Blog Archives
sSensor Sweep: Tower of the Elephant, Leigh Brackett, Kenneth Morris, D&D Survey
Monday , 24, September 2018 Sensor Sweep 4 CommentsWriters (Tellers of Weird Tales): Harold S. Farnese didn’t write any stories, poems, or articles for Weird Tales, nor was he a cover artist or illustrator. His eight letters published in “The Eyrie,” the letters column of Weird Tales, failed to land him in the top twenty contributors in that category. You might say that […]
Sensor Sweep: REH Guide, The High Crusade, Pulp Revolution, D&D, King Kong
Monday , 23, July 2018 Sensor Sweep 8 CommentsWriters (Legends of Men): As you know by now I’m a huge fan of the Conan stories, but I’m also a huge fan of Howard’s other creations, even his poetry. Last June I attended Robert E. Howard Days, a gathering of Howard scholars and fans to celebrate the life and works of Robert E. Howard. While […]
Sensor Sweep: Keys to Other Doors, Xenophile, Skylark of Space, Roger Zelazny
Monday , 16, July 2018 Sensor Sweep 2 CommentsPulps (The Pulp Net): When I was first involved in the pulp fandom world in the late ’90s, I saw ads for Keys to Other Doors. Subtitled “some lists for a pulp collector’s notebook,” it was put together by John DeWalt. There were at least two versions, a first version in 1995 with a revised […]
Sensor Sweep: REH Guide, Realism, Short Stories, Street & Smith Pulp Sales, Star Wars
Monday , 18, June 2018 Sensor Sweep, Uncategorized 4 CommentsBooks (Skelos Press): Presenting the English translation of the award-winning book that introduced a new generation of French fans to the father of sword and sorcery. The Robert E. Howard Guide was born out of years of scholarship, but took its final form after answering the same questions from fans over and over again. In […]
“The ancient empires fall. The dark skinned peoples fade, and even the demons of antiquity gasp their last…but above all stands the Aryan barbarian. White-skinned, cold-eyed, dominant. The supreme fighting man of the Earth.” Robert E. Howard, “Wings in the Night” This quote is used at a Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upSOO8rjHrw#t=15) entitled “He-Man=Nazi.” The “Robert E. […]
Sensor Sweep: Conan pastiches, Crashing Suns, and lots of Star Wars
Monday , 25, December 2017 Sensor Sweep 5 CommentsWriters (Williamette Week): You may have heard that Portland’s famous goth bar, The Lovecraft, is under new ownership after the previous owner, Jon Horrid was accused of assault. Now that the bar has changed hands, questions arose whether the new owner planned on continuing to call the bar after an author known for racism and anti-semitism, […]
One quality I love about pulps and classic science fiction works is how much physical confrontation is in them. Whether it involves mech suits, killer drones, shooting, swords, fisticuffs, or wrestling, there was heaps of full-blooded action. And it’s seemingly simple, right? Just write about one man punching another! How hard that can be? And […]
In science fiction and fantasy, whether employing images or words, creators are always looking for big ideas. A killer premise, a brilliant spin on a standard story, or something wholly fresh and unique. And while there are no shortage of movies and books that possess those, it’s not nearly as necessary as one initially believes. […]
My Favorite Conan Story: Shadows in Zamboula
Saturday , 20, May 2017 Appendix N, Authors, Book Review, Fiction, Short Fiction 9 CommentsI don’t profess to be an expert on the excellent Robert E Howard. In fact, it was over two decades after Conan the Barbarian became a favorite character of mine that I read Howard’s stories about the Cimmerian! My first exposure to the pulp titan was in the form of Saturday morning cartoon Conan the […]