Fiction (Vintage Pop Fictions): Cornell Woolrich’s Black Alibi was first published in 1942. Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968) was an American writer in the crime and suspense genres and a major figure in the evolution of noir fiction. In the 1920s he had tried to establish himself as a writer in the F. Scott Fitzgerald mould, with very little success. He found immediate success when he switched to crime fiction in 1940.

Pulp (Dark Worlds Quarterly): Edmond Hamilton is best known for his world wrecking Space Opera but he wasn’t above writing something a little more down-to-earth, at least in setting. “The Lake of Life” was a three-part novella from Weird Tales, September October November 1937 that is set on our Earth in a time like the present. (None of the three parts got the cover.) One of Hamilton’s influences was A. Merritt and I think Ed was working in that vein with this story.

Comic Books (Paperback Warrior): In February, 2024, the inevitable The Savage Sword of Conan black and white magazine was published. Like any respectable Conan fan, I bought two copies of the first issue in hopes that I can wallpaper my future grandchildren’s home in thousand-dollar bills. I hope to review more modern Conan publications so I thought I would begin here with the first issue of The Savage Sword of Conan by Titan Comics. 

Fiction (Book Graveyard): The book was originally published in 1958. Written by one of my faves, Richard Matheson. Among many others he was responsible for I am Legend, The Twilight Zone episode with capt Kirk Nightmare at 20,000 feet, Little Girl Lost (which if you haven’t seen it, it’s the plot for Poltergeist.) Shrinking Man, Hell House, What Dreams May Come, Trilogy of Terror, and the teleplay for Kolchak the Night Stalker.

Westerns (Western Fiction Review): Haunted Valley was originally published under the title Riders of Embrujada Valley in the October 1943 issue of Texas Rangers and it stars long-running hero Jim Hatfield. Jackson Cole is a pseudonym shared by a number of authors and this story was written by A. Leslie Scott.

Audio (DMR Books): Good news for lovers of audiobooks: An audio version of my story “The Necromancer and the Forgotten Hero” is now available! It was produced by The Wandering Tavern, who brought the tale to life with sound effects, music, and a variety of character voices.

James Bond (MI6-HQ): an Fleming’s iconic secret agent, James Bond, has captivated audiences for decades with his martini-dry wit, deadly efficiency, and high-octane adventures. Yet, Fleming’s original novels were just the beginning. Go deeper into the world of 007 with Keeping 007 Alive: Conversations with James Bond Continuation Authors by Mark Edlitz.

Review (Lawrence Person’s Futuramen): Herron, Don, and John D. Haefele. Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic years 1937 —1973: A Pictorial History & Guide For Collectors. Cimmerian Press, 2024. First edition trade paperback original (a POD books, with “version 1.1 (November 2024)” on the copyright page and “Made in the USA/Coppell, TX/08 November 2024” on last (barcode) page), a Fine copy. Just what the title says, a pictorial history of Arkham House ephemera (catalogs, review slips, etc.) issued from the press’s founding up through 1973.

Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): Squeezed in between John C. Hocking’s new Conan novel and S. M. Sterling’s Blood of the Serpent are 3 copies of the Conan the Barbarian movie novelization by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. It felt really good to see Robert E. Howard’s Conan, along with new pastiche on the shelf of a chain bookstore at a well-traveled mall.

Bibliography (Western Fiction Reviews): The 2nd part of Anders Nilsson’s Leslie Scott bibliography is now available from archive.org including books published before 1980.

https://archive.org/details/lesliescott_booksbefore1980_nilsson_2024

Elric (Library Ladder): This is the fifth installment in my series of videos exploring Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion saga. Elric of Melnibone, was a rebel on and off the page. An agent of Chaos in his own story, he flouted the standard tropes of the fantasy genre in our world when he first appeared in print more than 60 years ago. This is a brief overview of Elric’s literary origins, his existence as Moorcock’s alter-ego, and his impact on the genre. I also provide a suggested reading order.

