#john glashan

[cyanman777]

1001 Comic Books: A Request

If anyone has any of the following comic books/strips, be it your own scans or whatever, please put them on IA and/or send them my way...

Rock 'n' Roll Necronomicon by Savage Pencil

Quadratino by Antonio Rubino

Un semaine de bonte by Max Ernst

The Beast is Dead! by Victor Dancette and Edmond-Francois Calvo

Torchy in Heartbeats by Jackie Ormes

Mother Delilah / Boys' Ranch #3 by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon

Reves et Culbutes by Maurice Henry

Wayang Purwa by Saleh Ardisoma

Lifi \ Rhyphie by Sanho Kim

Salomon by Chago

Patty's World by Phillip Douglas and Purita Campos

Les Girafes by Guillermo Mordillo

Bella at the Bar by Jenny McDade and John Armstrong

Bahadur: The Red Bricks House by Aabid Surti and Govind Brahmania

Genius by John Glashan

Dori Stories by Dori Seda

Biff \ The Essential Biff by Mick Kidd and Chris Garrett

Untouchables by Lee Hyun-Se

Pee God #2 by Gary Panter and Joe Cotton

The Angriest Dog in the World by David Lynch

MAD Show-Stoppers by Mort Drucker

Sof' Boy by Archer Prewitt

The Marat/Sade Journals by Barron Storey

Palepoli by Usamaru Furuya

Nudl Nude by Youngsoon Yang

The Best of Bittercomix by Conrad Botes and Anton Kannemeyer

Comix 2000 by Jean-Christophe Menu

I'll Be Back Shortly by Frank Odoi

Powr Mastrs by Christopher Forgues

Rumble Strip by Woodrow Phoenix

Magic Mirror by Ed Pinsent

The Secret by Andrzej Klimowski

please

i'm desperate

[nedison]

Cartoon by John Glashan, as seen on the innersleeve of Pulp’s We Love Life.

[art-practice-for-research]

Here are some samples of backgrounds and landscapes I made.

First, I used the technique of monoprinting by drawing on the back of the papers so that the ink can print those lines on the other side inverted creating nice bold lines. I also used my hand to smudge some areas where there is shade.

After that, I scanned the mono prints onto watercolour paper in smaller scale and used watercolours to paint the background.

I was inspired by John Glashan and his background paintings. He’s a Scottish cartoonist and is well know for his “Genius” cartoons. I found one of his works in the Cartoon Museum and wanted to experiment with the idea of using backgrounds to tell a story, as well as using colours as each has a different meaning.

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1300

Monday, February 10, 2020

 I was waiting for our new comic shipment Tuesday morning when I realised that I have been working in comic book retailing for 40 years now. That answers the question grade 8 me had while sitting in Social Studies class while I was at Glashan Public School. I am so lucky to have landed in a job that I love and am still doing. Who would not want to work somewhere where you get 52 Christmases a year?

 Young Justice #13 - Brian Michael Bendis & David F. Walker (writers) Michael Avon Oeming, Mike Grell & John Timms (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Wes Abbott (letters). Conner gets life lessons from Travis Morgan/Warlord in Skartaris while his team mates come up with a plan to hit S.T.A.R. Labs to try to get him back. The mission gets a few more rescuers so next issue will be wall to wall heroes.

 Black Cat #9 - Jed MacKay (writer) Kris Anka (art) Brian Reber (colours) Ferran Delgado (letters). Boy, I haven't heard that alias in a while. Felicia lands in Madripoor to steal a painting. The last know owner is a guy named Patch. You got that right. It's a Black Cat and Wolverine team-up. I was wondering where Kris Anka would go next after he left Runaways.

 Lois Lane #8 - Greg Rucka (writer) Mike Perkins (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). The two-page spread where Rene Montoya fights the skull-headed assassin was poetry in motion. No words necessary. Lois is proving herself without her hubby's help in this book.

 Daredevil #17 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Jorge Fornes (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Just call Matt Murdock the Red Robin Hood. He and Elektra stole from the Stromwyns and gave to the people of Hell's Kitchen. The bad guys don't get mad, they're going to get even. Their solution to their Daredevil problem has me all aquiver.

