THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE VERY BAD ~
PART ONE
Fargo lives with a gun in his fist. Guns
and killing are all he knows. And Fargo likes what he knows. Want to start a
revolution? Want to stop one? Send for Fargo. Want to blow a bridge, stage a prison
break, rob a bank? Fargo’s your man.
The Army taught Fargo how to kill with
pistol, rifle, machine gun. He became an expert with knives, shotguns and women
on his own time. Fargo hates the quiet life. He knows he’s going to get it
sooner or later. He hopes it won’t be too much later because he wouldn’t know
how to be old and comfortable. So while he lasts, Fargo plans to grab the world
by the throat and take what he wants. If the world doesn’t like that, it can
try to stop him ... if it can...
DESCRIPTION FROM THE FIRST FARGO NOVEL
Recently, I’ve blogged
about a number of relatively obscure series from the men’s action adventure
genre. Continuing the trend over the next couple of weeks, we saddle up for
three iconic ‘60s western series written by John Benteen—the pseudonym of well-regarded
and prolific writer Ben Haas.
The main
characters from all three series—Fargo,
Sundance, and Cutler—have a devoted cult following among genre acolytes. The
novels in each series stand apart from the other violence soaked westerns of
the era, such as Edge, Crow, Claw (and countless others) written by the Piccadilly Cowboys (CLICK
HERE). Neither do they fall into the arena of the popular adult sex-and-six-guns
shoot-em-up western series like Longarm,
Jake Slocum, or The Gunsmith (CLICK HERE). However,
their combination of harsh, realistic ferocious action and adventurous
backgrounds also set them apart from the more traditional Louis L’Amour style
westerns.
During the
course of his career, Ben Haas wrote 130 novels under his own name, a dozen
pseudonyms (including John Benteen), and a handful of publisher’s house names. The uniting factor of this vast
output was the highly readable and sheer storytelling force he brought to every
page. Haas’ goal was to be a mainstream writer, but needed to pay his bills
while waiting for his serious fiction
to find a publisher. Taking an opportunity to write a western for paperback
publisher Tower Books, Haas furiously banged out Hell Of A Way To Die, quickly developing the spare, tightly written
prose for which he became known. The novel became the fifth entry in Tower’s new
Lassiter series (originated by
wordslinger W.T. Ballard) published under the house name Jack Slade.
Impressed with Haas’
fast-paced muscular prose—a perfect fit for the burgeoning paperback original
market—Tower publisher Harry Shorten asked Haas to create an original western
series of his own. Recognizing a regular paying gig, Haas returned to
assaulting his typewriter letting loose the taciturn, granite-hard, Neal Fargo in
a series of neo-westerns now considered classics of the genre.
Under the
pseudonym John Benteen—named after one of Custer’s cavalry officers—Haas wrote (or
co-wrote with his son, Joel) twenty of the twenty three Fargo adventures. The other three books (Sierra Silver, Dynamite Fever,
and Gringo Guns) are attributed to
John W. Hardin—a pseudonym taken from a real life outlaw. According to fiction
scholar LYNN MUNROE, John W. Hardin was most
likely Norman Rubington, who also wrote an entry in Benteen’s Sundance series.
Common
consensus is Haas based Fargo on the character portrayed by Lee Marvin in the
1966 movie The Professionals, which
was written by Richard Brooks and based on the novel A Mule for the Marquesa by another popular western wordslinger,
Frank O’Rourke.
Brooks’
screenplay describes Marvin’s character, Faradan: He was one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, served in the
Philippines, was a wildcatter and gold prospector, worked for Pancho Villa, and
is now demonstrating automatic weapons to the Army. He is offered $10,000 for
the dangerous assignment—all of which is a perfect description of Fargo.
Marvin’s character also smokes black cigars and wears the campaign hat and
cavalry boots, which are mainstays of Fargo’s wardrobe.
The image of
Lee Marvin as Fargo has persisted ever since the books were first published.
Piccadilly Publishing’s recent release of the Fargo novels in e-book format all
carry a likeness of Lee Marvin as Fargo (as interpreted by artist Edward Martin)
on the covers (CLICK HERE)
along with this description:
Neal Fargo—adventurer, lover and
fighter—Fargo lives with a gun in his fist. Guns and killing are all he knows.
And Fargo likes what he knows. Want to start a revolution? Want to stop one? Send
for Fargo. Want to blow a bridge, stage a prison break, rob a bank? Fargo's
your man...Tall and weather beaten, his prematurely white hair kept
close-cropped, he still wears much the same outfit he wore in the service:
cavalry boots, campaign hat, jodhpurs, or khaki pants, comfortable shirt...
His weapons of war include a .38 with
either a hip or shoulder holster, depending on his need at the time. Loading
with hollow points for greater stopping power, he prefers it to the .45
automatic, which tends to jam, the army uses. His knife, a Batangas, made by
Philippine artisans, has a razor sharp ten inch blade that folds back into the
handle except for a few inches, popping out with a flick of the wrist. Fargo is
quite expert with it and is ambidextrous, a little known fact hidden from his
enemies, that has saved his life more than once in fights.
His favorite weapon, though, is the Fox
Sterlingworth ten-gauge shotgun, sawed-off, and engraved along the inlay with
the words, To Neal Fargo, gratefully, from T. Roosevelt. The former President
and he are the only ones who know what he did to get the weapon. It's a deadly
piece, loaded with shells of nine buckshot each. He's the only man Fargo will
drop everything and come running when called...
