Reviewing J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Schalken the Painter”; Cruelty Drives Onward
“Schalken the Painter” blends into one a ghost story, a gothic story, a horror story, and some light tones of the bizarre.
Read MoreGustave Doré: An Artist For the Ages
Gustave Doré was born on this date in 1832. Wildly popular in his own lifetime, Doré’s art continues to grace book covers and galleries to this day. He laid many of the foundations of the fantasy art we enjoy right now in the twenty-first century. However, Gustave’s success was hard-earned and his legacy continues to be undervalued by elite art critics.
Read MoreThe Sword and the Sorcerer
My favourite S&S movie is 1982’s The Sword and the Sorcerer, which was released just one month before that other S&S epic Conan the Barbarian. It has heart, a sense of humour and it goes all out to tell a fun, bloody and swashbuckling good tale.
Read MoreP.J. Monahan: Classic Pulp Artist
While nearly forgotten today, P.J. Monahan painted some classic pulp covers, including thirteen for the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Read MoreStephen Fabian's Art For "Sword Woman"
Stephen Fabian created some great art for the Zebra edition of The Sword Woman, a collection of tales about Robert E. Howard’s Dark Agnes.
Read MoreA Look Back: Deuce's Books in 2021
A few days later than usual, but here is my yearly round-up of the books and stories I read in 2021 that I found worthy of recommendation.
Read MoreThe DMRtian Chronicles, 1/2/2022
This week: Karl Edward Wagner, Chris Achilleos, Conan, Arak, Manly Wade Wellman, Glenn Lord, Thieves’ World, and more.
Read MoreLamb and Howard: A Comparison
Harold Lamb was a writer of historical adventure stories and a historian himself. Robert E. Howard was the creator of Conan and really the entire genre of sword and sorcery. As Deuce Richardson points out, Lamb was highly influential on Howard.
Read MoreGlenn Lord -- Ten Years Gone
Glenn 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 MoreArak, Son of Thunder -- Forty Years On
Arak #1 debuted from DC Comics in September of 1981. Created and written by Roy Thomas, it introduced a sword-and-sorcery protagonist who would out-perform every other S&S comics title in the 1980s with the exceptions of Conan the Barbarian and Mike Grell’s The Warlord.
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