I’m going to continue to stick to my guns here regarding the 21st Century as being the very best time ever to be a fan of Robert E. Howard. The soon-to-be-done year of 2008 was yet another productive one in furthering the Legacy of REH. Here’s a bit of an opinionated re-hash of how the year went for Ol’ Two-Gun, and no doubt I’ll be missing something, so let me know and I’ll revise.

First, in light of the forum I am presently using, the two main REH internet blogs continued on, here and over at The Cimmerian. Lots of meat and interesting posts, and I’m giving shout-outs to the main posters, Morgan Holmes and Steve Tompkins. Both just educated and entertained the hell out of me. The paper versions of both REHupa and The Cimmerian steamed ahead; Leo’s been going great guns for five years now, and REHupa‘s just started their 37th year of continuous production.

Damon Sasser continued his postings over at the REH:Two-Gun Raconteur site, and a couple of times scooped all of us. Bill Thom maintains the info-packed site over at HowardWorks, the Conan.com forums continue to have lots of posts, and even rehinnercircle remained strong until just this month. The Robert E. Howard Foundation website recently got a kick-ass new look, thanks to Leo Grin and Rob Roehm. And Frank Coffman is reviving his electronic journal apa REHEAPA as well.

Howard Publishing carried on in fine form. With the addition of the ninth volume, The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard to Del Rey’s ever-growing REH library, REH is now easily found in major bookstores. This has always been a major sticking point with me, and to look in any brick and mortar bookstore now, anyone can see at least a half a row of majestic Robert E. Howard BOOKS. Fan-freakin’-tastic!  (One book scheduled for 2009 is The Desert Adventures – all right!) And found next to the Del Reys are the real paperback-sized Cosmos Publishing editions, in a five book series of Howard stories selected from the ten book Wildside series of PD Howard from Weird Tales. Howard books for eight bucks! Woo hoo! And, the Wildside series still shows up in some bookstores, as do the Bison editions.

The other major Howard publishing is coming from the REH Foundation Press: Vol. Three of The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard is now out, completing this massive project. Howard scholarship is at new heights, thanks in large part to making his letters available. If you want to know Howard, read his letters. Look for the Complete Poetry in 2009. Subterranean Press stepped up to carry on in the tradition of Wandering Star by offering deluxe editions of Howard books. Legal stuff prevented them from doing the third CONAN volume, so they did a bang-up job with KULL. Paul Herman updated THE NEVERENDING HUNT in what will be a neverending project, Crom willing!

Semi-pro publishing slowed up a bit in 2008. The Cimmerian kept up its bi-monthly schedule and continued to be the premiere REH journal around. But unfortunately, the wonderful REH:Two-Gun Raconteur only appeared once (due in part to Hurricane Ike smashing Damon Sasser’s house!) Jim Van Hise got back on track with Swords & Fantasy, but it’s got to be difficult doing labors of love in these trying economic times. Sigh. The Dark Man was sadly again too dark, and one can only hope we’ll see this fine scholarly Howard journal again.

Craziness seemed to take over some of Howard publishing this year. A self-proclaimed Howard scholar named Francis DiPietro brought out a POD Howard biography called The Supreme Moment. This was a hodge-podge collection of words cobbled together from various already-written Howard biographies and on-line musings about Ol’ Two-Gun, typed out slap-dash - along with a complete reprint of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Silver Eel (huh?) – with wild-ass Howard-was-a-homo theories thrown in for good measure. America – land of free speech – love it or don’t read it! Yikes! Mr. DiPietro also tried his hand at Howard publishing, bringing out two collections of Howard stories that he just rewrote a wee bit to string them together. If you blinked you missed ‘em, because Paradox Entertainment thankfully put the ki-bosh on that nonsense! Dodo Press, some goofy UK POD place, decided to cash in on the Howard boom for a bit, providing 50+ REH “books”, available through Amazon, consisting of two or three Howard stories slapped between covers of the most ridiculous art ever stolen, for the ridiculous price of $10! That shit “mysteriously” vanished as well. Mercenary bastards!

