Paleontology (Science.org): Dire wolves, which died out with mammoths and saber-toothed cats at the end of the last ice age, were long thought to be close cousins of gray wolves. Now, the first analysis of dire wolf DNA finds they instead traveled a lonely evolutionary path: They are so different from other wolves, coyotes, and dogs that they don’t belong in the genus that includes these animals.

Robert E. Howard (Paperback Warrior): One of Robert E. Howard’s most iconic characters, along with Bran Mak Morn, Conan, and Kull, is Solomon Kane. The character’s first published appearance was in a short story called “Red Shadows”, which was published in the August, 1928 issue of Weird Tales. Mixing sword-and-sorcery and horror, Howard’s Solomon Kane stories feature a late 16th century Puritan who adventures around the world fighting evil. 

Horror (Goodman Games): We begin with a name that might not be familiar to all weird fiction fans but was certainly known by Gary Gygax—William Hope Hodgson. Hodgson was critically praised during his lifetime, but his works fell out of the public eye in the years following his death. Even today, Hodgson remains a peripheral figure to genre fans with few being familiar with his work.

Art (Art of the Movies): Roger Karl Kastel was born in White Plains, New York on 11^th June, 1931. Both parents painted and perhaps inevitably, their son developed a keen interest in art, picking up a pencil and paper whenever he could.

Fantasy Round Up (Tule Fog Press): Happy Thanksgiving! May God bless you and yours and may you have a fantastic holiday season beginning with this wonderful weekend of giving thanks to the Creator of all good things. Not sure what’s going on in this photo, but heh, whatever works! Carve away anyway you can, I suppose. (grin) Now on with the show!

Pulp (Pulp Pipe Poetry): Fans of pulp fiction gravitate to the heroic characters and whacky plots, not just in their original magazine form, but in other adaptations such as paperbacks, comic books, films, and radio plays. People read the pulps for their extravagant plots and exotic locales, but they stayed for larger-than-life characters, like The Shadow, The Spider, and Doc Savage.

Comic Books (Dark Worlds Quarterly): In 1952, Frank Frazetta drew the first issue of Thun’Da King of the Congo, showing the right way to do comics about lost worlds. The editors foolishly wanted yet another jungle lord comic and put the kibash on the prehistoric stuff. Frank quit. His efforts have been honored by fans of that particularly mix of fantastic elements I call “Cavemen & Dinosaurs” but he wasn’t the only one using them in the Golden Age.

Fiction (Rough Edges): LYSANDER is a historical adventure novel by F. van Wyck Mason published as a paperback original by Pocket Books in 1957 with a cover by James Meese. That’s my copy in the scan. Mason was an old pulpster, of course, and this novel is an expansion of his serial “Lysander of Chios” serialized in ARGOSY in June and July of 1935.

D&D (DM David): In 1997 Wizards of the Coast bought Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR, rescuing the company from bankruptcy. New D&D head Ryan Dancey looked for ways to turn the game into a healthy business. Dancey saw fan contributions as an enhancement to the D&D community that strengthened the game’s place in the market. Support from fans and from third-party publishers encouraged more people to play D&D. Dancey wrote, “This is a feedback cycle—the more effective the support is, the more people play D&D. The more people play D&D, the more effective the support is.”

D&D (Grognardia): Issue #81 (September/October 1977) of Campaign magazine is notable for its lengthy overview/review of Dungeons & Dragons, written by Len Kanterman (of Starships & Spacemen fame) and Charles Elsden. The entire article is worthy of extended examination – and I plan to do just that over the course of several upcoming posts – but I thought a section toward the end might elicit some commentary. Dubbed the “ten commandments of D&D,” they represent the authors’ advice to traditional wargamers playing the game for the first time.

Art (Dark Worlds Quarterly): What I do want to talk about is one of Burroughs’ best lion look-a-likes, the banth, the Barsoomian version of the lion. Ed described it for the first time in his second Martian novel, The Gods of Mars (All-Story, January-May 1913):

Pulp (Sprague de Camp Fan): Probably old news for most. Conan the Cimmerian appears in this story. But he is on Mars. The main character is Lee Thorsten. But he is in the body of Theseus. (The Greek hero who killed The Minotaur.) And Thorsten/Theseus is on Mars as well. So is the Minotaur! Let’s take a look at this convoluted “Conan” adventure.

