THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE VERY BAD ~ PART TWO

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE VERY BAD ~ PART TWO

 

They called him Sundance. A big man with the bronzed face of a Cheyenne and a mane of yellow hair. He had ranged from Canada to Mexico, from the Mississippi to the Shining Mountains and west to the Pacific. He could take any man apart with rifle, pistol, knife—or Indian-style with bow, arrows, lance and tomahawk. He was a professional fighting man and no job was too tough if the price was right. So when a rich banker met his price of $10,000 to rescue his daughter from the Cheyenne—Sundance bought it. He didn’t know that before it was over he would have to take on a gang of vicious renegades, part of Custer’s Seventh Cavalry and a hot-blooded eastern woman...

FROM SUNDANCE: OVERKILL

 

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s under the pseudonym John Benteen, respected western author Ben Haas gunned out a series of paperback originals featuring the adventures of Fargo—a globetrotting soldier-of-fortune who is a dead ringer for Lee Marvin’s Faradan character in the 1966 movie The Professionals. The 23 Fargo novels remain below the radar of the wider readership, despite accolades from the gurus of the men’s action/adventure series genre. 

 

However, the Fargo series sold well enough for publisher HARRY SHORTEN (king of the low end mass market paperback houses in the ‘60s and ‘70s) to commission another western series from Haas under the John Benteen byline. Haas responded with the action filled adventures of the half-white, half-Cheyenne gun-for-hire known as Sundance.

 

Writer and men’s action adventure series buff JACK BADELAIRE summarized the Sundance series for the current e-book releases from PICCADILLY PUBLISHING: 

 

Jim Sundance, is a half-white, half-Cheyenne adventurer. In his 30's, he’s a man who has roamed and fought across the length and breadth of the U.S. moving between the worlds of the white man and the Indian. Sundance is a typical Benteen hero—Tall, broad-shouldered, with a slim waist and a lean, powerful build. He has the complexion and features of a Cheyenne Indian, but his hair is a bright golden blond, a gift from his English father. Sundance received his Indian name after participating in the Cheyenne Sun Dance ritual…

 

On top of his unusual heritage, Sundance carries an unusual arsenal. In typical Benteen fashion, his main character is very deliberately armed with an assortment of weapons from both cultures. Sundance carries a Navy Colt and a Henry repeating rifle, as well as a Bowie knife with a fourteen-inch blade and a hand guard for knife-fighting. In addition, he carries a steel-bladed tomahawk, as well as a Cheyenne dog soldier's war shield and a bow, along with a quiver of thirty flint-headed arrows. Benteen goes to great length to note Sundance prefers flint tips to steel, claiming they deliver a more grievous wound—Sundance can kill a man at four hundred yards with the bow, or put an arrow through a buffalo.

 

Over the course of the almost every novel, Sundance puts every weapon in his arsenal to use—another Benteen trait—and it is interesting to see how Sundance typically uses the white man's weapons for every day carry, but when he really means business, he tends to favor his more traditional arsenal. 

 

Sundance is a fascinating character, and the series is a mix of standard Western themes with Benteen's own unique style laid over. The action is fast and violent, the level of detail extraordinary...

 

The Fargo and Sundance series were both extremely popular. To keep up with demand, several Sundance novels were published under the house name Jack Slade—For #11 Norman Rubington, #12 and #13 Thomas Curry, and #24 and #25 Dudley Dean McGaughy were the writers behind the Jack Slade pseudonym.

When Haas passed away in 1977, Ballard wrote two more Sundance adventures in 1979, after which the series was taken over by long time editor Peter McCurtin for another eighteen novels. Haas/Benteen’s voice in the original Fargo and Sundance tales is golden. Entries from other wordslingers are hit and miss, so be aware your mileage may vary…

 

 

 

THE SUNDANCE SERIES 

Sundance #01: Overkill (John Benteen—1972)

Sundance #02: Dead Man's Canyon (John Benteen—1972)

Sundance #03: Dakota Territory (John Benteen—1972)

Sundance #04: Death in the Lava (John Benteen—1972)

Sundance #05: The Pistoleros (John Benteen—1972)

Sundance #06: Wild Stallions (John Benteen—1973)

Sundance #07: Taps at Little Big Horn (John Benteen—1973)

Sundance #08: The Ghost Dancers (John Benteen—1973)

Sundance #09: Bring Me His Scalp (John Benteen—1973)

Sundance #10: The Bronco Trail (John Benteen—1973)

Sundance #11: The Comancheros (Norman Rubington/Jack Slade—1973)
Sundance #12: Renegade (Thomas Curry/Jack Slade—1974)

Sundance #13: Honcho (Thomas Curry/Jack Slade—1974)

Sundance #14: War Party (John Benteen—1975)

Sundance #15: Bounty Killer (George H. Smith—1975)

Sundance #16: Run for Cover (John Benteen—1976)

Sundance #17: Manhunt (Peter McCurtin—1976)

Sundance #18: Blood On the Prairie (John Benteen—1976)

Sundance #19: War Trail (John 'Jay' Flynn—1976)

Sundance #20: Riding Shotgun (John Benteen—1977)

Sundance #21: Silent Enemy (John Benteen—1977)

Sundance #22: Ride the Man Down (John Benteen—1973)

Sundance #23: Gunbelt (John Benteen—1977)

Sundance #24: Canyon Kill (Dudley Dean McGaughy/Jack Slade—1979)
Sundance #25: Blood Knife (Dudley Dean McGaughy/Jack Slade—1979)
Sundance #26: Nightriders (Peter McCurtin—1979)

Sundance #27: Death Dance (Peter McCurtin—1979)

Sundance #28: The Savage (Peter McCurtin—1979)

Sundance #29: Day of the Halfbreeds (Peter McCurtin—1979)
Sundance #30: Los Olvidados (Peter McCurtin—1980)

Sundance #31: The Marauders (Peter McCurtin—1980)

Sundance #32: Scorpion (Peter McCurtin—1980)

Sundance #33: Hangman's Knot (Peter McCurtin—1980)

Sundance #34: Apache War (Peter McCurtin—1980)

Sundance #35: Gold Strike (Peter McCurtin—1980)

Sundance #36: Trail Drive (Peter McCurtin—1981)

Sundance #37: Iron Men (Peter McCurtin—1981) 

Sundance #38: Drumfire (Peter McCurtin—1981) 

Sundance #39: Buffalo War (Peter McCurtin—1981)

Sundance #40: The Hunters (Peter McCurtin—1981)

Sundance #41: The Cage (Peter McCurtin—1981)

Sundance #42: The Choctaw County War (Peter McCurtin—1982)
Sundance #43: Texas Empire (Peter McCurtin—1982)

*It should be noted book seller and fiction scholar Lynn Munroe is the excellent source for the list of Sundance titles and authors behind the Jack Slade pseudonym. For Munroe's extensive rundown of Sundance titles CLICK HERE

 

 

 

FOR MORE ON THE SUNDANCE E-BOOKS FROM PICCADILLY PUBLISHING CLICK HERE