What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?

More apt words I cannot think of. Today would mark the 106th Birthday of Robert E. Howard. It's difficult to know what he would think of the world today. In many ways he was abjectly progressive. His views on Women especially set him apart from the rest of his generation. In other ways he was reactionary, especially if he was writing a letter to a Non Texan or a Non Southerner. But one thing he wasn't, and that was normal. There is no mistaking that Bob was a Texan through and through. So he wasn't exactly a square peg in a round hole, but he had a few rough edges that kept him from fitting comfortably. This discomfort was probably a great factor in his imaginative output. The output which inspired so many people, lead to the creation of so many things, movies, music, games, endless streams of novels written in imitation of the master.

Though it may cause discomfort, Fitting in, isn't supposed to be mandatory. It confers certain social advancements. It most certainly isn't supposed to be dangerous. If you've read my ramblings for any length of time then you know I'm an advocate for the outsider. The kid who got picked on for playing D&D. The boy with long hair. The girl who likes metal and has a Mohawk. The guy in Texas who writes fantasy stories instead of getting a real job. All these things come with their downsides, lack of job opportunities, social ostracism, or even outright pariah status in school. This has its own downsides. It leads to depression, anxiety, people becoming stranger because they retreat into themselves to escape a world they don't fit into. Sometimes, like Robert E. Howard, they feel they have no alternative but to depart this world for another.

But that is a personal choice, those of us who survive are merely left to wonder why. Our status as bystanders disqualifies us from ever fully understanding the inner workings of another person. We should be understanding of others differences. Differences and hobbies and interests aren't supposed to be damning enough to take your entire childhood away. Being a Nerd or a Goth or an Emo or a Geek isn't supposed to be Dangerous. But in Arkansas that's exactly what it was.

I'm sure you all are aware of the nausea inducing West Memphis 3 case. Where a podunk town railroaded three boys into prison for the murder of 3 children, using as evidence heavy metal albums, black clothes and Stephen King novels to support an outlandish hypothesis involving ritual sacrifice and Satan worship. They were recently released, with the understanding that they admit they did it. It allowed some people in Arkansas with severe indigestion to sleep more soundly, but it didn't clear the boys names, it didn't give them their adolescence back. Unfortunately this rescue from the cusp of death wasn't at the hands of Roland Deschain, Jireal, Conan and Aragorn riding to the judges house and forcing him to recant his misguided decision, to crawl on bended knee to beg forgiveness for his sins, to ride an ass backwards in front of the gates of Jerusalem so that all might know his foolishness. The only reason it happened it all is because a filmmaker from New Zealand with deep pockets took it upon himself to do something to right this wrong.

Just because they are out of jail doesn't mean it's over. They still have a great big GUILTY next to their names. The flaws unearthed by this injustice are still built into the system. It could happen again. Remember that. If you don't fit in, This could happen again. No I think it will happen again, probably has happened again already and we just don't know about it because it didn't get media attention. Didn't get musicians and actors and filmmakers attentions.

It is my hope that Peter Jackson's recently produced West of Memphis documentary has just premiered at Sundance. If nothing else, if it can be prevented from happening again, then something good will have come out of this.

It is important for us to accept others as they are. I want to wrap up by talking about Bob Howard. A Man who I feel like I almost know but don't quite. He didn't quite fit in. I'm not going to postulate on why he killed himself. That's not fair to him. He knows why he did it. I wonder if he had found more acceptance in life if he would have felt it his only option. I wonder if these three boys had lived somewhere, where being different wasn't a sin, if there would have been another option.

What If? Robert E. Howard.

I've got to ask your pardon ahead of time. I wrote this a while back and have been unsure if I should post it or not. But I feel that it's just too interested of a concept not too. So pardon me if I've gotten any facts wrong, I don't pretend to be a scholar in this matters, just a fan. Much like the old Marvel comics, we are going to imagine a world, one of many possible. One purely speculative and hypothetical, in which Robert E. Howard didn't commit suicide at age 30. I'm not particularly interested in the whys or wherefores of that. He did and the world's a poorer place for it. But what if he didn't?