 Doctor Doom #5 - Christopher Cantwell (writer) Salvador Larroca (art) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I may not like the return of ruthless dictator Doom but I sure do like the art in this book. I'm also not a fan of the time hopping Kang but his presence makes things interesting. This is one book that I would stop reading if the art wasn't so nice.

 Batman #88 - James Tynion IV (writer) Guillem March (art) Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). Oh man, this story just keeps getting better and better. Catwoman is exhuming a body while talking to the Riddler. You won't believe who's resting in peace. Meanwhile, the Penguin makes a grave error in not killing Deathstroke. Finally, when it looks like Selina is going to be buried alive, someone comes to her rescue. Waiting around to find out who the Designer is adds to the fun.

 Miles Morales: Spider-Man #15 - Saladin Ahmed (writer) Javier Garron (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). If you're a fan of big bad super villains fighting super heroes then this issue is for you. The new Green Goblin trashes Miles's school looking for Spider-Man. Huge fight, then bad guy runs away. Miles's secret identity could be compromised during the debacle. This one had me guessing.

 Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #3 - Kami Garcia (writer) Mico Suayan & Jason Badower (art) Annette Kwok (colours) Richard Starkings of Comicraft (letters). I love this serial killer mystery and not just because the art is so pretty. The alternating black and white pages with the colour pages highlights the two main characters, Doctor Quinn the profiler and John Kelly the possible psychopath. I can't wait to see if the killer gets caught.

 Ant-Man #1 - Zeb Wells (writer) Dylan Burnett (art) Mike Spicer (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I like Scott Lang but I don't like loser Scott Lang and that's the Scott Lang that's in this new 5-issue mini. This story starts with him and his son Stinger making a drug bust. When did he get a son? Scott is hired later to find out why bees are disappearing which leads to him fighting Swarm. They lost me when they introduced three new bad guys: Vespa the spectre of hornets, Thread the Silkworm ghoul and Tusk the Rhino beetle hulk. Stinger is in 4 pages and then poof, he's gone. Scott's daughter Cassie shows up and then she exits stage left. The three insect themed villains crawl out from under a rock with no explanation so all the nonsense turned me off. This is supposed to be fun but I just found it dumb.

 Dark Agnes #1 - Becky Cloonan (writer) Luca Pizzari (art) Jay David Ramos (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). This is bad. I expected a lot better from Becky Cloonan. I did not find the adventures of the red-headed swordswoman in 16th Century France to be very appealing. Agnes was okay in short doses teamed up with Conan in Serpent War but this solo story bored me. Here's another 5-issue mini that I'll take a pass on.

 Conan: Battle for the Serpent Crown #1 - Saladin Ahmed (writer) Luke Ross (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). It must the week for new 5-issue minis from Marvel to hit the racks because here's another one. Conan's adventures in the modern world continues as his wandering brings him to Las Vegas. He's tazered by the guards while trying to rob an armoured truck but is saved by a fellow thief named Nyla. They then decide to team up and rob a hotel of money and jewels but someone beats them to the booty. That someone and the surprise villain at the end of this issue was enough to make me want to read the next issue.

 The Immortal Hulk: Great Power #1 - Tom Taylor (writer) Jorge Molina (pencils) Adriano Di Benedetto & Roberto Poggi (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Attention Immortal Hulk and Amazing Spider-Man fans; this $4.99 US one-shot featuring an amalgam of the Hulk and Spider-Man is well worth adding to your collection. You will discover that Tom Taylor is an excellent writer and this story of friendship and camaraderie is a nice change from the typical super heroes fighting. The guest stars are fun too.

 Marauders #7 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Stefano Caselli (art) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I know that I said that I was going to bench this book but there were rack copies left over after pulling subs and I can't resist a book with nice art. I still think there's too much going on plot-wise that makes following storylines difficult and I hate when I see art mistakes. Emma is wearing sexy thong panties in one panel and 5 panels later she's wearing granny underwear. I think Stefano's original drawing in the later panel wasn't chaste enough for someone at Marvel/Disney.

