Category Archives: Robert E. Howard Foundation

Howard Days 2013, Part 2

Today marks the 77th anniversary of Robert E. Howard’s passing. I’ll be raising a glass later this evening in his memory.

Lansdale and Truman

After lunch, I swung by the post office and picked up some post cards with this year’s commemorative cancellation. Then it was back to the library for the panels. The first one featured GoH Tim Truman. Joe Lansdale interviewed him. Joe wasn’t on the original schedule but had driven over to see Tim. They’ve worked together on a number of projects, including a Conan comic, The Songs of the Dead. As is typical with old friends, their conversation flowed smoothly. This panel was one of the highlights of the weekend.

I have to say that both of these guys were some of the most open and approachable pros I’ve ever met. I’ve met Lansdale at a number of conventions, but this was my first time to meet Truman. They never hesitated to sign something, pose for pictures, or just chat with fans. They were both gentlemen. The fact that they’re both fans of Howard helped, I’m sure, but that’s just how these guys are. I hope they come back.

Rob and Bob Roehm

The next panel was Rob Roehm and his father Bob discussing how they got started traveling around doing research on the places Howard visited in his travels and identifying some of the places in the photos we have of Howard. They showed the latest results of their research, identifying the bridge on which Howard and one of his friends are posing in a boxing stance.

Afterwards, I hung out at the Pavilion visiting with folks until it was time to go to the Banquet. The Staghorn Cafe catered chicken fried steak, and it was excellent. I put in some bids on a few items in the silent auction, winning most of them. The speaker’s stand is in the photo to the left; the initials are old Conan comics. There weren’t as many fans this year as in the past few years, but more people from Cross Plains attended. This is a good thing because it means the community as a whole is getting more involved in continuing Howard’s legacy.

Tim Truman spoke how he discovered the works of Robert E. Howard and the impact that discovery has had on his life. The REH Foundation Awards were given after dinner. A complete list of the winners can be found here.

Fists at the Ice House: (l. to r.) Gruber (foreground), Shanks, Finn

The last panel of the night was presented by Mark Finn, Chris Gruber, and Jeff Shanks. “Fists at the Ice House” has been a popular panel for several years. Started by Finn and Gruber, it takes place at what was once an ice house where Howard boxed in his early 20s. Because the panel takes place outside, it was moved to an after dark event due to the relentless Texas sun and heat. With the publication of the first volume of the collected boxing stories, Finn announced that this panel is going to be retired for a while. I’ve never really gotten into boxing, but after listening to these guys discuss the role boxing played in REH’s life and read from his boxing stories, I’ve really come to appreciate that aspect of Howard’s work and personality.

Saturday was another great day (except for when I discovered the hard way the location of a yellow jacket nest outside the library). The morning panel was Mark Finn interviewing Tim Truman and Joe Lansdale about working for Dark Horse comics.

Lunch

Lunch was the REH Foundation Legacy Circle luncheon. The Tex-Mex was good (few people can make rellenos right), the company was great, and the perks were outstanding. Although this year’s commemorative pin wasn’t ready, there were two newsletters. The first was the regular newsletter. The second was a special edition containing drafts of letters Howard wrote to HPL but never sent. These letters are not included in A Means to Freedom and have not been published anywhere else. Truly, membership does have its privileges.

After lunch Rusty Burke, Paul Herman, Joe Lansdale, and Mark Finn discussed Howard’s Texas. The what’s up with REH panel back at the pavilion was pretty short. No one from Paradox Entertainment, which owns the rights to Howard’s work, was in attendance this year, so there wasn’t any news about film deals. The Foundation publishing schedule was announced, consisting mostly of boxing and westerns.

Jeff Shanks on Caddo Peak

Dinner that night was the traditional barbeque at Caddo Peak Ranch. I hadn’t intended to climb the peak this year, but with the temperatures so low, I decided to make the trek. At least this year there were no snakes. After dinner, picture taking, and watching the sunset, many of us returned to the Pavilion for poetry reading and general socializing. I stayed until everything started to break up, then headed home. Howard Days 2013 was over, and it was one of the best.

A special thanks is due to the members of Project Pride: Arlene and Tom Stephenson , Era Lee Hanke, Diana Miller, Tom and Anne Rone, Larry and Nora Pointer, Betty Sue Adams, Don Clark, Janette Dugger, Kennith and Ann Beeler. Without those folks and their tireless work, Howard Days wouldn’t be what it is.

