I am always on the quest for a pulp magazine with a good machine gun cover. It is doubly delightful in that this issue of Smashing Novels also included Robert E. Howard’s “Vultures of Whapeton.”

Robert E. Howard must have liked The Marx Brothers as he mentioned three of their movies in letters: The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, and Horsefeathers. The Cocoanuts features the song “The Monkey Doodle Doo” which is very catchy. This song needs to be remade. I would nominate Siouxie Sioux (of Siouxie and the Banshees) myself. The Donald Wandrei penned “Bananas, Bananas, Bananas” could be the B side. Mark Finn, this is for you!

Here is an instrumental version:

In addition to various barbarians, cavaliers, pirates, knights, and Vikings sword slinging in the pulp magazines, you occasionally get a jungle lord. The feral white man raised in the jungle story in the pulps is a figurative fictional bastard child. It starts out as The Jungle Book but generally quickly moves into “The Man Who Would Be King.”  Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes spawned more than a few imitators.  Burroughs himself used the story of Tarzan’s upbringing in the first novel. The Return of Tarzan to me is one of the most interesting as you get Tarzan in Paris interacting with civilization, then in North Africa with a tribe of bedouin, fighting Arab slavers with the Waziri tribesmen, and finally an episode at the lost city of Opar. I love the concept of Opar, a lost city of a past civilization hidden deep in the wilds of Africa. Unfortunately, Tarzan turned into a series of novels of what lost city does he find this time? I always thought the idea of a wild man dealing with encroaching civilization had lots of potential. Imagine the Tarzan series taking a different path with him dealing with the Congo Free State atrocities, colonial exploitation, tribal feuds, etc. Subsequent imitators followed suit with the wild man in lost city most of the time. One exception that I really enjoyed is C. T. Stoneham’s novel, The Lion’s Way.

One attempt to create a Tarzan imitation was the character of Ka-Zar. Raised in the Belgian Congo by lions after a plane crashes,  David Rand becomes Ka-Zar. Being raised in the wild, David Rand/Ka-Zar is stronger, swifter, and in general physically superior to other men. The Ka-Zar novels were attributed to Bob Byrd who may or may not have been a pseudonym.

The first magazine issue for Ka-Zar was October 1936.  “King of Fang and Claw” was the origin story for Ka-Zar.  “Roar of the Jungle” in the second issue for January 1937 has Ka-Zar’s first encounters with people from the outside world. The third and last novel–”The Lost Empire” has Ka-Zar entering lost race territory. An avalanche throws Ka-Zar and his lion brother Zar into a tunnel which leads into an isolated valley that contains a colony of ancient Egypt ruled by a descendant of the Ptolomies, Queen Tamiris.  Ka-Zar gets himself involved in intrigue of a power struggle between the evil priest Zut and Queen Tamiris. Before you know, there is a slave uprising led by Zut against the Egyptians. Ka-Zar picks up the sword and does his part at the ramparts. The writing isn’t bad in the Ka-Zar stories, they avoid some of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ weaknesses in his later years. If you have read half a dozen Tarzan books, everything in the Ka-Zar stories are old hat. Still, once in a while you get the hankering for a wild white man in the jungle story.  Our man from Cross Plains figured a better way. Why not just set the story in ancient times where you can have all sorts of ancient cultures and use a northern barbarian instead of a jungle lord?

You can get all three Ka-Zar novels in an omnibus from Altus Press. Odyssey Publications did facsimile reprint of the first issue in reduced size back in the 1970s and recently Adventure House did a pulp replica of the third and last issue. Manvis Publications was part of the company that would become Marvel Comics. Ka-Zar became a comic book character in 1939 with an adaptation of “King of Fang and Claw.” The adventures continued for a few years. Ka-Zar was resurrected in the 1960s and moved to a thermally warmed valley in Antarctica filled with dinosaurs. David Rand became Kevin Plunder and Zar the lion became Zabu the saber toothed tiger.

Charles Saunders, author of the popular Imaro series, recently posted “Can a Leopard-Man Change His Spots?” over at his blog. The post is a blast from the past, featuring an article/story that was first published in 1980 about the West African Leopard-Man cult; here is the opening paragraph:

The Leopard-Man has been one of the more chilling menaces that have skulked through the pages of African jungle fiction. Crazed, blood-mad killers armed with iron talons affixed to their fingers, leopard pelts draped over their bodies, teeth filed to needle-like points, the Leopard-Men stalked their terrified prey. Through drugs, hypnotism, or perhaps some unholy combination of the two, the jungle-story version of the Leopard-Man actually believed that the act of donning claws and skin transformed him into a leopard, free to slink through the night committing acts of murder and rapine unthinkable in normal circumstances.