 X-Men/Fantastic Four #1 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Terry Dodson (pencils) Rachel Dodson (inks) Dexter Vines & Karl Story (ink assist) Laura Martin (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I've been looking forward to this 4-issue mini to hit the racks because I like both the writer and artists involved. This story establishes that Franklin Richards is a mutant. Charles Xavier thinks Franklin should be with his kinfolk on Krakoa. Reed and Sue don't want their teenage son to be away from his family. Instant drama. When Franklin stows away on Kitty's ship returning to Krakoa you know more super hero fights are in the future. But first we have a super villain attack. I thought it was Doc Ock since the attack happens at sea but I was wrong. I'm reading the rest of this to see how the two teams resolve their differences.

 Batman 100-Page Giant #3 - These $4.99 US one-shots are a great value. There are two new stories in this and 3 lengthy reprints. I consider these excellent teasers for the trade collections on the shelves if you want to get the whole story.

 DC's Crimes of Passion #1 - This may not seem like a good deal at $9.99 US for just 80 pages but there are 10 new stories inside featuring more Batman heroes and villains than you can count on two hands. Please don't be discouraged by the cheesy cover, none of the stories inside are that bad.

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Sword and the Sorcerer, Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore, Ian Fleming, Appendix N

Cinema (1000 Misspent Hours): Albert Pyun is another one of my great cinematic nemeses; if you watch anywhere near as many low-budget movies as I do, he’s probably one of yours, too. Pyun’s big claim to fame is his nearly sure-fire touch with what ought to be a categorically impossible subgenre, the action-less action movie. No filmmaker I know of, living or dead, can match Pyun’s ability to drag out a fight scene until the audience loses all interest, or to craft a maddeningly convoluted story that never develops even the faintest hint of forward momentum.

              Pulp Science Fiction (SF Magazines): I suspect that this was a fragment that Moore started and abandoned, and which Kuttner largely or entirely completed (compare the amount of description versus incident in the first quarter against that in the remainder, and you will see what I mean). Whatever, it is the worst thing of theirs I’ve read, and certainly not up to the quality of their other 1943 work. To that latter point—how on Earth did this become a Hugo finalist when Moore’s Judgement Night was overlooked? What on Earth were the Retro Hugo nominators thinking?

  Paperback Science Fiction (Rich Horton): On to Beyond Earth’s Gates. This is bylined “Lewis Padgett and C. L. Moore”, which is curious because “Lewis Padgett” is generally regarded as a collaborative pseudonym for Moore and her husband Henry Kuttner. I do suspect, though, that the Padgett pseudonym was probably more often used for stories in which Kuttner was the primary author (while I suspect “Lawrence O’Donnell” stories were more often primarily by Moore.)

Art (DMR Books): Over the years, Finlay illustrated stories by most of the top writers in the field, including H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Edmond Hamilton, Henry Kuttner, C. L. Moore, Seabury Quinn, Jack Williamson, Carl Jacobi, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, A. Merritt, George Allan England, John Taine, H. Rider Haggard, H. G. Wells, Talbot Mundy, Arthur Conan Doyle, Murray Leinster, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Collier, E.F. Benson, Manly Wade Wellman, Stanley G. Weinbaum, James Blish, Frank Belknap Long. The list is almost endless.

  Robert E. Howard (John C. Wright): This yarn truly merits the nickname later invented by Fritz Leiber for the genre of Sword and Sorcery. There is a more sword and a lot more sorcery than any Conan story to date.

The energy and action, the clash of steel on steel, so evident in his shorter works, here loose no tension on the larger canvass. Some authors who show admirable economy in the short story betray a lack of discipline in their novels, indulging in digression and needless ornament. Not so here. The rapidfire pace the Conan reader has come to expect is maintained.

        Pulp Adventure (DMR Books): The fifth installment in the serialized version of Tros of Samothrace is titled “Admiral of Caesar’s Fleet” and consists of what would become chapters 52 – 66 of the novel published in 1934. Set in the spring of the year 54 B.C., this story tells of the aftermath of Julius Caesar’s first invasion of Britain and was first published in the October 10th 1925 issue of Adventure magazine.  It is available in a number of editions in book form or you can read it here at the invaluable library of Roy Glashan.

