Robert E. Howard Days 2013 Trip Report

REH Comics panel: Tim Truman, Al Harron, me, and Mark Finn

After a week-long adventure driving out to Cross Plains, Texas for Robert E. Howard Days 2013, I have finally put together a trip report. It is now posted over at the REH: Two-Gun Raconteur blog. Here's a little excerpt:

And with that, the crowd returned once more to the pavilion for the traditional drinking of Shiner Bocks and swappin’ of lies. A number of folks headed over to the front of the house for the poetry reading. I made the rounds for a bit, found Rusty, Chris, and Mark and finished off the rest of the Sullivan with a toast (Slainte!), then settled down to some good conversation. The highlight of the evening of course was the now-legendary no-holds-barred, rough-and-tumble set-to between REH boxing guru Chris Gruber and hall of fame martial artist Joe Lansdale. It was a grueling, brutal display of the manly art against the gentle way as the two locked horns and strove against each of other in a titanic battle of strength and technique. And who was the victor in this magnificent struggle? Well....

Head on over to the TGR site for the full write-up.

La Reina de la Costa Negra: The Mystery of the Mexican Conan Comics

The latest iteration of the ongoing monthly Conan series from Dark Horse (written by Brian Wood) has received a great deal of praise from critics and readers alike for its fresh take on the iconic 80-year old barbarian. However, the series has had mixed reviews from the hardcore Robert E. Howard fans to say the least, and has been the subject of much hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth on various REH-related online communities. Wood's current adaptation of "Queen of the Black Coast" is certainly a different approach to the classic story than what most longtime Conan comics readers are used to. The classic adaptation by Roy Thomas and John Buscema was a legendary run in the 1970's, spanning over 40 issues in the main Marvel title and for many the image of Buscema's Bêlit with her fur mono-kini is iconic. But what few people realize is that nearly a quarter of a century before Marvel's "Queen of the Black Coast" and six decades before the current Dark Horse version, the classic story of Conan and his she-pirate lover had already made their comic book debut in an obscure, unauthorized Mexican publication.

2013 PCA/ACA Pulp Studies Trip Report

This past week I attended the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association national conference in Washington, D.C. This was my third time presenting a paper on Robert E. Howard at PCA/ACA and the Pulp Studies area is growing every year. Shortly after arriving at the hotel on the first I found my partner in crime, Mark Finn. For those who don't know Mark is the author of Blood and Thunder, the best biography of Howard out there. We were soon joined by legendary Howard scholar and editor Rusty Burke. Rusty was the series editor for the Wandering Star/Del Rey definitive editions of Howard's stories. The three of us hit the pub, while we waited for the arrival of our fourth dog-brother, Chris Gruber. Grub is the foremost expert on Howard's boxing yarns, and the editor of Boxing Stories from the University of Nebraska Press. After a fairly restrained first night of drinking beer and swappin' lies, we turned in fairly early, knowing that we would have long day on Thursday and that we needed to pace ourselves.

Creating an Age Undreamed Of Video Podcast

This week I'll be headed to Washington, DC where I'll be chairing a Pulp Studies session at the 2013 PCA/ACA Conference. I'll be joined by my fellow Robert E. Howard aficionados, Mark Finn, Chris Gruber, and Rusty Burke. My paper will be on Howard's use of anthropological theory in his "Little People" stories like "Worms of the Earth."

In the meantime, I've gone back and taken my older 2011 PCA/ACA presentation and turned it into a video podcast. This is my first attempt at doing something like this and it's little more than me reading my paper over my powerpoint presentation, but hopefully some of you will find it interesting.

The topic is on Howard's use of the Atlantis theme in his fiction and looks at several of his sources in that regard. Much of this material would make it into my recent chapter in Conan Meets the Academy.

Video after the jump. Enjoy!

Review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Like most fantasy aficionados I have been looking forward to this film ever since it was announced (and hoping for something like it since I was a kid); not just because I wanted to see it, but because I knew that my son (who is now eight) would be the perfect age to see it -- this could be his Star Wars. The Hobbit was the first "real" book I read to him when he was three. He saw the Rankin-Bass animated version at four (the same age I saw it when it originally aired). He got the graphic novel adaptation at five and the video game at six (the latter was like digital crack for him for a while). At seven he saw the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy and was blown away. Recently he's begun reading the The Hobbit on his own and his Christmas list is filled with various Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Lego sets. So needless to say, the debut of Jackson's film adaptation of The Hobbit has been looked upon with great anticipation in our household.

But then as the release date neared the negative rumblings began to roll through the interwebz and blogosphere. "He's breaking it into three movies unnecessarily." "The new 48 fps speed looks fake." Etc. As the first reviews began to trickle in the rumbling increased. "It's too long." "The 48 fps looks fake." Etc. The so-called online "professional" critics, most of whom seem to lack the ability to formulate original thoughts or opinions and who are desperately afraid to admit they like something that other so-called online "professional" critics don't like, began to parrot each other as they often do. This created the beginnings of the kind of negative echo-chamber effect that unfairly sank John Carter earlier this year. Unlike with John Carter, however, it doesn't seem like the movie-going public is buying it this time. And thank Ilúvatar for that, because otherwise they would be missing out on a great film.

Collecting Robert E. Howard Pulps - Part 3

Previous Installments:
Collecting Robert E. Howard Pulps - Part 1
Collecting Robert E. Howard Pulps - Part 2

December 1932 - First Appearance of Conan

In the last installment of this series, I discussed the issues of Weird Tales in which Howard’s work appeared, from his first published story in 1925 up to the end of 1932. During that period, Howard continued to submit his yarns to a number of publications and began to branch out into other genres such as boxing and historical fiction. Weird Tales, however, continued to be his primary publishing venue and in the December 1932 issue the character with whom Howard has always been mostly closely associated made his debut in print. Combining the fantastic imagery of his earlier Kull stories and the weird horror themes that had always been his mainstay with elements of the historical adventure he had been writing recently, Howard created an amazing new world – the Hyborian Age – and its most prominent inhabitant – Conan the Cimmerian.

Collecting Robert E. Howard Pulps - Part 2

Previous Intstallment:
Collecting Robert E. Howard Pulps - Part 1

There are few creators who are as enjoyable to collect as Robert E. Howard. His works have been published and adapted in various forms and in numerous media for over eight decades.  Howard items have an incredibly broad range in scarcity and value so that any collector on most any budget can usually find a niche within the hobby that suits their tastes and resources.

Out of all the REH collectibles out there, however, there is nothing – at least in my opinion – quite like the original pulp magazines. To be able to hold in your hands one of these relics of a bygone publishing era and read one of Howard’s yarns as his first generation of fans would have done is a special experience indeed. The primitive line drawings that comprise the interior illustrations, the smell of the pulp paper, the letters from readers arguing the tastefulness (or lack thereof) of Margaret Brundage’s latest racy cover – all these things help to connect the modern collector with that earlier time when Two-Gun Bob was still alive and well and furiously pounding away on his Underwood.