the Lone Ranger is just as much a model of virtue, morality, and honor as any that have come before. If you have pleasant memories of the character, or if you just enjoy a good Western action tale, I strongly recommend you pick up an issue or one of the trade paperback reprints.

(Troy D. Smith is the award-winning author of RIDING TO SUNDOWN, BROTHERS IN ARMS, THE PEOPLE IN YONDER, and GOOD REBEL SOIL: THE CHAMP FERGUSON STORY, among others.  Troy is currently a Doctoral candidate in the History Department at the University of Illinois. He says, "I don't write about things that happen to people—I write about people that things happen to.")

Trailer: The Snake Den by Chuck Tyrell

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Deadline Approaching

Submissions for the Western Fictioneer Peacemaker Awards are being still being accepted for works published in the year 2010.  All entries must be postmarked by January 31, 2011.  For more information about the awards and the forms needed, check out the WF website.

Rancho Diablo Series by Colby Jackson

The Rancho Diablo series of original Western e-books was launched recently to great success so far. Written under the house name Colby Jackson, Rancho Diablo is the creation of veteran authors Mel Odom, James Reasoner, and Bill Crider, and tells the story of the creation of a Texas ranch by former army scout Sam Blaylock, his family, and his friends.

The first book, SHOOTER’S CROSS, written by Odom, finds Blaylock taking over an old, abandoned ranch that is thought to be cursed and having to battle not only new-found enemies who don’t want him to succeed but also the earth itself, since much of the water on the spread he dubs Rancho Diablo is polluted by sulfur. After triumphing over these threats, the arrival of Blaylock’s family sets the stage for the second book, HANGROPE LAW (written by Reasoner), in which an unexpected reunion with an old friend leads to danger for Sam and one of his sons.

These two books are now available for the Kindle through Amazon. The third book, DEAD MAN’S REVENGE, written by Bill Crider, will be available soon. These are action-packed stories that will appeal to fans of traditional Westerns and new readers alike. Check them out.

RAFE: A Tale of Redemption by Frank Roderus

Published by ThreeSixteen Press, RAFE is now available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Rafer Allard was a bank robber. A very good bank robber. It was a career choice that greatly pleased him and his every intention was to keep it up for as long as he could run to a horse and spur it away. That was until a late afternoon in Tumer, Kansas, when two bullets in the back and a man named Peter Stone irrevocably changed his life forever.

Link for Amazon - Rafe: A tale of redemption

Hellfire In Paradise by Chuck Tyrell

HELLFIRE IN PARADISE is the latest Black Horse Western from WF member Charles Whipple, writing under the Chuck Tyrell pseudonym. It opens by piling tragedy upon tragedy on the head of its heroine, Laurel Baker. The ranch house she shares with her husband and two young sons in Arizona’s Paradise Valley burns down, killing the two boys, and that same night Laurel’s husband Jack dies when the wagon he’s driving is forced into Paradise Gulch. These losses are almost too much for Laurel to bear, but when it quickly becomes obvious that these tragedies aren’t accidents or coincidences, Laurel’s strong-willed nature asserts itself and she digs in her heels and picks up a Winchester, refusing to budged from the Rafter P ranch.

She winds up getting some help along the way, but Laurel is plenty tough in her own right, as Whipple makes clear in this fast-moving, well-written novel. Most of the Black Horse Westerns are solid traditional Western stories with good characters, and HELLFIRE IN PARADISE is a prime example of that.

O Fictioneers!