Fiction (Auron MacIntyre): George Orwell’s “1984” is the most well-known dystopian novel, but its ubiquity has failed to prevent modern governments from marching toward totalitarianism. I discuss why Orwell’s warnings failed and point to other novels that serve as a more effective warnings against our current managerial regime.

Games (Wertzone): As part of N7 Day – an annual celebration of the franchise derived from the N7 special forces group in the video games – BioWare released a series of text and video bursts teasing a new clip. Once fans had done some detective work, the full clip was posted as above. The accompanying text (in the original files) suggests that the next game in the series takes place in or after the year 2819, the year that Mass Effect: Andromeda took place in.

Games (Bounding Into Comics): CD Projekt Red, the video game developer behind The Witcher franchise, announced they are developing a mod editor for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Tolkien (Notion Club Papers): Transcarnation may be a neologism: that is, a word here invented by Tolkien; which probably was intended to convey the idea of a soul transferring from one body to another without death. 

Popular Culture (Aureus Press): Cultural narratives, such as mythology and shared history, are the genetic code of a society. This mythological DNA structure determines the shape of beliefs and modes of being of the people who live out the ideals of those myths. Throughout American culture right now, we are seeing an “overcoding” of cultural myths and popular media.

Literature (Liberty Fund): Milton refrained from writing further political prose and focused on composing his celebrated epic poem Paradise Lost (1667; revised twelve-book edition, 1674), which focuses on Satan’s rebellion against God the Father and his Son as well as the creation, fall, and anticipated redemption of Adam and Eve, concluding with the first couple’s expulsion from Eden.

Review (Ruined Chapel): The Matrioshka Divide is a throwback to the Golden Age of science fiction, in the tradition of Heinlein and Asimov, where advanced spacefaring technology is used to explore political and philosophical ideas.

RPG (Monsters & Manuals): What defines a ‘bad’ monster? For me, it generally has at least one of these three qualities. First, it shatters verisimilitude by being either ‘jokey’ or just really hard to visualise or imagine. Second, it has some nuclear-grade special ability that can only really be avoided or circumvented by a successful saving throw rather than player intelligence. Third, it is just boring, usually because it is too much like a lot of other monsters, or because it has no obvious role beyond being a benevolent quest-dispenser or GMPC.

Review (Ruined Chapel): It’s set in the distant future, when everything can be copied; the matter rearranged. This includes human beings. It’s not at all unusual for a person to die, and a new copy to be “instantiated” from the data stored in some central insurance system. Cosmetic alterations of all sorts can be performed instantaneously and at will.

Science Fiction (Vintage Pop Fictions): Harry Harrison’s science fiction novel The Stainless Steel Rat was published in 1961, although it drew on two earlier novelettes, The Stainless Steel Rat (1957) and The Misplaced Battleship (1960), which had appeared in the pulp magazine Astounding. A sequel would appear in 1970, to be followed by another ten books in the series.

RPG (Fantasy Role Playing Planes): Mummies, and ghouls are common threats found in many types of RPG games. Unfortunately, it’s far too easy for the GM to roleplay them in a simplistic manner, as simple monsters to vanquish, giving them no backstory or interest, and an opportunity for world building is lost. But by giving them unique places to be, interesting attributes, and different causes of creation they can truly become the threats they should be.

Anthologies (John Coult Hart): I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds again recently, after which I went looking for the contents list of the collection where I first read Daphne du Maurier’s story. The book in question, Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbinders in Suspense, is one of the many anthologies that used the director’s name to lure potential purchasers, even though Hitchcock didn’t choose any of the stories and didn’t write any of the introductory notes or mini essays that these volumes usually contain.

Games (Walker’s Retreat): That’s just Rogue Trader. Baldur’s Gate 3 is another videogame that can wholly replace tabletop gaming for most prospective players doing Conventional Play; no DM fuckery, no scheduling, nothing right out of Neckbeardia videos about social retardation at the table or other anti-social faggotry, and no pressure to perform because you’re not playing in a team- you are in command or on your own. Divinity, Grim Dawn, Wasteland– all are preferable to Conventional Play for most prospects.

Weird Tales (Tellers of Weird Tales): Other early contributors to Weird Tales were also Poe fans and Poe admirers. Poe’s name was mentioned frequently in early letters to “The Eyrie,” including in the very first one, submitted by Anthony M. Rud (1893-1942), author of the very first cover story as well and published in that same first issue, March 1923. Rud, then, was the first reader of Weird Tales to mention Poe in its pages. Many others followed in their letters to “The Eyrie,” including:

D&D (DM David): While the Dungeons & Dragons team developed the game‘s fourth edition for a 2008 release, they faced problems from several directions. Corporate owners Hasbro brought a big corporate cost structure and return on investment expectations set by Magic the Gathering and Pokémon.

Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): This “Homage to Robert E. Howard’s Conan” was published in 2017 and dedicated to “the memory of my esteemed friends L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter.” Robert M. Price sent Sprague de Camp a synopsis of this story back when TOR Books was publishing new Conan novels.

Pulp (Comics Radio): I’ve been reading through a PDF copy of the October 1940 issue of Foreign Legion Adventures, the second and also the last issue of this title, which depended largely on reprints. I’ve already covered a couple of the stories HERE and HERE.

Pulp (Dark Worlds Quarterly): It surprises me greatly that more writers haven’t pastiched the Doc Savage canon. Of those that have tried, success has varied in degrees. It is difficult to create a convincing superman, even in Lester Dent’s day.

Conan (Paperback Warrior): As a fan of Conan, I stumbled upon the lone Golden Book dedicated to the barbarian hero, The Thing in the Cave. It was originally published in 1986 as part of the Golden Super Adventure line. The book’s cover was painted by the great Gino D’Achille (Fu Manchu, Barsoom, Flashman) while the interior pages were illustrated by the equally great Dan Adkins (Doctor Strange, Eerie, Creepy). 

Ghost Stories (First Things): Russell Kirk was haunted by the past. Ghosts prowled his house, peering through windows, moving furniture, startling guests. Far from resenting these presences, Kirk welcomed them. For he regarded society as “a spiritual union of the dead, the living, and those yet unborn.”

Star Trek (Grognardia): Being a Star Trek fan, I was aware of the fact that, sometime during the early stages of the production of 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the original 33-inch model of the U.S.S. Enterprise (used in the title sequence of the television show) had become lost. Gene Roddenberry had a sentimental attachment to the model and was keen to get it back, but, despite his best efforts, he was never able to do so. Its disappearance was thus one of big mysteries of Star Trek lore – that is, until the end of last month.

Weapons (Frontier Partisans): While we’re talkin’ tomahawk…Ball and Buck — purveyor of (very) high-end fieldwear and accessories — announced the drop of a collaboration with the legendary Daniel Winkler on a matched camp axe and knife set. The pair will run you $1,100 which is way too many plews for this Frontier Partisan, but some well-heeled booshways might want to outfit themselves thus…

Comic Books (Super Hero Hype): Amid a legion of damsels in distress, Belit stood out as something special. Belit owned her sexuality and was as dangerous as Conan the Barbarian in a fight. Such was her will that she defied death itself to save the man she loved from her fate.

Fantasy (MSN): The world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is complex and certainly involves a lot more happening than a lost godly daughter being chased by weird otherworldly elves. Amid all the terrible happenings within Geralt’s circle of friends and family, a huge continental war is actually raging, making things a lot more difficult for the witcher. With that in mind, it’s important for the players to understand what the political situation is in Geralt’s world.

Tolkien (The One Ring): The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, first edited by Humphrey Carpenter with assistance from Christopher Tolkien, is the definitive source of Tolkien’s personal writings. If you have ever seen a quotation cited from “Letter 131” it’s a reference to the numbering of this book. Some call it a biblical bibliography of Tolkien. In this new edition the numbering remains the same, with additional content added in context via a “203a… 203b…” system. Several letters have expanded, with the 8+ page Letter 131 now 40% longer from its originally edited form.

Arthurian (Aureus): One of the most unique qualities of the Faustian West is the hotbed of debate on its true mythology. Few contest the Homeric foundation of Hellenic culture or Atum’s role as the progenitor of the Egyptian soul. The West, however, has from the onset worn a variety of masks that have all been heralded as its true face. The primary dualism at play is “Christian vs pagan,” with both sides having equal claims to validity, at least on the surface.

D&D (Grumpy Wizard): Early editions of Dungeons & Dragons demand teamwork. Most character classes have strengths and abilities that other classes do not possess. The ranger scouts ahead so the party isn’t surprised, the thief checks the door for traps, the fighters absorb and inflict damage, the cleric casts spells that protect and heal, and the wizard shifts the momentum of the battle with a well timed application of magic.

Tolkien (Notion Club Papers): This could be participation with divine creation (this is what I understand to happen in Heaven); or participation with another person’s created work – perhaps someone from the past. This can serve as an illustration – taking the example of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (LotR). Two widely known categories of engagement with life, with works; could be termed ‘projection’ and ‘channeling’ – and I will contrast these with Final Participation.

