1890s in America. In the Southwest, the Frontier closes. On the other side of the country, John Ford is born.
1950s in America. Las Vegas rises. Del Webb plans Sun City. Goggle-wearing onlookers. Nuclear tests in the desert. Boom or bust has become BOOM & DUST.
In that same desert, John Ford makes his science fiction movies. John Wayne and Henry Fonda risk radiation poisoning. The cowboys – astronauts. The desert – Mars. Both the natives and the settlers are Martians to each other. Trains – Interstellar technology. A gunslinger with a Colt revolver is a spaceman with a ray gun.
The land has all been mapped. The territory has all been taken. But a new frontier opens again in the Southwest desert. THE RED MENACE STILL EXISTS! And beyond the Las Vegas skyline, past the Pioneer Club sign, a mushroom cloud rises.
John Ford – our man with a movie camera – seizes the drama that emerges from the debris. Geronimo is reborn – from a new womb – the BOMB.
BOOM.
DUST.
***
ART
- “BIRD AND BOMB” 1-2 by Terry Graff
- “DUST” 1-4 by Elwy Malin
- “DUST BOWL” 1-3 by Leonel
- “HONOR” – “DUTY” by Evan McConahay
- SEVEN PAINTINGS by Dakota Proctor
ESSAYS
- FALLOUT by R.A. Schneider
- THE LAEVINIC DEFEAT OF JAPAN by Brad Berklich
- LIGHT ENOUGH TO BURN A HOLE IN THE SUN by Uriah Marc Todoroff
- THE PINK HORIZON OF THE WEST by PFG
FICTION
- ABERRATION OF THE WHITETAIL DEER by Lucas Mancini
- THE CLOCKS RUN DIFFERENTLY HERE by Noah Rymer
- DOCUMENTARY by Ben Schwartz
- EULOGY FOR A BOMBARDIER by John Jay Stancliff
- RETURN TO EDEN by Thomas Huntington
- SABER OF THE CRIMSON SANDS by Anthony Perconti
- SILVER SANDS by Matthew Kinlin
- TRUE HAWKS by Derrick Martin-Campbell
POETRY
- “CROSSROADS” by Miriam Garra
- “HEAT” by GROZNY
- “JOHN WAYNE TO TEMÜJIN, MAY 1979” – “THE FIRE ON HEARTBREAK RIDGE” by Quinn Grover
- “RED MOOOOOOOOOOOON” by plasticbagger
- THREE POEMS by C. Rees
- “TO THE ATOMIC COWBOY” by Will Waltz
- “TRINITITE BEADS” by Tetrahedron
- “THE TUMBLEWEED” – “THE CARTOGRAPHER” by Noam Hessler
- “THE UNDERWRITING” by Brenna Boytim
- “WINE-STAINED AGAMEMNON” by Allen Seward
header illustrations by Sterling Bartlett