Conan: Caravan of the Damned

CARAVAN OF THE DAMNED is the second Conan novel by veteran author Chuck Dixon, based solely on the stories by Robert E. Howard that appeared in the pulp WEIRD TALES. I’m not going to get into the convoluted legal and copyright issues surrounding the character. Those are for somebody else to figure it out. My interest is in whether or not this is a good Conan yarn, and the answer (with a minor reservation or two) is a resounding yes.

This tale takes place during the time of Conan’s life when he’s leading a band of desert bandits and raiders. They attack a caravan and discover that its camels are carrying not only a small fortune in gold and gems but also a beautiful young woman, one of the daughters of Turan’s King Yildiz, who is promised in marriage to the son of a neighboring king. The girl and her escort were supposed to rendezvous with a party sent out by her future father-in-law.

Of course, Conan realizes he now has a hostage who may be worth a considerable amount of ransom, but only if he can get away from the rest of the girl’s escort, which was trailing behind the caravan. And so the chase is on through the desert. Not surprisingly, it will wind up in some strange and dangerous places.

Dixon does a lot of things right in this novel. It’s relatively short, which means the prose is stripped down and fast-paced, as it would have been if the story had been done as a three-part serial for WEIRD TALES. The characterization is good throughout, from Conan’s allies and enemies to the young hostage everybody is after. The desert setting is superb. There’s plenty of action, and it’s handled well for the most part. I like the cover and the interior illustrations, too. (More books, especially adventure novels, need interior illustrations.)

That brings us to those minor reservations mentioned above. The opening chapter of his novel is extremely violent, more Piccadilly Cowboys than WEIRD TALES, and some of Conan’s actions, even though they’re not out of character, are presented in a pretty brutal fashion. This isn’t a major complaint, just something I noticed, and at least Conan doesn’t come across as mean and petty, as he did in one of the other pastiches I read recently.

My other quibble is that I would have liked to know more about the supernatural menace that crops up late in the book. A lot of back-story would have bogged down the flow of this yarn, and I don’t want that, but a few more lines about the danger facing Conan and his companions might have worked well.

Overall, though, I had a really good time reading CARAVAN OF THE DAMNED. Clearly, Dixon has a very good grasp of the character and can write Howardian action scenes with the best of them. Both of his Conan novels so far have been great fun and get a high recommendation from me as long as you’re not opposed to the idea of pastiches. You can get a trade paperback/e-book combo directly from the publisher.

It’s funny, I went for a long time without reading any Robert E. Howard pastiches, and now suddenly it seems like I’m reading a bunch of them, both comics and prose. I’m enjoying them, too, and I look forward to seeing what turns up next.

The Shadowed Circle Compendium Kickstarter is Live

The Kickstarter campaign for THE SHADOWED CIRCLE COMPENDIUM is now live. As the campaign page describes it:

Our passion project Kickstarter Campaign is for The Shadowed Circle Compendium: a Large-Format, B&W, 8.5" x 11" volume, of at least 120 pages (more if we hit our 1st Stretch Goal), available in both hardcover, paperback, and high-res digital format. The book will feature some of the finest pulp, comic book, and radio episode articles, as well as art, from the first two years of The Shadowed Circle journal: the preeminent non-fiction publication about Walter B. Gibson's master sleuth, The Shadow. 

The Compendium will also include 25 to 30 pages of Newly Written Articles Appearing Exclusively in this volume. The Introduction to the book will be written by Batman Film Producer, and Shadow Comic Author, Michael Uslan and the Foreword will be written by Shadow Historian and Pulp Author, Will Murray.

I've really enjoyed reading THE SHADOWED CIRCLE and look forward to this collection of some of the best material from it, plus all-new articles that I'm sure will be excellent, as well. I've already backed it, and if you're a fan of The Shadow, I don't hesitate to give it a high recommendation.

Somewhere They Die - L.P. Holmes

SOMEWHERE THEY DIE is a range war novel. Veteran gun-for-hire Riley Haslam is part of a rough crew brought in to help rancher Syl Overdeck battle his arch-rival, cattleman Hugh Racklyn. Haslam and his companions are jumped by Racklyn’s men as soon as they get off the train. A beautiful young woman named Janet Wilkerson, the daughter of one of Racklyn’s friends, helps Haslam get away from the men who are trying to kill him. But it’s not long before Haslam realizes he’s waltzed into a bad deal and doesn’t want to fight for either of the men who are battling for control of a crucial pass through the mountains. Another opportunity comes along that offers Haslam a chance to put his violent past behind him, but to grab it, he’ll have to be surrounded by enemies who want to kill him first . . .

As you can tell by that description, SOMEWHERE THEY DIE, published in hardback by Little, Brown in 1955, reprinted in paperback by Bantam in 1956 and Popular Library in 1976 (the edition I read, with a nice wraparound cover), is a very traditional Western novel when it comes to the plot. But since the author is L.P. Holmes, you can also count on it being very well written. I’m not sure any author has been better than Holmes when it comes to taking a standard plot and elevating it to something else with superb writing and excellent characterization. Holmes at his best—and this novel won the Spur Award for Best Western Novel from Western Writers of America—gives you the characterization of Ernest Haycox and the setting and action of Louis L’Amour. For my money, he’s better than both of them, and I like Haycox and L’Amour.

