Title: The Gay Bandit of the Border
Author: Tom Gill
Cover artist: Uncredited
Yours for: $12
Hey folks - I'm on vacation, working from an unfamiliar computer, and I cannot get Blogger to publish correctly. It's All kinds of screwed up. So ... patience. I'll be back with more as soon as I can. Til then, enjoy this random cover, which I may or may not be able to blog in the near future:
11 comments:
Here's hoping it starts publishing properly again soon - because The Gay Bandit? That's a post I need to see!
Okay... strangely long, thin revolver, pointlessly tiny Lone Ranger mask, reins that obey the physics of no known material on Earth (possibly those joke invisible dog leads)... But this has to be one of my favourite covers ever. Something about the horse's posture and the wind-swept clothing, I think. Oh, and the Gay Bandit.
You forgot to mention the jaunty yellow neck scarf. A sure sign you're dealin' with a Gay Bandit. Perhaps that's why the horse appears to be trying to buck the guy off his back.
Given the relative sizes, I think he's riding a pony, not a horse. Well, "riding" may not be completely accurate, as the animal seems pretty firmly planted there.
And it looks like, while our bandit is shooting with his right hand, it is his left holster which is empty. While drawing one's gun from across one's body may not be that fast or efficient, perhaps it is the mark of a gay bandit.
"He fought for justice with blazing guns"
And the gun actually has this bizarre streak of fire coming from it, too.
I love it!
He doesn't look that gay to me. A bit fey perhaps, but who knows what happened when he got enough tequila in him.
His hair is close-cropped, and he can't have shaved more than an hour ago. His hat is crisply blocked, and his bright red shirt and sassy yellow bandana are immaculately laundered. I wouldn't want to indulge in stereotypes, but for a Man of Action in the Old West, he is certainly... well-groomed.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
That's right, I said it.
Maybe they mean it in the original sense, as in "happy"? He's a Happy Bandit! He just ripped off Ronald's Happy Meals! You'd be happy too if you were full of chicken nuggets and got a bunch of toys.
I think it's meant in the original sense. Unfortunately that went out of usage a while ago...in one of the Narnia books (The Silver Chair) a character says something like "We must act gay and frolicsome," which doesn't sound so kid-friendly any more.
In a way it's sad that the meaning of gay changed. I recently read all the original Oz books and they're often referring to "gay colors" and things that are "queer."
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