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Vintage Treasures: Solomon Kane: The Hills of the Dead, by Robert E. Howard

Vintage Treasures: Solomon Kane: The Hills of the Dead, by Robert E. Howard

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solomon-kane-the-hills-of-the-deadWith all the recent discussion around these parts about Conan and Robert E. Howard, I figured the best use of my time this week would be to sit back and enjoy some genuine Robert E. Howard.

With output as vast as Howard’s, the biggest challenge was choosing what to read. One of my favorite Howard pieces is “Skulls in the Stars,” a genuinely creepy tale in which Solomon Kane investigates a moonlit moor trail haunted by a vindictive spirit, so I decided on Solomon Kane: The Hills of the Dead. It was the second Kane paperback published by Bantam Books (the first was Solomon Kane: Skulls in the Stars, in December, 1978). The striking cover is part of a fold-out poster by Bob Larkin.

In a world ruled by piracy, stalked by vampires, peopled by cities of the inhuman, he stood tall amid the terrors of the Dark Continent. Kane, a man of savage and unconquerable courage, strode deep into the jungles, forever slashing his diamond-edged rapier as evil guided the creatures of the night toward him. Wicked whispers of death touched him. Haunted horrors of the world beyond life reached for him. But Kane never halted his march, for he would never rest until the final, epic duel between light and dark was waged… and won.

Disappointingly, I discovered the contents are not pure Howard — in fact, two of the five stories within were completed by Ramsey Campbell, who also provides the introduction.

Introduction: The Mystery of Solomon Kane, by Ramsey Campbell
“The Hills of the Dead”
“Hawk of Basti” (completed by Ramsey Campbell)
“The Return of Sir Richard Grenville” (poem)
“Wings in the Night”
“The Footfalls Within”
“The Children of Asshur” (completed by Ramsey Campbell)
“Solomon Kane’s Homecoming” (poem)

Still, these’s lots here to enjoy. I’m especially pleased to see the poetry, and Campbell’s introduction, which as far as I know is unique to this volume.

Solomon Kane: The Hills of the Dead was published in paperback by Bantam Books in March, 1979. It is 141 pages, with a cover price of $1.95.

Robots versus Musketeers: The Last Musketeer by Jason

Robots versus Musketeers: The Last Musketeer by Jason

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the-last-musketeer-smallI haven’t read anything by the Norwegian cartoonist Jason before, but I’ve been intrigued for a while. So last week I ordered a copy of Isle of 100,000 Graves from Amazon.com. For a while I had The Last Musketeer in my cart as well — I didn’t know anything about it, but the cover looked cool.

Now pay attention, because this is one of the dangers of online shopping that no one talks about. I’ve never wandered by the counter at Barnes & Noble and accidentally purchased something, for example. But apparently, I forgot to take The Last Musketeer out of my cart, ’cause it showed up with the rest of my order. Whoops.

Now, Amazon has a very forgiving return policy. But to take advantage of it, you have to do stuff. Not the least of which is actually return the item in question. That’s a lot harder to do when it has both a Musketeer and a robot on the cover. You try it.

Anyway, now I have a copy of The Last Musketeer. I read it today, and quite enjoyed it.

Athos, one of the original members of Dumas’s The Three Musketeers, is living a wasted existence as a drunk and a bum in modern Paris, when the city is attacked by ‘laser blasts” originating from the planet Mars. In fine pulp fashion, Athos tracks down a pair of ray-gun toting invaders wandering the city, defeats them with his trusty rapier, and forces the surviving Martian to take him to his rocket ship, where they blast off for the alien planet (one of the running gags in the strip is that Athos has no clue what planet he’s on).

It goes without saying that the comic celebrates all the conventions of 1930s-era pulp science fiction, right down to the goofy alien costumes, stubby rockets, and giant cast-iron video screens. There’s no explanation for how an 1840s-era French Musketeer is still alive in modern Paris, and none is needed. This comic has one audience: those who want to see Athos the Musketeer battle robots on the sands of Mars. If that’s not you, don’t put it in your Amazon cart (even by accident).

But if it is you, I think you’ll have a good time. My one criticism is that the dialog seemed oddly wooden; I put the blame for that mostly on Kim Thompson’s translation. Perhaps I’ve just gotten spoiled by the elegant and frequently hilarious translations in modern manga, especially Fairy Tail and the brilliant Fullmetal Alchemist. But it seemed the crisp and subtle artwork demanded crisp and subtle dialog, and that wasn’t always the case.

The Last Musketeer was published by Fantagraphics in January, 2008. It is 48 pages in full color, and priced at $12.95.

