Guest post by Matthew Ilseman I remember a few years ago watching a news report about how many young men were obsessively thinking and talking about the Fall of the Roman Empire online and how it might relate to what was going at the time. I remember coming to the realization that I spent more time thinking about the rise of the Mongolian Empire … [Read more...] about Tales of Empire

If you run across a tale spun by a total enigma of an author — who may not actually exist — a tale steeped in borderland noir, exploring some of the darkest aspects of American history, evoking what one critic calls “political despair,” and you say to yourself, “Man, I want some of THAT!” ... well, you’re in the right place, ain’t … [Read more...] about Western Noir & Political Despair

Guest post by Matthew Ilseman Back in the 1950s there was one comic that rose above the rest. That set a standard for quality often attempted but rarely achieved. Its innovations in art and story put not only above the comics of the time but also of today. That comic was Will Eisner’s The Spirit. Which we are not talking about today since it … [Read more...] about American Weirdness — Space Western Comics

Reader Dog River scouted up news of a forthcoming thriller titled Wild Game. Per Variety: Adapted by Hall from the best-selling novel of the same name by Frank Bergon and based on true events, Wild Game follows Fish and Game officer Jack Irigaray who joins a routine poacher arrest in the Black Rock Desert. But a deadly encounter with renegade … [Read more...] about Claude Dallas Thriller?

The most famous Ranger in all the lands is not a figure from history — not Robert Rogers or Captain Sam Brady; not Simon Kenton or Captain Jack Hays; not Frederick Russell Burnham nor the men of the 75th Ranger Regiment. No, the most famous Ranger in all the lands is Aragorn son of Arathorn, Chieftain of the Dunedain of the North, Isildur’s heir … [Read more...] about A Ranger’s Tale

Deuce Richardson scouted up this fine nod to Fennario... The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol Tennessee/Virginia is hosting a special exhibit on the old ballads that crossed the sea from the British Isles to Appalachia, featuring the fantastical art of Charles Vess. Ballads – folk songs that tell a story through narrative verse … [Read more...] about ‘How Long The Old Ballads Lingered’ — Revisited

The shelves of the Frontier Partisans Library will groan this year under substantial tomes. War On The Turtle’s Back is due out in a few days, and we just got word that a volume that will pair well with it will follow by early summer. Noted frontier artist/historian Gary Zaboly’s The Bushfighters: The Unsung Rangers, from Georgia to Nova Scotia, … [Read more...] about Bushfighters

Some element of synchronicity — or perhaps just algorithmic engineering — recently started throwing First Blood up into my internet feed. I realized that I have never addressed this important cultural touchstone of Frontier Partisan Continuity & Persistence. I cannot recollect whether I read the novel before I saw the movie in 1982. They are … [Read more...] about Drawing First Blood

A major biography of the mad-bad-and-dangerous-to-know Antoine-Amédée-Marie-Vincent Manca Amat de Vallombrosa aka the Marquis de Morès is set for release on February 10, and I will have it in hand the minute it drops. To Frontier Partisans, de Morés is known primarily as Theodore Roosevelt’s frenemy in the Dakotas. His life was wild and … [Read more...] about Anachronisms & Avatars Of Modernity