Pulp (Spectre Library): Following the second world war, Pemberton’s (of Manchester) Ltd. contracted various Canadian publishers to send them digest-paperbacks and comics, etc. The final product in many cases equated to a complete mess. Often the text was wrong, words spelled in error, text upside down, text missing, etc. Thomas P. Kelley was called upon to supply several gun-slinging western yarns by Pastime Publications (Toronto).

Science Fiction (Por Por Books): ‘For Texas and Zed’ (189 pp.) was published by Popular Library in May, 1976. The artist who provided the cover illustration is not credited. Zach Hughes was the pseudonym of the U.S. writer Hugh Zachary (1926 – 2016) who had success from the late 1960s to the 1980s in publishing short stories and novels in the genres of sci-fi and horror. My review of his 1980 novel ‘Killbird’ is here.

Crime Fiction (Gold Medal Book Blog): Who needs the Marvel Universe when you’ve got George Pelecanos’s Washington D.C.? It’s a world filled with complicated heroes who are flawed and deeply scarred. But, they are capable of doing right by their community under the worst possible circumstances. Typically, their hard times are brought on by half-psychopathic dudes like Wilton Cooper, Garfield Potter, and Red “Fury” Jones.

Cinema (Art of the Movies): We’ve talked about Sylvester Stallone’s career path compared to that of his rival Arnold Schwarzenegger in the past, but now it is time to look at the movies in greater detail.

Pulp (Tellers of Weird Tales): Brosnatch’s first cover illustration was for a story called “Teoquitla the Golden” by a pseudonymous author, Ramòn de las Cuevas.

Ramòn de las Cuevas was actually the archaeologist, anthropologist, and museum curator Mark R. Harrington (1882-1971). He is supposed to have taken his nom de plume from the name of a Spanish-American historian.

Radio (RKO Orson Welles): It doesn’t happen that often that a cultural icon plays a \”genre\” role, and in the 1930’s it probably happened even less. But before a certain well-documented Martian Invasion rocketed him to fame and a contract with RKO, a 22 year-old Orson Welles funded his theatrical productions with radio work, including a year on the Mutual Network’s now-legendary \”superhero\” radio program The Shadow.

New (Parallel Universe Publications): Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 9. This is the ninth volume in our popular Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series of anthologies in the footsteps of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and other pioneers of the sword and sorcery genre. The stories and authors included this time are:

Greyhawk (Grognardia): Issue #67 of Dragon (November 1982) is another one featuring more than one article that made a lasting impression on me. The first of these is Gary Gygax’s “The Deities & Demigods of the World of Greyhawk.”

Pulp (Wasteland & Sky): This time I wanted to share a different sort of video than I normally do. I wanted to tackle the change in mainstream opinion on pulp happening in real time. We’ve spent a good chunk of the last few years going on about the importance of the pulp era while the mainstream narrative since the 1960s has been how much of a joke they were and how disposable the era was.

Anime (Kairos): If you are reading this, it’s a near certainty you’ve encountered Japanese animation, or anime. It’s also a good bet that your introduction to the mediuam came through the Pokémon craze of the 90s, Toonami’s afternoon lineup, or a Studio Ghibli film.

Horror (M Porcius): You may recall that we recently read one of the famous Paperbacks from Hell and found within it many ads for other horror novels.  One of them, 1987’s Slob by Rex Miller, was actually praised by none other than enfant terrible and critical darling Harlan Ellison.  A British 1988 edition of the novel, complete with Stephen King blurb on the cover, is available at the internet archive.

Appendix N (Goodman Games): Thus begins the Crypt-Keeper’s Corner, the letters page in the June-July 1950 edition of EC Comics Crypt of Terror. You could be forgiven if you mistook that dramatic introduction as the opening salvo from any game master at any table-top role-playing game. In fact, it’s also fairly easy to see how Gary Gygax, the main co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons (and an entire gaming industry) would fess up to being influenced by the art and storytelling found within the comic books of his formative years.