#western heroines

[comicsart3]

Wilma West became owner of the eponymously initialled WW ranch after the sudden death of her father. Like Rhoda Trail, Dale Evans, Buckskin Belle and Annie Oakley, Wilma frequently got involved in adventures that saw her taking on various outlaws, rustlers, gunmen and assorted owlhoots and usually winning the day, despite having no “official” role in frontier law enforcement. As a novice female ranch owner, Wilma was aided and abetted by a cast of supporting characters such as Sonora Sam and Pegleg Pete, as well as the sheriff of Mesa City, the nearest settlement to Wilma’s ranch. Blonde and beautiful, Wilma eschewed the shirt and pants sported by fellow ranch-owning Western gals, such as Rhoda and the latter-day Annie, in favour of a tight fitting buckskin dress and incongruously blue stetson. Although Wilma was a tough businesswoman and a good shot, she was also a veritable damsel in peril. Barely an adventure took place without Wilma being captured, kidnapped, tied up and generally abused before eventually being rescued. In this respect she is barely a dominant female character at all, but in the story featured on the page above, she does at last get to do the tying up for a change when she and Samora Sam succeed in getting the drop on their guard in order to escape the bad guys’ captivity.

Wilma appeared in all ten issues of Western Crimebusters in 1950-52. The title was written and illustrated by Keats Petree and Don Tallant. The page featured here is from the story Wilma West - The Range Runs Red, Western Crime Busters #8 (December 1951).

Source: comicbookplus

[hamartia-grander]

Empire Now by Hozier didn't have to go so hard I'm gonna explode

[pulpman2]

Beauty Reynolds Saves The Day

Beauty Reynolds clattered into the hidden campsite, rifle drawn. The sound of hooves thudding on baked earth sprang the two outlaws into wakefulness immediately. A six gun appeared in Morgan Jones’ right hand instantaneously, even as his left protectively grasped the satchel filled with crisp dollar bills, freshly looted from the Nevada Bank. Meanwhile Suggs Martin sleepily roused himself and seized his Winchester repeater. Keeping his gun trained on Beauty, Jones’ mouth curled into a sneer. “You got nerve riding into our camp, sister.” he told the buckskin-skirted woman sitting astride the white stallion. “But you are tangling with two armed men on the run, so why don’t you turn your pretty little caboose around and head back to your sewing before I put a bullet in it?”

Beauty let her own rifle nestle easily across her lap as she met Jones’ eyes. She heard the click of Suggs’ safety behind her, but didn’t even react. “You know, owlhoot,” she replied with a confident smile spreading across her face, “I would - if I thought you could.” Morgan glared at the woman then. “Why you…” he began, and squeezed his trigger, aiming at Beauty’s ankle. But the trigger clicked harmlessly. As the dark-haired woman raised her own rifle, Jones panicked. “Suggs!” he ordered. “Misfire! Shoot her!” Beauty didn’t even turn around as she heard Suggs curse when his rifle also failed to fire. Beauty grinned and she dropped several slugs on the dry earth at her horse’s feet. “Looking for these, gents?” she said to the two dumbfounded outlaws, smiling sweetly.

*****

Later, Beauty checked the tightness of the ropes that bound both men’s hands hands behind their backs and then fastened Jones’ bonds to those of Martin, roping both despondent outlaws together. The shamed and humiliated men stared at the ground as Beauty then tied the end of the lariat to her saddlehorn. “My fiancé sitting in Tumbleweed’s jail house is going to be mighty pleased to see you two varmints.” the woman told her prisoners. “Not to mention the sheriff and Nevada Bank!” Beauty patted the satchel and laughed. Then she coaxed her horse forward. “Giddap, Blanco,” she said and her steed set off at a trot, pulling the two bound and miserable outlaws behind the victorious female rider and her steed.

My interpretation of the story behind this cover to Western Bandit Trails , Vol 1, #9 (1954), art by Matt Baker.

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Viola: The Heroine's Melody

Made by but two people, a casual game developer named Jelle van Doorne and online composer Nom Tunes, Viola: The Heroine’s Melody is a sort of love letter to the input RPG formula made famous by the Mario RPG games. It’s also an example of an old school isekai anime story about girls going through a coming of age adventure, making good use of that set up for some charming character work, free of modern trends. Despite some odd bugs and technical issues, it manages to be one of the more charming and unique examples of the indie RPG scene, and meets its ambitions more often than not.

Read more...

[rednamikaze]

[epikarii]

anyone else watching tokyo mew mew???? these girls were my childhood!!

