Today marks the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of Robert E. Howard’s birth. This year, 2026, also marks the ninetieth anniversary of Howard’s death. Thirty years and change. A little over ten years of that comprised his career as a published author. However, that decade changed the literary world…and changed my life in particular.
Read MoreH.P. Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890. By 1925, his impact on horror literature was seismic. Today, the ‘Lovecraftian lens’ is the paradigm through which most horror fiction is viewed—and written—today. Heroic fantasy follows many of the same rules.
Read MoreGlenn Lord died ten years ago tonight. Glenn has been called ‘The Father of REH LitCrit’ and the ‘Original Robert E. Howard Uber-fan’. Fair enough. All I know is, I wouldn’t be here, typing this now, with two Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards hanging on my wall, if Glenn Lord had never existed. Every Robert E. Howard fan owes him a debt and I’ll try to repay a small portion of mine with this post.
Read MoreBarbarian Life: Volume One by Roy Thomas is a fascinating history of how Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian came to be. Stan Lee, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Michael Moorcock, John Jakes and others…all are discussed in its pages.
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