Photos continue below.

Watch out for the thorns.

The Guests of Honor pose with no one important.

Al Harron strikes a Howardian pose

Gruber and Finn discuss Howard’s works.

Sunset on the ranch

Report on Howard Days 2012

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The Robert E. Howard House

This had to be the best Howard Days I’ve attended, and from what others said, the best ever as far as the weather went. Because of the recent rain, Friday I don’t think the temperature got out of the low 80s, and I’m not sure it got that high. It felt more like April than June. Saturday I think the high was in the low 90s, which is still April temperatures for this part of the world. Today I came home to triple digits. Welcome back to summer.

The theme this year was Conan’s 80th birthday. Like many people, Conan was my gateway drug to Howard. While I like all aspects of Howard’s work, Conan is still my favorite. My wife had been sick the day before with the stomach bug from Mordor, so I waited until I was sure she was back on her feet before I took off Friday morning, running a few errands for her and going to the store. I didn’t get there until after lunch, so I missed the tours and the morning panel, which was a tribute to the late Glenn Lord. Here’s my take on what I was there for.

The first panel of Friday afternoon was Guest of Honor Charles Hoffman’s presentation of Conan the Existentialist. This was followed by Paul Sammon, Al Harron, and Mark Finn discussing Conan’s Birthday. When the panels were over, I hit the post office and picked up some postcards with this year’s cancellation. Afterwards, I went back to the pavillion and hung out, visiting with friends until time for the dinner and silent auction. There were fewer people in attendance this year. Some of the regulars had various life issues, most of a medical nature, that prevented them from attending. They were missed. On the other hand, there were a number of new faces who will hopefully be returning. The general attitude was it was an up year for that reason alone.

l to r, Jeff Shanks, Mark Finn, Indy Cavalier, Al Harron trying to get out of the picture, Jay ?

Dinner was catered by The Staghorn Cafe, which makes some of the best chicken fried steak on the planet. Amazingly, I won most of the items I bid on in the silent auction. They were all low ticket items, cash being tight this year, but I still walked out with ten books, a comic, and a DVD for less than $30. I stepped into the parking lot after dinner, got caught in a conversation, and missed some of the Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards. For that reason, I’ll not discuss them in depth.

An item that has become one of the most popular panels is “Fists at the Ice House”. Started by Mark Finn and Chris Gruber, this year the panel was held after the awards. The ice house was just what it sounds like, an ice house. This was how ice was kept in the early twentieth century, and delivery carts went around every day. You could buy ice and put it in your ice box, where the ice would keep perishable food cold. Some older folks (your grandparents and great grandparents) may still refer to the refrigerator as the ice box, and that’s where the term comes from. Ice houses also sold cold beverages, alcoholic and otherwise. In Cross Plains, there was one ice house in the 1920s where young men would meet for beer and boxing.

Fists at the Ice House: (l to r) Shanks, Finn, Gruber

Robert E. Howard was one of those men. Mark Finn makes an excellent point: If you want to understand Robert E. Howard the man, you need to understand his relationship with boxing. Some of the first and last stories he sold were boxing stories, and he wrote them throughout his entire career. Mark, Jeff, and Chris discussed this and read from Howard’s boxing works. It was rather late when this panel broke up. As much as I would have like to hung around, I had an hour drive to where I was staying, so I took off.

After buying a thank-you gift ofr my wife for letting me attend, I toured the house the next morning. There are some new additions. For one thing, a number of books from Howard’s personal library are on permanent loan from Howard Payne University. Several of them are inscribed to Howard from his friends, including one from Edmund Hamilton. I’ll put pictures at the end of this post.

The morning panels (held at the library) consisted of Shanks, Hoffman, and Finn discussing efforts to get academia to take Howard seriously and laying out a strategy for this to happen, and afternoon panels featured Paul Sammon giving a slide show on The Illustrated Conan. As well as being a writer, Paul works in Hollywood, having been a key person on a number of movies such as Conan, Blade Runner, and Starship Troopers. If you ever meet him, talk to him. He seems to know or have known everybody and tells some wonderful stories. The final panel was What’s Happening with REH?, and discussed mostly forthcoming books (lots of boxing stories) and some information about movies (nothing major, at least that can be announced). Then I viewed the collection of books, manuscripts, and pulps, many Weird Tales with Margaret Brundage covers.

