Carving out a Genre of His Own: A Conversation with Zig Zag Claybourne

Carving out a Genre of His Own: A Conversation with Zig Zag Claybourne

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Tambour: From time to time on social media you’ve spoken about being a Black author. Your fiction is unabashedly you. And few authors of any gender write women characters the way you do. Most of all, specifically, Black women. Your women aren’t artificially magnificent to fill a marketing niche as all those sword-wielding bikini’d white generic heroines are. Would you care to add a few words on your experience with creating “true” worlds in your fiction?

Claybourne: Gets to a point for any so-called “marginalized” author — and I never put myself on the margins, my landscape is dead center of the page — that we will do one last “diversity” panel and then no more. I hit that point a while ago. One reason I don’t talk a lot about my work as, specifically, a Black writer, is a lot of people aren’t knowledgeable enough beyond the tip of their noses for the answer. They want to know “Why should I allow you in?” — a heinous question in itself — when the actual question to put to them is “What are you so afraid of?”

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Richard Stark’s Parker, Part 10: The Jugger

Richard Stark’s Parker, Part 10: The Jugger

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The Jugger, by Richard Stark (Pocket Books, 1965)

What is it?

Volume 6 of Richard Stark’s Parker series of crime novels.

A “jugger” is a slang term for a safecracker. Interestingly, my research has shown that this was never a term in common use. It seems as if Westlake might have created the term “jugger” himself, and then used it as the title of this book, as well as the description of what Joe Sheer did, back before he retired.

This is sort of the On Her Majesty’s Secret Service of Parker novels. It’s unlike the rest of the series in a number of ways, and was not well-regarded by fans for a while. But, like that Bond film, it has enjoyed something of a renaissance among afficionados in more recent years. Today it’s considered one of the better entries in Parker’s chronicles.

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Short, Strange Trip: Stalker #1 – 4, by Paul Levitz, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood

Short, Strange Trip: Stalker #1 – 4, by Paul Levitz, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood

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Stalker, issue 1 (DC Comics, June 4, 1975). Cover by Wally Wood and Steve Ditko

It must have looked like a can’t-lose comic: An original sword and sorcery title with art by two legends. One was Steve Ditko — the co-creator of Marvel’s biggest solo superhero, Spider-Man, and creator of Marvel’s psychedelic occult investigator, Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange. The other was Wally Wood, the storied veteran of EC Comics’ infamous horror and crime titles.

With scripts by future DC Comics President/Publisher Paul Levitz, DC’s new S&S series (launching in July 1975) would be bizarre and amazing and creepy, filled with the touches that made the mid-Twentieth-Century Dr. Strange comic such a trip, and it would be set within the Weird and horrific and sometimes-cosmic environs of a fantasy subgenre still fresh to comics.

And Stalker was all of these things, except a hit. The bimonthly title was unfortunately cancelled in January 1976, after four issues.

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Prometheus Undone – Or, Cohen Meets the Gods (Terry Pratchett)

Prometheus Undone – Or, Cohen Meets the Gods (Terry Pratchett)

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I have written a half-dozen essays on the late, great, Terry Pratchett. As with Robert E. Howard, Rex Stout, and some other authors, I discovered him late in my reading life. I was a fan of Good Omens (I STILL find the streaming series unwatchable. David Tenant is nothing like Azrael to me), but I had never read a single Discworld novel.

Being a huge Douglas Adams fan, I gave Guards, Guards! a try, and I was hooked. I’ve since called him a ‘modern-day fantasy Voltaire.’ Do the kids still read Candide? We did in high school. I liked it.

The Last Hero is a 2001 illustrated novella, and is a rather unique work. This is sized between a coffee table book and an over-sized hardback, and it is LAVISHLY illustrated by Paul Kidby. There’s barely a page that doesn’t have some kind of background, or at least a block letter. And it’s literally filled with drawings of all sizes; Including full two-page spreads. If you like Kidby’s art, this will be one of your favorite Pratchetts. I’m not overestimating the sheer volume of terrific art in this. I cannot give enough praise and credit to this labor of love. I have the illustrated Eric, and this is a whole other level.

The story itself is a Pratchett-esque take on the Greek myth of Prometheus. Since we don’t teach the classics anymore, a quick recap: Prometheus was a Titan who sided with Zeus in the big rebellion against an overbearing father.

Later, seeing the suffering of man, he steals fire and brings it down from Mt. Olympus, giving mankind its greatest gift. That doesn’t fly well with the god crowd, so he’s captured and chained to a rock. Every day an eagle comes and eats his liver: Which then grows back for tomorrow’s snack. Man. Zeus could really be a vindictive SOB. Prometheus, Sisyphus: it’s not just punishment. It’s a repeatable action, for an eternity of torment. Eventually, Prometheus is freed by Hercules.

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Weird Times 7: Labour and the Economy

Weird Times 7: Labour and the Economy

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The J.P Morgan Bank at 23 Wall Street, New York, built in 1914.
This is the sixth post in a series reflecting on the world of the 1920s as a background to early issues of Weird Tales. Imagine that you’re an American in a big city in 1923, and you’re taking a walk to the newsstand to buy the first issue of a new pulp fiction magazine. What sort of things might you see? What do those things suggest about ways people think? Or about the stories they tell?

Perhaps you’ll see a bank. Bank architecture in the 1920s typically follows traditions going back to the 18th century, in terms of what the architecture is supposed to convey and how. Neo-classical buildings speak of power and security. You can leave your money in one of these temple-like structures, and feel safe. The bank will not disappear, it will not collapse, it will not fall before the bombs of a robber or a revolutionary. That matters; in an age before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation the collapse of a bank can wipe out a depositor’s savings. And certainly this is an age that has recently seen many panics and controversies revolving around money and the economy; therefore often also revolving around politics, and around labour.