Troy D. Smith

http://www.troyduanesmith.com/

 Western Fictioneers is a professional organization for authors who produce fiction about the West (bet you didn’t see that coming.) It is not affiliated with Western Writers of America, Inc., but neither are the two mutually exclusive. Many of us are members of both groups, in fact. Why, then, the need for two different writers’ organizations, both centering on the American West? The answer to that question lies in our focus, I believe. WWA covers a lot of different kinds of writing: popular history (the kind you find in such excellent magazines as True West and Wild West), academic history (the denser, analytical stuff one finds in equally excellent journals such as Western Historical Quarterly), songwriting, poetry, children’s books, screenplays, teleplays- including documentaries, biographies, and, of course, fiction. Even under the umbrella of Western fiction, though, there is a lot of variety. WWA got its start, in 1953, mainly promoting the types of traditional Western stories one could see regularly at the time on the silver screen. Eventually, though, WWA authors were just as likely to be producing other Western or frontier-themed fiction: stories set in 1770s North Carolina, or 1740s New York State; stories about wildcatters in the oil fields of 1920s Oklahoma; cowboys in the 1940s; modern-day Cherokee law officers solving mysteries; truck stop waitresses looking for love in 1970s Montana. All these forms, in my opinion, are equally valid and equally entertaining. In recent years, though, those of us who also write the good old-fashioned traditional Western stories that were once the backbone of our genre have begun to fear that our kind of tale –still loved not only by us but by our readers –was in danger of being squeezed so far to the margin that it might fall right off the edge. So we formed this group, in order to promote not just our work but the traditional Western in general, in a more focused way than broader groups such as WWA are able to do.


I decided to write this essay extolling the traditional Western because I, like many of us represented here, wear many different literary hats. I have written a lot of articles for popular history magazines and books, and earn the lion’s share of my bread and butter as a professional historian, writing for academic audiences. I also write poetry, and other types of fiction (mysteries, for example.)


But there’s something special about Western stories. They are one of our primary forms of national myth, for one thing; like England’s Robin Hood and King Arthur stories, Japanese samurai tales, or Scandinavian countries’ Viking sagas. They also provide an ideal setting for generating drama, the backbone of good storytelling. For a truly stirring paean to the Western, see Jory Sherman’s entry that has appeared on this very blog site- I couldn’t possibly improve on it or add to it.


What I would like to do in this space, however, is talk about how Western fiction differs from Western history. I don’t favor one over the other, but I take a radically different approach with each. When dealing with historical fiction, it is very important to know and understand the history in which you choose to weave your story. Nothing drives me crazy as quickly as careless anachronism- a story about Civil War guerrillas that has them using cartridge-loaded Peacemakers, or about Republican Texas with Rangers using lever action repeating rifles. I am also annoyed by the use of words or phrases not in the vocabulary of the time, or stories that reference historical figures or events in an incorrect timeframe. Several of my WF friends can testify that my compulsive historian’s need to make sense of the Gunsmoke timeline strains not only my own sanity but also that of any poor souls forced to endure my tirades about it. Despite all that, I have made my share of historical errors in my novels, and I’m sure all my WF colleagues have done so as well –and I’m sure they all have stories about readers who immediately jumped on those errors, leaving us sheepish (a feeling no self-respecting cowboy should experience.)


Obviously, the need to get one’s facts straight is even more important when writing actual history. This, however, is where the difference between the two, and my diverging approaches to them, comes in. You see, in historical fiction the facts are important, but they are not the most important. First and foremost, you must have a good story. So, then, whereas an author does not want to make the kind of careless historical errors I described above, he or she may consciously decide to –well, make stuff up. Say you were writing a novel about Johnny Ringo. You might choose to consolidate 4 or 5 of Johnny’s real-life friends into one character, just to make the story easier to follow. You might combine several similar shootouts into one scene. Perhaps there is a legend about him that historians have demonstrated is probably untrue –but it’s a fun legend, and you want to use it anyhow. You are not married to the facts. I’ll give you a couple of cinematic examples. The movies Tombstone and Wyatt Earp came out around the same time, and covered the same subject. Wyatt Earp was more historically accurate, and more detailed. Tombstone, however, was a better movie –because it told a better story.


It is also an author’s prerogative to intentionally change some historical facts in order to make their story more effective. Larry McMurtry tends to do this. If you are familiar with Texas history, and read McMurtry, he will mess with your mind. If you read Dead Man’s Walk and think “a-ha! Bigfoot Wallace! I know about him, and I know what becomes of him,” or do the same when you encounter Judge Roy Bean in Streets of Laredo, you will be lulled into a false sense of security. Then, when those characters meet fates you did not expect, the scenes will be shocking and powerful –and that was the author’s intention.


