Blog Archives

Ghost Stories (Wormwoodiana): The latest issue of the M.R. James journal Ghosts & Scholars is now available. Issue 47 has been guest edited by Helen Kemp, with cover artwork by Loretta Nikolic. Forthcoming (The Obelisk): Bizarchives, Issue 7 will feature stories from stalwarts such as A. Cuthbertson, M.S. Jones, C.P. Webster, and Arbogast. New pens […]

Horror (Silver Key): I’m a big fan of The Shining, book and film. Both work really well, for slightly different reasons. I encountered the book first, discovering it along with many other horror and men’s adventure titles through my grandfather. Fantasy (Ken Lizzi): Look, The Ship of Ishtar is an unusual book. There’s no question […]

Science Fiction (Rough Edges): As author Robert Silverberg explains in his introduction to the 1979 Ace reprint of CONQUERORS FROM THE DARKNESS, the story first saw life as a novella, “Spawn of the Deadly Sea”, in the April 1957 issue of the SF digest SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES. Games (The Lotus Eaters): Unbisoft’s Downward Spiral. Beer […]

Pastiche (Sprague de Camp Fan): I can’t quite grasp the appeal of El Borak. He doesn’t immediately grab me like a man raised by apes or a barbarian confronting civilization does. Tarzan and Conan seem special, they are unique. Apparently, part of El Borak’s uniqueness is that he is a Texan. I live in Texas. […]

Old Radio (Purple Girasol): Presenting, for your listening pleasure, “Murder by a Corpse“.  A Halloween episode a month early. New (With Both Hands): There are now a number of contemporary short fiction magazines publishing sci fi, fantasy, and weird tales, and Cirsova may be pre-eminent among them. While sales of these little magazines are far […]

Greyhawk (Greykawkery): Leading off of course is the mad antics of the CULTISTS. Those who aren’t familiar with them from my first run of comics (2007-2011) can find them in the links above or even in the most recent issues of Oerth Journal. What trouble will this duo cause this time? I will feature the […]

Magazines (Pulp Super-Fan): I recently obtained Pulp Adventures #44 from Bold Venture Press, dated Winter 2024. A delay from the prior issue, but it looks like they are working to get back on schedule. We get science fiction, detective, crime, and horror, along with reviews and non-fiction this time. Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): Chapters […]

Tolkien (Geek Gab Fest): Orcs, in Tolkien’s works, are an inherently evil race of raiders, murderers, cannibals, and rapists. They are utterly evil, without any redeeming qualities except a low sort of loyalty to their masters. Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): There are several things I regret in life. Mostly small things. Things like never […]

Fantasy (DMR Books): The Ship of Ishtar was first serialized in Argosy All-Story in November 1924. It was immediately a huge hit with Argosy‘s readership. Not since the days of “The Moon Pool” had there been such a furor amongst the Argosy audience–and part of that previous buzz was due to Merritt writing his novella […]

Comic Strips (Flashback Universe): I’ve been enjoying the latest incarnation of the Flash Gordon comic strip in digital format on the Comics Kingdom website. Cartoonist Dan Schkade relaunched the series on October 22, 2023, and has been doing daily and Sunday installments ever since. Science Fiction (Fandom Pulse): The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction used to be […]

Horror (Too Much Horror Fiction): I first became aware of Ghouls in My Grave after reading Danse Macabre, Stephen King’s essential 1981 tome of boomer memoir and horror criticism, where he includes it in an appendix of important 20th century horror fiction. For many years I searched for the book, to no avail, and virtually […]

Science Fiction (Vintage Pop Fictions): The Ginger Star is a 1974 science fiction novel by Leigh Brackett. It is the first volume in a loose trilogy featuring her hero Eric John Stark. Eric John Stark had actually made his first appearance back in 1949 in Brackett’s novellas Queen of the Martian Catacombs, Enchantress of Venus […]