Saved by the Panther: Jonathan Maberry on storytelling, books, and how the Black Panther changed his life, Part 1

Saved by the Panther: Jonathan Maberry on storytelling, books, and how the Black Panther changed his life, Part 1

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Jonathan Maberry, at home with some of his awards

Since the publication of his first novel Ghost Road Blues, Jonathan Maberry has been a mainstay in genre fiction circles. Whether its for one of his multiple series, comic book writing, or the numerous anthologies he’s edited over the years, audiences have come to know and love his work.

With the completion of his 57th novel right around the corner, Maberry is still going strong. The five-time Stoker Award winner joined me for a chat about the past, present, and future. From his childhood in the rough Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia to being editor of Weird Tales, here’s what Maberry had to share with Black Gate magazine in an interview so big we had to split it in two.

You’ve been writing and editing for decades, how has the industry changed since you made your fiction debut?

My first novel came out in 2006 which is just around the time that digital was rising, so a couple years from then on we saw the end of CDs and cassettes for audio books and the rise of digital downloads.

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Fauxnan the Barbarian, Part Three

Fauxnan the Barbarian, Part Three

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A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (Troma Entertainment, 1990)

A veritable cornucopia of dodgy barbarian and barbarian-adjacent movies that I have never watched before, and will probably never watch again. Enjoy Parts One and Two here and here.

A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990) – USA

I can’t help thinking that this one must have disappointed many a randy teenager when they smuggled it out of the video store, only to learn that ‘nymphoid’ doesn’t mean the same as ‘nymphomaniac,’ and were instead subjected to a good hour of aimless wandering before even a glimpse of prehistoric knockers was on the cards.

This is another quick buck-maker from the Troma crew, who surely saw a return on their meagre investment thanks to the aforementioned teen suckers, but it really doesn’t feel like a Troma flick. There’s no sign of the inventive weirdness or inappropriate humour to be found in the usual Kaufman joint; it’s all replaced by a dull story in which the last woman on Earth after the apocalypse, (Linda Corwin) has to contend with wandering gangs of bestial chads, while trying to avoid larger critters in the form of daft-looking dinosaurs.

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Forgotten Authors: Pauline Ashwell

Forgotten Authors: Pauline Ashwell

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Pauline Whitby/Pauline Ashwell/Paul Ash

Pauline Whitby was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire on January 25, 1926 to the headmaster and headmistress of Merchant Taylors’ School in Ashwell, the village from which she would gain her pseudonym. Whitby had a younger sister named Marie. Both of them attended the school their parents ran.

Whitby began publishing in 1941 when she was 15 years old, with the chapbook Little Red Steamer, a fantasy for children, which published by Methuen under the pseudonym Pauline Ashwell.

In July of 1942, her story “Invasion from Venus” appeared in the British magazine Yankee Science Fiction. She used the pseudonym Paul Ashwell for the story. Later, her first novelette, “Unwillingly to School” appeared in Astounding under her most famous pseudonym, Pauline Ashwell and earned her a Hugo nomination. Nine months later, her story “Big Sword” also appeared in Astounding, but again as by Paul Ash.

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Dark Muse News: The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt

Dark Muse News: The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt

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The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt
(Brain Waves Press, 2026.) Cover created by Miblart with interior illustration by the author.

A contemporary, cosmic-horror take on portal fantasy!

The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) is a young-adult, portal fantasy written by Byron Leavitt.  It’s a contemporary, cosmic-horror take on the sub-genre that was a gateway for many of us. Recall the books like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (1961), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950), The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900), and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)?

All of the above have adult followings as much as their young adult readerships. Which portal fantasies grabbed you and helped you become addicted to fantasy?

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Lin Carter’s Year’s Best Fantasy Stories

Lin Carter’s Year’s Best Fantasy Stories

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The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories, volumes 1-9, edited by Lin Carter and Arthur Saha (DAW Books, 1975-1983)

While people disagree on the quality of Lin Carter’s writing, most people agree he was a fine editor and tireless supporter of the fantasy field. Volumes edited by Carter brought quite a few new authors to my attention, as well as feeding me a steady diet of works by writers I already loved.

From 1975 to 1988, DAW books presented a yearly anthology called The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories. Lin Carter edited the first six and I own and have read all but #3, which I ordered recently but was sent the wrong book.

Arthur W. Saha took over as editor after that. I only have one of his volumes. I don’t know why the editorial switch, but Carter may have been suffering from ill health around that time. He died in 1988. I first read the three with Robert E. Howard content, but later read a couple of others. Here are my thoughts.

