When the West Gets Weird

[@TheDungeonDive]

Tony Randall played Dr. Lao in the movie, and it was called the Seven Faces of Dr. Lao. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Faces_of_Dr._Lao

[@Cameroo]

I'm not sure of the why but the Wild West and Supernatural elements go so well together. Its like chocolate and peanut butter to me.

[@b.lloydreese2030]

The western genre can be good, but it's hard to find the gems and find stuff that's good. It's also hard to define what makes one good, but you know it when you see it. I love a handful but there's so many I'm not sure of I've been playing red dead redemption and undead nightmare and enjoy it. Would like to find some good ones and maybe write one some day

[@jamesmit7914]

Fantastic video! Glad you are doing more book related episodes. This is what sets this channel apart from the rest. Keep up the good work, a book recommendation can change your life. Thanks to you I might need to go through Mcdermott's entire back catalogue...

[@TheDungeonDive]

Thank you. Glad you enjoy it.

[@Enroth186]

Those videos about books make your channel unique. I also started to read more and more as the time and opportunities for board games dwindled. I also mostly read and enjoy speculative fiction. I hope to see more of those videos coming out in the future.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Thanks! What kind of speculative stuff you reading? Ever read JG Ballard?

[@Enroth186]

@@TheDungeonDive Actually I like all the subgrenres quite equally. science fiction, fantasy and horror all have great authors and works. I must admit though that I mostly stick to the "mainstream" contemperary authors or award winning novels. Brandon Sanderson and Joe Abercrombie for fantasy, Pierce Brown and John Scalzi for science fiction, Justin Cronin for horror for example. I also often try to read the latest nebula/hugo/locust awarded novels.

[@Enroth186]

Oh I forgot that I also enjoy gamebooks. Classics like fighting fantasy or Sorcery or modern ones like rider of the black sun or destiny quest.

[@TheDungeonDive]

@@Enroth186 I did a project a few years ago where I read every Hugo award winner up through about 2004, or so. It was a lot of fun.

[@aistis2188]

That's wonderful, books are back! I appreciate these recommendations very much.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Thanks! Glad you find these useful.

[@ryanofottawa]

Book Club! Book Club! Book Club! Lol, glad to see the books back! Love these reviews. Very excited for your Dark Tower series (whenever it's right for it to come)

[@TheDungeonDive]

What would you like to see in a book club? I'm not even sure how to do one, but I'm not opposed to it.

[@ryanofottawa]

@@TheDungeonDive TBH i'm not entirely sure either! I just love the book recommendations and it'd be a lot of fun to talk to others about then. Maybe you suggest a book every month and then we have a meetup at the end to discuss it? Perhaps on a Discord channel or maybe even a KZbin stream.

[@BrianAdamThompson]

This is wonderful. I now have a much longer "to read" list.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Mine is a never ending list. :)

[@M.M.Morris]

I was named Montana because of lonesome dove.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Oh wow. That’s awesome. :)

[@RedTheCrimson]

If anyone sees this, a great wild west story and world is The Few and Cursed. Beautiful art, great world and lore building, AND there is a board game based on it.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Thanks!

[@falconplays82]

Hey Daniel🙂 Did you ever read „Blood Meridian“ by Cormac McCarthy? It is not so Strange Fiction or Wired West but a very apocalyptic Picture of the Wild West.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I have not, but I own it and mean to some day.

[@falconplays82]

@@TheDungeonDive It’s very brutal and desperat but one of the most impressive books I’ve ever read.

[@Dagon1820]

Tales of a Weirder West is awesome, great way to get in the genre. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@TheDungeonDive]

Sure thing!

[@Dagon1820]

@@TheDungeonDive Blood Meridian is a great novel as well, no good guys, just insanely wild and bloody west...brilliant. And don't forget the Weird West game coming out this month ;)

[@caesarspeak9030]

There is also something to be said about the hunt for a great book that you've been looking for when you finally get your hands on it. One of my favorite series is by George R.R. Martin is Wild Cards.

[@IrisDImtv]

Nice to hear this genre talked about

[@matsirois]

Just got into "Shadows of Brimestone" and going through this playlist while I paint my core set. All of the videos are great but I really enjoyed this video about the inspirational litterature! (Shouldn't it be called Appendix W? 😉) I'll have to write a list/compilation of all the books you mentionned. But first... gotta finish painting!

