by Ernest Hogan
I am fascinated by lowbrow, or what was once called “popular” culture. Before that sort of thing was taken over by multinational corporations that are probably run by AIs now, they often showed clues about what was going on in people’s minds at the time in a clearer way than the highfalutin literature of the times. It is definitely the case with The Buffalo Demon; Or, The Border Vultures “A Tale of the Southwest” by Edward L. Wheeler.
Wheeler wrote “around one hundred” dime novels according to Wikipedia. They were precursors to the modern western genre. He created Deadwood Dick and often used real people like Calamity Jane and Sitting Bull for characters.
They were weird. The West wasn’t the collection of stereotypes that Hollywood created and mythologized. People’s imaginations would go wild when they imagined life beyond the border/frontiers of their so-called civilization.
Which brings us to The Buffalo Demon . . .
Said demon has a man’s body, the head of a North American bison and cloven hooves. He is accompanied by a gang of men without heads. They terrorize what seems to be New Mexico and/or Arizona. Y’ know, Aztlán.
They dominate the cover. I bet the art came first, the publisher showed it to Wheeler and offered cash for a story. Ah, the writer’s life!
There are suggestions of the supernatural, but they turn out to be costumed villains, foreshadowing the baddies of future comic books. Imagine them fighting a Lone Ranger knock-off.
The Demon himself turns out to be a white man, but the most interesting thing is the grotesque racism.
I know a lot of folks these days are horrified that such things even existed, but I have a perverse fascination. Like Odysseus, I have to hear the song of the Sirens . . .
In Border Demon, fear of the Mexicans and natives runs amok. Oddly enough, this focused on the dark-skinned males. Mexican and Indian maidens are desirable and fair game for the white “good guys.” Like Spielberg movies, other popular entertainments, and government policies gender-specific genocide is shown to be desirable. Kill the men, but oh, those gorgeous brown babes!
These attitudes aren’t quaint relics of a bygone era. They are alive and well and living in guys who have been given the authority to randomly beat up people and lock them up without any kind of due process. Be aware of them. They could come after you next.
Ah, but the image of Border Demon and headless horde is so compelling! Why not redo it, only with a modern sensibility? Why couldn’t the Demon and company be heroes? Mexicans and natives rather than whites. Defending the honor of the brown maidens and rescuing them from white villains!
Hmm . . . Could we make the Demon be a brown woman under the mask?
Dare to imagine better worlds.
Ernest Hogan lives in Aztlán. Sometimes he wanders into the regions beyond.
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