Look what’s coming to dinner.

This year I got to go to the Legacy Circle members lunch hosted by the REH Foundation. We nearly took over the Mexican restaurant. The food was excellent. So was the barbeque out at Caddo Peak Ranch that evening. We did have a couple of uninvited guests, or as Paul McNamee called them in response to my tweeting, Set cultists everywhere. I’m referring, of course, to the snakes. The first was a copperhead which was only a few meters from the tables. The other was a rattlesnake the coiled up beside the trail on the hike down from Caddo Peak. I got a picture of both, but the rattler is hard to see in the picture. It was coiled, about three feet long, and they can strike two thirds of their body length away. My telephoto on the camera only does so much, and I wasn’t getting any closer. Here’s the copperhead, though.

After eating delicious meal and watching the sunset, I went back to the pavilion. Barabara Barrett organized an impromptu poetry reading on the steps of the house. We took turns reading from the poetry books we had. No one had the complete poems, so I didn’t get to read “A Song of the Naked Lands”, my favorite. Dave Hardy had some homemade mead again, which was good, as always. I visited a while, then hit the road, later than the night before. It was one of the most enjoyable Howard Days I’ve been to.

What follows are photos I took this year, some with captions. I’ll try to identify everyone I know; if I leave someone’s name off or get it wrong, I apologize. No slight is intended.

Jeff Shanks with award

Bob’s Room (window view is painting; additional room to right was added later)

Bob’s Room (Mrs. Howard’s window is on left)

Volumes from Bob’s library

The library’s collection of original manuscripts

I love Margaret Brundage covers

View of East Caddo Peak from West Caddo Peak

More Margaret Brundage

A portion of the dinner party

Current and former REHupans

Sunset

Bill “Indy” Cavalier reading poetry

Blood and Thunder, Release 2.0

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Blood and Thunder
Mark Finn
The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press
$45 REHF members, $50 nonmembers, plus shipping

It’s been a few years since the first edition of this volume was published, and in that time Howard studies have moved forward, with new biographical material coming to light. In fact, new biographical details have continued to be unearthed since this edition went to press. That will probably (hopefully) continue for some time.

As he explained in the two part interview posted here last year (part 1, part 2), Mark Finn felt it was time for a second edition. Rather than rehash his remarks, I’m going to get straight to the point and discuss the book.

Including the endnotes but not the bibliography and index, the book comes in at 426 pages. It starts slow, giving family background information. That’s typical in any biography, so please don’t take the previous sentence as negative. That’s just the way it is. The book is divided into four sections, same as in the previous edition, with some chapters being heavily rewritten and others hardly touched. Again, not surprising or in any way atypical of many biographies that have new editions.

The book really took off for me in the second section, with the first chapter, “Authentic Liars”, discussing the oral storytelling tradition in which Howard grew up. It’s the tradition of the porch raconteur, the spinner of tall tales, the person who mixes enough truth into his words that you’re never really sure at which point he begins pulling your leg. It’s also a tradition that is vanishing, and in many parts of the country, lost.

This chapter sets the tone for much of what follows. Finn’s central thesis, or one of them at least, is that to understand Howard, one must understand the Texas in which he grew up. It’s a valid point, and one which is easy to overlook. With many of the traditions and values of the time being passed down relatively unchanged, we often forget how much has changed.

While this concept was central to the first edition of the book, Finn has expanded on it. What’s fairly new, and in my opinion of major importance to future Howard studies, is Finn’s assertion that an understanding of Howard’s humor is required to truly understand the man and his work. This is in my opinion one of the strengths of the second edition. I’ve never gotten into Howard’s humor. After reading the new material on his humorous stories, and reading again about how those stories fit in with the tall lying tradition, I’m going to be seeking them out. There’s a lot there I’ve been missing.

Finn tries his best to avoid the excesses of arm chair psychoanalysis engaged in by L. Sprague de Camp in Dark Valley Destiny. In many ways this book was written as a refutation of that biography. Fans of de Camp, and of DVD in particular, won’t be pleased with what they find here. While some interpretation of how events in Howard’s life showed up in his work is inevitable in any study of the man, Finn walks a delicate line between projecting his own agenda and biases on his subject and erring on the side of caution too much by not offering any interpretations at all. For the most part, I think he’s successful. He tries to delineate what are his opinions and what are facts.