I have done a lot of research about the Civil War guerrilla Champ Ferguson. This resulted in a novel and a history article in Civil War Times Illustrated. In the article, Troy Smith the historian was obliged to tell exactly what really happened, as best it can be reconstructed (a word at odds with old Champ.) But in the book, Troy Smith the novelist had two goals: 1) tell a good story, and 2) do my best to show what it was like, and how it felt, to be in war-torn Civil War Tennessee. I could do both these things better by tweaking the facts. Very often, fiction allows a writer to tell a story that is ultimately more true than nonfiction could be. The facts are tools to be used by the artist, whose goal is to strike a chord in the reader’s heart that rings true whether they have experienced the particular circumstances being described or not.


I would like to close with a quote from Oakley Hall’s introduction to his classic 1958 Western novel Warlock. Hall’s words resonate with me, even though I would clarify one point: I think that history, too, is a search for truth beyond mere facts, as the professional historian’s job is to explain facts, not just list them. Here, then, is how Hall described his novel, and how I would describe any of mine:


“The fabric of the story … is made up of actual events interwoven with invented ones; by combining what did happen with what might have happened, I have tried to show what should have happened. Devotees of Western legend may consequently complain that I have used familiar elements to construct a fanciful design, and that I have rearranged or ignored the accepted facts. So I will reiterate that this work is a novel. The pursuit of truth, not of facts, is the business of fiction.”


Or, to quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, when the facts become legend, print the legend.


(Unless you’re a historian.)

Steampunk, Anyone?

Matthew Mayo

My Western steampunk short story, "Scourge of the Spoils," is due for release on November 2, 2010, in the DAW Books anthology, Steampunk'd, edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg (softcover, DAW Books, 320 pages). Fellow WF member Robert Vardeman also has a story in this anthology. The stories in this all-original collection explore alternate timelines and have been set all over the world, running the gamut from Western to science fiction to mystery to horror to a melding of these genres.

My selection is in most ways a traditional Western tale, save for a few steampunky elements. Wait ... what's steampunk, you ask? It's "what the past would look like if the future had come along earlier." Think "Wild, Wild West," and you're close. According to Wikipedia, "steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction involving an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian-era Britain. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne...."

The American West of the 19th century is an ideal setting for steampunk tales, and it's a great way for the Western genre to stretch and grow in new and unexpected directions. Hopefully we'll see many more Western steampunk stories in the near future. In the meantime, though, there's no better place to begin than with your very own copy of Steampunk'd. It's available for pre-order today! Here's a link: http://matthewmayo.com/books/anthologies.

The Rattlesnake Season a 2010 Best Books of Indiana Finalist

Larry Sweazy’s THE RATTLESNAKE SEASON is a finalist for The 2010 Best Books of Indiana. Here's the link.

Comments for finalists' entries from the fiction judging panel:

Sweazy immerses readers in the adventures of Josiah Wolfe, a former Texas Ranger who is lured back to his previous lifestyle after the deaths of his wife and daughters. This carefully crafted and perfectly paced novel hooks readers with Wolfe's dramatic personal conflict: an old friend and comrade is now an outlaw whom Wolfe must bring to justice. Excellent historical details and rich characterization of Wolfe's struggle to fulfill his duty make The Rattlesnake Season an excellent start to a new Western series.

Winner to be announced on Friday, October 15, 2010

Agave Award

Charles Whipple won the 2010 Oaxaca International Literature Competition Agave Award for Literature for his story "A Matter of Tea."

Held in conjunction with the Oaxaca International Film and Video Festival because the relationship between cinema and literature has always been closely intertwined, this competition is dedicated to providing a forum for writers from all over the world to display their talents.

Whipple's story was selected as the winner from a thousand entries. He will be flown to Oaxaca, Mexico, to receive the award. The top ten stories in the competition will be published in a special commemorative edition. Western Fictioneers congratulates Charles Whipple on this honor!

NEVER SAY DIE

Frank Roderus

If you intend to make it as a professional, perhaps the most important quality you can have is simple stick-to-it’iveness. Bloody-minded stubbornness is more like it.

And no matter what, do not – do not ever – allow yourself to be dissuaded from the dream.

Let me tell you a true story about my struggling years. I was a newspaper reporter and as such spent a great deal of time sitting through murder trials. Now there is nothing so boring as a murder trial. The lawyers laboriously, studiously, boringly go into incredible details of arcane law, frantic lest they forget some technicality.

