Caught Straight into Darkness this week. A bizarre film, it is an anti-war movie set in WW II, about two mismatched deserters who encounter a partisan army made up of “special” children, with echoes of Freaks and Johnny got His Gun. One of the soldiers, Deming, is played by Scott MacDonald, and while watching him I was struck by how much he looked like the famous Frazetta image of the berserk soldier firing the machine gun. He has a Celtic brutishness that would also qualify him, in my opinion, to play Conan or any of Howard’s Crusader heroes.

Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that comic book writer/novelist Warren Ellis is currently working on a script for a King Arthur movie that he plans to turn over to the producers of 300. For me at least (and I may be a chorus of one here), this news ain’t so cool.

I know 300 was a box-office hit, and by rights I should have enjoyed it more than I did. But while I wasn’t bored with the final product I don’t have the need to ever see it again. 300 was all spectacle and no heart, remarkably devoid of any of the pathos that should have accompanied a story about the noble sacrifice of a group of incredibly brave, well-trained, and loyal soldiers. It’s a heartless, empty bronze cuirass outside of its shouting, angry Spartan soldiers and CGI-happy, slow-motion, Matrix-style combat.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire did Thermopylae far, far better than Frank Miller or the one-note 300 ever did. Isn’t there more to fantasy films than the Helm’s Deep scene or knockoffs of Gladiator?

Worse, the film has a working title of Excalibur, which is of course also the name of the finest Arthurian film ever made. Ellis states that working in the shadow of John Boorman’s 1981 masterpiece is weighing heavily upon him. However, it’s not at all clear whether this film will ultimately be a remake or a new story: Ellis tells AICN that the film will be “specifically about the gathering of the knights,” which constituted only a small portion of Excalibur.

I don’t want to sound like all gloom-and-doom here; we’re due for a good King Arthur film after the awful King Arthur and First Knight and we may get one. I don’t know who Ellis is, and he may wind up writing a good script. I hope the film succeeds. But I’ll say it now, on record: I’d rather experience another dark age of Arthurian films in which nothing gets made, instead of being subjected to yet another big, loud, World of Warcraft-style fight film. The Arthurian mythos and all its beauty, tragedy, and moral complexity deserves better.

Two new books collecting Harold Lamb’s pulp adventure fiction are on the horizon and I could not be happier. Swords From the West and Swords From the Desert are slated to thunder into bookstores this September, courtesy of the Bison Books imprint from the University of Nebraska Press. Scott Oden (who wrote the introduction for Swords From the Desert) and Morgan Holmes have both weighed in on their respective blogs. I thought I would toss in my two debased dinars.

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The latest progress report booklet from the 2009 World Fantasy Convention (being held October 29-November 1 in San Jose, CA) has announced that the Special Guests this year will be Richard Lupoff and Donald Sidney-Fryer. You can download a copy of the progress report here and read all about it on page 6.

A young Dick Lupoff

One of my reasons for starting The Cimmerian was to once again get some of the founding fathers of the modern pulp/fantasy critical arena on record about REH. Among many other accomplishments, Richard Lupoff wrote the seminal volume of Edgar Rice Burroughs criticism, Master of Adventure, (a book that served as one of Don Herron’s major influences when producing his Robert E. Howard critical volume The Dark Barbarian). Donald Sidney-Fryer is, of course, the premier Clark Ashton Smith scholar, doing much of the major early research and publishing the bio-bibliography Emperor of Dreams. Both have written perceptively about REH in the past, and were well-known admirers of the Texan’s writings. It was grating, therefore, to see both critics excluded from the various REH fanzines and journals in the modern era.

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While news of the upcoming Conan film is largely nonexistent outside of discouraging rumours, updates regarding the other big Howard film are more concrete. Michael J. Bassett’s Solomon Kane will make its world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as a panel at the San Diego Comic Con. Mr Bassett has been kind enough to frequent the official Robert E. Howard forums with updates and snippets to appease eager Kane fans.

My expectations for the film on a purist level are, ultimately, not high. What I’ve read of Mr Bassett’s interpretation of Solomon Kane does not square with my own, and I’m not a fan of gratuitous origin stories. That said, as with Conan the Barbarian, separating it from the source material means it can be judged on its own, and with that in mind, it really looks like it could be the best Sword-and-Sorcery film in years. Purefoy is a tremendous actor, and the presence of the legendary Max von Sydow is always something I relish. Mr Bassett is also extremely eager to communicate with the fanbase, particularly at the official Robert E. Howard forums, which is very generous and worthwhile of him. The “sword” parts look violent and gritty, and the “sorcery” elements dark and menacing. It might not be the Solomon Kane film I’m looking for, but on its own merits, it looks very exciting.

Most importantly, in the ensuing buzz and excitement, the film will undoubtedly spark interest in Robert E. Howard, and hopefully educate people that Howard was the creator of more than just the Conan tales. Who knows, perhaps it could boost Solomon Kane’s presence into the upper echelons of pop culture that is currently the domain of Conan. That, at least, is worth being excited about.

July 17, 2009, East Stroudsburg PA: Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Frazetta, the
wife of celebrated artist Frank Frazetta, passed away today to be with the Lord after a courageous one-year battle with cancer.

Eleanor Kelly was born in Massachusetts and moved to New York where she married Frank in November, 1956. She acted as his business partner as well as his lifelong companion. Known for her feisty personality as well as her intuitive business acumen, she was instrumental in successfully establishing record prices for Frank’swork throughout her life.