[arpechele]

ankou and yves virche are literally Guys of All Time i wish i could scoop them out and put them in a medium people would actually play and enjoy

[sweetsavageflame]

Historical Romance Review: Comanche Love Song by Cheryl Black

Historical Romance Review: Comanche Love Song by Cheryl Black

Reviewed by Blue Falcon Synopsis: RHYTHM OF RAPTUREThough her skin was milky white, lovely Silver Dawn never thought she was anything less than all Comanche. And when she first set eyes on the despicable Major Walker Grayson, the savage beauty could only hate the man who was out to kill her red-skinned grandfather. Yet somehow his green eyes made her pulse hammer with excitement, his rock hard…

[comicsart3]

Dale Evans, Queen of the West makes a return to this blog. What I love about the story The Hide Out, is not just its interesting plot, but the way Dale herself deploys the full range of her personality: professional cafe owner; stranger-welcoming neighbour; suspicious good citizen; amateur detective and, finally, gun-toting bringer of baddies to justice.

Initially curious, and later highly suspicious about, her new reclusive neighbours, Mr and Mrs Lester, Dale at first tries to help the unfriendly couple out when Mrs Lester drops an expensive compact containing diamonds and rubies, on a rare visit into town while purchasing supplies. Heading out to their ranch to return the goods, Dale’s dog, Bullet, is shot at by the trigger-happy Mr Lester who claims to be worried about prowlers. The Lesters get even more extreme when they shoot an innocent cowboy named Sam, who got too close to their property, and whom the local doctor is only just able to save. A private detective, Sloan, eventually appears on the scene looking for a couple who owe his clients money, called the Lambs. The picture he shows Dale look nothing like the Lesters, but when a curious Dale adds moustache and sunglasses to the picture of Mr and Mrs Lamb, she reveals them be the Lesters - wanted jewellery thieves!

Sloan heads off to the Lesters’ ranch, and Dale follows, anxious to warn the detective and to perhaps help him capture the thieves. Sure enough Dale hears a shot as soon as she has dismounted and crept up to the ranch house. However “detective” Sloan soon reveals himself to be Bert Barks, the vengeful third member of the gang who had served jail time and now wants his cut from the the Lambs. Barks threatens the terrified couple until Dale intervenes, but finds herself captured when the unscrupulous Barks uses Mrs Lamb as a human shield. In a completely believable moment of manipulative female persuasion, Dale points out to Johnny Lamb that he is now armed and doesn’t need to take orders from Barks. Lester agrees, thieves fall out and in the confusion of a firefight, Dale grabs Johnny’s gun and shoots Barks’ own weapon from his hand before lassoing his knees. All three crooks then surrender to Dale who ties them up and drives them back to town in the back of her truck: quite a victory for the ‘Ridin��, ropin’, shootin’ dame’!

The above pages are from Dale Evans, Queen of the West #5 (1954). The featured story is The Hide Out.

[authorwhitleycox]

Does the dancer get her rancher? This spicy second-chance cowboy romance is finally out!

Title: Second Chance with the Rancher Series: A Young Sisters Novel Author: Whitley Cox Genre: Close Proximity, Western, Ranch, Military, Hero with PTSD, Dancing Heroine Release Date: May 13, 2023 When all you thought you ever wanted isn’t at all what you need. When Mieka Young breaks her arm in a freak accident, her dance company takes it as an opportunity to not renew her contract, calling…

[pulpman2]

Gunfire on Main Street

“You ain’t goin’ nowhere, boys!” Belle shouted out over her gunfire as the two owlhoots tried to bring their rearing horses under control to make their getaway. “The sheriff put me in charge of law and order in this town while he took a posse to look for you varmints, and you are either heading to the jail house or Boot Hill!” One of the outlaws, a burly oaf called Larry McGraw clutched a bag of cash from the Central Bank and returned fire at the buckskin clad brunette, his slugs ricocheting off the wooden pillars outside the saloon entrance. So focused was he, that he hadn’t notice his steed gallop off, leaving him stranded. His companion, Jake Felix, meanwhile leapt astride his own horse. “Larry, get up behind me!” he yelled, even as a cool volley from Belle sent the other man’s revolver spinning from his hand. The shocked bushwhacker tried to scramble onto Jake’s mount, but the horse was having none of it. The frightened stallion reared once more, sending both men tumbling into the dust of main street before galloping off towards the town limits. Belle, grinning ear to ear, wandered nonchalantly out into the street, to where the two choking men looked folornly at both their spilled loot and their lost guns, dropped in their fall. They both looked up miserably at the law-woman as she stood over them, buckskin skirt flapping in the breeze around her knees, her gun trained on both. “Cheer up, boys,” she smiled, “at least Joe the Undertaker won’t be doing any business today!”