Sitting and listening to this nonsense in real life is most unlike the drama you see on TV. To keep myself busy I wrote, in longhand in steno pads. And I wrote what I thought was a pretty good yarn.

I typed that up into a manuscript in the style specified in Writers’ Markets, then had to find a publisher. Now how do you go about such things when you have no track record and know nothing about the business?

Why, you get an expert to handle it for you. Of course.

So I went through the books again and found a likely agent. Mailed the manuscript off and started chewing my nails waiting for the response.

Boy, did I ever get one. My manuscript came back in due time and along with it a letter. The letter said, not quite in so many words but very bluntly, that I was not a writer, should not bother her or anyone else again and to find something else to occupy my time.

To say that I was crushed is an understatement. I was devastated. I took her advice. Because, after all, this woman was a New York agent and New York agents know everything. Right? Sure they do.

I put that manuscript aside and tried to give up the thought of writing. It was three years before the desire to write overcame me to the point that I had to try again.

I pulled that same manuscript out, read it over and decided it really was not that terrible. Sent it off again, this time to a small, mid-western press.

They bought it, and Duster was a Spur Award finalist that year. I have been writing and consistently selling ever since.

My point here is that the all-knowing New York agent (I have completely forgotten her name, but her initials are Ann B Elmo) very nearly stopped my career before it ever happened. And would have had I not been so determined to try again regardless of that ‘professional opinion’ from on high.

Believe in yourself. That is the key.

BEAT to a PULP: ROUND ONE

By David Cranmer

I’m involved in putting together a print anthology that will hopefully be of interest to western aficionados and to pulp fiction fans in general. At just under 400 pages, BEAT to a PULP: Round One is a gargantuan collection jam-packed with twenty-seven stories running the gamut of crime fiction, noir, sci-fi, hardboiled, western, literary, ghost and fantasy genres as well as a foreword by Bill Crider and a history of pulp by Cullen Gallagher.

For western enthusiasts is the inclusion of three gunslinger adventures. The first by Scott D. Parker is “You Don’t Get Three Mistakes,” a fast-paced oater in The Wild Wild West style with a twisty ending. The next sees the return of Cash Laramie, who made his first appearance in A Fistful of Legends, in a traditional western called “The Wind Scorpion” by Edward A. Grainger where revenge comes in unexpected forms. In the third story, if you favor the genre turned upside-down and inside-out, Chap O’Keefe sends everyone’s favorite outlaw through space and time in “The Unreal Jesse James.”

Authors well-known for their westerns, and writings in other genres too, have stepped onboard with some brain-teasing, spine-tingling tales for Round One. Ed Gorman weaves a psychological yarn about a broken-down marriage and infidelity called “Killing Kate.” Robert J. Randisi brings back Miles “Kid” Jacoby where the detective gets in deep with a case involving the paparazzi in “Crap is King.” Then James Reasoner takes us to Pearl Harbor where a beautiful nurse carries a deadly scent of “Heliotrope” for a haunting tale.

Plus there is an original short story by pulp legend Paul S. Powers. Mr. Powers had a prolific and successful career in pulp fiction, writing over 400 stories for such magazines as Wild West Weekly, Weird Tales, Thrilling Western and dozens of others spanning four decades. His granddaughter Laurie kindly supplied us with the never-before-published “The Strange Death of Ambrose Bierce.” Mr. Powers’ brilliant homage to the fiery editor and writer Bierce grounds our anthology and bridges pulp-of-the-past to the present.

I had hoped for an August release, however, due to some last minute additions to the cover design, we are looking at middle to late September but the extra time will be well worth the wait. Credit for the sensational cover goes to James O'Barr of The Crow fame and John Bergin.

A complete list of authors and story titles can be found on the BTAP website ( http://www.beattoapulp.com/roundone.htm ) and updates will be posted on my blog, The Education of a Pulp Writer, ( http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/ ) as details become available. Updates will also be announced on the BEAT to a PULP Facebook page setup by Hilary Davidson and Patricia Abbott. ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beat-to-a-Pulp/120622367985562 )

Hope you enjoy!