A couple of weeks ago I was at my local comic shop picking up my pulls for the week when I noticed a title I had not seen in a very long time, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. Many of you may not have heard of this title. It was an animated series that was shown in the US in the late 80s and featured a team of four law officers who patrolled the outer reaches of civilized space in a ship that could turn into a giant robot (didn’t they all?). It was one of many shows that followed a similar formula. As I read the book I was reminded of my love of the space western and I wonder why it hasn’t had more than a niche following.

Now, I must clarify here that I am talking about space westerns, not sci fi westerns like Westworld. Sci fi westerns are fun, but they lack a certain something that space westerns have for me. I think that my first introduction to the concept was Han Solo in A New Hope. He was a mysterious loner in a crooked town looking for a quick job to make some fast cash… straight up standard western archetype. Now, they start playing Han more like a rogue than a cowboy in the later movies, but you get the idea. So, that was something that really appealed to me.

But, it wasn’t until the mid to late 80s when I got all of the space westerns that I could want. Galaxy Rangers, Bravestarr and, to a certain degree, Silverhawks were all set in that genre and did it well. But, like a flash in the pan, it all went away until 2002 when a show called Firefly took the space western and put it out there for everyone to see and enjoy… but it went away much too soon, too. Firefly had the loner soldier who was on the losing side of a civil war, low tech outer reaches of space, outlaws, land barons, dancing girls and everything else you could ask for from a space western… it got the genre right.

I know that I can’t be the only one who enjoys space westerns. I keep hoping that we’ll see a a steampunk-like growth in popularity of space westerns that would result in more movies, shows, books, games and anything else that can be set in that world. In the meantime, I do have my complete series of Firefly, my issues of Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs and YouTube videos of old episodes of the shows I mentioned earlier to keep me occupied.