Blog Archives

Publishing (Rawle Nyanzi): Understand something right now: If you talk about an IP, you are marketing it. It doesn’t matter if it’s praise or critique, squeeing or shouting down. All of these video complaints about modern American pop culture only strengthen it because all the attention makes it relevant, no matter what that attention is. […]

Robert E. Howard (Adventures Fantastic): The city of Waco has recently become more known for being the center of home renovators and decorators than violence, unless you happen to be a member of a motorcycle street gang that meets up with a rival gang at a restaurant. But it used to be one of Texas’ […]

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Brussels Journal): One of the most popular authors of the Twentieth Century, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 – 1950), had a keen intuition about the health of the body politic and the positive relation of a vital culture to its founding traditions.  The Author of Tarzan (1912) and its many sequels, the inventor […]

RPG (Grognardia): My direct experience of Iron Crown Enterprise’s Rolemaster during my youth was limited. I’d dabbled with Arms Law & Claw Law but that was the extent of my exploration of this venerable fantasy roleplaying system. (I was much taken with its “little brother,” Middle-earth Role Playing, which occupied a weird sweet spot in terms of its presentation of both […]

Robert E. Howard (Scifi Wright): This story contains more plot twists than other Conan yarns, and no one is whom he seems. On the one hand, it is perhaps the most crowded hence enjoyable of his stories, containing elements of everything a Conan story should have, and more. On the other, Conan seems not so […]

Art (Kickstarter): Officially licensed and sanctioned by Robert E. Howard Properties LLC, Inc., this nearly 1,500 page examination of the vast publishing illustrated history of Robert E. Howard is divided into four parts.  All four volumes are 9.5″ x 12.25″ in size, full color, smyth sewn hardcovers with dust jackets! The slip case will have […]

Gaming (Walker’s Retreat): As reported by Bloomberg Law yesterday, the State of California has sued Blizzard Entertainment over sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.  “ Video game giant Activision Blizzard Inc., maker of games including World of Warcraft and Diablo, fosters a “frat boy” culture in which female employees are subjected to constant sexual […]

Reading (With Both Hands): As someone who really likes adventure books, and really likes to blog about adventure books, there is a fascinating tension in the whole field because it is fundamentally popular entertainment, but the people who like to create these stories and the people like me who like to talk about them often […]

Review (With Both Hands): Dark Operator, the first book in the five book series by John “Doc” Spears, Jason Anspach, and Nick Cole [Amazon link] is the most thrilling example of careful planning, diligent preparation, and conscientious execution that I have ever read. And yes, I’m totally serious about that. Games (The Wert Zone): AD […]

Science Fiction (Wasteland & Sky): It’s a bit hard to believe there has been five posts covering this book (ten if we’re including Mr. Lundwall’s other book, and thirteen if we’re including Mr. Goulart’s work) but we have finally reached the end of the road. Don’t think for a second, however, that this means our […]

RPG (Matthew Constantine): It’s no secret, Call of Cthulhu is my favorite tabletop RPG.  If I had to pick one, this is it.  I’ve been playing it since the last 80s, I’ve been running it since the late 90s.  It’s the game I typically use to introduce people to the tabletop RPG hobby.  It’s my […]