8FOLD: Mighty Medley # 30, June 2016, by Messrs. Brenton, McClure, Perron, Russell, and Stokes

[Tom Russell]

On Friday, June 17, 2016 at 8:36:04 PM UTC-4, Scott Eiler wrote:
> On 2016-06-16 16:49, Tom Russell posted:  stories with lots of good ideas.
> 
> I confess, I'm not attracted to Old West action with what seems to be 
> standard Cowboys and Indians.  (Not everyone can be the target audience 
> for everything.)

That's okay, Scott. :-)

I have a great deal of fondness for westerns myself, of course-- particularly the no-nonsense, no-frills, hard-nosed westerns of Budd Boetticher, which has been a major influence on this, as well as of course Sturges's The Magnificent Seven. I'd like to think I'm doing a little more than "standard Cowboys and Indians"-- specifically with my treatment of socially-marginalized characters like Skin of Snake, Celine, and Hank (the Old West not being particularly charitable to minorities or queer individuals), and of course the various super-powers. But it is still very much a western-- a violent sort of morality play set in a mostly lawless frontier, with white hats and black hats, or to be more precise gray hats and black hats-- and if that's not your thing, it's not your thing, and I totally understand that. Don't worry, you won't have to put up with these shenanigans for much longer-- just four or five more parts to go before everything wraps up.

==Tom