Culture Wars (Jon del Arroz): What it comes down to is Wikipedia trying to erase mention of any of its political opponents because of its extreme left-biased agenda. It’s not enough for them to just hate and try to attack us anymore, they’re trying to erase everyone from existing — complete dehumanization — because they’ve lost all semblance of argument for their horrific behavior they’ve foisted upon us for daring disagree with their politics.

  Weird Tales and History (Tellers of Weird Tales): This week, I finished reading D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II by Stephen E. Ambrose (Simon & Schuster, 1994). While reading, I ran across the name of a teller of weird tales, R. Ernest Dupuy (1887-1975), who, as General Eisenhower’s press aide, was first to confirm to the press that the invasion had commenced by reading the following communiqué at about 9:30 a.m. London time: “Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France.”

  Reading (Black Gate): It may seem a bit peculiar to write an article about the decline in reading for a site that has done so much to promote the works of writers past and present. Most assuredly, regular visitors to this site are readers. Unfortunately, they are the exception and not the rule in the present day.

During the pulp era, writers were sometimes referred to disparagingly as the Penny-a-Word Brigade. Flash forward to the end of the second decade of the 21st Century and you’ll find far too many pulp writers who would salivate at the thought of earning a penny a word for their efforts. Far too many receive no financial compensation at all, some do not even receive comp copies of their own titles.

  Robert E. Howard (National Review): Cross Plains, Texas — We start where it ended. “The car would have been sitting just about here,” says Jack Baum, a few feet behind the Robert E. Howard Museum. A small group of us take it in. Several of us squirm. This is the spot where the pulp writer put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. When he killed himself in his car in 1936, the creator of Conan the Barbarian — one of the most iconic characters to spring from American fiction — was 30 years old.

  Edgar Rice Burroughs (Erbzine): Of the several books Edgar Rice Burroughs consulted in his research on Apaches, one bore the rather cumbersome and dry sounding title: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1887-’88.  This five-pound plus tome (first published in 1892) was part of an ongoing set of matched volumes bound in dark brown cloth, with gilt spine lettering, bearing the imprint of the Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

  RPG (Bloomberg): On a recent Friday evening, Devon Chulick stood in the kitchen of his San Francisco apartment brewing potions. A dry-erase game board with a grid of black squares to assist in drawing maps was laid neatly across the coffee table in the living room, along with a dozen or so miniature elves, wizards, and drow rogues, which had been released from their Tupperware prisons.

  Ian Fleming (Elgin Bleeker): A lot of years have gone by since I last read anything by Ian Fleming. The last was Thrilling Cities, a non-fiction collection of travel essays. I found a paperback copy in a used-book store in the 1990s. But I could not tell you the last time or title of one of Fleming’s James Bond stories.

Something on-line triggered an urge to dig out my paperback copy of From Russia With Love.

  Michael Crichton (Western Genre Musings): Here we have Michael Crichton’s only Western novel published posthumously. The timeline has it written perhaps in the 1970’s and it still has the mark of his trademark blending of science and narrative, here in the form of the Dinosaur Bone Wars of Professors Cope and Marsh, actual feuding personages.

Will follow our naïve young protagonist Westward and watch him mature and learn more than a good deal along the way.

  Appendix N (Ken Lizzi): With few reservations, I applaud the list and recommend at least some of the works by the included authors. Notably excluded is Margaret St. Clair. Others (Gary Gygax, obviously) enjoy her writing. But otherwise, Appendix N gets the Ken Lizzi seal of approval. The material is primarily pulp; a good thing from my perspective. It runs the gamut from rather disposable, light entertainment to quality work of rather high literary value. Let’s call it a Fox to Vance scale, but don’t let that lead you to believe I am disparaging Gardner Fox. I like disposable, light entertainment.

    Sensor Sweep: Sword and the Sorcerer, Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore, Ian Fleming, Appendix N published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: Dime Detective, Jules Verne, Warhammer, Triplanetary, Rambo!

