The Cimmerian blog’s first year was a good one, fueled by the buzz around Howard’s Centennial, the World Fantasy Convention, and the print journal’s nominations for the World Fantasy Award. Year Two would be just as eventful.

The end of August concentrated on the previous year’s talking points: the Cross Plains fire, the best of the Centennial publications, and a Steve Tompkins post introducing what would become occasional features on the blog, Charles R. Saunders and Karl Edward Wagner. September continued the Howard discussion with Leo’s updates on the print journal, his announcement for Paul Herman’s essential The Neverending Hunt, and an overview of Howard’s Wikipedia facelift. Mark is most famous (deservedly so) for Blood & Thunder, and his defenestration of Robin D. Law’s mealy-mouthed “praise” of Howard introduced the first appearance of that timeless derision “for a fat chick, you sure don’t sweat much.” There’s an example of the back-and-forth banter between Cimmerian bloggers on Rob’s “Crazy about Costigan,” a recurring feature over the course of the blog. Steve noted some of the more colourful surprises in the restored Howard text in the Del Reys, while making some sly cultural references.

Even so, non-Howard material continued to be brought up. Guest blogger Morgan Holmes produced “Give Me That Old-Time Sword-and-Sorcery!,” which discussed the anthologies of Carter, De Camp, Wagner and more. Steve and Leo fired a broadside at Germaine Greer for her comments against Tolkien, one of many calls to defend the creator of Middle-earth undertaken on the blog. Steve also mused on the World Trade Centre tragedy, with reference to Howard, Tolkien and history.

October came around, and continued September’s trends: Howard and REH-related articles like Rob’s “Ring Tales,” congratulations on the 10th anniversary of Ed Waterman’s Barbarian Keep, and Mark’s rallying cry for the REH Guerillas. There were also non-Howard ones such as Steve’s look at the World Fantasy Convention, the differences between the Bond and Howard cinematic adaptations, and a look at Clint Eastwood & Cormac McCarthy’s themes. November was almost exclusive to REH, as we had reports from the World Fantasy Convention, the birth of the REH Foundation, sightings on eBay, a Howardian Thanksgiving, and the milestone first photograph of the Cimmerian Shieldwall. Still, there were some on the non/tangentially REH side: we had Leo’s tribute to Basil Poledouris and Steve’s take on penguins.

The TC blog’s second twelvemonth ended with one of the first appearances of a friend to The Cimmerian, John J. Miller. It’s often asserted that Howard & Conan are only the domain of those with right-wing or conservative values, but the fact that such staunch liberals as Steve Tompkins could share room with conservatives like Leo Grin (as well as those whose politics come in the middle like Rusty Burke, name-checked in the linked article) in Howardom is testament to the author’s — and the character’s — near-universal appeal. Talking politics in reference to Howardom is meaningless, as Howard fans and scholars are united in their appreciation regardless of political leanings. Steve said just about all that could be about Two-Gun Bob: A Centennial Study of Robert E. Howard, Joe R. Lansdale began his complicated relationship with The Cimmerian in a response to an earlier post, and the Night Before Christmas had Uncle Rob gathering us by the fire with a breakdown of Robert E. Howard’s correspondence.

There was a period of inactivity on the blog in January, with Rob’s “Blog Bog” a full two weeks after Leo’s New Year post. However, things picked up again soon, and it’s another REH month: Leo celebrated REH’s 101st birthday, as well as news on The Cimmerian Awards. Darker portents appeared, as Leo made a promise regarding the unsold Cimmerian issues that he would live up to a little under three years later. Dennis McHaney via Steve reminded us of one of the Holy Grails of Howard scholarship: the Locke Letter. Mark left us a timely reminder about the trials and frustrations of being a Howard fan when Conan is brought up.

Things picked up in February, starting off with a non-REH post on the passing of Molly Ivins and the following comments, another example of Howard fans’ wildly divergent political views. Howard didn’t get left far behind, with the second post a look at fellow Howard publications The Dark Man and Two Gun Raconteur, including the dawn of the latter’s own blog. Leo rather generously gave the Lancers their due (to which Morgan Holmes responded) and wrote on Howard Photographs and Valentine’s Day, Steve (and Leo) gave their thoughts on Farnsworth Wright & “The Cat and the Skull,” and another new blog — REHupa — was cheered.

The non-Howard articles, too, got back in their stride: Rob’s piece on the mysterious Uncle Gus; Leo remembered David Gemmell and mentioned Charles R. Saunders in his Howard/Dunsany/Sword-and-Sorcery discussion; Steve recalled the most Howardian passage in Dracula, and praised the work of Michael Chabon. One of the first and most important of the non-Howard posts in February was Leo’s “The Deathliest Hallow,” where he layed down the law on Tolkien, Jackson’s adaptations, Lee’s illustrations and other subjects related to Middle-earth — the first of what would be many posts on the other father of 20th Century fantasy fiction.

March was little different. We had Rob’s comparison of Sax Rohmer’s “Bat-Wing” and Howard’s “Skull-Face,” tangential Howard posts such as Steve’s look at the parallels of modern historical studies to Howard and Tolkien, and non-Howard articles like Leo’s look at Shelley literary criticism. April had Steve discussing Howardian Cymbalism and The Star Rover, Leo talking Tolkien and the appearance of The Black Gate blog. Rob, Steve and guest blogger Fred Blosser all devoted posts to Jack London’s The Star Rover, the first of many occasions where Cimmerian bloggers would mark an occasion where they celebrate another author. April was also notable for the first appearance of Barbara Barrett on the blog, via a guest blog on Warrior Empires: The Mughals.

By now, other fantasy authors were a regular appearance on the blog, and Tolkien was starting to gain ground. In between talking about Bear Creek bonanzas, the state of REH publishing, the trials of Wikipedia, his Howard recommendations, and the disintegration of Joe R. Lansdale’s “Howard Gave Me Happiness,” Leo talked about receiving his copy of The Children of Húrin, and his approval of the Purist Edit of the Jackson Lord of the Rings films. Those days when Steve wasn’t talking about inadvertently hilarious Howard collections, Howard scholarship, his thoughts on the Collected Howard Letters, he was critiquing Christopher Lee’s reading of The Silmarillion, enthusing about Ian Fleming, David Gemmell and Ingmar Bergman. When not offering his ideas on a Conan screenplay, Mark was posting about Kipling. Then there were guest posts (usually by Barbara) about other Sword-and-Sorcery films, and the debut of the REH Word of the Week, started by Leo and eventually resurrected by Barbara.

The Cimmerian blog’s third year was just along the corner.