What if, He went out to that car after having talked to the nurse. Sat down on the front seat. Pulled out that pistol, held it in his hands, checked to make sure it was loaded, put it to his head and then stopped. Took it down, looked at it, put it back in the sack or box he had it in and went back inside. Turned his grief into prose. Hammered out a succession of stories at his typewriter. hitting the keys with such fury it made his fingers hurt. The Funeral of his mother came and went. He began writing his western stories and soon got famous for them. He was struck again at the death of H.P. Lovecraft. Howard's Eulogy for Lovecraft was published in Weird Tales Magazine. Years went by and the storm clouds over Europe got darker, The ripples of discord got more violent in the pacific.

Howard never got back together with Novalyne. But they corresponded frequently. But after Pearl Harbour. Howard thought about following Edgar Rice Burroughs into the correspondent corps.. but his feelings that at 30 he was past his prime kept gnawing at him. He was beginning the downhill slope. He had hit his midlife crisis early but had chosen not to end it. Instead he just chose to enlist. He was 35 at the time, in good shape but to old to be drafted. One day he drove down to Brownwood and signed. Brownwood was home of the 141st Infantry. A unit steeped in Texas history. Being older than most of the men, he became an NCO. He definitely went with them to Europe. And there got cut off with them in the Voseges Mountains. This is where they earned their name as the Alamo Regiment.

Eventually the 141st Texas was relieved through the heroic efforts of the 442nd all Nisei regimental Combat Team. The Most decorated unit in US Military history. Being a man who recognized bravery no matter the origins. The Screams of 'BANZAI!' coming from the nisei men as they rushed the encircling Germans would have no doubt stayed with him. After the war was over, he set to work on an epic poem that would commemorate the battle in the Voseges. Eventually publishing it to great acclaim, both for himself and for all the men involved.

His westerns got more and more popular. In 1950 a small outfit called Gnome got in touch with him to see about re-printing his Conan yarns. He cleaned them up and mailed out new typescripts. These became immensely popular. Soon paperback editions of the gnomes were to be found in fox holes all over the Korean peninsula. He resisted the calls to write new Conan yarns, mainly coming from L. Sprague DeCamp. Though the two were never great friends, they had some vociferous conversations about why Conan was so popular.

He bought a copy of Lord of the Rings in 1955, and read it straight through. He was quoted later as saying "I loved the hell out of it", he also dismissed calls that Tolkien had lifted the story from his own "Hour of the Dragon". After these allegations, Howard and Tolkien began an infrequent exchange of letters. Maybe finding in the oxford don a surrogate for Lovecraft. They discussed GK Chesterton and James Fenimoor Cooper among other things.

In 1956 Howard received a manuscript from a fan in Sweden. He didn't think much of it, but wrote the fan a letter thanking him for taking the time to send it to him. The idea that people were so hungry for new Conan yarns they would write them themselves was an interesting one. So he thought, maybe other's can see the missing parts of Conan's life. He came up with the idea of getting others to write books and him editing them to make sure they stayed in the spirit of his own writing.

an initial offering of new novels and his own initial 21 completed yarns were all published in a uniform series of paperbacks by Lancer in the early 60's. Featuring works by the like of C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner, and a relative newcomer Lin Carter, who he would eventually go on to co-edit a long lived Fantasy Anthology series with. Following this success, Howard took his place as the second father of Fantasy literature.

Robert E. Howard Died in 1964, age 58. He'd been out on one of his routine hikes in the Texas hill country when he'd gotten bit by a rattler. He shot the rattler and treated the bite, but even for a man of his size and physical condition it took him too swiftly for him to get help. He was Eulogized by Lin Carter, with J.R.R Tolkien provideding an epitaph from his still unfinished Silmarillion. "If all were now retold a man’s life would not suffice for the hearing."

Thats how I see it playing out on some alternate reality world. It would have been awesome.

Tardis:Time And Relative Divisionally Interconnected Storytelling

Well since Blogger freaked out yesterday and Deleted this post. I thought I've give it another shot.

Of course what I wanted to talk about was Crossovers. One of the benifits of having a multiversal construct is that it allows for virtually limitless combinations for crossovers. Who can forget when the Punisher trucked it down to Riverdale to Chaperone the prom?

These constructs weren't supposed to exist. They are more typically the product of necessity than desire. They basically came about due to a combination of lack of knowledge, growth or simply because of casual disregard of what came before. Occasionally you do get an author or group of authors who collaborate closely and hammer out the multiversal model from the get go. Micheal Moorcock is one such. It's obvious that Stephen King at least toyed with the idea many times. References to things that would later become important in his Dark Tower series begin showing up very early in his catalog of books, well before he actually explained (or invented) reasons why they were important.

