Honestly, the Dark Tower series is the *only* thing of King's I've ever read, or plan to read. It ain't bad. The characters are interesting, competant, and, when appropriate, heroic.
For inspiration, heh, while getting caught up on my deadlands reading, TCM had this month long western movie "marathon". And, of course, I spent a lot of time thinking about how these would apply to deadlands.
I can recommend Nevada Smith. Nice flick about a kid out for revenge. Starts off as green as you can get, and winds up with a bit of a frightening reputation, and fairly competant.
The anthology with the man with no name, that's not bad. The second one reminded me of last man standing. The third one (Good, bad, ugly) really had the most useful bits. A neat way to move a pitched battle, cleverly hidden treasure...
But the best, by far, The Quick and the Dead. Not just because Leonardo DiCaprio's character gets shot and killed. You can just see Gene Hackman's character as a harrowed villain, with or without his inner demon running amok. Especially at the end, with the town destroyed, and he's standing there with a shot of daylight through his chest... and he's still standing... untill he takes the second round in the eyeball.