The book that had most of the hard-core up in arms this year actually had pure Robert E. Howard Conan stories in it. It was the introduction to this book that had a number of us ready to tar & feather ol’ Arnie Fenner, he of the 1970′s Howard fanzine boom infamy. “and their memory was a bitter tree”- Queen of the Black Coast and Others is an oddly-titled collection of eight Conan stories (public domain of course) placed in a book with some of the Frank Frazetta paintings and a new cover by Brom. Ok, while we really didn’t need a new Conan book – the stories are all out there – why did Fenner have to sound like such a putz in his introduction, demeaning the very writer of the book he’s trying to sell you? Plus, the reproduction on the Frazetta paintings was horrible, and this from a guy who does those nice Spectrum art books. We’re all still scratching our heads and grousing about this one…

On the other publishing front, Dark Horse Comics is continuing full-tilt on their Howard library of titles. They halted their Conan comic at issue #50(?) then started it up again at #1 as Conan the Cimmerian. 2008 proved to be a good year for REH volume in the comics, as DH also brought out SOLOMON KANE and KULL in an ongoing limited series. Horror writer Joe Lansdale wrote a sequel (huh?) to Howard’s magnificent Pigeons from Hell and brought that out in comic form, forgetting to tell me that it wasn’t an adaptation of Howard’s story, but that it was his take on how the story should be updated. WHATever…!!!!!! I was going to say that’s what I get for reading comic books (and I should mention that all of these comics are very boringly written…), but I’ll tell you the real reason I buy the Dark Horse REH comics:

THE ADVENTURES OF TWO-GUN BOB by Jim & Ruth Keegan. With the exception of the actual stories written by Robert E. Howard, The Adventures of Two-Gun Bob is the most important bit of REH in Pop Culture ever printed. Jim And Ruth have their marvelous continuing comic strip printed in every edition of a Howard-based comic from Dark Horse, and there is nothing else available in print that reaches more people and preaches the gospel of REH better, and nothing that humanizes him better to hundreds of thousands of people who might not take the opportunity to learn about REH. It is absolutely brilliant.

Movies based on Robert E. Howard characters are becoming a reality. The Solomon Kane movie is in post-production, but I just read recently it might get pushed back to Labor Day for a release. The Conan movie is also underway with a complete script, and Fred Malmberg of Paradox Entertainment has said a director may be named in January, with production set to begin in June. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Funcom’s AGE OF CONAN MMOG computer/X-Box/etc. game continues, but I know zero about it. It professes to portray Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age in great detail, but I’ve always found the greatest Howard details are the ones in my ever-greying noggin. There are also a pile of REH audio CD’s available on Ebay of which I know nothing – again, I’ve got my own versions rattling around upstairs here.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the up close and personal Robert E. Howard events that took place in 2008. We had a Birthday Bash at his House back in January, and Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains in June was another resounding success. As they’ll both be repeated in ’09, y’all come! The fine folks of Cross Plains honored Joan McCowen earlier this month, the fine lady who was instrumental in getting Howard Days (and lot of what we’re doing here) going back in 1986. We can never thank her enough.

But, as this is MY blog, I CAN thank all of you for helping to keep the lamp lit for the one and only Robert E. Howard, a feller in Texas who wrote some pretty damn good stories a few years ago, and left them for you and me to read and talk about and have some fine fellowship over. Shall we?

Happy 2009, y’all.

On Saturday, December 6, the Cross Plains Public Library is honoring Joan McCowen for her many years of dedication and service. Joan was a member of the original board that incorporated the library in 1978 (it opened its doors in February 1979), and she has served in various capacities for the past thirty years, as president, secretary, or treasurer of the Friends of the Library and the library’s board.  Until this year, when failing health intervened, she had missed only one meeting in 29 years. She was also a tireless volunteer, as was her husband, Alton.

In addition to all her work for the library, Joan has been a dedicated officer and volunteer for Project Pride and Robert E. Howard Days. In fact, Joan was the first person I actually met in Cross Plains, and it was from that chance meeting that Robert E. Howard Days sprang.

On another Saturday, March 22, 1986, I was returning to Houston from a business trip to Dallas but decided to take the long way around and pass through Cross Plains and Brownwood. I had taken on the planning for a REHupa trip to Cross Plains in June of that year, and several people, including Graeme Flanagan of Canberra, Australia, had committed to attending, so I wanted to nail down a motel, and I also hoped maybe I could find something for us to do in Cross Plains other than just stop by the side of the road and take pictures of the Howard House. At the time, that and a visit to the grave in Brownwood were about all I knew to do.

As I came into Cross Plains from the north on Texas 206, I decided to stop and see if the library was open. It had been closed on my only other trip to the town, in the fall of the previous year.  I thought that if anyone in town would know about REH, it should be the library. As I parked my car in front, I noted that while the sign said the library was closed, the door was ajar, so I ventured in. Behind the desk just inside the door was a young woman, probably a high school student.

I told her I was a visitor from Houston, planning to bring a group of Robert E. Howard fans to Cross Plains in June, and hoping there was someone I could talk with about whether the Library had any Robert E. Howard related material.