Also, a revised version of one of Charles’ horror stories was just published online at the Innsmouth Free Press website. “Jeroboam Henley’s Debt” was first published in a 1982 issue of Potboiler magazine.

Murray Leinster was a pseudonym for William F. Jenkins (1896-1975). He started out writing vignettes for The Smart Set in 1917 and moved from there to stories with fantastic elements. He was one of the great writers for the Munsey magazines during the era of the “scientific romance” when you had Burroughs, Merritt, Brand, Rousseau, Stilson, etc.  A writing career of unusual duration as kept active into the early 1970s!

Leinster’s prose is not fancy but it achieves the purpose. I have found his fiction to hold up very well. Harry Bates, first editor of Astounding Stories said “Thank God for Murray Leinster.” Leinster was the one writer of science fiction who could bring the pulp adventure ethic to the field that epitomized Clayton Magazines.  He was actually a very good writer of space opera though you generally don’t see his name associated with that sub-genre.

Something to keep in mind- Murray Leinster’s output included just about all genres. While remembered as a science fiction writer today, his adventure, westerns, mysteries, and even love stories combined total more than the science fiction. If you were to edit a book entitled The Book of Murray Leinster, I would start with the original version of “The Mad Planet” that originally

appeared in Argosy. Laid in the far future where insects have grown to gigantic proportions and mankind is reduced so small bands of hunted fugitives. It holds up to this day. Robert E. Howard might have read the sequel, “The Red Dust” (Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 2, 1921). Leinster had an adventure series featuring “Malay Collins” from the pages of Short Stories. One of those stories could be used along with some other adventure yarns. A mystery story such as “Gangwar!” from Clues, a western such as “Gunfighter” (All-American Fiction) are representatives of those genres. “Sideways in Time” (Astounding Stories) has been oft reprinted but I like it. It was not so much an alternate history story but a time contininuity disturbance.  He also wrote several future war stories such as “Politics,” “Morale,” “Invasion” etc. Leinster was concerned by the lack of U.S. military preparedness in the 1930s and put those concerns on paper. I would like to say that “Swords and Mongols” from Golden Fleece would be a keeper but it reads like third rate pastiche Harold Lamb. There might be some other good historicals by Leinster out there.  Baen Books has been putting out some collections of Leinster’s science fiction. You can read the fix-up novel of “The Mad Planet” where it is moved from the far future to another planet.

Leinster had this to say about Robert E. Howard:

“He had a stellar talent. I not only lost a contemporary in the death of Robert E. Howard. The world lost a writer of extraordinary gifts.”

In my book, Murray Leinster was pretty cool. Gotta love a writer who smokes a pipe.

On June 13, the world of science fiction, fantasy and supernatural fiction scholarship lost one of its pioneers, Everett F. Bleiler. As Locus Online notes, in compiling The Checklist of Fantastic Literature: A Bibliography of Fantasy, Weird and Science Fiction Books Published in the English Language (Shasta, 1948), Bleiler laid the foundation for subsequent bibliographic work in these fields. He later produced annotated checklists, two cataloging early science fiction and one, most notable for our interests here, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction: A Full Description of 1,775 Books from 1750 to 1960, Including Ghost Stories, Weird Fiction, Stories of Supernatural Horror, Fantasy, Gothic Novels, Occult Fiction, and Similar Literature, with Author, Title and Motif Indexes. This massive survey of the field would probably, for most of us, represent a life’s work. But Mr. Bleiler did far more than compile these magnificent reference works.  He also edited some of the earliest SF collections (with Ted Dikty), and from 1955 he worked for Dover Publications, editing many of the volumes that we enthusiasts of fantastic literature regard as priceless gems of our collections. When I first joined REHupa I was not particularly well-read in weird literature beyond sword-and-sorcery (most of which, other than REH and Leiber, I had found unutterably formulaic and dull — I had yet, at that time, to discover Wagner and Saunders).  The members of this august association, notably my former housemates Vern Clark and Steve Trout, soon began to remedy that by introducing me to such luminaries as M.R. James, Robert W. Chambers, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and others, as often as not through volumes edited by Mr. Bleiler and published by Dover.  Lovecraft’s Supernatural Horror in Literature, of course, remains an essential guide to the realm of weird fiction.

Mr. Bleiler’s achievements did not go unrecognized during his lifetime: he received a special professional award from the World Fantasy Convention in 1978 and a Life Achievement Award ten years later, and won the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association in 1984.

For more on Mr. Bleiler and his accomplishments, see the brief obituary at Locus Online (they promise a full one in their July print issue), his Wikipedia page, and the entry in the SF Encyclopedia.  Brian J Showers has an interesting interview with him, and a good bibliography of his work.