[@TheDungeonDive]

I think there are a couple of videos on weird west books. After I made this video, an entire series was started called Splatter Western.

[@pookelywoo3954]

Read lonesome dove following your recommendation here - wow what a book! Up there top all time for me even after just 1 read. The characters are so real. Thanks!

[@TheDungeonDive]

Right on. That characters are all so good. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@glowingturtle9673]

Great video! Nice to see the western getting some love!

[@TheDungeonDive]

I love a good western. Weird or straight! :)

[@AtheistBelgium]

The Dark Tower. Best books i ever read. Like you i reread them every so many years :)

[@TheDungeonDive]

Nice! I’m going to be starting a long series on King and the Dark Tower this year.

[@matpetheny]

Just ordered 'Lonesome Dove'. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@TheDungeonDive]

Hope you love it as much as I do. The rest of the series is pretty good, too. Especially Comanche Moon. If you like straight fiction, The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment are also amazing.

[@matpetheny]

@@TheDungeonDive Read a couple of pages online and it seems like a book i will really enjoy as I love westerns although often they are too 'pulpy' for me. But this seems like a really intelligent one.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Oh yeah. LD isn't pulpy at all. It's pure Literature.

[@matpetheny]

@@TheDungeonDive Great, thanks again, i will look into other of your recommendations as soon as I finish this 900ish pages. :)

[@matpetheny]

I just finished Lonesome Dove... Absolutely amazing book. Left so many memories in my head. Feels like ive been on the journey myself. Thanks again for the recommendation!

[@crushingit5128]

Highly highly recommend the Sixth Gun graphic novel series. On top of Americana demons and myths it also incorporates native American and bayou\haitian myths and legends. Probably 50+ issues. So a well done series. (You can probably get the digital first few issues cheap and won't take long to go through a few of them to discover if you like it or not. Very easy to get into) Gameboard wise I would also say check out Grimslinger for it's theme. Only problem is that the instruction try to teach you how to play co-op or solo by making you play one on one. Then they go back and say 'do what did in duel mode except this and this and this but add that and that'. Horrible way to do instructions. But I liked the game for it's hilarious narrative and theme in the end.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Thanks for the recs. I’ve tried to learn Grimslingers multiple times, but just can’t crack it. I love the art and theme though.

[@stevebillups9238]

I highly recommend Black Scorpion's miniatures for Brimstone. They are slightly smaller in scale though. They have tons of models with great character. They have a whole series of guys wearing those dusters so I painted one to look like Woody Strode from the beginning of Once Upon A Time in the West. I have a laminated character sheet for him, Woodward Stone. I also have a female bounty hunter called Silencia and a creepy doctor character based on Klaus Kinski who wants to explore the otherworlds to get monster body parts for his 'experiments.' For whatever reason, that game motivates me to come up with backstories for my characters where other games do not.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Silencia. That must be inspired by The Great Silence, which Kluase Kinski stars in. Sounds like some cool back stories! Love it.

[@stevebillups9238]

@@TheDungeonDive I haven't watched a lot of movies lately, but i got huge into Spaghetti Westerns a while back but most of them paled next to Leone's stuff. Around the same time, they released all of the Baby Cart films on DVD (Now Criterion Blu Ray). We had a shop here in KY called Wild and Wooly Video where you could rent all of the impossible to find underground genre films. I remember being able to see a Fistful of Dynamite (Duck You Sucker) before it eventually was released. I need to sit down and watch all that stuff again.

[@TheDungeonDive]

@@stevebillups9238 Yeah. Leone's stuff towers over the others, that's for sure. If you haven't seen The Great Silence, I recommend that.

[@joxer96]

7 Faces of Dr. Lao is a favorite of mine, will definitely be reading the book, thanks for the recommendation. Gamewise I'm waiting for KS delivery of The Few and Cursed, the game is based on the series of graphic novels. Thanks for the great vid.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Sure thing. I’ve never heard of that game. I’ll have to look into it.

