Today’s post is by Will Oliver.
“Bran eyed her somberly; he reached forth and gripped her arm in his iron fingers. An involuntary shudder shook him at the feel of her sleek skin. He nodded slowly and drawing her close to him, forced his head down to meet her lifted lips.”
– Robert E. Howard
“Worms of the Earth”
As a fan of pulp magazines, I generally have in my reading pile or to-read bookshelf either reprints of pulp magazines or paperbacks of stories from the pulp era. A couple of years ago, I discovered the magazine dedicated to the old pulps, Blood ‘N’ Thunder, and wouldn’t you know it, just as I discovered it, it was no longer publishing on a regular basis. Ed Hulse, both editor and publisher, decided to step away from the quarterly publication to dedicate himself to other pulp magazine projects. No more deadline pressures for him—something we can all understand. Still, he has since published some additional issues and I was able to get several articles into the latest one.
One issue of Blood ‘N’ Thunder I recently read was the summer 2015 issue, featuring an article by Rick Lai titled, “The Secret Son of Bran Mak Morn” (pp. 36-41). The article explained that Jack Mann was a fan of Robert E. Howard and was so taken with his character Bran Mak Morn that he wrote a veiled sequel titled Maker of Shadows, published in 1938. Curious, I ordered a copy from Amazon that was published by Ramble House publishers in 2011 and, after reading it, I thought I would write a review for this blog. Continue reading
