Necronomicon Coming

Necronomicon Coming

Comments 0 Comment

Not the book of cosmically horrible… stuff, we’ll say “stuff” and let that be that, shall we? Not the Necronomicon of dread lore and Lovecraftian literary shenanigans. No, Necronomicon, as in a ‘con, Providence, Rhode Island, beginning August 15. Following in the upswell of interest in Lovecraft — or, more accurately, an uptick in cultural stuff (there’s that word again!) that relates to Lovecraft — the organizers of this event have reanimated it, and from all the early signs they’ve done a great job. It’s got a serious academic track record (adroitly renamed to protect the dignity of academic vitas), a gala ball or somesuch grand event, and other elements beyond description and if you’re interested visit the website already.

Who am I? Writer, academic, gamer, internet bon vivant1, and for a few volunteer shifts I’ll be keeping an eye on the gaming track at the ‘con.2 Watch this space for updates as the ‘con commences 8/15/24.

1 — I officially distance myself from any real claim of bon or vivant in the context of the internet.
2 — Yeah, I noticed this ‘con far too late to submit a paper to present to the academic track, or to even get on the reading schedule.

Neverwhens: Ancient Civilizations Topple and the Age of Heroes ends in the Blades of Bronze Trilogy by Mark Knowles

Neverwhens: Ancient Civilizations Topple and the Age of Heroes ends in the Blades of Bronze Trilogy by Mark Knowles

Comments 3 comments
Seriously, how many D&D encounters did this one scene inspire? (Jason and the Argonauts, 1963)

I sincerely doubt any Black Gate reader needs an education in who Ray Harryhausen was or why his films, despite the sea-change in special effects technology, remain seminal classics (I’ve been making my way through a bunch of his swashbuckling adventures with my Zoomer son, who notes, time and again, how ‘cheesy and awesome’ the stop motion is, but also calls out how perfect at times the strange movements are at making monsters seem, well…strange and *monstrous* in a way that smooth CGI does not).

I myself am young enough that the only Harryhausen film I saw in theaters was his grand finale, Clash of the Titans (1981), though thanks to Saturday matinee TV I had a steady diet of all that came before.

Clash itself is interesting, because, written by Beverley Cross, while ostensibly the story of Perseus — one of the few *likable* Greek heroes, and one of the few with a reasonably “happy” ending to his tale — the film is to large extent a reworking of an early film Cross had done with Harryhausen, Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

…

Read More Read More

An Essential Purchase: The Weird Tales Boys by Stephen Jones

An Essential Purchase: The Weird Tales Boys by Stephen Jones

Comments 2 comments


The Weird Tales Boys (PS Publishing, September 2023). Cover by Les Edwards

How could I not purchase The Weird Tales Boys, by Stephen Jones? It focuses on the three authors whose work has most inspired me for decades: Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith.

In fact, I created a small business whose core product, the Hyperborea RPG, is inspired by the works of these three iconic giants of weird fiction, horror, fantasy, and sci-fi.

…

Read More Read More

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Richard Deming’s Manville Moon

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Richard Deming’s Manville Moon

Comments 0 Comment

“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

 

Richard Deming’s career flourished during the end of the Pulps and the birth of the digests. He published short stories in five different decades. After serving in World War II, he was working for the Red Cross when he sold his first story, “The Juarez Knife,” to Popular Detective. He would write a total of sixteen more stories, as well as four novels, featuring his one-legged war veteran, Manville (‘Manny,’ ‘Mister’) Moon, mostly appearing in Black Mask, and Dime Detective.

He wrote three police procedural novels starring Matt Rudd, a vice cop in Southern California. Deming appeared in the final issue of Dime Detective, but had already transitioned to Manhhunt, the digest magazine that was the successor to the hardboiled Pulps.

Deming also wrote for television – an experience he did not speak of fondly.

…

Read More Read More

It’s Only a Matter of Time

It’s Only a Matter of Time

Comments 0 Comment

The human mind daydreams its way around certain specific topics with exceptional regularity. We fret about personal security, we hope for love (in its innumerable forms), and to round out the likely top three, we focus on death. This last in particular invites a speculative element: we can hardly help fantasizing about an extended or perhaps immortal life span.

But not far down the list comes the earnest desire to travel in time. Backward, forward, sidelong –– “over, under, sideways, down” –– any shift in our current path will do. We want to zip back in time to visit places now impossible to see, or connect with loved ones we’ve lost. We want to zoom forward to get a preview of what is to come.

