Conan of Cimmeria believed that Thulsa Doom’s evil had been banished forever, but the Atlantean necromancer’s dark power stirs once more and, if it cannot be stopped, the dead shall overtake the living! The Tyrant-King of Atlantis returns and all shall suffer, unless Conan and his brave allies can turn back the tide!
Did you miss out on the Conan The Barbarian offering on May 2's Free Comic Book Day?
Written by legendary Conan scribe Jim Zub, with art by Jesus Merino, the comic is a prelude to the next big Howardverse comic book crossover event, Tides of the Tyrant King, starting in the Autumn.
This year's event ties into the classic 1929 Robert E Howard pulp story Skull-Face, his take on the Sax Rohmer's popular Fu Manchu adventures that began in 1912.
Tides of the Tyrant King also features, from the original Skull-Face yarn, Soldier Stephen Costigan, cousin of my favourite Howard creation Sailor Steve Costigan.
Legendary scribe Gail Simone is bringing us The Ring: The Man Who Beat The Man in June, courtesy of Dark Horse.
The eight-issue series, produced in co-operation with venerable boxing magazine, The Ring, follows:
"...veteran Ring Magazine journalist Cameron Duggan and rising broadcast personality Lisa Wolfe, a former podcaster who has transitioned into television commentary. As the pair travel the boxing world covering a new wave of contenders chasing championship glory, they encounter the ambition, rivalries and politics that shape the sport at its highest level.
"Each fighter approaches the pursuit differently, but the goal remains the same, reach the top of the sport and prove himself as the man who beat the man. As Duggan and Wolfe document the journey of these fighters, they also find themselves navigating the pressures and personalities that surround the sport."
While not directly a Robert E Howard story, Two-Gun Bob was a massive fan of boxing and wrote plenty of pulp tales set in that world - including those of my favourite character, Sailor Steve Costigan.
However, the next comic that caught my eye - and will be added to my pull-list PDQ - is pure Howard.
The incredible writer/artist Patrick Zircher brings his take on Howard's Puritan monster-hunter Solomon Kane back for another miniseries from Titan Comics in July.
Solomon Kane: The Lion Errant sees our hero travelling to India, guided by a "mysterious black-maned lion" where he is drawn into a "confrontation between the warrior queen Rani Durgavati and the mighty Mughal Empire".
"But the coming battle is more than a clash of armies. Ancient powers are stirring, gods and demons walk among the living, and Kane’s arcane Atlantean staff may hold the key to it all. Steel meets the divine. The Sword of Vengeance answers a higher call."
Joe Jusko cover art
The final forthcoming comic with serious Robert E Howard vibes is Dan Panosian's Fire And Ice: Darkwolf, from Dynamite, which also kicks off in July.
This is a spin-off from the gorgeous - but erratically published - Fire and Ice sword and sorcery comic book series.
"Born from the immortal imagination of fantasy illustrator supreme Frank Frazetta, Darkwolf storms into a new era of savage fantasy-brought to life by writer Dan "Urban Barbarian" Panosian and powerhouse artist Andrey Lunatik.
"Dynamite's acclaimed exploration of the world of Fire and Ice continues in this new series!
"It all begins when a mother and her twins flee the warlock who sired them - until a masked warrior descends from the mountains and unleashes hell upon their pursuers.
But saving them is only the beginning.
"Violent. Mythic. Unrelenting.
This is Darkwolf, and the legend begins here - a fierce, visceral rebirth of one of fantasy's most iconic warriors
This week on his Robert E Howard Show segment, my favourite booktuber, Michael K Vaughan, discusses the latest release from the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, The Adventures of Breckinridge Elkins.
I just happen to have purchased this hardback tome recently (now that I'm trying to go 'all-in' on this line of definitive publications of Howard's work), although I have to confess the only Elkins' "tall tale" I've read is the one that was published in Savage Sword of Conan magazine last year.
Breckinridge isn't a Howard character I'm particularly au fait with. But Michael does a great job in this video of convincing me that I'll probably enjoy the book, as it seems to bear comedic similarities with my beloved Sailor Steve Costigan yarns, as well as being part of Howard's Western work.
It's the 120th anniversary of the birth of the greatest pulp adventure writer of all time, Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, Solomon Kane, Sailor Steve Costigan, King Kull et al.
In the videos above people way smarter and more erudite than I share their love and appreciation for the man and his inspirational and enduring writing.
"...the home of Robert E. Howard requires some serious repairs: its foundation and piers are rotting and collapsing, there is termite damage to a large section of an outside wall, and many of the floors are starting to buckle and drop. While the hard-working folks of Project Pride in Cross Plains have restored and cared for the House since acquiring it back in the 1980s, their small volunteer army cannot address the extensive repairs that will be needed. Professional restoration is required for this 100+ year old home on the National Historical Register, and it is needed now, before the damage gets worse.
