Asimov’s Golden Age
It is usually difficult to point to one book and say definitively, “That book changed me.” It is usually a gradual process with many books Read More
Category: J. R. R. Tolkien
Death…Ten Feet Tall: Conan Vs. The Hulking Beast
Looking at covers for the old Conan the Barbarian comics, I was struck by a few thoughts. First off, a number of covers feature Conan Read More
Artists of Sword & Sorcery : Mike Ploog (1942-)
Mike Ploog is a comic book artist from the 1970s who later turned to the more lucrative designing movie characters and doing story boards. In Read More
Link: Size Does (Not) Matter: The New Paradigm
A good friend, writer Jack Mackenzie, got me thinking about book lengths in Science Fiction and how they have been tied to publishing. He also Read More
Link: Fantasy, Oh Fantasy, Where Art Thou Gone?
The 1960s saw an explosion in heroic fantasy fiction with Ballantine’s The Lord of the Rings and the Lancer Conan paperbacks. Suddenly barbarians and hobbit-like Read More
The Iceberg Theory
Hollywood is searching for icebergs. I don’t mean a pointless sequel to Titanic, but story ideas that have a long, unseen history behind them. I Read More
“The King of the Ring” by Wally Wood
Plop #23 (September-October 1976) featured a very special comic for Fantasy fans. This was “The King of the Ring” by Wally Wood. By 1976, The Read More
The Ballantine Fantasy Series by Per. J. Okerstrom
Late in the summer of 1968 the publishing team of Betty and Ian Ballantine recognized that the success of their edition of J. R. R. Read More
Artists of Sword & Sorcery: Gray Morrow (1934-2001)
Gray Morrow (1934-2001) was one of the early cheerleaders for Sword & Sorcery along with Wally Wood and Frank Frazetta. He was one of the Read More
How Long Should That Sword & Sorcery Epic Be?
One of the great things about our crazy Amazon-driven book world is that book length matters less than it used to. In the world of Read More