RPG (Pelgrane Press): Sometimes you want to run an entirely casual tabletop session that requires next to no prep on your part, and zero learning curve for the players. For example, you might want to run a game around a dinner party, maybe with a break in the middle for food. Or the trad game you hoped to run has been scuttled by a last-minute absence, let’s say of the player of a character crucial to last week’s cliffhanger.

Art (DMR Books): If there’s one man who “can do anything”–at least in the creative fields of graphic art, writing and music–it is Jim Steranko, who turned eighty-five yesterday. Dos Equis truly dropped the ball when they passed on Steranko for their “World’s Most Interesting Man” ad campaign.

Cinema (Stuff Ian Likes): Galaxy Quest (1999) was written by David Howard and Robert Gordon and directed by Dean Parisot. It features Tim Allen as Nesmith, with Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman as two of his disgruntled colleagues, Gwen DeMarco and Alexander Dane. Other cast include Tony Shalhoub, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni with Justin Long and Sam Rockwell in breakout roles (and look carefully for Rainn Wilson in his first film credit as well).

D&D (Monsters & Manuals): In my last post, I linked to a Wired article which purports to be about a Ghibli-inspired D&D 5th edition setting, but which is really about the bigger issue of ‘wholesomeness’ and the need which young people nowadays seem to feel for media that is, for want of a better word, ‘nicer’ than what they are used to. There was a time when I would have dismissed this is the whining of softies, and accused youngsters of wanting to be special snowflakes.

Detective Fiction (Moonlight Detective): The Hit List: Top 10 Fascinating World War II Detective Novels. I decided on a World War II theme, which may sound as basic as any other top 10 list, but wanted to put together a list with titles with some historical weight behind them. Not merely titles that take place during the war or use WWII aesthetics as a frame for the period of the story.

Weapons (Shadversity): Leaf blade swords have a rich history, especially during the bronze age, yet they mysteriously disappeared during the medieval era. Follow along as I explore intriguing theories behind their disappearance.

Fiction (Por Por Books): I was in the mood to read something vapid. Thus it was, that recently I reached for ‘Fighting Save of Gor’ (384 pp.), published as DAW Book No. 376 in March, 1980. The cover art is by Richard Hescox. ‘Fighting Slave’ is the fourteenth Gor novel, of a total of 36 (issued as of 2021). This easily is one of the worst ‘Gor’ novels I’ve ever read………..

Weird Tales (Tellers of Weird Tales): Weird Tales began reprinting classic tales of weird fiction in the May issue of 1923. The series is called “Masterpieces of Weird Fiction,” and although the last entry is numbered six, there are actually seven entries. (The miscounting began with entry number five.) Five of the seven are by Edgar Allan Poe. We should remember that the co-founder of the magazine, Jacob C. Henneberger, was a great fan of Poe. Ambrose Bierce and Edward Bulwer-Lytton had one entry each in the series.

Sword & Sorcery (Pulp Super Fan): Robert E. Howard expert Morgan Holmes discusses sword and sorcery stories appearing in Weird Tales. 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the fantasy and horror-fiction magazine. 

RPG (Modiphius): Welcome to another chilling edition of Halloween Horrors – are you ready to be terrorised as Achtung! Cthulhu presents its now annual offering of ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in the night!? This year we’ve a special treat with five FREE fantastically frightening Halloween Horrors from the devious mind of acclaimed horror writer Bill Heron, all ready to unleash a reign of fantastically frightening Halloween Horrors from the devious mind of acclaimed horror writer Bill Heron, all ready to unleash a reign of terror to your RPG games!

Fiction (DMR Books): Though he wrote over a hundred short stories and numerous comic strip scenarios, Jean Ray wrote only two novels: Malpertuis and The City of Unspeakable Fear. Born Raymundus Johannes de Kremer, Ray was a major of the Belgian School of the Strange. He is considered a Francophone equivalent to Poe or Lovecraft.

Horror (Strange at Ecbatan): I also have enjoyed Shirley Jackson’s short fiction, and so have thought for some time that I need to read some of her novels (primarily this one and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the two that seem best regarded among her ouevre.) And, finally, one of my favorite writers, Elizabeth Hand, just wrote an authorized sequel to The Haunting of Hill House — A Haunting on the Hill. This provided the final spur to to reading Jackson’s novel. Read More