Hot Lead: Adult Western Special

HOT LEAD #3:

THE ADULT WESTERN SPECIAL

The Paperback Fanatic, May 2019

Hot Lead is a beautifully produced fanzine and this, the third, concentrates on the rise of the adult western. This issue contains 52 pages of fascinating articles backed-up by many reproductions of book covers and associated artwork, all illustrated in full colour.

The main feature, Sex and Six Guns by Paul Bishop, delves into series adult westerns, looking at a variety of them in well researched detail. This section of the fanzine taking up sixteen pages and is essential reading for anyone who enjoys this kind of western.

Three western series get their own sections, Cimarron and Ruff Justice, both written about by editor Justin Marriott and The Trailsman by Steve Myall. All three providing some great insights into why these contributors liked these books so much. 

Then there’s a terrific article by Andreas Decker that looks at how the American series Lassiter by Jack Slade took Germany by storm. Starting with some of the original novels, the German publisher then continued the series and the number of books that have been put out featuring Lassiter is just staggering. Those long running American series like Longarm and The Gunsmith, don’t even come close! 

The final article by Ian Millsted moves away from adult westerns and is a personal look at his top ten western comics and it offers a couple of surprise entries in the countdown. One especially bringing back fond memories for me, that of El Mestizo in Battle Picture Weekly, a comic I read without fail and it now has me wanting to track down a copy of the mentioned hardback book of this comic strip. 

This issue of Hot Lead, is a must read for any fan of adult westerns. It, and the two previous fanzines, provide a lot of informative and entertaining reading that fans of this genre will find themselves returning to time and again. 

Ebook News

Here's the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series of posts highlighting ebooks.

Chet Cunningham, whom I interviewed here, has been busy putting out his back catalogue as ebooks, including his Jim Steel series and his Pony Soldiers series. The books I'd like to bring to everyone's attention though, is his Outlaws series; six books that were originally published by long gone Leisure Books. All six are now available as ebooks. The reason I'm mentioning this series in particular is that Chet has also put out a further three books that I'm sure fans of the series will be eager to read.

Gary McCarthy, another author I interviewed sometime ago, has also been busy making many of his books available as ebooks, including his entries in the excellent Rivers West series. Two of his own series that I really enjoyed are amoung his releases; The Horsemen, and The Derby Man - you'll find a number of the latter series reviewed on Western Fiction Review.

Piccadilly Publishing continues to put out around eight ebooks each month and have recently begun releasing two terrific series by Judd Cole; Wild Bill and Cheyenne - the latter of which I'd highly recommend are read in order as story threads continue book to book. They've also started publishing Cy James' great Sam Spur series, Peter McCurtin's Carmody books, and McCurtin's entries in the highly regarded Lassiter series originally written as by Jack Slade. Finally, for this entry anyway, I'd like to mention one other series they've started to put out, and whilst some may not called it a western series specifically due to it being set slightly later than the years many consider westerns to be set in, and that's Lou Cameron's Renegade books, originally put out as by Ramsey Thorne.

Western Fiction News

The latest issue of Black Horse Extra is now available. There's some great articles including David Whitehead discussing how to increase interest in the western and another article that looks at back cover blurbs. There's also the second part of Greg Mitchell's look at the artwork of Frederic Remington. Hoofprints, as usual, offers some fascinating observations.

Whilst on the subject of Black Horse Westerns, Hale will be releasing books by a couple of well known American western writers latter this year, namely in September 2010 comes Wade's War by Chet Cunningham, and Twin Rivers by John Nesbitt (a new publication of an old story) in October or November 2010. August 2010 sees Bonito Deputy as by Jack Slade - I wonder who is behind this name?

Finally, for those who enjoy western films, it looks like another John Wayne western is to be remade. It seems Warner Brothers are planning to remake The Cowboys. The original hit the screens in 1972 and came from the book by William Dale Jennings.