Here, to my knowledge, are the latest leaked pictures of Jason Momoa as Conan, or to be more accurate what you can contemplate are photos of photos taken at Cannes. The Film Festival started yesterday in that seaside city of Southern France, which hosts numerous screenings, market discussions and the like in addition to the official competition.
Wildside Press has released two interesting volumes that I failed to mention earlier this year, Tiger By the Tail! Two Dominic Flandry Adventures and Killer’s Dozen: Thirteen Mystery Tales, respectively authored by Poul Anderson and Richard A. Lupoff.
Many thanks to Howardian scholar Paul Herman, who posted about this book on The Official Robert E. Howard Forum.
He noted that the two co-authors of the upcoming critical work More Than Human: The Evolutionary Heroes of Robert E. Howard, Justin Everett, Ph.D. and Deirdre Pettipiece, Ph.D. were “very serious REH fans, and serious academics, they have been promoting REH out there on the academic circuit” and has corresponded with both several times. They also will be presenting a panel at Howard Days next June.
Abstract:
Known best for the sword and sorcery stories he produced for the pulp fiction magazines of the 1930s, Robert E. Howard created a huge body of work that consisted of “around 3.5 million words” (Robert E. Howard Foundation, The Last of the Trunk), most of which focused on the creation of fantastic heroes of a depth and breadth unmatched by any writer before or since. Conan, King Kull, Solomon Kane and other complex characters populate civilizations Howard constructed and reconstructed in a wide-array of alternative worlds governed by competing principles of combat, survival, loyalty, and revenge. Tracing these heroes and the texts they occupy over the course of Howard’s interactions with evolutionary theories of human origin and behavior, Everett and Pettipiece reveal his dynamic and often conflicted engagement with ideas that changed the world. Howard’s interaction with the ideas of Darwin, Spencer, Freud and others who articulated fundamental principles of human behavior and social organization can be seen not only in the developing identities of his heroes, but also in the critical discussions he undertook with H.P. Lovecraft and other contemporaries. His intellectual engagement with some of the most important theories and philosophies of the 19th and 20th centuries demonstrates that Howard and his body of work are sufficiently representative of important themes and tropes to recognize him as part of the American canon. This volume therefore addresses the gap in the critical discussion of American literary production of the first half of the 20th century by presenting Howard and his heroes and the evolution they both undertook over the course of his active career.
Brief table of contents:
1. Preface
2. Forward by Terence McVicker
3. Introduction: Why American Literary Studies Need Robert E. Howard
4. Chapter one: Early Influences and the Little Blue Books
5. Chapter two: Engaging with Ideas: What Howard Read and Its Impact on Howard’s Emerging Philosophy
6. Chapter three: Sex and Sinews: Sexual Selection, Secondary Sex Characteristics and Howard
7. Chapter four: Howard’s Men and Women and Their Potential Sources in Literature and Life
8. Chapter five: Isolation and Community, Civilization and Barbarism: Binary Forces in Howard’s fiction
9. Chapter seven: Conclusions and Continuing Questions
Approx. 350 pps, approx. $150.00 hardback. Publication by Edwin Mellen Press expected for late 2010. Robert E. Howard fan and bookseller Terence McVicker provides the foreword.
This book’s theme seems interesting, so it might be worth its — expensive — price. One can’t have enough serious literary criticism concerning Robert E. Howard’s œuvre.
The latest Harold Lamb volumes from Bison books, Swords from the Sea and Swords from the East, already announced last December on The Cimmerian, are now available.
Richard L. Tierney’s poetry collection Savage Menace and other poems of horror is also out now. Some additional information not included in my January 26th blog post on this promising book can be read below.
Hippocampus Press will release this month a new anthology edited by Robert M. Price dedicated to the murderous Hounds who enter our reality through angles, The Tindalos Cycle. Evidently Frank Belknap Long, who wrote “The Hounds of Tindalos,” one of the earliest Mythos stories by anyone other than H. P. Lovecraft (it was published in 1931), is the author with the most tales in this volume, which collects yarns first published in the pulps as well as more recent stories.
From the blurb:
Frank Belknap Long first alerted the world to the those infamous other-dimensional entities, The Hounds of Tindalos. In so doing he mined a rich vein of macabre antecedents, whose devisers included Robert W. Chambers, Ambrose Bierce and others. Since Belknap’s time, others have distilled and perpetuated his prophetic vision, perhaps unwisdely affording the Hounds ongoing ingress to our dimension, as a mainstay of the Mythos.
Now, the steady hand of editor Robert M. Price gathers all the relevant Tindalos writings in one mind-blasting tome, tracing the Hounds’ lineage from the dawn of the weird tale through their first explicit revelation, to the modern day with its full flowering.