She is survived by her husband Frank, her four children, Frank Jr.,Billy, Holly and Heidi, numerous grandchildren, and many friends.

A public memorial is planned and details will be announced
shortly. In the meantime, the family requests privacy.

Rob Pistella
Stephen Ferzoco
On behalf of the Frazetta Family

That was the announcement that went out over the internet on Friday, July 17. This is my belated tribute to Ellie. (Continue reading this post)

I’ve been writing about Conan off and on since the first movie came out, and we all wondered how Milius could have gotten the character so glaringly wrong. As I’ve been thinking about Conan I’ve come to be aware of the fact that Conan wasn’t just the character Howard happened to be writing about when he was really hitting his stride as a writer — Conan is the most fully realized of Howard’s many heroes. Words like “realistic”, “well-rounded”, or “iconic” aren’t applied to Bran, Kane, or even the brooding Kull — at least not with much frequency. But though rightfully viewed as “larger than life”, there is a lot of depth in Conan — he represents a type that goes way back.

Back, some might say, to “the abysses of bellowing bestiality through which humanity [has] painfully toiled.” [Coming of Conan the Cimmerian p292] In Absinthe Pie #5 Bo Cribbs wrote an essay in which he spoke of aggressive tendencies in humans, and how they could probably be traced to our pre-human ancestors. Citing from Robert Ardrey’s African Genesis about the work of anthropologist Robert Dart, he suggests that Australopithecus africanus was an ancestor of modern man and that he was a killer who instinctively used tools to kill. Dart’s evidence was baboon skeletons found with crushed skulls at the same sites as the Australopithecus remains. The skulls all bore the “characteristic double depression” fitting the distal end of an antelope humerous, which were also found in quantity, though no other antelope bones were. One Australopithecus skeleton showed the effects of being hit by the same type of leg bone — a millions-year-old murder, whether driven by anger or competition or whatever. Man arose from the primates because he was a killer — killing preceded the standing erect, the receding snout –most significantly, perhaps, the emergence of a large brain. You could say we had our Cain before we had our brain.
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War and zombies are two of my favorite subjects. So it should come as no surprise that Max Brooks’ terrific tale of the zombie war that nearly ended of all humanity — World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War — made for some damned fine reading in my household. Pardon the pun, but I devoured this book the minute it came in the mail.

The best zombie stories are not only fun and gruesome, but also reveal truths about the human condition. In this regard, World War Z can stand alongside the George Romero films with its combination of violence and horror sandwiched around a heaping helping of thoughtful social and political commentary.

The zombie plague of World War Z is deliberately left unexplained — it starts in the heart of China, half-hinted as the result of some undescribed industrial waste leak. But beginning with “Patient Zero,” an infected, gray-skinned, 12-year-old-turned zombie, Brooks manages to paint a very convincing picture of how the plague quickly spreads and threatens to overwhelm all of humanity. Brooks has done his research on politics, world economics, plague outbreaks, military tactics and technology, combat fatigue, and climate conditions, and the result feels like history, an event that really happened (or, chillingly, could actually happen).

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Last week, Robert E. Howard got name-checked in the New York Times Magazine, due in equal measure to Jack Vance and Carlo Rotella. Jack’s contribution consisted of being the subject of the article and of having been a fan of Weird Tales during the Depression. Rotella did his part by being an assiduous journalist and a reader of discerning tastes.

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Terry McVicker, popular REH bookseller and fan, sends in the following announcement:

CONAN 3 IS COMING!

CROM! Subscribers, friends, and fellow enthusiasts, we’ve all had a very long wait, but after six years the concluding volume of the three-volume Complete Conan will finally appear. Wandering Star Publishers, aided by Book Palace Books in London, will publish Conan 3 this coming December, 2009. I have been assured by the insiders working on this book that the quality standards established in the previous two volumes will be exactingly met, and we will not be disappointed. All the same designers and book builders of the previous volumes are participating once again. At long last we will see the lovely artwork of Gregory Manchess presented in the format he envisioned.

Pre-publication price, good until October 1st, is $205, and given the quality and the cost of materials — which never goes down — this is very, very reasonable. If you are a previous subscriber and would like your matching number, please send me an email with your Subscriber Number. As a thank you to all my patient subscribers, I will pay your shipping. You may pay by credit card via Paypal (I will be happy to send you a Paypal invoice), cheque, or money order.

When Wandering Star had their flyers printed, ₤130 equated to $195. Now that same ₤130 equates to $ 215! When the book is ordered from Wandering Star, their Pounds remain constant but our dollar value changes, so you really don’t know what the final sum will be. As a solution to the foreign exchange variance I’m charging a flat fee of $205.

If you had missed the previous two volumes, and would like to purchase a complete set with matching numbers, the price is $620 including shipping (California residents: please remember to include your 8.75% sales tax).

Terence A. McVicker, Rare Books

1745 W. Kenneth Road

Glendale, California 91201

(818)242-4818

email:mcrarebooks@earthlink.net

This is good news for those of you who have been craving the third volume. I especially like that the production standards are set to equal the first two. Terry is a great dealer and a personal friend of mine, and I heartily recommend dealing with him when ordering this book. It’s cool that those who waited to buy all three at once can now get them from Terry for one flat price, and all the same number to boot.