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Thundarr the Barbarian: Demon Dogs and Lords of Light

Thundarr the Barbarian: Demon Dogs and Lords of Light

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Thundarr the Barbarian (Ruby-Spears Productions/ABC, October 4, 1980 – October 31, 1981)

Thundarr the Barbarian (21 episodes; 1980-81)

Created by Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck; The Defenders).

The look of the main characters was designed by Alex Toth. After he was unavailable to continue working on the series, Jack “King” Kirby was brought in, at the recommendation of Gerber and Mark Evanier (who would later write a biography of Kirby). Kirby designed the look of most of the villains and supporting characters.

What is it?

What is it?? Lords of Light, it’s awesome, is what it is!

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: All My Steeger Books Intros

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: All My Steeger Books Intros

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It’s mid-May, and I’ve been in something of a hardboiled mood lately. So with Summer looming, here’s a Black (Gat) in the Hand. More Pulp is coming, like a gumshoe with a gasper and a rod.

I am fortunate to be part of a star-studded roster of writers who provide intros to Pulp reprints from Steeger Books. More and more classic, and forgotten, Pulp is continually being brought back to print – and electronically as well. I just finished my tenth intro, and that will roll out with number eleven, later this year.

Below you can find links to all nine of the intros that have been printed so far. Plus a bonus one that didn’t quite make it. If you like what I had to say, you might be interested in checking out the books themselves. You’ll likely recognize at least a couple of the names below. But I cannot praise the Max Latin stories by Norbert Davis, enough. I have the audiobook, and that’s my bedtime listening multiple times a week, all year long. Love those stories.

FAST ONE (Paul Cain)

Lead Party has all of Paul Cain’s short stories, as well as his lone novel, Fast One. Mine is one of five essays in this deluxe hardback. And I got to write about Fast One!

Raymond Chandler referred to it as “some kind of high point in the hardboiled manner.” I think this is a nearly flawless book, and it rivals The Maltese Falcon as my favorite Hardboiled novel. If you haven’t read it, you’re missing out on one of the best works in the genre.

Cain had somewhat of a mysterious life, and he wrote screenplays under the name Peter Rurik. While his legal name was George Sims. He died living quietly, his past largely buried.

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Roger Zelazny, Master Craftsman of Fantasy

Roger Zelazny, Master Craftsman of Fantasy

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The Chronicles of Amber and The Second Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny (Gollancz SF Masterworks editions, April 14 and August 18, 2022). Covers uncredited

There are few authors whose works bring me greater joy than Roger Zelazny.

Zelazny was a master of craft and style who could present in a terse style that seamlessly evolves into evocative prose without any awkwardness or jarring transitions. His strengths as a writer were myriad: incredible storytelling, plot development, vivid descriptions, character development, and boundless imagination in the creation of strange worlds — sometimes a shade different from our own; other times wholly alien.

In The Chronicles of Amber, Zelazny exhibits all his strengths as a writer. It’s almost frustrating to read him, because he seems to perform his craft so effortlessly.

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Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle by Chuck Dixon and Carlos Meglia

Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle by Chuck Dixon and Carlos Meglia

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Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle, issue 1 (Dark Horse, October 2001). Cover by Humberto Ramos

From Dark Horse Comics and DC comes Superman Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle, written by Chuck Dixon with interior art by Carlos Meglia. Cover art on the original issue covers was by Humberto Ramos.

This is a 3-issue comic arc that riffs off the original Tarzan story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The mutiny aboard The Fuwalda takes place as usual, which is the start of Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1912/1914 serial/novel Tarzan of the Apes.

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Forgotten Authors: Paul W. Fairman

Forgotten Authors: Paul W. Fairman

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Paul W. Fairman

If Paul W. Fairman’s name is known, it is likely as an editor or the ghostwriter who wrote several of the juvenile novels published under Lester del Rey’s name when the latter author suffered from writers block. However, he had his own career as an author and Marvin W. Hunt commented, his “novels deserve the attention of science fiction enthusiasts not only because his books display the requisite technological prescience of good science-fiction, but especially because they are well written.”

Fairman was born on August 22, 1909 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Fairman began publishing in the February 1947 issue of Mammoth Detective with the story “Late Rain,” and in 1950 he published his first science fiction story, “No Teeth for the Tiger” in the February issue of Amazing Stories. Between 1951 and 1953, he occasionally used the housename Ivar Jorgensen, and in 1954, the film Target Earth was based on Fairman’s story “Deadly City,” which appeared under that pseudonym.  He also used the pseudonyms Robert Eggert Lee and the housename E.K. Jarvis, which was also used by Robert Moore Williams.

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