By the time I turned the last page, I had a new understanding of Robert E. Howard the man. While I had always pictured him as someone who wanted to fit in, some of the details had been filled in. Hopefully I’m not merely projecting my own experiences growing up in a similar small Texas town nearby onto what I read. Finn quotes from Howard’s correspondence (collected in three volumes by the REHF Press), especially his correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft (collected in two volumes by Hippocampus Press). I’ve got these volumes but haven’t finished reading them. I will, if for no other reason than I want to understand better the different facets of his personality Howard presented in his correspondence.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Finn has expanded his remarks on Conan. Rather than get into Conan here, I’ll just say that he thinks “Queen of the Black Coast” isn’t one of Howard’s best Conan tales. While I’ve not posted anything new in my series on Conan (see links in the sidebar) in a while due to other projects, I’ve not given up on the series and will save my remarks for upcoming installments.

I do have a few gripes about the book overall, though nothing major. At the front is a map of West Central Texas during Howard’s time, showing the roads. Mark told me at ConDFW last weekend that he had pieced the map together from several maps and had removed more than one road that didn’t exist in Howard’s lifetime by hand. He missed one major highway, though: Interstate 20. The interstates weren’t built until a couple of decades after Howard’s death. This might seem to be a minor thing, but it does call into question the accuracy of the rest of the map. For what it’s worth, the interstate is near the top in the middle of a number of other highways (I used a magnifying glass to confirm it was there), and thus easy to miss. I personally don’t think it’s a huge deal.

A map of Cross Plains during Howard’s lifetime would have been nice, though. Surely it wouldn’t have been too difficult to obtain one. I was also disappointed in the number of photos. Each chapter opens with a photo. There’s no section of photographs, and some of the more famous ones are missing. Primarily on this point, there’s no photo of Novalyne Price. I’m not that crazy with the one on the cover, either. In fairness, I realize that copyright issues probably prevented Finn from including some of the photos most readers might expect. Also, more pictures of Cross Plains in the 20s and 30s would have been a nice touch. And I’ve never seen a drawing or map of the Howard property at the time of his death. Where was the car parked? Was it outside or in a garage? Did they even have a garage? Also, Howard took to wearing a mustache near the end of his life. Did he still have it when he died? It’s clearly visible in the last known photo of him (included in the book).

Overall, though, this a major work. Howard scholarship and fandom are contentious enough that it would be easy to stoop to the level of picking nits (which I’m sure some will say the preceding two paragraphs did). Finn has set the standard here by which future biographical projects will be measured. By examining the cultural influences on Howard, Finn has expanded the avenues by which scholars can approach their subject. I would like to see further analysis of Howard’s humor for example. Still, this is a volume that belongs in the library of any serious fan of Texas literature, Robert E. Howard, or the pulps.

Publications from the REHF Press tend to be priced out of the range of the casual fan. The production values make them worth the money, and the limited print runs mean if you want a copy, don’t wait. While popular titles go through more than one printing, not all of them do. While I have every expectation this one will see a second printing, they take time. If you want a copy, grab one now.

Report on Howard Days 2011, Day One

The Adventures Fantastic Interview: Mark Finn, Part 2

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Last week, in part 1 of this interview, Mark Finn discussed his own writing, both biography and fiction. In this installment, he continues sharing his thoughts on other Howard related topics.

AF: Do you think there been any faithful adaptations of Howard to film?

MF: Howard films…I have to tell you a quick story, an anecdote. We managed to get ahold of a copy of Solomon Kane from a friend who taped a bootleg. My wife Cathy was real excited to sit down and watch it. We were five minutes in, and she said, “Was this Robert E. Howard right here?”

And I said, “No.”

Then she said, “Okay.” And we watch a little bit more. He goes through the things he goes through and he’s killing people left and right, and she says, “This has got to be Howard.”

And I said, “No, this isn’t in any of the Solomon Kane stories.”

“Huh.”

I said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you know when the Howard stuff shows up ’cause I’ll probably get real excited about it.”

She goes, “Great.”

Thirty minutes go by. She says, “He’s met the family now. Is this Howard?”

“No, this isn’t Howard.”

We get to about ten minutes before the end, and she says, “Honey, is there any Robert E. Howard in this?”

I said, “Well, the guy’s name is Solomon Kane.”

She said, “Honey, that doesn’t count.”