Occasionally you get vast multiveres crossing over with other multiverses. Every time you get a DC vs. Marvel comic. Or a Marvel Vs. Capcom video game.. But they can get bigger through a bit of constructing on our own.

From Dweomera Lagomorpha

Lets start with the Transformers for instance. They have crossed over with GIJOE numerous times. To get more confusing. Multiple Transformers universes have crossed over with multiple GIJOE universes, multiple times. The Original Transformers comic book, takes place in at least some form of the typical Marvel Universe. One in which Spiderman, SHIELD, The 80's Godzilla comic and the Savage land existed. Even if nothing else from the Marvel universe does. The Marvel GIJOE comic is slightly more confused. Since it exists in the Transformers universe, but also seems to inhabit it's own universe which it shares with the transformers, but not with the rest of the Marvel universe. In the US thats about as complicated as it got. In the UK however, Transformers existed in the normal Marvel Universe, along side a GIJOE analog known as Action Force.

Transformers UK brings us to the next link in our chain. Death's head.

From Dweomera Lagomorpha

This was a character that was not truly intended as a Transformers character, but one which has become more or less linked with them for good or ill. After showing up in his own one-shot called "High Noon Tex" he spent the next several months engaging in all manner of back and forths with our favorite Robots in diguise. Eventually he single handedly prevented the return of Unicron, and was unceremoniously flung through a time portal. It was while hurtling through Time that he collided with a certain blue telephone box.

From Dweomera Lagomorpha

After this rather amusing adventure the Doctor transported him into the far future of one of the many marvel Universes. He languished there until encountering the Fantastic four and hitching a ride back to the "Modern" day.. At least until he trifled with the 7th Doctor again and wound up in the year 2020. We already are all well aware that the various Doctors can interact, and thanks to the 2007 series are also aware that there are multiple universes in that canon as well.



The Transformers, Albeit a different universe of Transformers from the two previously discussed have Crossed over with the Avengers, Who of course crossed over with the X-Men, Who have Crossed over with both Star Trek The Original Series and Star Trek the Next Generation.

From Dweomera Lagomorpha

This loops back around with a comic currently in publication from IDW. It's titled Infestation. And it features a rather preposterous crossover. Not only does it have GIJOE, Transformers and Star Trek. It also features the Ghost Busters. Who if we follow the Cartoon, exist in a world in which all the stuff that H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith (And Robert E. Howard, who's work is already integrated into the Marvel Universe, and crosses over with Micheal Moorcocks Multiverse) were stories about real events.

I Guess what I'm trying to say is with all this rambling. That in theory, we could get a comic book in which Uatu the Watcher summons the Doctor and the Autobots and Captain Kirk, so that they can team up to fight off a demonically possessed Shoggoth made from the remnants of Unicron.






This will teach me to backup all my posts in another place.

Which is more Howardian, Barbarian or Destroyer?!

I've really really got to stop reading forums.. I'm not joking.

The people at Westeros.org are having a debate over which is more faithful to Robert E. Howard, Barbarian or Destroyer in the guise of a thread for "Worst Fantasy Films Ever".. It's not surprising so many posters don't understand Howard's writing though.. Judging by the normal sort of fare which they seem to enjoy, I guess maybe Howard just dosen't have enough minorities, non consensual sodomy, or socialist rhetoric for their tastes.. Maybe some one (I don't) who has an account, will see fit to hoist a shield against this nonsense?

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/47379-worst-fantasy-film-ever/

Half their posts just make me wonder why any of them even like GRRM...

Things shared.

Today is the 100th Birthday of C.L. Moore, the brilliant woman who created Jireal of Joiry. I was born 98 years after her on the same day.

I find it funny how many writers that I love share the same birth month, with each other and with me. J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, C.L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith. I've referenced before that the month of January is named for the god Janus, the opener of doorways. And I feel its one of the odd quirks of the universe that these 4 individuals would all choose to be writers of Fantastic tales, that take the reader to unknown places, through doorways unopened and unexplored. The Sort of doorways that other, more sensible people would tell you to pass by, for your tale dosen't concern them.