Its table of contents:
Introduction: Chock Full o’ Mutts
The Maker of Moons, Robert W. Chambers
The Death of Halpin Frayser, Ambrose Bierce
The Space-Eaters, Frank Belknap Long
The Hounds of Tindalos, Frank Belknap Long
The Letters of Halpin Chalmers, Peter Cannon
The Death of Halpin Chalmers, Perry M. Grayson
The Madness out of Time, Lin Carter
The Hound of the Partridgevilles, Peter Cannon
Through Outrageous Angles, David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Ronald McDowell
Firebrands of Torment, Michael Cisco
The Shore of Madness, Ann K. Schwader
Gateway To Forever, Frank Belknap Long
The Gift of Lycanthropy, Frank Belknap Long
The War Among the Gods, Adrian Cole
The Ways of Chaos, Ramsey Campbell
Juggernaut, C. J. Henderson
Scarlet Obeisance, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
The Horror from the Hills, Frank Belknap Long
Pompelo’s Doom, Ann K. Schwader
Confession of the White Acolyte, Ann K. Schwader
When Chaugnar Wakes, Frank Belknap Long
The Elephant God of Leng, Robert M. Price
Death Is an Elephant, Robert Bloch
The Dweller in the Pot (or, The Past out of Space Eaters) By Frank Chimesleep Short, Robert M. Price
But It’s A Long Dark Road, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
Nyarlatophis, A Fable of Ancient Egypt, Stanley C. Sargent
Mind-Pilot, William Laughlin
Survival of the Dead, the latest installment in George A. Romero‘s iconic “Dead” series of zombie films, just came out through video on demand services, Amazon and Xbox LIVE, before a limited theatrical release in the United States on May 28. It is the sixth film in the series.
Once again, I must thank Grim Blogger for bringing another cool project to my attention. Recently, artist and designer Eric Mongeon announced the publication of 4 by Poe, an illustrated collection of four short stories by Edgar Allan Poe.
Among Steve Tompkins’ many interesting blog entries written here on The Cimmerian, there was this piece about Lovecraft-inspired motions pictures. The movie he was looking forward to see (as I am), Del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness, is not even in production yet, but another story written by the Man from Providence should make it to the silver screen sooner. Thanks to Grim Blogger, I learned a few days ago that the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society had released a new trailer for their adaptation of Howard Phillips Lovecraft‘s horror/science-fiction short story first published in the August 1931 issue of Weird Tales, ”The Whisperer in Darkness.” The film is supposed to be released in October.
Beware, Howard fans, viewing the video embedded in this blog post (thanks to shieldbrother Al for helping out someone who is only semi-literate with computers) might be painful. To see the (impressive) effort of a bunch of enthusiasts, who are genuinely caring for the source material, with this attempt to adapt their favorite’s author creation into film format, is something we’re not accustomed too. No compromise, no update of the story to a contemporary setting in a lame effort to please a modern audience; just the honest attempt to adapt faithfully on the silver screen what was written in the tale. In short, a purist’s dream come true. Exactly what has always been needed for movies based on Robert E. Howard’s stories, and never been supplied. When will the Texan’s tales get this kind of treatment?
Leon Nielsen’s survey A Collector’s Descriptive Bibliography of American and British Hardcover, Paperback, Magazine, Special and Amateur Editions, with a Biography will be republished by McFarland & Company. Damon C. Sasser of REH: Two-Gun-Raconteur fame provided the foreword.
From the blurb:
This guide is an invaluable resource about Howard, with information for every known published work. Initial chapters provide a biography, discuss Howard’s literary legacy, and give basic tips about collecting Howard’s writings. The main body of the work is a bibliography of Howard’s published works from 1925 through 2004. Each entry includes a description and known details including publisher, date, print run, and estimated value. A thorough index locates the publication of every Howard story or poem.
This volume should be available in Fall/Winter 2010.
The late Wisconsin writer and collector Leon Nielsen contributed to The Cimmerian print journal and to Two-Gun-Raconteur (you can read his TGR article “The Image of Conan” here). He also authored Arkham House: A Collector’s Guide (2004) .
Its Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword by Damon C. Sasser 1
Introduction 51. Robert E. Howard: A Brief Biography 11
2. The Robert E. Howard Legacy 36
3. A Robert E. Howard Cast of Characters 80
4. Collecting Robert E. Howard 105
5. A Robert E. Howard Bibliography 134
6. Most Collectible Titles 247
7. A Representative Robert E. Howard Collection 253
8. Reference Bibliography 260Indexes 263
ISBN 978-0-7864-6109-7
98 photos, notes, bibliography, index
288pp. softcover 2010 [2007]
While the majority of this volume is dedicated to collecting, identifying and evaluating the prices of Howard’s writings, book also contains a biography, several photos of REH and his parents Hester Jane and Dr Isaac Mordecai Howard, as well as a discussion on the rights to Howards works.
Underwood Books will publish, in September 1, 2010, a 48-page hardcover, Sword’s Edge –Paintings inspired by the Works of Robert E. Howard, collecting art by Manuel Pérez Clemente, better known as Sanjuliàn.
Cathy and Arnie Fenner –along with Manuel Auad– are the co-editors. It would be an understatement to say that Arnie Fenner’s critical views on Robert E. Howard are not shared here on The Cimmerian blog; a lot of REH fans probably still resent the “Bitter Tree” debacle. The late Steve Tompkins penned these exquisite words back then: “Howard’s poetry is the blood in the veins of his prose; too bad the batteries are dead in Fenner’s lyricism-detector.” Apparently (Mitra be thanked!), Mr. Fenner’s eye for good fantasy art seems more keen than his updated Howardian criticism skills. As a precautionary measure: if he provides an introduction, fans of the Man from Cross Plains should probably better check it out before buying the book.