You know, it’s a little sad that the best one of the bunch is still the old “Pigeons From Hell” Thriller episode. Boris Karloff’s adaptation of “Pigeons From Hell” still stands out as following the storyline. Which is such a novel approach. Why didn’t I think of that? Why not just take something from the books? How simple and how basic. “No, no, no, you don’t understand, Mark, we’ve got to rewrite Conan so that he’s on a quest for vengeance.” Oh, cause that hasn’t been done to death. Yeah, yeah, that makes prefect sense. Yeah, why not, why not? In fact, I got an idea. Why don’t you have a Vikings kill his family. We’ve never seen that before in a film.

It just makes me crazy that these guys in LA have…I don’t think it’s ignorance. I think it’s a willful self confidence there that feeds an ego that has to be the size of C’thulhu. It’s the only thing that makes sense. If I come to them with a proposal set in a savage land in a distant time about a guy who walks into town out of the wilderness and through strength, cunning, guile, his own wits, he pulls himself up by his bootstraps to become the most famous rogue in town. But because he’s still new in town he hasn’t counted on the forces of civilization rallying around him, and so the story ends when he’s betrayed and has to leave town. And they say, “What’s the name of this piece?” and I say, “Krogan the Mercenary”. They’d be like [snaps fingers], “Awesome, we’ll run with it. It’ll be just like Walter Hill did in Last Man Standing. Yeah. We won’t give him an origin. No, it makes him mysterious. Perfect! I love it!”

That should be the Conan movie. That should be the Conan movie. But no, noooo, let’s give him a family. Even though Robert E. Howard’s stuff so seldom uses family for anything, much less a motif for vengeance. Usually it’s an excuse to move away.

The Conan movie’s coming out. I’ll show it at the theater. But it’s not gonna be Conan. I mean there may be more stuff in it. We haven’t seen it, so obviously we don’t know what elements got taken out. But I can tell you right now, if the plot involves him going on a quest for vengeance to get the guy that got his parents, that’s not Robert E. Howard. It’s just not. It may be an entertaining movie. There may be some pieces and parts where you go, “Wow, that’s a pretty Conan-esque type of thing that’s going on right there.” Until they figure out that this stuff works because it’s been around this long and people respond to it on a visceral level, until they figure that out, we’re gonna have this problem. I wish it was different. Moreover, I wish they would fly me out to Hollywood for a week. I’ll take a meeting with them. I can fix this. I just know it. Get the executives out the room and let me talk to the scriptwriter, okay? I’ll even put it in the language of film. There’s a hundred film examples of exactly the kind of thing that can be used for this. Most of the executives are thirty-five and don’t watch movies, so what are you going to do with that? What’s the next question?

AF: What one question would you have for Howard if you could ask him anything?

MF: If I had just one question?

AF: Or a series of questions if you prefer.

MF: I thought about this the other day. I was watching a Ben Franklin documentary and realized the five people that you would have breakfast with, you know, would be…one of them would be Robert E. Howard, of course. I think I would ask him, if I had just one question to ask him, it would be, “Do you…” Actually, this is what I would ask him. “How do you see yourself?” I would want to know how he saw himself because I think that would answer a lot. And I know he writes about it in the letters, but I think in the letters he also puts on a lot of different faces depending on who he’s talking to. If I got the chance to look him in the eyes and see what he says, I want to know how he sees himself because we’ll know. And if I could tell him one thing, it would be “It’s gonna get better.” I’d like to pull him aside at the beginning of 1936 and say, “You will get through this.” Would it help? Who knows, I mean when people have made up their minds that they’re gonna do that, especially when people are clinically depressed, decide they’re taking a path… [sighs]

AF: I think that’s the desire of every Robert E. Howard fan, to talk him off the ledge so to speak.

MF: And the thing is, you know the question is, if you talk him off the ledge in 1936, what’s to say he doesn’t get back on that ledge in ’37? The things that he’s dealing with, presuming he would get through the funeral and make it a few months down the road, where does he go? Does he go with his dad? What does he do? There’s this continual grieving process. For a guy who spent most of his life as a caregiver to his mother, as a guy, who, whether he wanted to or not, identified himself as a caregiver to his mother, that piece of his identity is gone. They’ve done studies about this now, and noted that when children take care of parents in a caregiving role for a number of years, you get all sorts of depressed behavior, and suicide becomes a major thing because the one reason why they’re doing what they’re doing has been taken away. So there’s no guarantees that we would have gotten a whole lot of stories from Robert E. Howard. There’s no guarantees he would have made it to World War II. When you’re dealing with someone who’s been that depressed for that long, who’s to say? But I would ask him what he thought of himself. Or optionally, I would ask him why he never talked about his humor because that was the stuff that put food on his table for most of his writing career. And very little is said about it. He’s always more interested in talking about the horror stories or whatever, but the stuff that he came to rely on for a steady paycheck was the funny boxing and the funny westerns.

