Art of the Genre: Magic Kingdom for Sale — Sold

Art of the Genre: Magic Kingdom for Sale — Sold

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Uh... can I see inside that fortress please?
Uh... can I see inside that fortress please?

First off, no, this has nothing to do with Terry Brooks…

So I recently saw Conan 3D 2011… and yeah I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not going to go into that because it’s been beaten to death elsewhere, and certainly here on Black Gate. Still, I had to wonder after seeing it, what did the world of Hyboria get for its 2011 dollar?

Considering the movie reviews and box office receipts, whatever the cost for art direction it was far too much. As I watched, I contemplated the words of John Fultz and his thoughts concerning the imagery of the movie when he said… wait, I’m going to go look this up so John can’t complain I misquoted him… Ok, here we go…

The Hyborian Age has never looked so wondrous, splendid, and believable on screen. From the virgin wilderness and Cimmerian villages to the decadent, sprawling cities, the vast monasteries, and the ancient citadels with skull-shaped caves, the movie simply looks fantastic. The costuming too is spot-on and suitably grimy, evocative, and well-designed. Same goes for the props: swords, spears, armor, ships, etc.

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Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Venus, Part 3: Carson of Venus

Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Venus, Part 3: Carson of Venus

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carson-of-venus-1st-edition-coverFive years have passed since Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Lost on Venus, and the world has undergone a startling and disturbing metamorphosis. Something sinister and confusing is taking place in Europe, and across the Atlantic waters the people of the United States are growing concerned at the saber-rattling of Nazi Germany. The poverty-crippled period in which ERB wrote the previous Venus books has given way to a time of escalating fear of a second great war.

Does this have anything to do with the next novel of the Venus saga, 1938’s Carson of Venus? Of course not. That the villains of the book are called “the Zanis,” and that they rule through a tyrannical personality-cult dictatorship complete with ritualized salutes, concentration camps, and rampant murder of political undesirables is mere coincidence.

Our Saga: The adventures of one Mr. Carson Napier, former stuntman and amateur rocketeer, who tries to get to Mars and ends up on Venus, a.k.a. Amtor, instead. There he discovers a lush jungle planet of bizarre creatures and humanoids who have uncovered the secret of longevity. Carson finds time during his adventuring in the various warring countries of the planet to fall for Duare, forbidden daughter of a king. Carson’s story covers three novels, a volume of connected novellas, and a final orphaned novella.

Previous Installments: Pirates of Venus (1932), Lost on Venus (1933)

Today’s Installment: Carson of Venus (1938)

The Backstory

Edgar Rice Burroughs was in a creative slump at the close of the 1930s. The success of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films at MGM and the creation of his own publishing company meant a steady flow of revenue, but the famous author found his new fiction getting rejected from the regular magazine markets that had featured him for more than twenty years. Even Tarzan was no longer dependable. Burroughs was not a young man anymore, and the magazine rejections seemed to hint that his best writing years were behind him. At least he could always publish the books through his own company, but the publicity from magazine serialization was an important way to boost sales.

It was during this turbulent time that ERB tried a few experiments. After leaving the Venus series alone for five years, he returned to it with a spy story reflecting the political tensions of the day.

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Them Old Submission Blues: On Blogging, Writing Communities and Keeping Spirits Up

Them Old Submission Blues: On Blogging, Writing Communities and Keeping Spirits Up

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bgdeskDear Black Gate Readers,

Something really cool just happened over on LiveJournal.

Since I’m sort of still grinning about it, I thought I’d take this opportunity to write about the importance of finding or creating a community of friends and artists who — even if they can’t do anything about your stack o’ rejections, those self-imposed deadlines you keep failing to make, or the number of times your head thumps a desk (in my case, the wall. I don’t know why, but I just find walls more… thumpable… somehow) — are there for you, in whatever way they can be. Even across the miles. Even across state lines! Or oceans!

This is a great age for long-distance friendships, isn’t it? I love it.

