A guide to understanding stories set in the Weird West genre–and why you should read them.
What is the Weird West? A literary/media subgenre that genre-bends into the wacky and weird. The Weird West blends the aesthetics of the wild or old west–gunslingers, outlaws, saloons, poker games and the like–with the unreal.
usually consists of a setting in 1800 or early 1900s in the US Southwest for the US north.
Theresa DeLucci describes the genre poetically:
What is it about the American West that continues to inspire? There’s the romanticized notion of expansion, the simplistic morality of white hats and black hats, of cowboys vs. Indians. And there’s the post-modern Western that does not gloss over the era’s exploitation and violence; all the birth pains of a new nation. Then there is the Weird West, a genre-hopping category that uses a lot of the Western window-dressing—gunslingers, railroads, Pinkertons—and mashes them up with cosmic horror, alternate histories of American icons, and a vast landscape of cruel promise and harsh awe.
Six-Guns and Strange Shooters: A Weird West Primer
Theresa DeLucci
So what is so appealing about the Weird West? The last frontier, the American stoicism combined with mortals facing a landscape bigger than themselves. Whether the endless stretch of dessert in a harsh and unforgiving landscape. Like facing a cosmic abyss, alien invaders or mystical forces beyond control. The old west dealt with a lot of fears and anxieties about the unknown and handled it with pizazz, grit and a grim resolve, like so many of our heroes in speculative tales.
Tara Bannon puts it best in RA News:
Set in the American West, or in a similar off-world environment, and written in the gritty yet descriptive language characteristic of the Western genre, what sets the Weird Western apart is the presence of supernatural and often mythic elements or forces. Mystic forces have long lurked in the background of Westerns, often embodied by nature or native forces; American tall tales and legends demonstrate this with their larger than life and otherworldly characters. In Weird Westerns, the supernatural emerges from the shadows and steps into the spotlight in the form of monsters, zombies and sorcerers.
Wanted, Dead or Alive or Undead: The Weird Wild West
by Tara Bannon Williamson
Genres
Science Fiction
The first category is science fiction, such as Cowboys and Aliens. Anything with aliens and typically falls in the sci-fi crossover. Steampunk can also add into this.
Fantasy
Where is west of fantasy is another popular offshoot of the Weird West.
Finally the bigger the category of weird from their things can go in any direction you want. We are question fantasy is another popular offshoot of the weird last he’s been comprised of medical seeing. Finally the biggest category of weird last come by and seems to combine supernatural and all die so this entails cowboys fighting demons monsters goes and the li
Horror
Cowboys fighting demons, monsters and the like.
Speculative/Occult
Spirits and musical experiences in the dessert.
Modern
fe there also examples of modern here let’s link which took place in modern times that encompasses the month emoji for Campbell I would argue that why Wynonna Eearp is an example of modern in the tale of star family and we have to fight demons. Another example of modern preacher.
Weird West Fiction 