Mr. Bleiler passed the torch to a younger generation, as well: his son, Richard, in addition to working with his father on the two checklists of early science fiction mentioned above, was the compiler of The Index to Adventure Magazine, the CD version of which I find one of the most useful reference tools in my library.

Now that the 2010 Howard Days has entered the hallowed halls Howardom history, it is time to reflect on the annual gathering in Cross Plains to honor Bob and his contributions to the literary world.

The weather was downright pleasant – not too hot, with a cool breeze and clouds keeping the heat at bay.  Jim and Ruth Keegan were gracious and wonderful Guests of Honor, as was the always entertaining Paul Sammon. The banquet was full and the food from Cross Plains’ Mexico City Café was delicious.  Saturday night’s barbeque at Caddo Peak Ranch was fantastic as always — nothing like that Texas hospitality the Middelton family extends to the Howard Days attendees every year.

One new item that caught my attention was a sign on the front of the Howard House. The sign states that the house is Doc Howard’s residence and is an exact replica of the one that appears in the famous photo of a young Bob with Patch on the front walkway. I thought that was a nice little addition that added some historical authenticity. When times were particularly tough during The Depression, Doc had to work from the house and the sign helped folks find their way there.

Another neat addition to Howard days this year was a flatbed trailer with chairs pulled by a pick-up for the walking tour (which I suppose is now the riding tour). This certainly makes it easier than walking in the oppressive Texas heat, since in past years people dropped out of the tour early as the heat took its toll on them. The tour is even longer now that folks can ride in style through the streets of Cross Plains as Rusty tells all about the places around town where Bob lived, worked and played

Next year’s celebration will be a big one, with 2011 being the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Cross Plains, the 75^th anniversary of Howard’s death and the 25^th anniversary of the very first Howard Days.

As the old saying goes, be there or be square.

Last night in Cross Plains were the Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards. The Foundation has carried on Leo Grin’s Cimmerian awards with the same categories. My “De Camp Controversy” series posted at this blog won 2nd place in the Hyrkanian category–outstanding achievement or essay for 2008.  Leo Grin’s very fine “In Defense of Hester Howard” came in first place. Steve Tompkins’ “Black Stranger, White Wolflord, Or Not Out of the Woods Yet” came in third.

I was surprized thinking that if anything of mine placed, it would be “Conan the Argonaut” or “The First Posthumous Collaborator” both originally from the pages of The Cimmerian from 2008.

“The de Camp Controversy” started out because of some heated debate at the Conan forum regarding L. Sprague de Camp’s legacy. I had originally intended it to be three or four blog posts and that would be it. Once I got into it, there was so much more to cover. I would still like to fill in some blank spots like the shopping of Conan to paperback publishers in 1963 and ’64.  A trip to look through de Camp’s papers is in order someday along with some talks with still living players of events from decades gone by. So with some time and effort, an expanded version may see the light of day in the future.

I came across this write-up on Howard and Cross Plains.  It appears to be written by a journalism student from the Mayborn School of Journalism in Denton. Thankfully, he writes like an actual journalist and not some whacked-out blogger:

It’s dark outside and Robert E. Howard is wrapping up his latest story. Twelve hours banging away at his Underwood typewriter—a normal day’s work, short even, by his standards. Sometimes he writes for 18 hours.  He has to. He needs the money. The medical bills for his mother keep rising. Lately, ever since the operation on her spleen, he is constantly taking breaks from writing to feed her, change her clothes and bathe her. 

He wishes he could take a break now and go boxing. He wishes he had a beer. But with the pulp magazines rejecting half his stories, he has to work twice as hard to break even. Locked away in a tiny room next to his mom’s, he is putting the finishing touches on a story called “Red Nails.” It is his final adventure about Conan the Barbarian, the culmination of everything he wants to say about his favorite character.  There is gore, sex, action and mystery, and after 21 stories, he feels he’s finally got it right. This is his best one yet.

The whole piece can be found here.

Another item of interest I found is a split-screen postcard showing downtown Cross Plains, then and now.  Sure hasn’t changed much:

Items from the George Scithers Estate are being auctioned off at E-bay.

http://shop.ebay.com/wowart/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

There are some art prints and original art. As to be expected, included are Roy Krenkel, Jim Cawthorn and George Barr art.  One jaw dropping piece is an original by George Barr of a nude Conan. Full frontal no less. I didn’t think such a thing could exist. As this is a family friendly site not to mention that I am constantly in touch with my inner Fred McMurray and Hugh Beaumont, I didn’t post an image here. You can go to E-bay to check it out. Better think fast as there is a bid on it.