Discover the Secret History of World War Two in Achtung! Cthulhu

Discover the Secret History of World War Two in Achtung! Cthulhu

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achtung-cthulhu-smallOn Tuesday, I talked about the latest crop of exciting fantasy games I’ve discovered, with the help of The Paris Fashion Week of Fantasy Games. They included recent supplements for CthulhuTech, the game of Cthulhu versus giant robots, and Incursion, an intriguing mash-up of BattleTech and Squad Leader.

Cthulhu, zombies, Nazi super-science, occult experiments… you’d think these two games alone would keep me completely content for the next decade. And they might have, too, if I hadn’t just discovered Modiphius Entertainment’s Achtung! Cthulhu.

Before you accuse me of having the attention span of a three-year-old, I’d like to point out that Achtung! Cthulhu combines all that stuff in one game.

Did you ever want to see what would happen if Sgt. Rock went toe-toe-toe with the minions of Nyarlathotep in Nazi Germany? If Indiana Jones stumbled on a nest of shuggoths in Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden?

These are rhetorical questions; of course you did.

Achtung! Cthulhu is a tabletop roleplaying campaign that pits elite Allied soldiers against Chthonians, Deep Ones, Dimensional Shamblers, the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, and other creatures from H.P. Lovercraft’s Cthulhu mythos. It is fully compatible with Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu, and versions are in the works for Realms of Cthulhu (for Savage Worlds), Pelgrane Press’s Trail of Cthulhu, and the PDQ Core Rules from Atomic Sock Monkey.

The first series of adventures is called “Zero Point,” and so far two chapters have been published: Three Kings and Heroes of the Sea, both written by Black Gate‘s own Sarah Newton. The overall series is under the direction of Chris Birch.

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X-Plorers: Space Exploration the Way it Should Be

X-Plorers: Space Exploration the Way it Should Be

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x-plorersI have to admit I’ve been generally disappointed with science fiction role playing games. It’s true that I’ve discovered some recent gems — especially Ashen Stars and Rogue Trader — but I don’t really get to game much these days, so they’re mostly of academic interest.

You know what would have been great? Discovering a fast-paced, easy-to-learn science fiction RPG when I was still gaming every weekend. One that captured the spirit of 1950s sci-fi, when space exploration meant wide-eyed explorers stepping gingerly out onto mist-shrouded planets, clutching futuristic sidearms and highly unreliable sensing equipment.

I’m talking about the science fiction of Forbidden Planet and Planet of Vampires, where every alien landscape concealed ancient secrets, unknowably strange artifacts of long-dead races, and sinister lifeforms. When an alien encounter meant checking first to make sure the safety was off.

A key feature to this ideal science fiction game, of course, would be that it’s rules-light. Something you and your friends could learn in an afternoon at most, and be deep into your first encounter with space vampires on the rings of Saturn before the evening news.

Believe it or not, at long last my ideal science fiction role playing game seems to have finally arrived: X-plorers, from Brave Halfling Publications. X-plorers celebrates the spirit of pulp science fiction in all the best ways, and it unapologetically embraces those things that made it great, including robots, space pirates, and aliens with tentacles.

There’s even an entry in the Sample Creatures section for Vampire Moths. You see? That’s what I’m talking about.

And yes, it’s a very quick read — about 25 pages of core rules. The chapter on Playing the Game is shorter than the Equipment chapter. These guys know how to write a rulebook.

X-Plorers was written in 2009 by David Bezio, and first published by Brave Halfing in 2011. I have no idea why I haven’t seen it before now, but I’m glad I spotted it on the New Arrivals shelf of my local game store when I did. It is 40 pages, professionally illustrated, and priced at $12.95; a PDF version is available for $5.95. Complete details at the Brave Halfling website.

Cover Your Naked Books, Please

Cover Your Naked Books, Please

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shiversOn Tuesday, I mentioned a few of the vintage anthologies I bought from the collection of Martin Harry Greenberg at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Show. I’ve been enjoying them quite a bit, and I certainly couldn’t argue with the price.

However, most of them were coverless. Maybe Greenberg used those beautiful old dust jackets to wrap Christmas presents, I dunno. Anyway, they look a little odd that way on my shelves.

But we live in the era of the Internet, when you can find anything you want from the comfort of your couch, so I figured I could find a cover for the 1949 Merlin Press edition of From Off This World, maybe. As enjoyable as that book is, it would look a lot better with that Virgil Finlay wraparound cover. I’m not asking much — just a brand new dust jacket for an obscure 60-year old hardcover from a forgotten publisher. Give it up, Internet.

And you know what? I found one.

Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC sells over 7,700 high-quality reproductions of dust jackets for rare and collectable books. Mark Terry, the mad genius behind the company, tells us it is the sole funding for his “Dust Jacket Archive Project.” He’s traveled all over North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Bahamas and Jamaica, scanning collections and accumulating over 50,000 jackets. Nice work if you can get it.

Just browsing through his online catalog is fascinating. His SciFi/Fantasy/Supernatural category includes over 800 vintage covers from Gnome Press, Arkham House, Doubleday, and many other publishers. I immediately fell in love with the cover to Shivers, a 1932 British anthology in the Creeps series, from Philip Allan & Co. Just look at the skinny stick dude menacing that plucky young English lass. You know something untoward is in the wind, and no mistake.

The facsimiles are a little pricey (averaging around $22), but I’ve seen much worse in the collector’s market. I’m tempted to buy a handful, to dress up my coverless books and even replace some of the more tattered dust jackets in my collection. And I think I’ll buy a facsimile dust jacket for Shivers, too. I don’t have a copy of Shivers, but I’m willing to grab a random hardcover, throw away the jacket, and put this one on it. Because, damn.

Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC operates out of San Francisco. Their website is here.

Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection

Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection

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universal-classic-monsters-the-essential-collection-classicmonsters_bluraycollection_3d_rgb-560x739This year, the home video divisions of all the major distributors banded together and plotted a full-scale assault on the wallets and bank accounts of Blu-ray owners during September and October. Only the wealthiest could possibly survive an attack that began with the first Hi-Def release of the Indiana Jones films. But the supreme weapon, the ultimate October Surprise, is Universal’s huge ebony slab of fear, nostalgia, and latex make-up: Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection. Spanning twenty-three years and nine films (advertised as eight, sorry Spanish Dracula), the long-anticipated set brings the Masters of Halloween into glorious 1080p for the first time, and in perfect seasonal position to drain your money before you waste it on a Jack Sparrow costume that forty other people are also going to wear to that same party.

Few movie series have had such an impact on filmmaking and popular culture as Universal’s stable of ghouls. They are as much a part of Halloween as Pixie Styx and pumpkin carving. I can’t imagine there are Blu-ray owners with any shred of geek cred out there who won’t want to add this to their shelves. When I received mine in the mail, I rejoiced at the anticipation of a week full of evenings revisiting some of my favorite movies in beautiful restored editions. The box set did not let me down—except for the one film that doesn’t really belong on it, but I anticipated that.

Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection comes packaged in a black slipcase with a side-bound color booklet of trivia. The eight discs contain Dracula (1931), the Spanish-language Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, the 1943 color re-make of The Phantom of the Opera, and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Taking the discs in chronological order, as I did during the week:

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Vintage Treasures: World of Wonder, edited by Fletcher Pratt

Vintage Treasures: World of Wonder, edited by Fletcher Pratt

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world-of-wonder2I’m gradually making my way, with considerable delight, through the vintage science fiction and fantasy anthologies I bought for a few bucks from the collection of Martin H. Greenberg.

I’ve already covered From Off This World (1949) and The Giant Anthology of Science Fiction (1954), both edited by Leo Margulies and Oscar J. Friend. This week, I’ve been fondling Fletcher Pratt’s 1951 World of Wonder, subtitled An Introduction to Imaginative Literature.

Pratt, author of The Well of the Unicorn and The Blue Star, was already a noted fantasy author in his own right by 1951. The science fiction anthology was still a relatively new beast, but the handful that had been published at that point had been generally well received.

Nonetheless, Pratt felt it necessary to grouse about lack of respect in his lengthy introduction:

Now let us not kid ourselves. The stories in this book are fiction, they are literature, whatever definition one chooses to give to those often-disputed terms. A good many people tend to look down on science fiction and fantasy (there is no word that really covers both exactly) because the bulk of it has appeared in magazines with garish covers. They forget that the color of the skin is no guarantee of the flavor of the apple.

Like many books in Greenberg’s collection — especially the vintage anthologies — this one had notes scrawled in the margins, the most prominent being “Fantastic — use. Conflict resolution?” beside H. Beam Piper’s “Operation RSVP.” Greenberg reprinted “Operation RSVP” in Amazing Science Fiction Anthology: The Wild Years 1946-1955 (which I discussed back in June.)

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Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1950: A Retro-Review

Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1950: A Retro-Review

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galaxy-october-1950-smallContinuing in my discovery of Galaxy magazine, I began reading the first issue, dated October 1950. I knew what I’d never see in Galaxy, and but what fiction would I discover within?

