Last night being the dank and dreary 19th of January, I read myself some Edgar Allan Poe in honor of his natal anniversary. The tales in question had been placed in my hands by a strangely-clad man in a somber-toned conveyance some weeks before. My faithful dog distrusted him; I felt a twinge of unease, then thought of it no more.
Read MoreDid you know Playboy used to publish novels? Don’t get the wrong idea; this isn’t like Demon Bitch’s Punishment or The Man From S.T.U.D. in the Orgy at Madame Dracula’s. This is an excellent historical novel dealing with the clash between Celtic barbarians and Roman civilization during the fourth century A.D.
Read MoreThis date marks the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the birth of Clark Ashton Smith. Readers of this site should require no introduction, as Smith was one of the “big three” writers for Weird Tales, along with Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. It only seems appropriate that we should honor this master of exotic, bejeweled prose today by reading and discussing one of his many magnificent stories. I have selected “The Maze of Maal Dweb.”
Read MoreThis book has a whip-wielding Nazi leprechaun on the cover. I thought this would be one of the trashiest novels I’ve ever read, but hopefully it would be some good dumb fun, too. Neither expectation was met. Instead of the wild, pulpy “novel of pure terror” the cover promises, we get a psychological drama.
Read MoreAs I noted in a previous post, today is Stephen Fabian's eighty-eighth birthday. Recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, Fabian's work as an artist was also nominated nine times for Hugo awards. He shares a birthday with someone else who never won a Hugo: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. As it turns out, Mr. Fabian is a fan of JRRT.
Read MoreToday is the eighty-eighth birthday of artist Stephen E. Fabian. He was arguably the greatest artist in the SFF small press scene during the '70s and '80s. He also did an imposing amount of work for TSR, especially for their Ravenloft setting. In 2006, he won the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. I attended and got to shake his hand. I'd been a fan since boyhood.
Read MoreWe all love vampires. There is something deeply attractive to us about seductive, bloodsucking creatures of the night that has made them a staple in fantasy and horror culture. Perhaps it is the allure of immortality, or the dark romanticism of biting someone on the neck that draws us to them. From the folklore of the dark ages, to modern Hollywood icons such as Count Dracula and the like, we as humans somehow identify with the Nosferatu, and they have become a common theme that pops up quite often in literature, film, and other forms of modern art and entertainment.
Read MoreThe noted and influential sword & sorcery author, Keith Taylor, turned seventy-one yesterday. Keith was among the cohort of S&S authors that exploded in the 1970s which included Adrian Cole, Charles R. Saunders, Michael Shea, Richard Tierney and Karl Edward Wagner. Other than a period of serious illness, Taylor has worked fairly steadily through the decades, writing S&S and related fantasy, as well as blogging at various sites.
Read MoreSeabury Quinn was the most popular author amongst the readers of Weird Tales magazine during its original run. Robert E. Howard called Quinn "the king-favorite of Weird Tales fans," and with good reason. Quinn's stories--usually featuring his occult detective, Jules de Grandin--appeared in about every other issue of WT for years and years. Weird Tales scholar, Terence Hanley, puts the count at one hundred forty-six tales over roughly thirty years. Quinn was the flagship author of 'The Unique Magazine,' overshadowing both REH and Lovecraft and fighting off competition from upstarts like Ed Hamilton and CL Moore.
Read MoreIn the spirit of Samhain which just passed, I would like to talk about one of my favorite ghost stories of all-time – Hellsgarde by C.L. Moore. This tale will be one of the main concepts that my band Eternal Winter will be covering on our upcoming album, Archaic Lore Enshrined: Songs of Savage Swords and Dark Mysticism. As the lyricist of the group, I recently had to become heavily immersed in the story, in order to pen some descriptive words to the coinciding epic that will appear on the release.
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