[@joxer96]

The Dungeon Dive Honestly, I feel I took a bit of a gamble with it, but I like the theme and am a fan of Maximum Apocalypse also designed by Mike Gnade.

[@sethpeterson8261]

Hello Mr. Dungeondive. I have no idea how they stack up to other weird west novels (I'm one of those that doesn't read/avoids them normally). However you might check out David Gemmel's Jerusalem Man series. Not sure where I'd place them on a weird west scale, but I love them. Maybe more of a "You don't realize anything is weird with this western until you're quite a way in already" western. I've read all 3, 3 times each at least, probably more actually... HOWEVER I love all of Gemmel's books so I'm biased, I read a ton of fantasy and he's my #1 favorite overall. Sad he died several years back.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I have not heard of those, so I'll check them out. Thanks for the rec!

[@matthewdahlsten5979]

Hi Daniel, I just started reading Merkabah Rider and am loving it so far! I also picked up a collection called Dead Man's Hand edited by John Joseph Adam's, are you familiar with it? I remember you mentioning that you were interested in reading more of Robert E Howard's weird western stories and I wanted to point out that I think they are all collected in "The Horror Stories of REH" published by Del Rey books. Best wishes and thanks for all your excellent recommendations!

[@TheDungeonDive]

Oh nice! I'll have to look into that collection. I recently purchased the first 6 HB volumes of The Weird Fiction of REH. Not sure if any of his westerns are included in those! I don't think I've heard of Dead Man's Hand. I'll have to look into it, thanks!

[@Ruseofpoison]

Super interesting titles I've never heard of that I will have to dive into now! Have you read Make Me No Grave, by Haley Stone? My favorite Weird West at the moment.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I have not, but I'll look into it. Thanks!

[@falconplays82]

You burn my money away😆 Just ordered the whole Merkabah Series (I hope the religious aspect is not SO high? Not a problem but I don’t like ,preaching‘ literature 😆), the Red Station Novel from the splatter Western Series and Lansdales Deadmen‘s Road. By the way you brought Brimstone back to me in Germany😆 I owned a whole bunch of Brimstone Stuff until January 2020. But I did not stored it „really“ and so it was a Pain in the Ass to get it on the Table. After a Desaster of a damaged Inlay I sold the whole thing. And I swear it was a big fault. Because I am loving it so much to play. Last Week I got a whole Minecart and the first thing I did: Organising all of this Stuff🤪 Never give it away again! Thanks for your great series about this wonderful Game👍🏻

[@TheDungeonDive]

It’s religions folklore and mythology, not preaching.

[@falconplays82]

@@TheDungeonDive Great thank you 😄 I am so exited to start to read. If it is good I will buy the rest of it 😆

[@Mind_of_MATT]

I'm not really a novel reader. I'm more of a film & TV show watcher :). This is an interesting genre for sure & one that seems underrepresented in movies & TV. I might be interested in checking out some old pulp magazines if there were some weird western tales there.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I’d love to see a great weird western series on Netflix.

[@klaasbras1024]

I have the first edition of that Encyclopedia and just by seeing there's a different person doing the introduction/forword maybe more has been added so I think I need to find that new edition.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Have you made any really killer discoveries with the 1st edition?

[@klaasbras1024]

@@TheDungeonDive I found and bought some comic series I really liked ,Just a Pilgrim and Eric Powell's Billy the kid series .Western books weird or even normal are almost never to be found in the Netherlands. So I have a long list of interesting titles and authors I read about in the book that I slowly are trying to find. I don't want to go Ebay route so It will take a while to have succes in finding some but that's part of the fun for me. I have to thank you for putting Erdelac on my radar as he's not mentioned in the book.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Those Merkabah rider books are so damn good.

[@frankhaselhorst9368]

You're back!

[@nightlyte65]

This was great! Thanks so much.

[@TheDungeonDive]

You’re welcome!

[@marktattersall9149]

Great to see you back doing books. I'm one of those people who actively dislike (non-spaghetti) Westerns (I was put off Shadows of Brimstone until Forbidden Fortress). However, I loved 7 Faces of Dr Lao as a kid and have just bought the novel on Kindle based on your recommendation. Have you any interest in Sword and Sorcery (the genre)?