“Time Quarry” by Clifford D. Simak is the first of a three-part serial. I don’t see this done often with modern magazines, but it seems like back in the Fifties, novel serializations were part of the norm. I wonder how the rights and payment worked out for that, but I digress.

In Part 1, Asher Sutton returns to Earth after disappearing for twenty years on a space exploration mission to 61 Cygni. Little is known of the planet he landed on; no other ship can get near it due to unexplained anomalies. Since his return, Sutton has drawn attention, both from those who want information and those who want him dead.

“Third From the Sun” by Richard Matheson – A family plans to escape from a world on the brink of war. All they need to do is to take a spaceship for themselves and leave everyone but their closest neighbors behind.

Third From the Sun became the title of Matheson’s first paperback short story collection, published by Bantam Books in 1955.

“The Stars are the Styx” by Theodore Sturgeon – Mankind has the tools for creating vast inter-galactic travel, but it will take 6,000 years to set up the framework. Volunteers are sent (usually as married pairs) out to distant points within the galaxy, and when all are in place, they will create a connected network for instant transportation to each location.

Each person’s choice to go out or return to Earth is made at Curbstone, an Earth satellite run by a man sometimes referred to as Charon. Of the latest arrivals, Charon takes interest in Judson, a young man who seems certain to become Outbounder, provided he doesn’t get too distracted by those who are still undecided.

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The Nightmare Men: “Master By Name, Master By Number”

The Nightmare Men: “Master By Name, Master By Number”

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‘He was impossible to miss. Tall in his dark suit, with his leonine head and imposing looks, he would have seemed prominent in any crowd…’ Such is the description of Titus Crow, delivered by his amanuensis and friend, Henri-Laurent De Marigny in the opening pages of the 1977 story, “The Viking’s Stone”. Created in 1971 by author Brian Lumley, the character was crafted in the tradition of other occult investigators, such as John Silence or Carnacki; Crow was an avowed agent of good, his struggles all the more impressive for occurring as they did in the harsh, nihilistic universe created by HP Lovecraft.

“Titus Crow?” said Arnold. “Yes, well, we’ve all had reason to fear him in our time…”

-Geoffrey Arnold, “The Black Recalled” (1983)

thecompleatcrowTitus Crow first appeared in Lumley’s 1971 story, “The Caller of the Black”. Crow’s credentials as a psychic sleuth and occult investigator are impressively vetted in the story, as he defeats both mortal and immortal enemies through the cunning application of the standard Lovecraftian eldritch lore, a shower faucet and a window pole. From the outset, it is clear that Crow inhabits the same deadly universe as Inspector Legrasse or John Kirowan, where elder entities prey on a mostly unaware human population; but unlike the former, Crow is well-armed against such entities and, unlike the latter, he’s quite happy to test himself against their machinations out of  simple heroism.

Schooled in a wealth of occult lore and possessed of an innate desire to confront evil, Crow is seemingly destined from birth to pit himself against the abominable. Indeed the 1987 story, “Inception” concerns the weird circumstances of Crow’s birth and baptism and the battle between Good and Evil which revolves around the latter. Too, the occult numerology behind the date and hour of that special birth comes into play more than once, as those numbers show Crow to be a Master Magus, a fact which puts a spanner into more than one opponent’s scheme.

In “The Lord of the Worms” (1983), Crow’s early career working for the British War Department in World War Two is mentioned, during which he worked to foil Hitler’s occult machinations. His destruction of the eponymous entity is his first step on the road which leads to his first ‘official’ case as an occult investigator in “The Caller of the Black”, wherein he confronts the villainous sorcerer Gedney and the nightmarish entity known only as ‘The Black’.

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Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu – Part Four

Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu – Part Four

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2203781the-mask-of-fu-manchuSax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu was originally serialized in Collier’s from May 7 to July 23, 1932. It was published in book form later that year by Doubleday in the US and the following year by Cassell in the UK. It became the most successful book in the series thanks to MGM’s cult classic film version starring Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy that made it into theaters later that same year.

The fourth and final part of the book opens with the voyage from Cairo to London. The Marconi operator brings Shan Greville a telegram from Sir Denis Nayland Smith of British Intelligence, warning him that agents of Dr. Fu Manchu will attempt to capture the relics of El Mokanna that Sir Lionel Barton unearthed during his recent expedition in Persia. The irascible parliamentary minister who argued with Sir Lionel before boarding the ship turns out to be the agent of the Si-Fan who breaks into the purser’s safe overnight and absconds with the box he believes contains the priceless relics. He is rescued at sea by a plane which takes him and the contents of the box (concealed inside an inflatable rubber ball) aboard and disappears into the night.

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