A Cowboy, A Space Captain, a Private Detective and a Barbarian Walk Into a Bar…
That could be the beginnings of a really lame joke, but it’s something more. All four of these characters, these separate genre icons, share something Read More
Category: Movies
Sword & Sorcery versus Sword & Planet
A swordsman, his arms bearing red wounds, limps across a battlefield covered in bodies. His helmet is gone; his shield is broken. The flag of Read More
Sherlock Holmes Parodies
Every time you turn around someone comes out with their own Sherlock Holmes novel these days. But almost from the very beginning other writers have Read More
The Adventures of Allan Quatermain
The tales of Allan Quatermain were standard reading for youngsters in the years before World War II. By 1975, when I was twelve and the Read More
Creating Monsters II: The Birds
What Daphne du Maurier does in “The Birds” was not new. H. G. Wells was her mentor, I believe, for he wrote several stories about Read More
Portraits of Gollum
If you are like just about every person on the planet you have this great sculpture in your office or den. We all got them Read More
William L. Chester’s Kioga
William L. Chester was not the first to “borrow” from Edgar Rive Burroughs but he was one of the better writers to create his own Read More
Why I Read & Write Pulp
I’ve been spending a lot of time amongst the Pulps lately. And it begs the question: what is the appeal of these old, flaking, brown Read More
Creating Monsters: The Morlocks
This is the first in a series of articles on writing Monster Stories. It is only fitting that the first author we should focus on Read More
The False Monster Tradition
The notion that a monster should prove to be a fraud is a fairly recent idea. The warriors gathered around the scop reciting Beowulf would Read More