[@TheDungeonDive]

I love sword and sorcery, and Italo-Westerns. Just rewatched The Great Silence.

[@TheDungeonDive]

The Sword & Sorcery and Western genres have a ton in common. The movie Bone Tomahawk might as well be a S&S movie. Conan is a western in a strange world.

[@bluebotic2327]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing. The (legendary) French Comic artist, Moebius, did a lot of sci-fi that had western flavor, and visa versa. Worth a look if you haven't. He was heavily inspired by living in Mexico for a bit as a teen.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Yes! I didn’t really talk about comics, did I? I love Moebius, and especially his work with Jodorowsky.

[@jasoncoker1625]

The return of the mucker

[@TheDungeonDive]

Is this a recommendation?

[@jasoncoker1625]

@@TheDungeonDive yup

[@jasoncoker1625]

@@TheDungeonDive The Mucker and Return of the Mucker. Edgar Rice Burroughs. I picked up the 1974 ace editions at an old used bookstore when I was a teenager. It's good stuff.😉

[@TheDungeonDive]

Cool, thanks.

[@jstutz]

Really enjoyed this video and now have a list of books to read through. Have you read the 'Deadlands' tie in novels? They're pretty good and are very much in the world of Shadows of Brimstone. I also recently read 'The Incorruptibles' by John Horner Jacobs which is very unique, has an incredibly original and interesting west world that might tip a bit more towards fantasy. Good stuff. If you're into audiobooks, check out the Graphic Audio version of the R.S. Belcher "Golgotha" series. It's incredibly well produced with a full cast of actors, music, sound effects etc - I've been working my way through it and have been really enjoying it. Check out the sample to get an idea of what I am talking about: www.graphicaudio.net/golgotha-series-set.html

[@TheDungeonDive]

Thanks for the recs! I haven't heard of those, so I'll check them out. :) The Golgotha series! That's it. That's the Six Gun Tarot series, right?

[@jstutz]

The Dungeon Dive yep! It’s the Six Gun Tarot trilogy on Graphic Audio. It’s bit pricey but they often have big discounts on their site. I can’t recommend it enough.

[@aksantom]

Pick up Dead Acre and Cold As Hell by Rhett C. Bruno. Dead Cowboy brought back by God to fight Satan and his minions

[@TheDungeonDive]

I’ll look into them. Thanks.

[@denroy3]

Lonesome Dove the miniseries was awesome and of you can't name Robert Duvall you lose your movie credibility card.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I recently tried to re-watch LD, and couldn't get past the first episode. I think it's really bad. Just doesn't have the grand and epic feel that the novel has, and that's mainly because it was made for television at a time that they didn't treat television with the same kind of cinematic quality they do now. I'd love to see it made today with a huge budget, shot with a super wide lens to really give it the huge and epic feel the story deserves.

[@denroy3]

@@TheDungeonDive LD was treated great for the period. You might want to read the wiki entry for the miniseries about it's reception from critics as well as audience. That you don't like it is your opinion of course, but I've read the book and it's a great adaption. It spawned 4 other miniseries and a TV show.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I've read the book too, many times. I don't think the television series is very good. :) Super stoked for you that you like it though! That's great. It's my favorite book of all time, so I kind of like it. :) I actually like the whole series quite a bit. I love almost everything I've read from the author. The Last Picture Show, now that's a great film adaptation!

[@denroy3]

@@TheDungeonDive yea, I've read it a couple of times, maybe 3. The limitations of a 6 hour program and the screen size...but I'll take Lonesome Dove the miniseries any day. Can't read Augustus say something without hearing Robert Duvall...just a great portrayal, despite size.

[@Joaquim.Oliveira]

4 years late but where do you buy these plastic bags to protect your mass paperbacks ?? Man you taste in movies , games , books is just like mine .

[@TheDungeonDive]

You can get them on Amazon. I no longer use them. Many of the books I buy come in them, and I usually remove them now and donate to a local store. There are some thoughts that they can actually trap moisture in. I’ll keep a few around to use for when I’m taking a book on the go to read.

[@Joaquim.Oliveira]

@@TheDungeonDive ohh thx . Too bad u don’t live in MA and donate them to me hahahah