The
Western is a
genre of various arts, such as comics, fiction, film, games, radio, and television which tell stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in the
American Old West, often centering on the life of a nomadic
cowboy or
gunfighter. Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns and saloons of the
Wild West. Characters typically include
Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, outlaws and soldiers. Some are set in the American colonial era.