Belle signalled the two outlaws to get to their feet. “Keep ‘em high, gents,” she ordered them and pushed them towards the uprights on the raised sidewalk. Holstering her gun and pulling a lasso down from her own tethered horse, she tied the outlaws’ hands behind their backs, one by one and then she roped them, back to back, to the upright. Then Belle sauntered off in the direction of the saloon. “You cain’t leave us like this, ma’am!” Jake protested bitterly. “It’s humiliatin’!” Belle grinned again. “It sure is, mister. Something for the town folks to laugh at and the sheriff to take charge of when he gets back!” the woman smiled. Then she looked up at the sky. “Shame it looks like rain too, ain’t it, boys?”

My interpretation of the story behind the cover to this issue of The Texan comic book (February 1949). The cover probably features Buckskin Belle, a Western heroine with a regular story in this title. The artwork is by Howard Larsen.

Source: comicbookplus

[comicsart32]

Tess Dean

“Tess, you don’t know what you’re doing!”

I reckon she does, Duke!

[mrmonster459]

The Bluebird

Location: Deadcrow, a small town in California

Time: 1854

I’ll never forget the day she walked into the saloon.

A Native American woman walked in, with a bow dropped over one shoulder and a quiver full of arrows propped over the other. She took a seat at the bar, and said “Whiskey, dry.”

The bartender laughed and said “Little lady, you sure you…”

“Yes, I am.” She said, and the bartender then poured her a drink.

I normally just tried to bus tables and ignore the patrons (the men in that saloon weren’t kind if they thought you were eavesdropping), but even I couldn’t help but stare at the woman ordering a drink in a place that would almost surely chew her up and spit her out.

“While I’ve got your attention, I’m looking for a man named Laurence Cole. I heard he frequents this saloon, is that true?” She asked.

“Yes, I do.” Laurence Cole said as got up from the table where he and his friends were playing poker. Laurence Cole was one of the leaders of the militia that essentially ran the town of Deadcrow, on behalf of the company who owned the rights to pretty much the entire gold mine our town’s economy thrived on; he was a man you didn’t wanna anger, unless your idea of a nice Sunday afternoon was being whipped in front of the entire town.

“What’s your name?” Laurence asked as he stood next to her.

“Sialea-lea.” She answered, much to the surprise of pretty much everyone who heard.

"What was that? See a leah leah?" One of Cole's cohorts asked.

After seeing the confusion on their faces, she said “But you can call me Bluebird, if that’s easier for you to pronounce.”

“Alright, Bluebird, can I help you?” Laurence asked.

She then drew a knife and stabbed him in the gut before kicking him backwards.

Three other men stood up from a table and began to draw their weapons. Bluebird quickly drew an arrow and shot one right in the neck. She then jumped over the bar to take cover. The two militiamen fired at the bar, hoping they’d land a lucky shot and kill her.

They did not.

After they used up all their shots, one of them said “She’s gotta be dead, right?”

Bluebird then emerged from the bar, with an arrow fully drawn. She fired at one of them, hitting him right in the chest. The other one rushed to reload, but she then put an arrow right in his eye.

Everyone else in the saloon was rushing to get out, including Cole, who was able to make it to his horse.

Bluebird ran outside and shouted “DAMN!” as she tried firing at him, but it was no use. He was already too far away for her to land a shot. After he rode off, she went back inside to finish her drink. I knew I should've been running away, but I couldn't help but talk to her. She was something our town had never had before; a glimmer of hope.

“You know he’s not leaving for good, right?” I asked. “He’s definitely coming back with more militiamen.”

“Good.” Bluebird replied as took another sip of her whiskey. "Saves me the trouble of having to track him down again."

She caught me glaring at her, and said “What’s your name?”

“Eleanor.” I answered.

“Well, Eleanor, I don’t much enjoy drinking alone; care to join me?” She asked.

I couldn’t say no, I had to know why she was on a warpath against the local militia. I took a seat beside her and said “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story.” She replied.

“We have time.” I said.

____

She spent over an hour telling me her full story. For the sake of time, I’ll give you the abridged version.

“I grew up in a Navajo village, back in New Mexico.” She began. “My dad was a war chief, who taught me archery and knife fighting from an early age. He wanted me to be tough enough to survive out in the desert.”

“One day, a group of militiamen came into our village. They wanted to buy the land our village sat on. They said it had copper, and that they could flip the land and sell it to a mining company.”

