Weird Tales (Tellers of Weird Tales): Nictzin Dyalhis (1873?-1942)had his first story in Weird Tales in April 1925. So did Donald Edward Keyhoe (1897-1988). Dyalhis’ story was of course “When the Green Star Waned,” a science-fantasy set in the solar system of the future. Keyhoe’s story was “The Grim Passenger,” a tale of Egyptian archaeology and a pharaoh’s curse. “The Grim Passenger” is, then, about the past.

Publishing (Kairos): New authors still fall for it. The lavish promise of landing a contract with a Big Five publisher—Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Hachette, or Simon & Schuster—remains tantalizing bait for aspiring writers. But like the dream of becoming a movie star or a rock god, the trope of the “standard rich and famous” book deal is a relic of the now long-gone twentieth century.

Conan (Sprague de Camp Fan): REH’s and Conan’s popularity were at their apex when de Camp was the steward of Conan. REH’s other characters like Kull, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn were published in mass-market paperbacks. They were on shelves side by side with Conan. But eventually non-Conan books petered out. One of the last “Howard Boom” era paperbacks (that blazoned “by the creator of Conan”) was The She Devil, Ace Books, 1983.

Warhammer (Track of Words): Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire interview here on Track of Words, where I’m delighted to be welcoming author Steven B. Fischer back to the site – this time to chat about his latest Black Library novel, Broken Crusade! Steve and I have chatted before about his excellent BL debut Witchbringer,

Appendix N (Goodman Games): May 20th is the birthdate of Gardner F. Fox. Most people know him as the legendary and prolific writer for DC Comics who created the Justice Society of America as well as many of the most iconic DC Comics characters. But when people see his name on the list of Appendix N authors, there’s often no recognition of his name as a writer of fantasy. He has passed into relative obscurity for contemporary fans of the genre.

Science Fiction (With Both Hands): “Trap Line” might just be the perfect introduction to Timothy Zahn for those who are unfamiliar with him. This short story has Zahn’s signature style, a hybrid of Campbelline science fiction with adventure, and often a little bit of mystery and intrigue too.

Fiction (Frontier Partisans): Today marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the great storyteller H. Rider Haggard (hat tip to Deuce Richardson for throwing up a smoke signal). Haggard’s influence is profound — though often obscured. He influenced J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard

Science Fiction (Skulls in the Stars): I love a good science fiction story that really leans into one of the weird aspects of modern physics, and so as soon as I learned the premise of Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero (1970), I knew I had to snap it up and read it!

RPG (Grognardia): The English version of Nephilim – I have never seen any of the French editions – appeared on the scene in 1994. Though sometimes compared (favorably or otherwise) to White Wolf’s “World of Darkness” games for its superficial similarity, Nephilim was in fact distinct because of its deep immersion in real world occultism, esotericism, and philosophy. This fact probably played a role in its limited impact on the wider RPG scene at the time.

Art (Art of Michael Whelan): Pursuing gallery art in earnest, he began to define his own lexicon in recurring elements that would serve as symbolic shorthand for bigger ideas. Foremost among those symbols was the ammonite, a chambered mollusk that died out 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Art (Por Por Books): ‘Pulp Power’ was published by Abrams in July, 2022. At that time, it was something I was interested in, but it also had a cover price of $65, which made it a little over my budget. I was fortunate to find a brand-new copy last month at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, for only $17. 

Tolkien (John Garth): Today also happens to be the day when I discover just how many of Tolkien’s works have allegedly been used by Meta, without permission, to train artificial intelligence. According to The Guardian, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg gave permission for its AI software to ‘scrape’ a vast database from Russia containing more than 7.5 million books in multiple languages.

Cinema (Comic Book Movie): During a revealing chat on the Joe Rogan Experience, Robert Rodriguez (director of Sin City and Alita: Battle Angel) shared some ambitous plans to resurrect Conan the Barbarian for a new generation. The director revealed an intriguing vision of an epic three-part saga that sadly never materialized.

Comic Books (Atocom): Based on a short story by Robert E (Conan the Barbarian) Howard, Adaptors Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway and penciler Gil Kane & inker Ernie Chua/Chan turned in an absolutely magnificent version of the tale using a lot of Howard’s own prose in captions and dialogue!

Comic Books (Gaming Trend): What comic lover doesn’t love Free Comic Book Day, especially when one of the offerings is a new Conan the Barbarian adventure from Jim Zub? The mastermind behind the epic team-up of Robert E Howard characters in Battle of the Black Stone is back again, this time featuring a much different, though still very familiar, version of Conan: the thief.

