Monthly Archives: April 2022

A Tribute to James Bama, Pulp Reprint Artist Extraordinaire by John Bullard

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James Bama

I received word from my friend Tony Tollin Sunday night that the artist James Bama passed away in his sleep. I never got a chance to meet him, although when I was going to be up in Wyoming in 2018, Tony offered to put me in contact with him to see if I could meet him in person, but I felt I would be too busy with other things, and mainly, I felt that I would be imposing on him, so I declined.

James Bama was a highly successful commercial artist, painting covers for magazines and paperback books from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. When he decided to retire, he moved to Wyoming and began painting incredible portraits of American West subjects. His style is of the school of photo realism. Continue reading →

Bob Howard Rides Again!: A Review of The Cowboy and the Conqueror by John Bullard

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So, if you remember my review of A Cowboy in Carpathia, written by Teel James Glenn, last December, I liked the book and its plot of Robert E. Howard not killing himself and going off to travel the world and have exciting exploits. I expressed a desire that the author of the book, Teel James Glenn, would continue writing the adventures of Bob Howard. Mr. Glenn has answered my wish and written the second in what looks like a continuing series of the exploits of Robert E. Howard—The Cowboy and the Conqueror, which was published a month ago. I ordered a copy and have just finished reading it. How is it, you ask? Well, read on. Continue reading →

A Belated Report on the 2022 Jack Williamson Lectureship

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Things have been crazy this past month, and I’ve been too busy with other projects and/or just wiped out to get this up sooner.

COVID killed the lectureship in 2020. Last year’s was all online. That was better than nothing, but everyone agreed it was less than satisfactory. Fortunately, this year’s event was held in person. It was good to be back in Portales again. I’d attended in 2018 and 2019 and had a fantastic time. Continue reading →

Kuttner’s “Line to Tomorrow”

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One of the things Henry Kuttner excelled at was the dark, sardonic twist at the end of many of his stories. Another thing he excelled at was time travel stories. Often in the same story. We’ll look at one of these today that he wrote in collaboration with his wife C. L. Moore that was published under their pen name Lewis Padgett.

Speaking of today, it’s Kuttner’s birthday, April 7, as this post goes live. I wasn’t able to read something for the birthday of Kuttner’s friend Robert Bloch. I wasn’t going to make that mistake for Kuttner.

“Line to Tomorrow” begins with Jerry Fletcher answering the phone way too early in the morning. He can only hear one voice. It seems to be a call between two people, but much of what they’re talking about doesn’t make sense. Continue reading →

I Didn’t Forget Bloch’s Birthday…

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…not exactly. I’ve been swamped with other things.

Robert Bloch, one of the best short fiction writers of the weird and fantastic was born today, April 5, 1917. Hey, it’s still the 5th where and when I’m writing this.

I’ve not read any of his work in observance of his birthday yet, but I’ll try to fit something in over the next few days. Sadly, much of his work is currently out of print. There are a few things  up on Amazon, but they look sketchy.

What short story of Bloch’s would  you suggest I read (or reread)?