Writing is lonesome. And, you know what? THAT’S WHY IT’S APPEALING! You’re one on one with yourself, dueling with your demons, exploring your dreamscapes, loaded to the max with your Tools of Toil: laptop, fountain pen, coffee mug (in my case, tea cup, ’cause coffee? GROSS!), notebooks, dictionary (or dictionary.com), and nothing to disturb you except maybe the dishes, the laundry, the kids (well, NOT in my case, but I know plenty of writers who are parents), the bills, and everything else we have to deal with.

That great escape into lonesomeness is one of the best things about writing.

But sometimes you get discouraged, maybe. And maybe that’s when the lonesomeness is not so great anymore.

So you go to your community. Maybe you post about it on your blog. Anything to make the burden lighter.

And then, in the midst of your writer pals’ commiserations, something like this might happen…

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Greer Gilman and Cloud & Ashes

Greer Gilman and Cloud & Ashes

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Cloud & AshesI recently finished reading Greer Gilman’s second novel, 2009’s Cloud & Ashes. I’ve never come across Gilman’s first book, Moonwise, but I’m now looking forward to tracking it down.

Cloud & Ashes is a complex, powerful work. It repays careful attention, attentiveness to patterns of imagery, and readiness to work out unknown words from context (this is less a book to read alongside an open dictionary than alongside an open internet connection, which can find obscure, archaic, and dialect words). It demands rereading, and I won’t claim to understand all of it. But I think I can say a few things with confidence — to start with, that it’s a stunning, compelling work of language, and that the apparent occasional difficulty of the text is not only necessary but part of the novel’s overall effect.

In a world much like our own, in a time and place that resembles Scotland or northern England around 1600 in its culture and language use, a generational story of mothers and daughters is played out which derives from and intersects with the seasonal myths of the land. Witches are a real and powerful presence. Companies of guisers travel about, presenting dramas of archetypal powers. And at crucial points of the year, as summer goes out or comes in, everyone takes part in rituals of death and rebirth; a woman must play the part of Ashes each winter, in order to bring in a new spring.

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Elwy Yost, July 10, 1925 – July 21, 2011

Elwy Yost, July 10, 1925 – July 21, 2011

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elwy-yost1I know, I know.  You’ve never heard of Elwy Yost.

But you probably didn’t grow up in Ontario in the late 70s and early 80s. Those who did knew and loved Elwy Yost.

Elwy Yost was the host of TVOntario’s Saturday Night at the Movies from 1974–99 and, more importantly to me, the half-hour weekday show Magic Shadows, from 1974 until the mid-80s.

When I was 12 years old in 1976, my after-school ritual was well-established. Walk home from Sir Wilfred Laurier High School, finish homework, eat dinner, and then stretch out on the living room floor, lying on my stomach with my feet in the air, to watch Magic Shadows.

Magic Shadows presented classic Hollywood movies, cut into half-hour serials and introduced by Yost with erudite and infectious enthusiasm. Best of all, Yost had an unapologetic fondness for the occasional monster movie, including King Kong, Gorgo, and others. On those weeks when the main feature would wrap up by Thursday, Friday would feature an episode of a true film serial like The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Mysterious Doctor Satan, or Captain America.

For those who do remember, here’s the animated intro to Magic Shadows on YouTube, and a sample of classic Yost as he introduced the 1954 Marlon Brando pic Desirée. Watching these two clips brought me right back to the late 70s. [Thanks to my friend Todd Ruthman for sending them my way.]

In later years Elwy Yost was overshadowed by his son, Graham Yost, who moved to California to become a screenwriter (Speed, Broken Arrow) and writer/director (of the HBO miniseries The Pacific). Speed was the last movie Yost hosted before retiring from Saturday Night at the Movies in 1999. Elwy Yost wrote Magic Moments from the Movies and two young adult novels, Secret of the Lost Empire and Billy and the Bubbleship, and a mystery novel, White Shadows.

I would develop a lasting fondness for pulp fiction when I discovered pulp magazines later in high school. But it was Elwy Yost who showed me that the best adventure fiction — yes, even monster movies — deserved to be preserved and studied with the same loving attention as the finest cinema. He was a man who loved film, and who communicated that love to an entire generation of young Canadians.