Author (Track of Words): Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where I’m delighted to welcome back Sebastien de Castell to talk about his new fantasy novel Play of Shadows, which is out now from Jo Fletcher Books! Set in the same world as his Greatcoats series, this kicks off a brand new arc – and you definitely don’t need to have read the other books already, as I can testify myself (more on this later).

Weird Tales (Dark Worlds Quarterly): “The Trail of the Cloven Hoof” appeared in seven segments in Weird Tales, July August September October November December 1934 and January 1935. It came afer “Vampires of the Moon” by A. W. Bernal and was followed by “Rulers of the Future” by Paul Ernst. It is unusual for a serial to run so long. Serials in most Pulps were four parts. According to Tellers of Weird Tales, this novel was the longest serial WT used.

Art (DMR Books): My memorial tribute to Mr. Frazetta. I think it still holds up fairly well. One major correction I’ll make is that I didn’t first see Frank’s art on a van. Instead, I saw his incredible work two or three years earlier on the cover–and inside–of the Canaveral edition of Tarzan and the Castaways.

Fiction (Paperback Warrior): I’ve had mixed reactions thus far of Warner Books’ 12-book paperback series Dirty Harry. These books, published between 1981 and 1983, were authored by Leslie Alan Horvitz and Ric Meyers using the pseudonym of Dane Hartman. The series is based on the film character Harry Callahan, a fictional San Francisco detective portrayed by Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, and The Enforcer. 

Fiction (Ken Lizzi): The third book of the Crystal Cave trilogy, The Last Enchantment, swings along pretty fast. I believe it is the shortest of the trilogy. The reason for that, I guess, is that by this point in the Arthurian legend, we’ve about wrapped Merlin. He can get a round of applause from the crew, then jet home while the rest of the cast are getting on with filming the last two acts.

Robert E. Howard (Dark Worlds Quarterly): Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, the great triumvirate of Weird Tales, were using creepy worm monsters when Frank Herbert was dealing with pimples. Robert E. Howard’s “The Valley of the Worm” (Weird Tales, February 1934) is a Sword & Sorcery masterpiece, and one that does not feature Conan the Cimmerian but James Allison, remembering his past lives.

Pulp (Obelisk): Knowing this, it may surprise you that readers of Weird Tales listed an obscure 1939 short story as the best piece of fiction every published by the magazine. “Far Below” is a kind of two-fisted version of Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model,” where a secret branch of the New York Police Department uses Tommy guns to do nightly battle with an army of ghouls infesting the city’s subway tunnels.

Conan (Black Gate): Anyone familiar with Waggoner’s literary career knows he’s worn many hats over the years, dipping his proverbial toe in one genre or another. There’s the Nekropolis series, the fantasy Blade of the Flame novels, and award-winning books on the craft of writing such as Writing in the Dark. Even among those massive projects, trilogies, and the travails every writer faces, working on a Conan novel was a special challenge. In fact, that’s exactly why the first time opportunity came knocking he said no.

Cinema (Kairos): Twenty years after its release, Bill Paxton’s supernatural thriller Frailty remains one of the most superversive horror films ever made. And not because it sets out to overturn genre expectations with cheap twists or gimmicky premises. No, Frailty commits a far graver sin in the eyes of modern Hollywood: it takes God seriously. Not as a metaphor; not as a narrative device; as a living actor in the story.

Robert E. Howard (Black Gate): And I’m starting another Robert E. Howard Weird Menace post, looking at his occult investigators, Conrad and Kirowan. One of those stories has a direct link to Conan! A key part of that one is The Ring of Thoth Amon. And if you like the mighty-thewed Cimmerian, you know that ring is integral to the very first Conan tale, “The Phoenix on the Sword.”

H. P. Lovecraft (Reddit): I’ve been re-reading lately a story that I first encountered some time late in 1947, when I was twelve years old, in Donald A. Wollheim’s marvelous anthology Portable Novels of Science: H.P. Lovecraft’s novella “The Shadow out of Time.” As I’ve said elsewhere more than once, reading that story changed my life. I’ve come upon it now in an interesting new edition and want to talk about it again.

Art (Silver Key): On April 26, my friend Tom Barber–an Andover NH resident and a well-known painter and illustrator since the 1970s, presented his painting of “The Bibliophile” to Michaela Hoover, director of the Andover Libraries. The painting, which shows an imaginary book lover immersed in his favorite pastime, was donated to the libraries by an anonymous collector of Tom’s works.

​? (North O2): You Actually Think The Gorilla Has A Chance?