"Because the house is on the National Historical Register and the State of Texas Historical Places list, the cost of repairs will be affected. All repairs will require contractors that have experience with this type of historical preservation, as we will need to keep the House as close to its original state as possible, during its historical period (i.e., when REH lived there)."
Mike Mignola cover art for Savage Sword of Conan #10
I'd heard the scuttlebutt, but now it's been confirmed: my favourite Robert E Howard character - Sailor Steve Costigan - is making his comic book debut in September's Savage Sword of Conan #10.
All three stories in this issue of the black-and-white, pulp anthology series are penned by premier Conan scribe Jim Zub, and tie in to the latest "event" storyline across Titan Comics' Howardverse titles, Scourge of The Serpent.
We don't know much yet about the actual plots of the individual tales, but the announcement that one stars Sailor Steve has me pacing like a prize fighter waiting for the bell.
Illustrated by Roberto de la Torre, Steve's adventure is described as a "bruising bout" and joins two other tales: one featuring Conan the Cimmerian and the other being "a journey into prehistory with characters from Robert E Howard’s Spear and Fang".
The 64-page Savage Sword of Conan #10 is scheduled to hit stores on September 3.
The last estimate I got from Amazon for a delivery date said Robert E Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author might not show up until November - it arrived today!
While I have a lot of Howard's work in paperback form, I find as I get older I'm more comfortable with hardbacks (the text is usually larger for one thing).
Willard M Oliver's The Life and Times of a Texas Author is the latest addition to my growing library of hardback books by or about Howard, and comes highly recommended from a number of Howard aficionados whose opinions I value.
I will probably dig into the lovely new fiction books first, but this biography is on the "to be read" list for later in the year. Its speedy arrival across The Pond rather caught me off-guard.
Steve Costigan doesn't actually feature in this book (although there is a Slade Costigan, I see), but I already know I'm going to enjoy the pulpy goodness of Fists of Iron - Round One because I've read other great boxing works penned by Howard in an earlier, paperback, collection, Boxing Stories, published by Bison Books in 2005.
This reminded me that back in March, courtesy of eBay, I picked up issue four of a vintage fanzine called Robert E Howard's Fight Magazine.
Published by Necronomicon Press, in1996, the 40-page zine is rammed with Howard’s writing on boxing - particularly, in this issue anyway, short stories revolving around Sailor Steve Costigan!
Ask most people to name their favourite Robert E Howard character and the chances are they'll pick Conan or Solomon Kane, but for me - these days - it has to be Sailor Steve Costigan, star of many of Howard's light-hearted boxing stories.
I'll be honest and fess up to the fact that until 2007 I hadn't even heard of Steve Costigan, but then I had a letter published in one of Dark Horse comics' Conan titles berating them for an anachronistic brawl between the title character and a "guy in a T-shirt".
When I was informed that this was an homage to another of Howard's creations, I did some investigating and discovered Sailor Steve - a contemporary (ie 1930s) heavyweight boxer crewing on the merchant ship Sea Girl as it sails the Asiatic seas (with his pet bulldog, Mike).
Interest piqued by this pulp pugilist, I picked up a copy of Howard's Boxing Stories (published by Bison Books in 2005) and was immediately entranced by the colloquial style of patois Howard adopted for these stories.
These are witty, lyrical, tall tales full of two-fisted brawling and comedic misfortune, and come highly recommended.
Although I believe that Howard wrote more stories about Costigan than for any of his more fantastical characters, Sailor Steve isn't as 'mainstream' as Conan and Kane.
This is a shame, because Steve really is a more relatable character than most of the other members of Howard's stable of stallions.
As I said last month in my review of 1959's The Stranglers of Bombay, Hammer recycled that film's plot for 1961's The Terror of The Tongs, simply relocating the action from 19th Century India to early 20th Century Hong Kong.
After his daughter (Barbara Brown) is slain by Tong gangsters searching for an incriminating list of their key members, British sea captain Jackson Sale (Geoffrey Toone) wages a one-man crusade against the secret organisation, punching his way through Hong Kong's underworld with the subtly and diplomacy of Robert E Howard's Sailor Steve Costigan.
There's no denying that this is an exciting thriller, but even with the appearance of an anti-Tong coalition among the Chinese community (who see Sale as a useful weapon to direct against their foes), the racism on display is inescapable.
In his first headlining role for Hammer, Christopher Lee - as Red Dragon Tong leader Chung King - gets to test-drive the problematic "Chinese" make-up he would later make famous in the Fu Manchu series of movies.
There are plenty of Asian actors in the large cast, although primarily as extras, but the bulk of the key Chinese roles have gone to Western performers in "yellow-face".
The death of Sale's daughter, Helena, is also pretty much the text book definition of "fridging" as she turns up purely to be killed off in the next scene and give Jackson his motivation for wanting to bring down the Tongs.
He channels his grief through his fists, and while occasionally Sale uses his wits, his main investigative tool is violence.