I miss him already.

The Dying Bookstore, Continued

The Dying Bookstore, Continued

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ri_-img_2608Further news on the plight of the physical bookstore front.  Berkeley’s Serendipity Books is closing. Man, if a bookstore can’t survive in Berkeley, where can it?  Well, one place is Charlottesville, VA, which I chose to move to in part because of the plethora of bookstores.  But even here in this cultural mecca that shades blue in otherwise red  territory, bookstores may not survive the retirement or demise of their owners.

In related news, Criminal Records, one of Atlanta’s largest non-chain music retailers whose owner was involved in forming Record Store Day, a nationwide event to increase awareness of and traffic to independent record stores, is expected to close by November, barring some benefactor.  Eric Levin blames the economy, not digital downloads or box stores, but it would also seem he missed the class about paying your taxes.

Speaking of the demise of physical presence, Michael Hart, who is credited with creating the first e-book forty years ago by typing the Declaration of Independence into a computer on, you guessed it, July 4, has died.

If you can, go out today to your local bookseller/record store and buy something.  Do your bit to get the economy going. Exactly how someone is supposed to help you get your personal economy going, I’m not sure, but a good book or record can at least make you feel better about not being able to buy other stuff you can’t afford.

The Problem with ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST

The Problem with ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST

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elric3
“Arioch! Blood and Souls!”

When I heard that Boom! Studios was putting together a new series starring Michael Moorcock’s most beloved and iconic character Elric of Melnibone, I was instantly on board. Especially when the Free Comic Book Day preview was released. Lo and behold! Great art by Francesco Biagini was just what the Prince of Ruins needed to bring him to life in a new comics venture!

So I jumped on board when the first issue of ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST hit the comics stands, and I was pleasantly surprised that not only was the art fantastic, but the writing is good as well. Chris Roberson does a nice job filling Moorcock’s shoes, throwing multiversal concepts around with great abandon. Great art. Great writing. What’s not to like?

Here’s the problem: ELRIC isn’t really an ELRIC comic. We’re three -and-a-half issues in and we’ve gotten only about one issue’s worth of Elric story time (if that). The trouble with this new book is that it should be called Michael Moorcock’s ETERNAL CHAMPION because every issue is divided between the ongoing (and apparently unrelated!) stories of Elric and several other Moorcock creations: Dorian Hawkmoon, Corum Jhaelen, and Eric Beck (?). Only those who are familiar with Moorcock’s body of non-comics fiction will have any idea that each of these characters is a variation or facet of the Eternal Champion–the hero that exists in all realities at once.

Instead of featuring Elric of Melnibone as its main character, we get a melange of four different stories–a blend of science fiction, steampunk, alternate history, and a smidgen of sword-and-sorcery. “What’s wrong with that? Sounds like a nice blend!” I hear somebody asking in the back row. The problem isn’t in the concepts, it’s in the execution.

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Blogging Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Part Eleven – “Outlaws of Mongo”

Blogging Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Part Eleven – “Outlaws of Mongo”

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outlaws-of-mongo1outlaws-of-mongo2“Outlaws of Mongo” was the eleventh installment of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon Sunday comic strip serial for King Features Syndicate. Originally printed between August 15, 1937 and June 5, 1938, the epic-length “Outlaws of Mongo” picks up the storyline where the tenth installment, “The Beast Men of Mongo” left off with Barin, Flash and Dale returning to Arboria. The traitor, Grombo collapses while crossing the desert, but is saved from carrion birds by Ming’s Desert Legion. Ming rewards Grombo by appointing him a Captain. Ming confronts Barin and demands that he hand Flash and Dale over, Barin refuses. Fearing the situation will quickly escalate to a war that would devastate Arboria, Flash decides to flee to the jungles of Arboria so that Barin can report his escape to Ming. The Emperor, of course, demands Barin hand Dale over and when he refuses, Ming orders Arboria destroyed by his air fleet.