AF: What do you see as the state of Howard scholarship and where do you think it’s going over the next few years?

MF: I think Howard scholarship is alive and well. I think we’re in a lull right now because a lot of people’s projects are coming to an end. And the may be the end of the second Howard boom’s scholarship push. The internet has helped since we can react to things that are on there now, that’s been useful in keeping things alive, but until all of Robert E. Howard’s fiction is in print in some form or fashion, we won’t have Rusty and Patrice for the big stuff. That’s what they’re doing. That’s the job they’ve set themselves. As a task, as fans, we should be grateful for that. They’ve had eleven Del Rey books come out. And even though it won’t be the funny stuff. The funny stuff is what’s left, and once that’s done, and they take a mental break, I’m sure both of them are gonna dive into the biography. It’s not that they haven’t wanted to work on it, it’s that they haven’t had time. So I think we have one more big push yet to have happen, and I’m not sure yet if it’s going to be during this big push, this third age of Howard scholarship that he won’t join the American literary canon in the way that Lovecraft has and Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler, and all those guys. I think that’s an inevitability, and we’re already moving in that direction anyway. The next five years is when you’re gonna start seeing Rusty and Patrice come out of the cave and start talking about stuff and the biographical debate comes up again. I think it’s around that time, either just before, during, or just after, is when he goes in the Library of the Americas. At that point you’re gonna see a lot of people back off and go “Ahhh. Now I can go read this and enjoy it again.” It tends to be a singular focus when you’re working on this stuff. There’s just one problem you’ve gotta just tackle and tackle until it’s dead and you look up and find another thing. I think of it like that, and I don’t begrudge what anybody is doing. Like I’ve said before, it’s important to have those authoritative texts out. The Foundation has made all the poetry available for the first time ever. Now we’ve got the wonder three volume set of the letters. Essential. So they’re setting up for the next wave. I think that’s what all this is right here. And if the academics continue to come to this, as we’ve seen starting with last year, with a couple of very strong academics, Justin and Diedre, I think they’re going to be instrumental in leading some more academics to Howard. I think that’s when the real interesting stuff will begin.

AF: Last question. What question would you ask that I haven’t if you were conducting this interview?

MF: I would have asked me if I had any regrets about what I’d done in Howard studies. But, I don’t have any regrets, so that’s kind of a boring question. [laughs]. I wish the REH Manifesto had been a little bit shorter because I wrote it ostensibly to just tell the people: If you going to shoot your mouth off and you’re going to come out with some alleged knowledge, don’t tell me “I’ve read a few Conan stories, and here’s what I found out about Robert E. Howard.” You’re reading the one character that he commercially engineered over any of his other material to be something that he could sell to Weird Tales. That’s not to say that Howard didn’t enjoy it and that’s not to say he didn’t invest in it, but the elements in the stories that a lot of people had a problem with, if you view Conan as the thing he constructed to try and get Farnsworth Wright’s attention and knew that certain things like women wearing certain things like gossamer silk robes and being whipped by other women, if he knew that stuff like that made it into Weird Tales and got cover space, which usually was a little bit more money, and became things that Farnsworth Wright featured. And he put that in there, then the Conan stories become the anomaly, not the rule. “Sword Woman”, which was unpublished in Howard’s lifetime, is much more Howardian in tone. It’s not until those early Conan stories, where he’s trying to find his way, which tend to be some of the best ones, and then the later Conan stories, when he’s trying to break away, tend to be some of the best ones. In the middle you’ve got some fairly formula Conan stories, and these were the ones that Wright was featuring; these are the ones that Wright was lapping up. So, was Conan the way he always did things, or was it the exception to the rule. I think Conan was the exception, but then again , I’ve been steeped in this for a decade now. I’ve read the Conans over and over, and I’ve all the other stuff, and I”ve looked at all of this. I don’t expect BobaFett1972 at aol.com to know that. I wrote the manifesto as basically, if say I don’t like him, he’s too bloody for my taste, I’m not a big fan of the subject matter, and I tend to like my fantasy a little more epic and a little less down in the dirt, I can’t say anything bad about that. But if you tell me that Howard clearly had a problem with women, and after reading three Solomon Kane stories it’s clear that he was a virulent racist, I have to put the brakes on that. I wrote the Manifesto to basically tell people think before you type. What they took from that was “God, he doesn’t like it if anybody says anything negative about Robert E. Howard.” Which is not the case. I would love to read a negative critique of Robert E. Howard based on what’s in there. Not what you think is in there, not your mind tells you your mind tells you is in there, not what you remember from your D&D days as being in there. So far I haven’t seen that critique yet, but maybe one day we’ll get it.