Science Fiction Fandom (Wastland and Sky): At last we reach the end of this series. It’s been quite a ride! We’ve gone through the development of genre fiction from the early Gothic Horror days up until the then-current New Wave movement and everything in between. For such a straightforward book it has certainly gone all over the map. It is only a shame the author had agendas of his own.

  Pulp Magazines (Pulp Flakes): Inspector Allhoff is one of the stars of Dime Detective in my estimation. He’s a police inspector who lost his legs to injuries sustained in a botched raid on a gangster hideout. The loss of his legs warps him into a surly, misanthropic person who lives across the street from Police Headquarters and solves mysteries while guzzling endless cups of coffee. This particular story, set during World War 2, starts off with a surlier than usual Allhoff missing his coffee due to rationing (one pound of coffee per person per week).

  Cinema (Old Style Tales): Since its publication in 1898, Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” has absorbed our collective imaginations. It is a story that pits innocence against corruption, desire against duty, and children against ghosts. While it has been filmed over a dozen times for both the small and silver screens, not all of those adaptations have been worth watching. Listed here are eight of the most visually, dramatically, and thematically compelling adaptions of its central story.

  Fiction (DMR Books): Rung Ho! was Talbot Mundy’s first novel.  It was serialized in Adventure magazine and then published in book form by Charles Scribner in 1914.  Well received by the critics, the book sold well; it is a coming of age story for its hero and heroine, set against the backdrop of the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857.  You can find it in any number of collections or here, at Roy Glashan’s Library.

  Gaming (Mirror): Warhammer: Chaosbane is a game a few Diablo fans and Warhammer fans might have on their radar and for all the right reasons. We had a chance to play the closed beta of the upcoming action RPG.

Chaosbane is takes place in the Warhammer fantasy battle universe. Set directly after a conflict called the Great War of Chaos, there are remaining factions of the evil Chaos forces still attacking the human city of Nuln. It’s our hero’s job to eradicate these small factions and save the city from destruction.

  Fiction (Forbes): Novelist Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in the French city of Nantes. Today he is known as a pioneer of the science-fiction genre, imagining a submarine traveling twenty thousand leagues under the sea, a space projectile heading to the moon and a fantastic journey into the depths of our world. One hundred and fifty years after Verne’s visions, humans have walked on the moon, nuclear submarines can travel under the sea and we have started to explore the mysteries of the deep earth.

  Comic Books (Gaming While Conservative): The latest issue of Alt(Star)Hero dropped last week, and everything was so hectic I didn’t get a chance to review it.  Well, now I’ve got a chance and here’s a stunner for you – I liked it!

  Fiction (Fantasy Literature): As I mentioned in my reviews of the first two books, Triplanetary(1948) and First Lensman (1950), Smith originally wrote volumes 3 – 6 first, only adding Books 1 and 2 later, when he felt that some kind of explanatory prequel had become necessary. And while it is true that the second section of Triplanetary had been written as early as 1934, it was only 14 years later that that section was rewritten to make it fit into the LENSMAN cycle.

  Cinema (Frontier Partisans): Sly Stallone is saddling up — literally — for a coda to the Rambo movie franchise that will now span 37 years.

According to Variety, Rambo: Last Blood (get it?)…

“…centers on Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo crossing into Mexico and taking on a violent cartel when the daughter of one of his friends is kidnapped. ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ also stars Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta and Yvette Monreal. Adrian Goldberg is directing from a screenplay by Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick. Stallone, who was 36 when the first film premiered, will be 73 at ‘Last Blood’s’ release.”

The movie is slated for a September 2019 release.

  Cinema (Dark Herald): The reviews are coming in for Captain Marvel and they are…surprisingly accurate in a few corners.  I was expecting everyone to tow the party line.  And while quite a few have.  There are several other shills that are off the reservation.

The RT score for Captain is a shockingly low 83%.

  Art (Northwest Adventures): More covers from Adventure.

  Cinema (Perilous Worlds): Who are the biggest names in the rise of sword-and-sorcery? Most are the authors who burst open fantasy literature in the pulp pages and later in paperbacks: Robert E. Howard, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock. Almost as important are the artists whose book covers and comic illustrations realized the genre’s visceral visuals: Frank Frazetta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Roy Krenkel, Boris Vallejo.