Don Moore and Alex Raymond’s stories were growing more complex and as a consequence, Mongo and its lands and peoples were becoming more detailed. The two also clarify the point that the kingdoms of Mongo are denied the technology that Ming’s forces command to ensure they cannot successfully revolt. Moore’s script also specifies that Barin views Flash as a savior who has come to Mongo to liberate its kingdoms from Barin’s tyrannical father-in-law. Flash stumbles out of the jungles of Arboria into the desert and discovers Ming’s tanks are rolling in. Flash singlehandedly commandeers a tank, overpowering the crew and turns its gun on the rest of the fleet as well as the infantry. Meantime, the air fleet has launched and is en route to bomb Arboria.

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Goth Chick News: 13 Questions for Blood Junky Author Stavros

Goth Chick News: 13 Questions for Blood Junky Author Stavros

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6x9-cover-templateIf you happen to be familiar with the Black Gate submission guidelines, then you’ve read the following on our feelings about vampires around the office:

We see far too much bad vampire fiction, and if you think you’re going to surprise readers by revealing your hero is a vampire on the last page, you’re dead wrong.

As a hard-core vampire fan you might think this would be just another chafing point for me, along with the toilet seat being left up in the unisex bathrooms and Scott Taylor coming in shirtless and pretending to be an Ork every Halloween.

But no.

I wholeheartedly support this anti-vampire stance but not just because most vampire fiction is bad. It’s because it is a rare thing indeed, to find a truly unique take on the concept. Bram Stoker created an epic character and ever since, it’s pretty much been the same thing only different; slight variations on all the major themes of immortality, blood consumption, aversion to daylight, etc, etc, etc.

Yawn.

Imaginative vampires in literature are as difficult to find as the real thing, but thankfully, not impossible.

Enter Stavros — an artist and author who, like Dracula, goes by one name — and his first novel Blood Junky. I devoured the book in one sitting which is not what I expected to do when I first talked to Stavros about it at this year’s Comic-Con. This story was really, truly different; it was cool and kind of gross. I couldn’t put it down.

I had to know more about this guy and this book.

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Art of the Genre: Eowyn, Nouveau, and Herman Lau

Art of the Genre: Eowyn, Nouveau, and Herman Lau

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Herman Lau's Nouveau look at Eowyn and the Lich King... Click for Larger Image
Herman Lau's Nouveau look at Eowyn and the Lich King... Click for Larger Image

Eowyn… a fantasy lover’s dream… When I first read Tolkien, I fell in love with her, and really what boy wouldn’t? I’m pretty sure I was in love with her even before I read Lord of the Rings, having watched the Rankin and Bass Return of the King where the Pelennor Fields is laid out in all its animated glory.

Pelennor Fields gets me every time, my adoration of Theoden and his fear that he will never be good enough to sit at the table with his ancestors a strong enough subplot to carry the battle into my top five literary moments. Theoden, however, pales in comparison to Eowyn’s battle with the Lich King, and this cements her as a heroine for the ages.

Her conflict and resolution have been the subject of countless artist’s visions, and you’ll not find a Tolkien calendar, omnibus, reference, etc without this scene portrayed in it. Somehow, Eowyn has transcended the pages, surpassed Frodo and the ring, eclipsed Aragorn and the shards of Narsil, and overshadowed Gandalf and the Balrog while talking hold of Tolkien’s world as the image to both render and remember.

I, like all of you, have seen countless renditions of this conflict, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that I had a new take on the subject material capture my imagination. Before I detail this, let me first set the stage.

I’m a pretty big fan of The Art Order, a site run by Wizards of the Coast Creative Director Jon Schindehette. He does some great stuff over there, and I have to say that some of my favorite topics deal with contests, or should I say ‘challenges’.

One of this year’s artistic competitions revolved around Eowyn and the Nazgul, each artist tasked with the following line, ‘There’s nothing complicated about this challenge – review the scene in the book, and create your own interpretation of the scene…’ The requirements didn’t end there, and if you continued to scroll down you discovered what I perceived as the most interesting aspect of the challenge, the judging, which read as follows, ‘As always quality is a major player in the judging as well as fulfilling the art order, but this time you are also going to be judged on the innovation of your interpretation, and the storytelling of the piece.’

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