AF: Thank you very much.

MF: You’re welcome.

Long Looks at Short Fiction: Skull-Face by Robert E. Howard

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Tales of Weird Menace
by Robert E. Howard
The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press
Ordering Information Not Yet Available

The Robert E. Howard Foundation has, in the few short years of its existence, done a number of good things. Such things as helping maintain the Robert E. Howard House in Cross Plains, Texas, and providing an annual scholarship to a graduating senior from Cross Plains High School. As part of the Foundation’s mission, a number of works by Howard are being reprinted, including his collected letters (in 3 volumes) and a giant volume of Howard’s collected poetry. The latter title has gone through three printings and is currently sold out. Sales of these and other books help fund the philanthropic activities of the Foundation.

Next up on the Foundation’s schedule is the volume you see to the left. This collection contains Howard’s Weird Menace stories, as you can probably tell from the title. We’ll look at the best known of them, Skull-Face in this posting.

But first a word about the Weird Menace pulps on the off chance some of you aren’t familiar with them. These were a blend of horror and super science, with a dash of the hero pulps (think Doc Savage or The Spider) and a good deal of implied or explicit eroticism and gore thrown in. Often the supernatural aspect of the villain was revealed to be mundane, although you can be sure that won’t be the case with “Skull-Face.” The weird menace pulps were fairly popular, but censorship and the real horrors of World War II ultimately did them in.

Howard tried his hand at writing some of this type of tale, like he did with most of the pulp genres that weren’t marketed to solely to women, such as romance pulps. While this isn’t the sort of thing Howard is best remembered for, which would be his fantasy and horror tales, Howard was a diverse writer who was successful in a number of pulp genres, such as serious and humorous westerns, as well as boxing stories, a genre that was prominent at the time but has pretty much disappeared from popular fiction.

What I don’t understand is why “Skull-Face” seems to have fallen on, well, I guess you could call it a time of neglect. I’m not sure the work has been out of print much since the Howard boom of the 70s when Berkley featured it as the lead in a collection of related tales. But you don’t hear it talked about much anymore. At least I haven’t. It has all the ingredients of a classic pulp adventure: danger, lots of action, a beautiful and imperiled woman, not one but two heroes, and of course, The Yellow Peril, Robert E. Howard style.

And it may well be that last ingredient which has made it less popular; I don’t know. There is certainly a great deal said about race in the story, from more than one point of view. And Skull-Face, or The Master, or The Scorpion as he’s also known, doesn’t fit the traditional Yellow Peril mold completely. For one thing, Skull-Face isn’t actually an oriental, but beyond that I’m not going to spoil the fun.

To most modern readers, The Yellow Peril might be unfamiliar, and to many would certainly be offensive. In essence, it was a trope common to much popular fiction in the early 20th century. Basically western (read white) civilization would be threatened in some way by an oriental menace, often in the form of an evil criminal genius who often had occult or scientific powers that were beyond anything the West was capable of. The example the casual reader would most likely be familiar with is Sax Rhomer’s Fu Manchu.

Regardless, the whole concept of the Yellow Peril would not be politically correct in this day and age. Far from it. As a result it would be offensive to many modern readers. I, however, hold the opinion that when you’re reading literature from a different historical period, you do yourself and the story a disservice if you try to evaluate aspects of it through contemporary lenses. Instead, keep in mind the cultural context in which a particular story was written.

That’s just as true in the case of “Skull-Face” as it is for any other work of literature. However outdated some of Howard’s views on race may seem to be to the reader of the 21st century, they weren’t that far out of the mainstream in the 20s and 30s. (A topic that won’t be discussed in any detail here.) And if the racial portrayals in “Skull-Face” are what have caused it to be eclipsed by some of Howard’s other work, then it’s a crying shame.