But these individuals could and did open those doors, perhaps tremulous at first.. or with a sudden pull leaving you tumbling onto the mat. Either way, my own life would be a lot more dull without them. So I've got a great deal of gratitude towards them. I've not got the imagination or drive that they have, so I get to live vicariously through their efforts while reading the product of their efforts.

So Happy Birthday to J.R.R. Tolkien, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard and C.L. Moore.

An REH mention.

Watching a movie on Netflix called "Comic Book Villains" and theres a character in it with the nickname "Conan" because he claimed that "Robert e. Howard was his great uncle"

The "Conan" character is played by the same actor who played Hyde on That 70's Show.

Its nothing earthshattering.. and I'm sure others have mentioned it in the REH fandom.. but I still found it to be neat.

but what about Robert E. Howard?

Over on www.Tor.com, they had a discussion naming off the "Top ten Lizard people".. and noticeably absent were the Serpent Men from "Shadow Kingdom".. I know they aren't technically " Lizard People ".. but they are Reptillian humanoids none the less.. and since as far as I know, apart from examples in mythology, the oldest representation.. they definitely need to be represented..

I've told them so, but so should you. You can do so, here.

Robert Jordan and the Tor Conan series.

I'm not going to divest at length on this subject.. I really dunno the stories behind the constant swapping of publishers for the Conan pastiches back in the 80's...

But I had noticed, that in Barnes and Noble, you can get a Hardback collection of three of Robert Jordan's tales "The Further Chronicles of Conan". And if you go to Book-A-Million, you can get its precursor in hardcover "The Chronicles of Conan". I know that TOR had reprinted 6 of the 7 that Robert Jordan had written in both individual volumes and in Omnibus trade paperbacks.. But I didn't realize that they had re-printed the hardcover omnibus versions too.

I don't know if it was done to cash in on his death, or if its simply trying to get some extra cash for his wife by milking the publicity from the Brandon Sanderson completed Wheel of Time Series.. I really don't care either way. But the similarities of the names, Robert E. Howard and Robert Jordan, has in my experience already caused some confusion in the racks at the book store.. I could be surrounded by exceptionally dumb people.. true.. but I'm sure some people are no doubt genuinely confused..

I've not bought either hardcover, and don't plan too.. as it would interrupt my Conan Pastiche shelf which barring 3 of the tors, are all Mass Market Format. And I don't currently own any of the Robert E. Howard Originals in hardcover.. so it seems in bad taste to own pastiches in the format.

I wish I hadn't missed out on the book club ones when I had the chance.

Solomon Kane and the Jacksonian Era of Middle Earth

Over at The Cimmerian Al Harron has written up an excellent review of the new film "Solomon Kane". Unfortunately for now those of us stuck in the new world will be forced to rely upon such reviews, while the film has a distributor now, we have no release date. I personally fear that due to Steven Sommers POS "Van Helsing".. no one wants to touch "Solomon Kane".

While I've yet to see any non online news about the film, I've seen some evidence of book retailers noticing the movie anyway, Living in sort of a geographically " In between " area.. I have my choice of which book store I want to drive 30 miles to shop at.. and in all of the various Borders Books I've been to lately.. they all seem to have an anomaly in the Fantasy Section.. As I noted in a previous post. One would think the stores would be promoting the newest of Del Rey's Robert E. Howard volumes "El Borak and Other Desert Adventures ".. However none of the Borders seemed to have a copy of it. What they all 3 do have is a large number of copies of Del Rey's Second volume .. " The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane ". I can't draw any conclusions from this, other than that obviously the volume is moving or was expected to move.. so the stores ordered (or were compulsorily sent) extra copies due to some unknown factor at work. It is curious though.

Now onto my thoughts on the Review. I liked how Al divided up the review, I enjoyed his imagined back story of the films Kane especially. Mostly I'm heartened that, while the script is its weakest link.. we aren't stuck with another worthless Fantasy film with no substance and saddled with poor directing, poor casting, poor costuming in addition to a bad script. Even if this isn't the Solomon Kane that REH fans wanted, if it can perform well enough to warrant a more authentic Sequel it may be the film that Hollywood needed in order to stop thinking of REH as a source of material to be mined when they want to churn out a crappy Fantasy movie to fill the gaps in the release schedule. Which unfortunately and undeservedly has been his lot for a very long time now.