One name rarely mentioned among the sword-and-sorcery influencers is Steve Reeves. He wasn’t an author or artist. He was a bodybuilder turned actor.

Cinema (The Wrap): As Amazon Studios prepares to return to Middle-earth with its new “Lord of the Rings”series, Fox Searchlight sheds light on the man behind the fantasy epic, releasing a new trailer on Wednesday for its upcoming biopic of author J.R.R. Tolkien.

    Sensor Sweep: Dime Detective, Jules Verne, Warhammer, Triplanetary, Rambo! published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[murielsparkresearch]

John Glashan

[art-practice-for-research]

These are my samples, I’ve mentioned these previously but wanted to present them separately with the relevant details. These are again inspired by John Glashan

[art-practice-for-research]

These art pieces are made by John Glashan. He is a cartoonist and illustrator who has inspired me to make my own watercolour paintings for my story inspiration. The bottom painting, I took a picture of from the cartoon museum. This suggests to me that a story can be told through backgrounds, this can be asked through questions such as what mood does the painting convey? What purpose does the painting have?

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Roger Zelazny, Tros of Samothrace, Fred Saberhagen, Eyrie of the Dread Eye, Charles Beaumont

Authors (Rich Horton): Roger Zelazny would have been 82 today, but, dammit, he died way too young in 1995. I loved his short fiction but I haven’t written a lot about it, so instead I’ve taken four rather short bits, capsules, really, that I did of four of his novels, for my SFF Net newsgroup a while ago, and in once case for Black Gate retro-review of an issue of Galaxy.

  Tolkien (Eldritch Paths): I have a confession to make. Up until last year, I hadn’t actually read The Lord of the Rings. I know, I know. I say I read fantasy and I haven’t read what’s considered one of the greatest pieces of fantasy ever written. To be quite honest, I was a bit reluctant to read the trilogy. The complaints I’ve heard about Tolkien being “boring”, middle-earth as a setting being cliche, and that the novels having way too much description put me off. Eventually, I hunkered down and bit the bullet. To my surprise, I was blown away.

  Science Fiction (Tellers of Weird Tales): A long time ago, I wrote about Fritz Leiber, Jr., and the problem of the weird tale. The problem was and is this: How do we write convincingly about the supernatural, the rural, and the irrational in a thoroughly materialist, urbanized, and (supposedly) rational age?

Fiction (DMR Books): Talbot Mundy described the adventures of Tros in three books: Tros of Samothrace, Queen Cleopatra and Purple Pirate.  We will look at each of these books in turn and you can find them in paperback, hardcover, ebooks or here, at the invaluable library of Roy Glashan.  Although Tros of Samothrace was originally serialized in the pages of Adventure magazine in 1925 and 1926, it was not published in book form until 1934.

  Pulp Writers (My Drops of Ink): The beginning of adventure novels for men—1901-1920 period.  A few months ago, I wrote an article for Paperback Parade about Steward Edward White, an early 20th century writer of popular adventure, Westerns, and nonfiction about birds and nature.  He was a conservationist, naturalist, and big game hunter, and his love for nature, conservation, and adventure were to become very much a part of his literary works over his long career.  He enjoyed writing about pioneers, the West, logging, gold mining, and nature.

  Dime Novel Westerns (Crime Reads): Two detectives came out to Wyoming in early February 1885, seeking a boy from New York City and the ten thousand dollar reward posted by his father. The boy, an eleven-year-old banker’s son named Fred Shephard, had disappeared the month before, but had not been abducted. An obsessive reader of Western dime novels, the young man broke open his tin bank one January night and climbed down the rain spout from his room to the street. His latest book was left at school, his heroic intentions scrawled across the bottom of its open page, “Ime goin West to be a cowboy detective.”

  Fiction (Goodman Games): Science fiction and fantasy author Fred Saberhagen was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 18, 1930. Beginning his professional writing career at age 30 with a short story published in a 1961 issue of Galaxy Magazine, Saberhagen went on to become best known for his works featuring the characters Dracula and Sherlock Holmes. Fantasy role playing enthusiasts of a certain age are probably much more familiar with Saberhagen’s second-most popular work, The Swords Trilogy, which began being published in 1983, just as the Dungeons & Dragons craze was hitting its peak. Saberhagen followed that up with a subsequent sequel series, The Book of Lost Swords, which totaled eight additional books in all.