The young lady made a quick trip to the back of the library, returning in the company of a woman who introduced herself as Joan McCowen, and asked how she could help me. When I explained what I wanted to do, her face lit up — and if you’ve ever met Joan you know that her smile can light up the room — and she invited me back to the office to talk.  It was the beginning of what has been, to date, a wonderful 22-year friendship, and it was the first in the chain of events that created Robert E. Howard Days.

Joan was then president of the Friends of the Library, and it was simply good fortune she had happened to be there taking care of some business on a Saturday.  She told me that she had not known much at all about Robert Howard until very recently, when she had read Dark Valley Destiny and become very interested in Howard’s poetry.  She offered to do what she could to come up with some activities for the group I would be bringing, including, possibly, getting to at least walk around the yard of the Howard house: the owners, it turned out, were members of the Friends of the Library. I in turn offered to see if we REHupans could come up with some Howard books for the library, which had only a few battered copies of Conan paperbacks.

Joan, librarian Billie Ruth Loving, and the Friends that June treated us to a marvelous weekend. We did get to walk around the yard of the Howard house taking pictures (we did not get to go inside, but the owner, Floyd Carter, told us — as we later learned, quite correctly — that the inside did not much resemble what the house had looked like when the Howards lived there). We had a delectable dinner of barbecued brisket at the home of Drs. Charles and Lou Rodenberger, where we got to meet a number of the Friends of the Library, including Jack Scott.  And we learned that, in honor of our visit, the mayor had proclaimed Saturday, June 14, 1986 “Robert E. Howard Day.”  At a ceremony on Saturday at the library, the mayor read the proclamation, and on behalf of REHupa I made a formal presentation of about 40 Howard books, from hardcover copies of Mayhem on Bear Creek and The Dark Barbarian to paperbacks and fanzines, we had collected. Joan was delighted to find among the donated volumes a copy of the Underwood-Miller edition of Always Comes Evening.

From that day to this, REHupa has enjoyed a special relationship with the Cross Plains Public Library, and Joan McCowen has been a vital part of that tradition.  When a group of civic-minded citizens formed Project Pride, Joan and Alton were among them.  When some of those folks pooled their own resources and bought the Howard House, the McCowens were part of the group. Joan and Alton were always there during Howard Days, Joan greeting visitors in the Howard House, Alton for several years leading bus tours.  But that was only the public face: the two of them spent many, many hours on library and Project Pride business and activities, from Alton maintaining the Howard House grounds or attending to needed repairs, to Joan spending hours sorting through donations and setting up the Silent Auction.

Today, Joan’s dedication and service to the library is recognized and honored. We, as Robert E. Howard fans, join in that tribute, and thank her for everything she has done for Cross Plains and for Robert E. Howard. And I take advantage of this opportunity to say thank you, Joan, for twenty-two years of wonderful friendship.

INDY adds: I was among that first group of ten who came to the very first Howard Day celebration in 1986. Fortunately, Joan and Billie Ruth Loving were the first two people that I had the great pleasure of meeting in Cross Plains. Joan found out I was from Northwest Indiana and told me that she was from Chicago, so we had some immediate regional bonding!

She’s always been one of my absolute favorite people in Cross Plains, and I’ve admired her gracious straightforwardness coupled with charm and Texas hospitality. Joan is a great friend of the fans of Robert E. Howard,  and I can selfishly say I’m glad she’s my friend as well!

The Tribute to Joan McCowen is so well-deserved – please take some time in your own way to offer up a good thought for a great lady!

One artist I wish had painted a cover for a Robert E. Howard book is Carl Hantman.  When I started reading western paperbacks, I often noticed New American Library and Warner paperbacks with distinct cover art. Often the covers were shades of one color, the background was shadowy. The style reminded me of early Jeff Jones but with better human anatomy. Turns out it was Carl Hantman who painted dozens of covers of paperbacks in the 60s and 70s. If you look at the cover for White Apache, it could almost be a barbarian sitting on that horse.

Hantman no longer paints paperback western covers. He has moved on selling his paintings at auctions. His later work is more detailed than those old paperback covers. I still like his old paintings though. In an alternate universe, there are a shelf of Robert E. Howard paperbacks with moody covers painted by Carl Hantman.

 

I notice that the Louis Lamour paperbacks are getting new covers courtesy of Greg Manchess. Manchess’ style reminds me a little of Hantman’s. There is a classic feel to this sort of painting. Who knows– maybe we can get a Carl Hantman illustration of a Robert E. Howard scene yet.