Because “Skull-Face” is fine story. It was serialized in three parts in the October, November, and December 1929 issues of Weird Tales. The first Solomon Kane stories were beginning to see print at this time, and Kull would had made his debut earlier that same year, with Bran Mak Morn appearing the next year. The coming of Conan was still a few years in the future. While Robert E. Howard had not yet reached the peak of his output, in both quality and quantity, he was no slouch either. The prose was much more crisp and less purple than I was expecting. The pace is the headlong rush with plenty of action we’ve come to expect in a Howard yarn. Howard doesn’t shy away from violence or the seedy underside of the Chinese ghetto in London where much of the story takes place. He shows us, through the eyes of Stephen Costigan (not to be confused by the boxing sailor of that name in other Howard stories) what life is like for the addict in an opium den.

And that may be another reason the story isn’t as popular as it once was. Drugs are a constant fixation of the story (pardon the pun). Costigan is an opium addict when we first meet him, and the cure of his addiction comes at the price of addiction to a more potent drug. The fact that drug use plays a prominent role in the tale will make some of today’s readers immediately reject for that reason. Which is another shame. Because drug use is in no way gloried or romanticized at any point in the story. Instead, Costigan at one point curses the weakness in himself that drove him to become addicted in the first place. And the noble and wealthy patrons who visit Yun Shatu’s Dream Temple are not portrayed positively. Anyone who gives the story more than a casual reading can’t help but come away with the distinct impression that Howard probably didn’t think much of drug usage.

Costigan is a wounded veteran of the Great War, who has fallen into his addiction in an attempt to ease his pain. Noticed by the girl Zulieka, herself a slave of The Master as she refers to him, Costigan is given the chance to break free of opium and perform certain tasks for the Master, who at this point remains hidden behind a screen. Trying to stop Skull-Face is British agent at large John Gordon. Ultimately, Skull-Face’s demands are more than Costigan is willing to commit to. He and Gordon join forces.

If you want any more information, you’ll have to read the story yourself. There are indications that Howard may have been planning to create a series character with Skull-Face. The Berkley edition has two associated stories plus “Taverel Manor”, an unfinished sequel. Richard A Lupoff finished “Taverel Manor” for Berkley. While he’s a good writer, Lupoff is not Howard. The REH Foundation volume will contain “Taverel Manor”, presumably in its unfinished form, just the way Howard left it.

And Lupoff is probably right. Howard may very well have been trying to develop a series character. Weird Tales published at least two that I know of, Dr. Satan (whose adventures as far as I know have never been reprinted) and Jules deGrandin, whose adventures have. Lupoff holds the opinion that editor Farnsworth Wright didn’t think much of “Skull-Face” and gave it only one cover. He may well be correct in this as well. Howard knew from experience that series characters were what sold, especially if they were popular. His attempts to find a sustainable series character can be seen in Kane, Kull, and Morn, as well as his sailor Steve Costigan series, not to be confused with the Costigan who is the protagonist of “Skull-Face.” And these aren’t the only series characters Howard created. Why Howard didn’t develop this series further is a matter of speculation. Howard’s most successful character would be, of course, Conan the Cimmerian. It’s fun to speculate on what a “Skull-Face” series would have been like. Too bad we’ll never know.

One of the names of Skull-Face is Kathulos. Astute readers will immediately wonder about a connection to H. P. Lovecraft’s C’thulhu. Considering how Howard and Lovecraft corresponded with each other to the point that their correspondence fills two volumes, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a deliberate reference here. However, I haven’t had the time to do the research, so I won’t speculate further.

I’m just glad “Skull-Face” is getting some attention again. Wildside Press has collected the fantasy/weird stories of Howard in a 10 volume set, and “Skull-Face” was the lead story in volume 2. The first time “Skull-Face” made hardcovers was in 1946, a decade after Howard’s death, in Skull-Face and Others. This was the first volume of Howard’s works published by Arkham House and the first published by an American publisher after his death. Previously, only A Gent From Bear Creek had seen hardcover, and from a British publisher if memory serves. Conan wasn’t collected until years later. It’s good to see “Skull-Face” collected again.

This is one worth reading folks, especially if you like adventure, peril, and fast paced action. Check it out.