“We turned them down. The land was important to us, we had no interest in selling. The next day, I went out elk hunting, and came back to find that my entire village had been killed. The militia swallowed up and sold the land for pennies, and then they moved on to find the next opportunity.”

____

“Guess where they moved on to?” Bluebird asked before finishing her drink.

“I, I’m so sorry.” I said.

“Save your pity.” She said. “I didn’t come here for tears, I came here to get revenge. Laurence Cole is the reason my tribe is gone, and I am not leaving this town until he’s dead.”

I heard horses riding up to the saloon.

“Well, that sounds like your chance.” I said.

_____

There were eleven men standing outside the saloon, all armed. One of them was Laurence Cole; he had a bandage that was covering his stab wound, but other than that, he looked fine.

“BLUEBIRD, YOU’D BETTER COME OUT NOW!” He shouted. “Come out with your hands in the air, and we’ll just hang you and get it over with. But if we have to go in there and find you, we’ll do a whole lot worse.”

“Don’t listen to him.” I advised. “He’ll torture you no matter you do.”

Bluebird sat there and did nothing. “Kid, I’d advise you to either run, hide, or start loading a gun, because shit’s about to get bloody.”

I did both the second and third thing options. I grabbed a revolver off one of the fallen militiamen, and his box of ammo too. But then, I went to hide in the bar’s supply closet. I could still see everything through the slit, but the militiamen wouldn’t notice me unless they were looking (which they wouldn’t, not with an expert archer firing at them).

Moments later, two militiamen entered the saloon. They both received arrows to the face in rapid succession. Another two came in, both attempting to shoot Bluebird with repeating rifles, but Bluebird moved too quickly for them to hit.

She closed the distance, and stabbed one of them in the neck while kicking the other’s leg out. Before he could get up, she slashed his throat open.

The rest of them opened fire from the windows. Bluebird had no choice but to take cover, and the remaining militiamen began to storm the place. Worse, Bluebird was almost out of arrows, she only had one more left.

“WHERE IS SHE?” A militiamen asked before getting hit with an arrow in the side of the neck. But that was it; there were still five of them left, and Bluebird was out of arrows.

I then realized it was now or never; I summoned all the courage I had, opened the door, and unloaded at the militiamen. This was my first time firing a gun, so I only landed two of the six shots; but that didn’t matter, because Bluebird then rushed at the surviving men, isolated one of them, and sliced his neck open. She then took his rifle, and fired it at one of his comrades. Another militiamen turned his gun towards her, but she kicked the gun away before he fired; the shot ended up hitting the wall, and she then stabbed him in the chest.

There was one more of them, and he was too far away for her to grab but I had already loaded one another shot. I rushed closer to get to point blank, and moments before he was gonna fire at Bluebird, I nailed him right in the back of the head.

We both breathed an unfortunate sigh of relief, thinking we were safe. Then, a bullet sailed in from the window and hit Bluebird in the leg. Laurence Cole emerged, holding a smoking gun in his hand.

I aimed at him, but he was quicker on the draw. He fired a shot that hit the wall just six inches or so away from my head. “I missed on purpose, I won’t again. Drop the gun or my next shot will bore a hole in your forehead.”

I dropped my revolver and put my hands in the air.

“That’s better.” He said. “You, I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and call this a panic response. I’ll let you off after, I don’t know, three or four dozen lashes.”

“But you.” He said as he looked down at Bluebird, who was practically helpless down on the ground. “I am gonna make you regret even being born.”

The moment he turned, I dove down, grabbed the gun, fired a shot, and then ran towards the bar to take cover. Of course, I missed, but that was okay; I gave Bluebird just the opportunity she needed to crawl closer, and stab him in the thigh. After he fell over, she then stabbed him in the chest.

_____

We took her to the town doctor. Thankfully, the bullet just grazed her leg; if it had just landed an inch to the left, her leg would have had to be amputated. But all she needed was a few bandages.

“What do you think this town will do without the militia?” Bluebird asked me.

“Probably breathe a sigh of relief.” I said. “Only reason we tolerated those assholes was because the company would’ve fired all the miners if they staged any kind of revolt. Now that that's' been done for them, maybe they can run this place themselves; might even go on strike, demand they finally get good wages.”

“I hope they do.” Bluebird said. “Well, I have no reason to stay here anymore, so I’m headed off. I don’t know where I’ll go or what I’ll do now that I got my revenge, but I’m getting out of Deadcrow, that's for sure. Wanna join, Eleanor?”

“You know, I think I do.”

[rednamikaze]

[vvienne]

I wish mainstream bollywood would take a hint from bridgerton’s success and realize that casting dark skinned actresses will not automatically cause a movie to flop