Blog Archives

Robert E. Howard (Orthosphere): Considering that he died at thirty, Howard’s literary accomplishments can only impress.  Stylistically, he operates at a level many ranks above that of the typical pulp writer.  His vocabulary includes a rich lode of Latin and Greek derivations and likewise of English archaisms.  Brought up, from age thirteen, in the small […]

Art (Lithub): But it isn’t only great detective novels that have gotten the pulp treatment. Classic works of literary fiction have existed as pulps from the very beginning of pulp—the new paperback publishers of the 1940s and 50s printed them right along with classic crime and some genuinely lowbrow (and sometimes quite lurid) new novels, […]

Cinema (Skillset): For most people, there is likely one film that in their minds defines a generation of hardcore, action moviegoers with its scenes and quotes. For the Generation X crowd (those born from 1965 through 1980), Red Dawn was that defining movie. It opened at the box office in August of 1984 during the […]

Fiction (The Guardian): Years before becoming one of America’s most celebrated authors, John Steinbeck wrote at least three novels which were never published. Two of them were destroyed by the young writer as he struggled to make his name, but a third – a full-length mystery werewolf story entitled Murder at Full Moon – has […]

RPG (Walker’s Retreat):  There is a very good reason for why you should follow Jeffro Johnson and his rediscover of how to properly play tabletop RPGs. It is because the habits of thinking that you acquire by playing them as intended are directly transferable to everyday life, and not just in the sense that learning […]

Fiction (Ken Lizzi): Science Fiction has its big three. Most often these are listed as Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke. The line up varies, of course. It can’t be objectively determined and prominence waxes and wanes with time. Weird Tales had its own holy trinity: Lovecraft, Howard, and Smith. Three seems to be a magic number. […]

Firearms (Field & Stream): So revered was the 1911 that it remained the issue sidearm of America’s armed forces for 74 years. In fact, even today, elite American combat operatives rely on 1911s. Designed by firearms genius John Browning, the Colt 1911 was chambered for the .45 ACP—a cartridge that’s now as esteemed as the […]

Comic Books (Arkhaven Comics): This is the biggest moment in comics for decades. It changes how you, the reader, in a word, reads the comic book. Anybody who has tried to use a system like Comixology’s knows how bad it is.  It loads the full page and then it TRIES to zoom in on the […]

Video Games (Wasteland & Sky): Both the ’00s and the ’10s are two of the most creatively stagnant decades, and it says a lot that there has never been a nostalgia movement for them when the current wave for the ’80s and ’90s has never really stopped since the latter decade ended. Be all accounts […]

Gaming (DVS Press): Maybe you’ve heard of cultural ground zero: 1997.  Now let’s talk games, because unlike other institutions of culture, the games industry kept on growing and innovating for another 10 years. Then 2007 happened, and as far as the bigger publishers are concerned, games reached their peak and no more change or risk […]

Comic Books (Walker’s Retreat): Diamond Distribution not only had–had–a monopoly on comic book distribution in the United States, but also dominated distribution of tabletop games. Especially now, it is common for comic shops to sell card and tabletop games on the side or vice-versa, especially if they also furnish space for play in-house- something very […]