Today marks the centennial of the first publication of A. Merritt's novelette, "The Moon Pool." Such a small thing--only about twenty thousand words--but one that has had an extraordinarily outsized impact in the century since.
Read MoreRobert E. Howard died on this date in 1936. Thinking about that tragic day eventually reminded me that I'd never followed up on my first two looks at Stephen Fabian's illustrations of Howard's works. Today, I'll attempt to make the argument that Fabian should be considered the greatest illustrator of Robert E. Howard's characters and yarns.
Read MoreFortunately, we presently have a few writers who understand what REH-inspired sword and sorcery is supposed to be: aggressive, bloody, virile, menacing. Howie Bentley is one of the best, if not the best, writers of this style today.
Read MoreItems of interest from around the web.
Read MoreClark Ashton Smith, of course, was one of the mainstay writers of the old Weird Tales, with Howard and Lovecraft. Smith was chiefly a poet, and also a sculptor, but after a breakdown in health, during the Depression, he wrote more than a hundred bizarre short stories (between 1929 and 1934) to pay his bills. Like Howard, he contributed to Lovecraft’s famous Mythos.
Read MoreHarold Lamb died on this date in 1962. He left behind a staggering amount of quality fiction and nonfiction. He was one of the very top contributors to one of the premiere pulps, Adventure, and went on to become a popular and award-winning historian.
Read More'lin carter and l sprague de camp finished unfinished works of howard and made full stories out of them as well.they are worth having as if it was not for them there would be no conan movie no conan comics and would not be ass [sic] popular as it is today[.]"
-- Quoted verbatim from a proud member of the subliterati on Facebook circa late 2017
Read MoreLouis L'Amour was born one hundred and ten years ago today. In my opinion, a brief commemoration of Mr. L'Amour is justified here on the DMR blog.
Read MoreLeigh Brackett died forty years ago today. Being in a nostalgic mood, I decided to honor the occasion by rereading her final novel, Reavers of Skaith. While it may have been her last novel, it was my very first exposure--at the tender age of twelve--to her fiction and to her most enduring creation, Eric John Stark. I knew of Leigh by way of The Empire Strikes Back and "Reavers" was the only Brackett the Oswego Public Library had--not that I'm griping, mind you. Reavers of Skaith packed a wallop that I've never forgotten.
Read More“There are sacraments of evil as well as of good about us, and we live and move to my belief in an unknown world, a place where there are caves and shadows and dwellers in twilight. It is possible that man may sometimes return on the track of evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore is not yet dead.”
“I dream in fire but work in clay.” -- Arthur Machen
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