Blog Archives

Conan (Essential Malady): From this alone we can establish that both the publisher and the author are embarrassed by (or dislike) the source material. It is not clear who wrote the Afterword so I will assume this is a shared opinion. It would have been more honest to put this in the Foreword so a […]

Comic Books (Bounding Into Comics): Heroic Signatures President Fredrik Malmberg recently explained why he chose to make a deal with Titan Comics to publish new Conan the Barbarian stories despite receiving multiple requests from other publishers. Conan (Paperback Warrior): John Maddox Roberts is a Vietnam War veteran that served in the US Army from 1967 until 1970. […]

Fiction (Books of Brilliance): The novels are filled with violence, crime, and a lot of blood. And that is not everyone’s cup of tea. The protagonist is usually a detective that takes on a case that is a lot more complicated than when it first appears. Under the tutelage of the right author, the story is hard […]

Conan (Essential Malady): Conan is a hired mercenary working for the rogue prince Xathomidas to overthrow King Strabonus of Koth. These two characters are only mentioned as background to the narrative and Conan is mainly taking orders from General Scythis; usually through his captain Danix, who is charge of the mercenaries. Dixon sets this all […]

Fiction (Sprague de Camp Fan): The Weird Tales Story by Robert Weinberg has seen three different editions. The first was published by Fax Collector’s Editions in 1977. This was a nice hardcover book with interior art by Alex Nino. The book is dedicated: To Margaret Brundage, whose covers might not have reflected the contents of Weird Tales but […]

Sword & Sorcery (Sprague de Camp Fan): When L. Sprague de Camp first got the idea to compile a Sword and Sorcery anthology, he had trouble finding a publisher. More on this later. First a little (a very short) history is needed. Cinema (Roger Ebert): It is by general agreement the most famous shot in […]

Robert E. Howard (Paperback Warrior): “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” was written by Robert E. Howard in the early 1930s. The story, featuring Conan the Cimmerian, was originally rejected by Weird Tales, so Howard changed the character to Amra of Akbitana and called the story “The Gods of the North”. It was accepted and published by The Fantasy Fan #7 in March, 1934. As a Conan story, […]

Weird Tales (Tellers of Weird Tales): The first issue of Weird Tales, dated March 1923, probably arrived on newsstands before that, possibly in mid to late February. I base that only on the idea that magazines usually showed up ahead of their cover dates so as to avoid seeming outdated. For example, Time magazine also […]

Fantasy (Grognardia): Since this will likely be the last Pulp Fantasy Gallery post for a while, I thought I’d change things up a bit and go for something a little different this week. Sterling Lanier’s 1973 novel, Hiero’s Journey, is a work of post-apocalyptic science fantasy of which I am very fond. It also enjoys the unique distinction […]

Robert E. Howard (Paperback Warrior): “Robert E. Howard’s Iron Shadows in the Moon”, starring Conan the Cimmerian, was published in Weird Tales in April, 1934. The story was renamed to “Shadows in the Moonlight, and appeared in the Gnome Press volume Conan the Barbarian in 1954. It was later edited by L. Sprague de Camp for inclusion in Swords & Sorcery, a 1963 collection […]

Robert E. Howard (M.C. Tuggle): Ernest Hemingway and Robert E. Howard had a lot in common. Both were passionate outdoorsmen who relished food and drink and brawling. Though identified with different genres, both infused their fiction with athletic, vivid prose that still stirs the imaginations of appreciative readers. They have inspired countless writers, and decades […]