Writer and fictioneers
extraordinaire JAMES REASONER
rightly maintains the Fargo books are not really traditional Westerns as they
are set in the 1910s, after the Wild West had been settled, and taking place in
diverse locations such as the Philippines, Argentina, Nicaragua, Alaska and
Peru. This distinction is part of the fun and what makes Fargo stand out among
all his contemporaries.
Prolific writer
(CLICK
HERE), blogger, and another true Fargo fan, JACK
BADELAIRE, describes Fargo as a combination of giants from pop culture—To me, Neal Fargo is a combination of Robert
E. Howard's Conan mixed with Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. Fargo, is a
globe-trotting adventurer/mercenary in his late 30's, a highly-skilled and
incredibly lethal fighting man who's already had a lifetime's worth of
adventures. Like Conan, Fargo is a lone wolf, a man who trusts no one and
nothing except, perhaps, his weapons. He fights for money and because it's what
he's best at, and because he's one of the rare breed of men who, unashamedly,
need to be in mortal conflict with man and the elements in order to feel alive.
Fargo knows he'll meet a violent end one day, and you know his only hope is
that he dies on his feet, surrounded by his enemies.
THE FARGO SERIES
Fargo (1969)
Panama Gold
(1969)
Alaska Steel
(1969)
Massacre River
(1970)
The Wildcatters
(1970)
Apache Raiders
(1970)
Valley of
Skulls (1970)
Wolf’s Head
(1970)
The
Sharpshooters (1970)
The Black Bulls
(1971)
Phantom Gunman
(1971)
Killing Spree
(1971)
Shotgun Man
(1973)
Bandolero (1973)
Sierra Silver
(John W. Hardin—1973)
Dynamite Fever
(John W. Hardin—1974)
Gringo Guns
(John W. Hardin—1975)
Hell On Wheels
(1976)
The Border
Jumpers (1976)
Death Valley
Gold (1976)
Killer’s Moon
(1976)
Fargo and The
Texas Rangers (1977)
Dakota Badlands
(1977)
*Fargo #15 was originally assigned mistakenly
to a reprint of #8 Wolf’s Head, which caused Belmont Tower to put #16 on what
was actually the 15th book and triggering the misnumbering of the remaining
books in the series. This accounts for the confusion regarding the total number
of books—23 or 24—in the series…There are 23…
FOR MORE ON THE INDIVIDUAL FARGO BOOKS
FROM LYNN MUNROE CLICK
HERE, AND HERE
FOR BENTEEN/HAAS’ ADVICE ON HOW TO WRITE
A WESTERN CLICK
HERE
FOR MORE ON THE FARGO SERIES CLICK
HERE
In Part Two
next week, we’ll take on two other iconic western series from John Benteen—the
popular Sundance—as mentioned above—and
the unique, but less well received, Cutler…
Fabulous piece, Paul. Ben was a fabulous writer whose plots were always inventive, just as his characters always came to life and seemed just as credible as credible can be.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm a late to the party on this one, but I only just found this blog, and specifically this post about the Fargo series. I originally read the series in the seventies when it was coming out new.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely loved it!
W#ound up buying the Sundance and Cutlers series as well. In any event, I've noticed that on the several blogs that were talking about the fact that the series was coming out in eBook format, they put up a list of all the books in the numerical order they were published. However nobody has mentioned that the chronological order was different.
So just in case anybody is interested, I actually did it almost 40 years ago. So for the purposes of "historical accuracy", here it is;
Phantom Gunman 1910
Panama Gold 1912
Sierra Silver 1912/1913
Valley of Skulls 1913
Fargo 1913
Dynamite Fever 1913
Gringo Guns 1913
Alaska Steel 1914
Massacre River 1914
The Wildcatters 1915
Killing Spree 1915
Apache Raiders 1915
Shotgun Man 1915
Killers Moon 1915
The Sharpshooters 1916
Bandolero 1916
Wolfshead 1916
The Border Jumpers 1916/1917
Hell On Wheels 1916
The Black Bulls 1917
Dakota Badlands 1918
Fargo and The Texas Rangers 1918
N0w there's another Fargo book called Death Valley Gold that I don't have, but I recently pre-ordered it through Amazon fro Piccadillypress. It's coming out in Feb or 2017. Paperback copies are available, but the cheapest one I've seen is almost $40.00 ( I don't even want to mention what the highest price I saw was)and I'm not quite prepared to spend that kind of money on a 40 year old mass market paperback (yet).
My dating on the above books come from the dates that were actually used in the books, or else from historical events that were mentioned in the plots. One book, Fargo and The Texas Rangers, actually has the year 1909 on the back cover, but the 1918 date is actually stated in the book.
Well, I hope I wasn't too boring with my list, but I figured this was a pretty good place to out it out there for any fans or collectors of the series. I like your Blog, it covers quite a few old adventure series that I used to read when I was in my teens and twenties (and that was lonnng time ago).
Ok, update time. Amazon just released 'Death Valley Gold' in ebook format on Kindle. They released it this morning and I just finished it about an hour ago. I can say with certainty, based on a reference in the book to Porfirio Diaz (President of Mexico), the story takes place between 1910 and 1911.
ReplyDeleteThis eclectic public service announcement now concludes the chronological order of the exploits of Neal Fargo.
Now go order the ebook from Amazon!
nice blog
ReplyDeleteYep. Hardin was Rubington. And given the context, Rubington was not at all what you'd have expected him to be.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.normanrubington.com/bio.html
Just read the first two Fargo books and the first Sundance. Haas's books are very addicting.
ReplyDelete