After reading reviews with James Purfoy and now a more recent one with James Momoa, I see that the Actors get it. Even if the script writers, financiers and producers don't. My opinion of this is, of course they don't. Writers are a strange lot, either they love another author so much they seek to ape them either consciously or not.. or they hate all other authors because none of them can ever measure up to their own genius and how dare they get more accolades than me.. or the last option.. are actually a true genius in the field of writing..

Financiers and producers.. well.. number crunchers are all the same.. only interested in focus groups and a constant itch behind their eyes to keep the bottom line steady.. these are the same sorts of people who thought that Peter Jackson needed to kill off a couple of the hobbits midway into the first Ring's movie in order to lighten the cast a bit. Either to lighten the budget or to keep the mouth breathers in the audience who generally make up focus groups from getting distracted and playing with themselves.

Speaking of Peter Jackson.. and since this is still relevant to my review of a review.. Al likens the SK movie to the Jacksonian Rings films.. I think hes probably onto something here.. with one caveat..

As time has gone by, my love for Jackson's movies has not endured. In 2001 reeling from the blow not of September the 11th but the almost immediately following death of the only real father figure in my life. I really latched onto Jackson's interpretations of the Rings movies.. They sort of filled in that gap in my life and I put too much of a burden on them. A Burden they've not been able to live up too.

I'm of course nearly 10 years older now, but my tastes in film are much the same.. Now though I just can't help but resent the un-needed changes made to the Rings adaptions. Most of it, like with this Solomon Kane adaption.. have nothing to do with the director or the actors.. It all has to do with the script writing and the defilement enacted on it by the script writers.. Some of which we are still saddled with to this day.

I've become obsessed with these faults to the exclusion of everything else.. they've grown like a sore that I kept picking at until I simply had to abandon watching the movies.. from PJ's farting Dwarves and determined efforts to put Elves either where they didn't belong or the wrong elf where another belonged.. And especially Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyans tamponing of the male characters to the point where they basically come across as spineless unless they had strong female hands at the rudder.. (I can only imagine what life must be like in the Jackson Home... or rather I should say.. The Walsh Home.... Henpecked is probably an understatement) I hope that Solomon Kane's changes don't fester the same way.. I suppose what I'm trying to say is, I hope the next movie is more like Howard than this one was.

Rather than the case of Lord of the Rings.. where the first one was the most authentic.. and the second and third each successively became less and less what Tolkien wrote and more and more what Peter, Fran and Phillipa, the Script Writers.. Wanted.

El-Borak and Other desert adventures.

This was released on February 9th, but I didn't get paid till the 12th so had to put off buying it till then.. I went hunting it last night at Borders due to having a 33% off coupon.. I went to borders and they had no copies.. what a surprise.. borders never has what I want when I have a coupon.. so I had them check to see if any other Borders in the area had it.. and apparently none of them did.. it showed up in their computers but wasn't on automatic distribution.. so if I wanted it from them I'd have to order it.. I considered it, until they said I couldn't use my coupon.. if I'm going to order it I might as well just use Amazon..

On my way out of town I stopped by Barnes&Nobel and they had one copy, apparently its not on automatic distribution there either and some one had pre-ordered it and then not picked it up..

I've not had any problems finding a copy of any of the previous REH volumes, and with the Solomon Kane movie coming out soon both of these stores has multiple copies of the SK volume..

I'd seen this post over on the Official Conan Forums about the declining sales ranking locations of each volume.. which isn't surprising to me as really each one thats come out has been less recognizable to the average consumer.. But I really hope that these incidences of stores not getting copies is just a regional thing.. I'd hate to sound alarmist but I really like this series of wonderful and brilliant (not to mention affordable) adventures and weird tales to suddenly disappear because they weren't moving enough units to continue the series.

I know how much hard work is put into each and every one of these and it shows.

But I've got it and now all I've got to do is to send off my pre-order for the REH Foundation's companion volume featuring the other chunk of El-Borak stories.

My New Venture.

After picking up a new shipment of Books from Powell's Books of Portland Oregon yesterday at the Post Office.. I was struck by the fact that I now have all of the Conan Pastiches released between Ace books, Bantam books and Tor Books, all 102 novels and short stories featured in the William Galen Gray Chronology.

