Search Results for: Necronomicon

Birthday Reviews: Robert Bloch’s “The Fane of the Black Pharoah”

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Cover by Virgil Finlay Robert Bloch was born on April 5, 1917 and died on September 23, 1994. His short story “That Hell-Bound Train” won the Hugo Award in 1959, and he won the Bram Stoker Award for his non-fiction book Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography, for his collection The Early Fears, and his novelette “The Scent of Vinegar.” His screenplay for the film Psycho, based on his novel, received the Edgar Allan Poe Award. Bloch was the Guest…

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Birthday Reviews: August Derleth’s “The Return of Hastur”

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Cover by Virgil Finlay August Derleth was born on February 24, 1909 and died on July 4, 1971. It was Derleth who coined the term “Cthulhu Mythos” for H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, although Derleth had earlier suggested the “Hastur Mythology,” which Lovecraft rejected. In 1939, Derleth and Donald Wandrei founded Arkham House, a small press dedicated to preserving the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, and eventually those who were influenced by Lovecraft. Although best known as a proponent of Lovecraft and for…

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Oz’s Bag of Holding, TV Edition: Ash vs Evil Dead, Barney Miller, Parks & Recreation: What do these Sitcoms Have in Common?

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Answer: They’re all in my bag of holding. I will now draw them out and discuss them. Parks and Recreation Parks and Recreation (2009-2015) has no reason to be mentioned on a site devoted to fantasy, but I’ll rationalize my inclusion of it here by pointing out that the character Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) is a legit connoisseur of science fiction and fantasy, frequently making allusions and drawing analogies to Star Wars or Star Trek or The Lord of the…

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Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Researching the Tropes

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My Fantasy Writing Workshop (Columbia College Chicago) starts each semester by writing a shared private encyclopedia of genre tropes. Each week has an assigned category. The categories are: monsters or magical creatures; gods, demi-gods, or powerful spirits; magical artifacts or prophetic techniques/devices; and historical people. The students each write one entry per category, then the following week, all the entries in that category are part of their assigned reading. For each category, I’ve compiled a list of at least fifty…

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Atlantis, Vikings, and the Hordes of Kublai Khan: Merlin’s Ring by H. Warner Munn: Part II

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Time to come clean! When I published Part 1 of my review of Merlin’s Ring last year, it was not because the article was so massive that it had to be broken down into smaller parts. Rather, it’s because I was unable to finish the book promptly, and soon enough unforeseen circumstances left me deprived of my copy, wondering what happened to Gwalchmai and Corenice. John O’Neill suggested I proceed with what I had, and commit to completing the review later. A…

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Mixing Hardboiled Film Noir and Magic: Cast a Deadly Spell

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Cast a Deadly Spell stars Fred Ward, Julianne Moore, and David Warner Director: Martin Campbell; Writer: Joseph Dougherty HBO 1991. 1 hours 36 minutes Philip Lovecraft (Fred Ward) is a hardboiled Los Angeles private eye who is hired by Amos Hackshaw (David Warner) to find the Necronomicon, a book which contains the knowledge to destroy the world when the stars line up at midnight in two days. It was stolen from Hackshaw by his ex-chauffer, Larry Willis (Lee Tergesen).

Announcing the 2016 Robert E. Howard Foundation Award Winners

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The winners of the 2016 Robert E. Howard Foundation Awards were announced earlier this month at the REH Days celebration in Cross Plains, Texas. Several Black Gate contributors were honored with nominations this year, including Barbara Barrett, Bob Byrne, Howard Andrew Jones, and Bill Ward: The Cimmerian — Outstanding Achievement, Essay (Online) BARRETT, BARBARA – “Hester Jane Ervin Howard and Tuberculosis (3 parts)” REH: Two Gun Raconteur Blog (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) The Stygian — Outstanding Achievement, Website BLACK GATE (John O’Neill) The…

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The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Solar Pons & Cthulhu?

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To the extent that August Derleth’s name is famliar to most Black Gaters, it’s in relation to his major role in the Cthulhu Mythos. I’ve read a fair amount of H.P. Lovecraft, but frankly, his stuff creeps me out and I’m not too into those stories: nor the ones by other authors – for the same reason. Of course, I am a devotee of Derleth’s Sherlock Holmes-like Solar Pons tales. Within the Pontine Canon, one can find an emerald thread……

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The Midnight Games and Why I Wrote Them

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“One might not think of our city as a muse,” began a recent review of my first YA horror novel The Midnight Games in a Hamilton magazine. But if you ask me, good horror novels, because they assume that monstrous secrets lurk behind the facades of everyday life, always convey a strong sense of place: I’m thinking of the New York City of Whitley Streiber’s The Wolfen, the Los Angeles of Robert McCammon’s They Thirst, or even the east coast…

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S.T. Joshi Is Mad as Hell

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Lovecraft biographer and anthologist S.T. Joshi has lost his cool air over the World Fantasy Convention’s decision to remodel their awards: HP Lovecraft’s biographer ST Joshi has returned his two World Fantasy awards following the organisers’ decision to stop using a bust of the author for the annual trophy – a move the Lovecraft expert called “a craven yielding to the worst sort of political correctness”. The change was announced on Sunday. It follows a year-long campaign led by the…

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