The urge is powerful, atavistic. It’s as if our very cells, so prone to decay (a driving force of time as we experience it), insist that here lies a field that demands investigation.

…

Read More Read More

I Like Big Bugs and I Cannot Lie, Part III

I Like Big Bugs and I Cannot Lie, Part III

Comments 1 comment


Bug Buster (DMG Entertainment, 1998), Mesa of Lost Women (Howco Productions,
1953), and Earth vs. the Spider (American International Pictures, 1958)

Bug Buster – 1998 – Prime

Giant bugs?

Not until the last five minutes, then we get MOTHER BUG (Doug Jones)

CGI heavy?

A couple of unconvincing enhancements, but for the most part, practical and sticky.

Any good?

I started out with a bit of optimism due to the interesting cast including George Takei, James Doohan, Randy Quaid, Meredith Salanger, and a very young Katherine Heigl. Unfortunately, the script was so poor and the direction so pedestrian, that it turned into a bit of a slog.

…

Read More Read More

A to Z Review: “Basic Agreement,” by Avis Pabel

A to Z Review: “Basic Agreement,” by Avis Pabel

Comments 3 comments

A to Z Reviews

“Basic Agreement,”  by Avis Pabel appeared in the September 1958 issue of Astounding and was reprinted in the December UK issue of  the magazine. It is the only story by Pabel that appears in the Internet Science Fiction Database, although she wrote articles under the name Avis Brick that appeared in the magazine Persuasion, which was published by the Nathaniel Branden Institute, part of the Objectivist movement championing Ayn Rand.

“Basic Agreement” is an odd little story of Marjorie, who insists she sees something out of the  corner of her eye in her bedroom each night after her parents put her to bed. Her father has little patience with her shenanigans. The fact that Marjorie is unable to describe what she saws just serves to make him less willing to offer her sympathy. Instead, he compares Marjorie to her older sister Jill, who has apparently died and was either a perfect child or whose death has sanctified her in her parents’ memories.

…

Read More Read More

Goth Chick News: Buckle Up – We’re Going to the Fan Expo

Goth Chick News: Buckle Up – We’re Going to the Fan Expo

Comments 0 Comment

Way back in 2010, Black Gate photog Chris Z suggested we check out the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con. This was by no means a new event in our fair city. In fact, the Chicago Comic Con was first held at the Playboy Towers Hotel (yes, that Playboy) in 1972. Wizard World, original publishers of the famous Wizard Magazine, purchased the event in 1996, giving it nationwide publicity and eventually expanded to host similar events in nearly twenty cities.

By 2011 it was the largest convention of its kind in Chicago, and though it wasn’t strictly in the idiom of GCN, the show runners were gracious and granted us press passes that year. It turned out to be one of our favorite events and we have covered it every year since.

…

Read More Read More

Cinema of Swords: Swords in the Arthouse

Cinema of Swords: Swords in the Arthouse

Comments 3 comments

Historical adventure and fantasy films tend to be straightforward genre pictures long on plot and action and short on deep themes and introspection, which is okay, you can’t have everything.

Or can you? Some ambitious filmmakers want it all, and are willing to risk losing an audience who expects simple action and adventure by giving them ideas to think about or visuals that are striking but hard to parse. Films with such vaulting ambitions often fall into the category of Interesting Failures, and even if they somehow pull it off, in theaters they rarely make it out of the arthouse and into wide release. That’s the case with our subjects this time around, three unique movies too unusual to find a broad global audience. But perhaps one or more of them will resonate with you.

…

Read More Read More

Conan Well Captured: Conan: City of the Dead by John C. Hocking

Conan Well Captured: Conan: City of the Dead by John C. Hocking

Comments 9 comments


Conan: City of the Dead (Titan Books, June 18, 2024). Cover by Jeffrey Alan Love

John C. Hocking’s (1960 -) Conan and the Emerald Lotus came along in 1995, near the end of the Tor Conan pastiche series of books. I’d read a lot of pastiches early but by ’95 was burned out on them and stopped picking up the new ones. So I never read Hocking’s entry. Until now.

In 2024, Titan Books published Conan City of the Dead, by Hocking. It contained Conan and the Emerald Lotus, and a second pastiche called Conan and the Living Plague. Hocking had written Living Plague under contract with Conan Properties, but when the ownership changed hands, the book fell into a limbo that lasted some 25 years.

The wait must have been agonizing for Hocking, but the result was a very nice hardcover printing of both his books together, with some neat interior illustrations by Richard Pace. The cover art is uncredited.

…

Read More Read More