So I set up a new blog, which will chronicle my adventures through the Apocryphal Hyborean Age. That is, Not Robert E. Howard's Hyborean Age, but the adulterated and tacked on Hyborean Age. The Hyborean age which is the equivalent of Saxo's Guesta Dannorum to Robert E. Howard's 6th Century Danish Skald's version of Norse Mythology.

I hope you will have a look at it, I've posted some information to get us started and I plan to start very soon on the actual reviews.. I aim to get at least one a week done, though I understand that some of the novels are exceedingly bad.. so when I hit a stumbling point please understand.

Hyborean Apocrypha

Sexism among the Robert E. Howard Fandom.

Disclaimer: The Following is a Rant about Fandom, It is neither fairly balanced not presenting both sides of the picture, I doubt many people from the specific fandom I'm citing even read this place..


I know what you are thinking, so let me explain, This isn't a post about all those Frazetta covers, or some sort of attack on Howard, I understand that a certain amount of objectification of women happens in his work and even amongst his fandom..

What I want to talk about is, the sexism towards MEN among the REH fandom. There seems to be an extremely prevalent attitude among the posters of Conan.Com that unless you are 6'4 and 220lbs of solid rock hard muscle.. You aren't a Real Man. The forum is filled with endless bitching every time some one who dosen't fit that strenuous qualification is cast in well.. just about any sort of action role.

This happened when James Purefoy was Cast as Solomon Kane.. And its happening again now due to the rumor that Jason Momoa is going to be playing Conan. endless calls of " He needs to bulk up, He needs to work out more, they are just doing this to cater to the teeny boppers" I've seen them moan about Viggo Mortenson playing Aragorn, and endlessly whine about essentially anything Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Orlando Bloom, among others.. in just about anything they are in.. The howls of derision when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker still echo despite the phenomenal job he did...

The same few actor suggestions are brought out over and over again, Charlton Heston, Charles Bronson, Jack Palance, Clint Eastwood.. In case you guys haven't noticed but three of them are dead and one of them is pushing 80. Tastes Change, Fashion Changes, Film making Changes. The World has changed, Physical prowess, a psychoctic sneer and a bad attitude do not make sales anymore.

apparently, having simply appeared on Baywatch disqualifies Momoa from being anything but some sissy boy in the eyes of some of these posters.

This is one of many things I've noticed among Conan and REH fans in general.. and I don't always like to go after people like this.. but after having read 8 pages of whining.. I felt I had too.

I've seen pictures from Howard Days.. Most of the guys in those pictures wouldn't be counted among the " Real Men " either.

I will agree I'm not really sure how to take Momoa as Conan, some of the posters on that forum have made some pretty convincing photoshops.. and I always liked him as Ronon Dex on Star Gate Atlantis.. He's not a huge name, so he won't distract from the character.. I think he is the least of the problems this new Conan Movie faces.. the biggest are the fact its being directed by the guy who directed Pathfinder(Euck!).. and so far bears only slightly more connection to the Conan character than 1982's Conan with Arnold Schwarzenegger..

And at this point, after the two Transformers films and 2009's GIJOE.. I'm used to having beloved properties raked over the coals in order to try and get people in the seats at the theater..

January - Doorway to Fantasy.

January, named after the Roman god Janus .. or the Opener of Doors, could not be more fitting.

In the month of January we have the births of some of the greatest Weird tale or Fantasy writers .. of all times.. It's arguable, that without two of these, there would be no " Fantasy " genre at all.

On January 3rd, 1892 in Bloemfontein South Africa, one, John Ronald Ruel Tolkien was heralded into the world, He went on to create the seminal work of what is now " High Fantasy ".. in " The Lord of the Rings ".. but thats only the tip of the iceberg, he also translated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, helped to rehabilitate the Poem Beowulf from its place of unimportance and elevate it to its rightful place as one of if not the most important works of English literature..(I can hear the grinding of teeth in a thousand, thousand, high school classrooms from where I sit).. He worked tirelessly on his chosen field, Philology, or the study of the history of words.. helped edit the Oxford English Dictionary.. and created thousands of pages of back story and legendarium in his " Middle Earth Setting " ..

