Actually, they were definitely dying then. Aside from John Wayne and Clint Eastwood vehicles, domestic oaters turned up on the big screen perhaps even less often than they do now. Europe, on the other hand, had a thriving horse opera industry going then, and their Westerns featured Hollywood has–beens, including Edd “Kookie” Byrnes and Gilbert Roland, as well as never–wases (at least until those flicks hit) such as Lee Van Cleef. So it IS true that the genre was less dead over all then than now, but not in USA films.

“…Jonah Hex got another series, this one transporting him to a dystopian future. The setting was completely different (and some might clsim a little too different, alienating some of his long–time fans…)….”

What really “alienated” us (yes, I was one of that series’ regular readers/fans then) was that the change was obviously done at little more than a moment’s notice, leaving a great many dangling plot threads, including a cliffhanger created by his being abruptly plucked out of his own time, abandoning a damsel in distress to her fate. THAT did not sit well with me at all, and I can’t believe I was alone, though the new series’ letter column reflected no such reaction, as I recall.

I guess i’m just more of a fan of the “Trickster rogue who begrudgingly does the right thing in the end.”