  Fiction (Paul Bishop): Somewhere, jockeying for position in my top five favorite tough guy private eyes, you will find the six book Rafferty series by Shamus Award winning author W. Glenn Duncan. Like author John Whitlatch, who I previously posted about, W. Glenn Duncan has been an enigma to his fans for many years. A former journalist and pilot, Duncan lived in Iowa, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and California, before disappearing into the proverbial wilds of Australia with his wife and three children.

  H. P. Lovecraft (Jeffro Johnson): Did this show with Zaklog the Great last Friday. Enjoyed talking Lovecraft and Lord of the Rings and… these obnoxious people that poison your mind until you’d begin to think that your “beloved past had never been.”

Lovecraft writes three times that “there was no hand to hold me back that night I found the ancient track.” After mulling this whole scene over in light of the Boomerclypse we’re in the process of rolling back, I’ve concluded that there was in fact a hand there. The hand of wisdom!

  Westerns (Frontier Partisans): During the summer between junior high school and high school, a movie came to our little local theater that I simply had to see. It was titled The Long Riders and it had this cool gimmick — four sets of brothers played four sets of brothers — the James Boys, the Youngers, the Millers, and the Fords, played by James and Stacy Keach; the Carradine brothers; the Quaids; and the Guests. My parents thought it was too violent and they didn’t like the idea of “glorifying outlaws.”

  RPG (The Mixed GM): Today, let’s take a look at AX5: Eyrie of the Dread Eye. I purchased the pdf and physical copy, but this review will focus on the pdf, due to the fact that the physical copy is still on its way. There is a 5E version of this, but I am only interested in the Adventure, Conqueror, King System (ACKS) version of it!

Sidebar: Really appreciate Autarch making the pdf + physical copy combo the same price as just purchasing the physical book.

  Cartoons (Kestifer): Mobile Suit Gundam aired on Japanese television in 1979 and birthed a brand new sub-genre of giant robot fiction: the “Real Robot.” Where the 60s and 70s had a thriving “Super Robot” field populated with classics like Tetsujin-28 Go,Mazinger Z, and Getter Robo (worthy in their own ways), Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Gundam treated giant robots less as giant superheroes calling out their attacks, and instead as advanced weapons of war against a backdrop of space opera and large scale warfare.

  Fiction (Easily Distracted): I first gave up on the paperback edition of Fires of Eden in August 1995. But powerful images and scenes from Fires of Eden stuck with me, particularly a legion of night-marching spirits filing through the wilds of Hawaii. Similar to the staying power of scenes of devouring lampreys in Simmons’ Summer of Night or the vampiric stomach siphons of Romanian orphans in Children of the Night.

  Cryptozoology (Kairos): Cryptozoology has been a sporadic hobby of mine since childhood. I’ve studied the research of investigators like Loren Coleman, Jeff Meldrum, and John Keel for years. I can’t tell you what our guest blogger encountered. I can tell you that his account perfectly aligns with multiple data points consistently found in the most credible Bigfoot reports.

  Gaming (Walker’s Retreat): WOWhead has more information as there are some significant difference between how it was and how Classic will go, mostly of a technical nature due to technology changes between 2004 and now, but if you weren’t there then you might want to read up on what you’re getting into.

Get ready for How Things Used To Be, folks, including everybody and their uncle rolling a Forsaken Rogue.

  Fiction (Pulpfest): A prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction, Charles Beaumont was born on January 2, 1929. According to award-winning writer and editor Roger Anker, “In a career which spanned a brief thirteen years,” Beaumont wrote and sold “ten books, seventy-four short stories, thirteen screenplays (nine of which were produced), two dozen articles and profiles, forty comic stories, fourteen columns, and over seventy teleplays.”

    Sensor Sweep: Roger Zelazny, Tros of Samothrace, Fred Saberhagen, Eyrie of the Dread Eye, Charles Beaumont published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

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John Glashan