On January 13th, 1893, Clark Ashton Smith was born in Auburn California.. His work is probably the least well known on this list today, but thats a shame, as his works display an immense imagination, they are alternatively humorous and frightening, filled with bizarre sites and sounds and descriptions of all manner of weird places.. I'm glad that the majority of his work is back in print now, however It isn't yet in affordable editions.

On January 19th, 1809, Edgar Allen Poe was born Boston Massachusetts, The Weird Tale had met its master, His life was tragic and short, Lost love, Alcoholism, and a lifetime of not being taken seriously, But just last year he was immortalized on his bicentennial with a Stamp from the USPS.. He has finally taken his place among the greats of American literature. The world would be a much less interesting place without him.

January 22nd, 1906, a boy named Robert E. Howard was born in Peaster Texas, He would only live to see 30. But in this short life, he single handedly created what is today known as " Sword and Sorcery " with his character " Conan The Cimmerian " (Known to most as Conan the Barbarian due to the abysmal John Milius Movie) .. If Tolkien is the wise father of Fantasy, then Howard is the Uncle who has too many beers and tells the raucous and sometimes spicy stories of Adventure, women and battle. while Tolkien began to receive recognition for his Middle Earth Series in the 80s, culminating eventually in the Peter Jackson Films. Howard has yet to really receive his just rewards.. But his star is rising.. He has been featured in the two volume " American Fantastic Tales " released by Library of America.. and we can only hope this leads to a Howard Specific volume in that venerable series.. It's only right for him to be able to sit on the shelf next to one of his heroes Jack London, His friend H.P. Lovecraft and predecessor in the weird tale.. Edgar Allen Poe. Howard tragically took his own life in 1936, the reason for this has been bandied about endlessly, but mainly no one really knows why he did it, and to accept at face value any of the theories.. especially if they come courtesy of anything L. Sprague DeCamp wrote .. should not be undertaken lightly. In his short life time he produced an enormous number of short stories and several novels.. a Large number of these are in print now, Through Bison Books, Wild side Fantasy, and the soon to be 10 volume series from Del Rey books.. Not to mention an extremely protective and active fan base. Do yourself a favor.. Skip the movies and read the books.

And lastly, but certainly not least.. we come to C.L. Moore, Born January 24th, 1911, I can hear you scratching your head.. " who is C.L. Moore " .. She was probably one of the most important writers to come out of Weird Tales, Fantasy stopped being a Boys Club when her character Jirel of Joiry was published.. Inspired by Howard and along with her Husband Henry Kuttner, This Secretary from Indianapolis Indiana didn't so much smash the glass ceiling, as walk in with broadsword drawn and slay the installation crew. She is alas not remembered much these days, but the majority of her work is in print courtesy of Paizo publishing. Her other big character was Northwest Smith of Earth, and along with Kuttner they wrote Mimsy were the Borogoves .. Which was recently adapted into a film, " The Last Mimsy ".

So all of these Pathfinders of the field, who lit the drop zones for the future waves of Fantasy writers to follow, were all Born in January, the month of Janus, the God of Doors.. Doors to Fantasy, Adventure, Sorcery, Darkness, Evil, Far Away Lands, Beautiful Women, Dangerous Men ( And Women).. all I can say is without them, the world would be a much more boring place.


while, not nearly as interesting.. mine is this weekend as well.

Nearly a Week Late, Happy Birthday to Clark Ashton Smith

On January 13th 1893, Clark Ashton smith was born, and thus was erected the 3rd pillar of the Weird Tales Temple. While his works are less well known than his compatriots H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, do not mistake that for lack of talent. He had that in spades, in Art, Writing, Poetry and Sculpture.

During his tenure with Weird Tales he created numerous fantasies and weird stories, taking us to ancient Hyperborea and impossibly futuristic Zothique, to Martian Xiccarph and Doomed Poseidonis, Alas I don't know very much about Averoigne, his invented French village. I've only got the four Lin Carter edited volumes from the " Ballantine Adult Fantasy " series.. and the 5th volume, slated to contain the " Averoigne Cycle " was never released, though it was rumored to be completed.

Night Shade Books released a 5 volume Set of the " Collected Fantasies " but I'm not wealthy enough to afford their prices nearly 250$ for 5 Volumes was pushing it for me, Though there are some cheaper " Best of " volumes out now, and I recommend checking them out..

They Called it... Cimmeria

I didn't make this, but found it on www.thecimmerian.com and thought it warranted a re-post here..