Coming in at just over an hour and a quarter running time, there's no hanging around in The Terror of The Tongs, so when Sale rescues the gorgeous half-Chinese/half-French Lee (the charismatic Yvonne Monlaur, probably best known for her lead role in The Brides of Dracula) random romance is clearly on the cards.
However (slight spoilers for a 60-year-old film), her ultimate character arc was both unexpected and slightly gratuitous.
Not only does The Terror of The Tongs reuse the plot of The Stranglers of Bombay, but Doctor Who's Roger Delgado is also back, this time as Chung King's number two, essentially the same role he played in the earlier movie.
The use of colour means director Anthony Bushell is able to splash around plenty of bright, red blood, but the most horrific scene - a sequence where Sale falls into the hands of Chung King and is ritually tortured - is so well framed that it made me squirm without actually showing any graphic details of the "bone-scraping" needles that were being used.
A two-fisted pulp adventure, with unfortunate casual racism throughout, the central story of The Terror of The Tongs remains engaging (if simplistic), providing you can acknowledge the uncomfortable casting decisions of the time when it was shot.
My first published contribution to an American comic book saw the light of day in August, 2007, ... a letter in that month's Dark Horse's Conan And The Midnight God issue 5 (see above). It refers to a story in issue 37 of their main Conan title, that came out several months ago.
I was so excited when I discovered it that I had to show Rachel. She brought me back to Earth with the very sage observation: "It's another letter complaining about something. Couldn't you write a letter of praise sometime?"
However, the way I look at it, many famous comic book authors refer back to letters they had published (admittedly usually when they were kids, not 40-year-olds) and so I'm seeing this as my first step on the road to comic book greatness!
What my whinging letter did lead to through was an investigation into who was being homaged. Turns out there's this Robert E Howard character called Sailor Steve Costigan that I'd never heard of before.
I started to read what Costigan stories I could find... and was (right) hooked. In no time at all, Steve Costigan became my favourite Robert E Howard character and quite possibly my all-time favourite pulp era character.
To commemorate today's 119th anniversary of the birth of Robert E Howard, the creator of Conan, Sailor Steve Costigan, Solomon Kane, and a whole genre of modern literature, I decided to watch the 1996 dramatisation of his relationship with aspiring writer Novalyne Price.
This is a film I'd been saving for years for Rachel and I to watch together, but our viewing schedules are so busy these days (with the hundreds of channels on the TV, as well as Netflix et al) that, because of today's significance, it felt like a good time to bust the film out of its wrapping and take it for a spin.
In 1930's Cross Plains, Texas, teacher Novalyne Price is introduced to local writer Robert E Howard, already a renowned writer of pulp fiction who makes a living selling his yarns, while still residing an home with his father and tuberculosis-stricken mother.
Price pursues Howard, eager to learn more about his writing, but quickly finding herself drawn to him romantically, despite his "eccentricities".
While obviously a period film, The Whole Wide World feels very dated. It's an awkward, almost amateurish, production full of stilted performances, odd music cues, and a patchy narrative unable to contain Howard's wild genius within its 105-minute duration or truly explain why the audience should care about this couple.
Zellweger's Price, despite being the nominal protagonist, in that the film is based on her autobiography, is almost two-dimensional in the shadow of D'Onofrio's charismatic portrayal of the socially-challenged, borderline misanthropic, larger-than-life Bob Howard.
Her decisions often appear motivated by plot necessity, rather than being taken for convincing character reasons.
While the ultimate tragedy of Howard's suicide is heartbreaking, that's more from the sorrow anyone would feel for any person driven to take their own life, rather than the characters presented here.
The film doesn't truly sell us on Howard's deep attachment to his mother, clearly beyond that of a normal mother-son relationship. We needed more "why", more explanation.
To anyone not already conversant with Howard and the world of 1930's pulps, much of the importance of this story would have been lost; for instance, HP Lovecraft gets a couple of namechecks, but how many outside of geeky circles truly know who he is, even today?
Ultimately, The Whole Wide World is a strange film, trying to be both a romantic drama and an insight into the mind of the father of Conan The Barbarian, for whom, it would seem, romance was an anathema.
It's almost as though it's struggling to decide whose story it's actually telling: Price's or Howard's. And so it doesn't do an entirely satisfactory job with either.
The Whole Wide World doesn't give a broader audience enough to work with to fully understand the relationship and behaviours of the two leads, but also only hints at the constrained power of Howard's imagination when it comes to appealing to fans of his pulp literature.
While the film stands as an interesting insight into the final years of Robert E Howard's life, The Whole Wide World is just opening the door for those who are really want to learn more and continue to be inspired by his work.
My pop culture Odyssey: a slice of super-powered geek life with heavy emphasis on pulp adventure, superheroes, comic books, westerns, horror, sci-fi, giant monsters, zombies etc
.jpg)
.jpg)