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Remembering Children of the Dragon, by Frank S. Robinson

Remembering Children of the Dragon, by Frank S. Robinson

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Children of the Dragon by Frank Robinson (Avon Books, January 1978). Cover by Sanjulian

The fact that people are not ruled by any god frees them to rule themselves. The fact that fate is blind frees people to take their fate into their own hands. The fact that the race has no purpose frees its individual members to pursue their own purposes. And so, the fact that bare human life is without intrinsic value does not mean human endeavor is pointless. Just as a worthless chunk of stone can be sculpted into a precious work of art, so too can a raw, common life become great by what its owner makes of it. And that endeavor is the key to life — with no god, no other value to existence — a man’s own endeavor is everything.

— from Children of the Dragon, by Frank Robinson

There are no dragons in this novel, as I first thought when I bought Children of the Dragon back in 1978. There are no wizards or witches, no magic, no strange beasts or monsters. This is alternate-world fiction, without any of the usual fantasy tropes. Probably the first or one of the first novels that later would be labeled Grimdark, for this certainly is a grim and dark novel.

Sadly, Robinson wrote only this one “fantasy” novel. He wrote no sequels, no other fantasy. The cover reads “Frank Robinson,” but inside the book his name is Frank S. Robinson, and that is the name under which the book is copyrighted. He also wrote a few other fiction and non-fiction books under that name, but he was not prolific. (His agent was Virginia Kidd, a high-profile agent in her day, to whom he dedicated this novel. She also represented science fiction writer Avram Davidson.)

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Forgotten Authors: Howard Schoenfeld

Forgotten Authors: Howard Schoenfeld

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Howard Schoenfeld

Howard Schoenfeld was born on January 2, 1915 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He attended the University of Syracuse. For Christmas in 1933, he visited Manhattan for the first time and a year later moved to Greenwich Village, where he got a job an editor for See magazine, a photo magazine and as deputy editor-in-chief for Uncensored. He also worked as a public relations officer for the Workers’ Defense League.

Schoenfeld refused to register for the draft in 1940, stating that he was a pacifist and that peacetime conscription was unlawful. He wound up spending 11 months in prison before being paroled to serve an additional seven months at a Quaker work camp for conscientious objectors. Schoenfeld wrote about his experiences in “The Danbury Story,” and went on to write a political column for The Conscientious Objector.

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Get Thee to a Convention (If You Can)

Get Thee to a Convention (If You Can)

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A close up image of a mechanical typewriter.
Image by Patrik Houštecký from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

There is nothing to rant about this week. I have exhausted my disbelief and incredulity on the four issues I noticed last time. I have also not been on social media all that much since then. I’m gearing up for a SFF convention this weekend, and I am very far behind on that front, so I’m a little stressed.

I am, however, extremely grateful that conventions exists. They can be terribly scary and extremely stressful, but they’re also a really good time. At least, Can*Con is. If you’re trying to break into the writing world, finding conventions that focus on what you’re writing is a really, really good idea.

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Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone – 3 Good Reasons: Murder is No Joke

Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone – 3 Good Reasons: Murder is No Joke

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I haven’t written about Nero Wolfe in a year and-a-half? Flummery! Most NOT satisfactory. So…

Welcome to another installment of 3 Good Reasons. With a goal of eventually tackling every tale of the Corpus, I’ll give three reasons why the particular story at hand is the best Nero Wolfe of them all. Since I’m writing over seventy ‘Best Story’ essays, the point isn’t actually to pick one – just to point out some of what is good in every adventure featuring Wolfe and Archie. And I’ll toss in one reason it’s not the best story. Now – These essays will contain SPOILERS. You have been warned!

The Story

Today’s story is “Murder is No Joke” from And Four To Go. It’s the fourth and final story, and a bit of a ‘debutante at the wrong ball.’ Each of the first three has a holiday theme.

Flora Gallant is worried about the influence which the mysterious Bianca Voss has over her brother Alec; an internationally acclaimed fashion designer. A call to Bianca, from Wolfe’s office, goes awry when Voss is apparently murdered while on the other end of the line. Inspector Cramer finds it awfully convenient, and Wolfe sets out to identify the miscreant.

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Peter Pan by JM Barrie

Peter Pan by JM Barrie

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Hitherto he had thought it was some fiend fighting him, but darker suspicions assailed him now.
‘Pan, who and what art thou?’ he cried huskily.
‘I’m youth, I’m joy,’ Peter answered at a venture, ‘I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.’
This, of course, was nonsense; but it was proof to the unhappy Hook that Peter did not know in the least who or what he was, which is the very pinnacle of good form.
‘To ‘t again,’ he cried despairingly.

from CHAPTER XV ‘HOOK OR ME THIS TIME’

Leaving work yesterday, a friend expressed surprise when he saw my copy of JM Barrie’s 1911 novel, Peter Pan, in my hand. “You’re reading Peter Pan, the kids’ book?” he asked. To which I answered, “Yes. But it’s not a kids’ book, because it’s about a sociopathic twelve-year-old.” An exaggeration, perhaps, but not much of one.

I think most people, if they think of Peter Pan at all, it’s either because of the 1953 Disney movie or the long-running stage productions with first Sandy Duncan and later Cathy Rigby. For them he’s merely the boy who never grows up and spends his time fighting the Captain Hook and his crew of blackguards. Now, those are important elements of the book, but they barely hint at the depths contained between its covers. It is a much weirder, darker book than the Disney version.

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