This particular novel has not one but three despicable villains, a romance angle that’s low-key but very effective, a top-notch supporting cast, some poignant moments (yeah, you knew all along that character wasn’t going to make it, but the death is still a gut punch to the reader), some brutal fistfights, and a very sympathetic protagonist in Riley Haslam. My only quibble is that a couple of plot angles are never really resolved, and they could have been without much trouble.

Overall, SOMEWHERE THEY DIE may be the best L.P. Holmes novel I’ve read so far. I’m glad I still have a bunch by him to read. Highly recommended.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Startling Stories, May 1949

I'm not sure who painted the cover for this issue of STARTLING STORIES. I immediately think of Earle Bergey when it comes to that pulp, but somehow this doesn't quite seem like Bergey's work to me. I'm sure one of you out there reading this knows, though. Inside this issue is a fantastic group of writers: Arthur C. Clarke, John D. MacDonald, Sam Merwin Jr., Charles Harness, Willy Ley, Eando Binder (Earl and Otto Binder, with an Anton York story that's a reprint from the August 1937 issue of THRILLING WONDER STORIES), and Rene LaFayette, who was really L. Ron Hubbard, of course. That's a pretty potent bunch, and as it happens, this entire issue can be found online here, if you want to check it out for yourself. 

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Popular Western, September 1938

This fellow has a definite Buck Jones look about him. Maybe it's the hat. Is that an A. Leslie Ross cover? I don't know. Might be. But I do know that there are some good writers in this issue of POPULAR WESTERN, including Johnston McCulley, Gunnison Steele (Bennie Gardner), Tom Gunn (Syl McDowell, with a Painted Post yarn), Wayne D. Overholser, Larry Harris, and Russell A. Bankson. Looks like an issue worth reading.

The Avengers: War Across Time - Paul Levitz and Alan Davis

One day in September 1964, I woke up too sick to go to school. I was in sixth grade, although that’s not really relevant to this post. But I started feeling better as the day went on, so by that afternoon when my mother announced that she was going to the drugstore, I asked if I could come along.

Well, of course, you know how she reacted. She glared at me and said, “If you were too sick to go to school, you’re too sick to go to the drugstore.” I explained that I was getting over whatever was bothering me and just wanted to get out for a little while. I didn’t mention what I actually wanted, which was to check the comic book and paperback spinner racks at Tompkins’ Pharmacy because I hadn’t been there in a while.

I talked her into it—I could be very persuasive where reading matter was concerned—and during our trip to the drugstore that afternoon I bought several comic books, one of which was THE AVENGERS #8 featuring the debut of a villain who would prove to be iconic, Kang the Conqueror. How do I know I picked up that particular comic on that particular day? I can’t explain it other than to say that I have a trick brain for some things, and knowing where and when I bought a certain book or comic book is one of those tricks.

Now, the point of all this reminiscing is that I recently read a collection of a new mini-series from Marvel Comics (the first thing I've read from Marvel in ages) called THE AVENGERS: WAR ACROSS TIME, which is set in the classic Marvel era (or as I call it, my childhood) and is a direct sequel to THE AVENGERS #11 and features Kang the Conqueror as the villain. It was written by Paul Levitz, his first script for Marvel after literal decades as a writer/editor for DC, and drawn by Alan Davis, one of the latter-day comics artists whose work I like quite a bit.

Levitz’s script hits all the right beats from that era: the Avengers battle their former member The Hulk, they encounter the menacing Lava Men (who first appeared in THE AVENGERS #5, bought by me off the spinner rack in Trammell’s Pak-a-Bag Grocery—there’s that trick brain again), and a king of the dwarves steals Thor’s hammer, which he can do because he helped forge it, causing Thor to turn back into Dr. Don Blake. Kang is behind all this, and in the course of their struggle against him, the Avengers see bizarre visions of their future, most of which will turn out to be true.

This is just great fun for an old comics codger like me. Thor spouts mock-Shakespearean dialogue. Captain America, who hasn’t been an Avenger for long after being thawed out from the ice, is brave and stalwart. The Wasp spends most of her time in flirtatious banter but is courageous and capable when she needs to be. Iron Man and Giant Man alternate between being science nerds and walloping bad guys. To be honest, Alan Davis’s artwork isn’t quite as good as I’ve seen it in the past, but it’s still worlds better than most of what you’ll find in modern comics, and he can draw a story so that you know what’s going on, again something that’s lacking in a lot of comics these days.

So, is THE AVENGERS: WAR ACROSS TIME as good as vintage Lee/Kirby? No, but I never expected it to be. For one thing, I’m not eleven years old anymore. The best modern comics can do is remind me of that time, not recreate it. But this one certainly does remind me of those days, and I had a fine time reading it. If you have good memories of that era, too, I give it a high recommendation. You can find it in trade paperback and digital forms on Amazon.

And hey, any excuse to wallow in nostalgia, right?

Passion Web - William Kane (Ben Haas)

Years ago I owned a copy of this book, but I never got around to reading it before it was lost in the Fire of ’08. At that time, I had no idea who William Kane was, although I figured it was a pseudonym. I just bought all the Pillar/Ember/Nightstand/etc. books that I came across, especially if they were a reasonable price. I believe I paid a buck for that copy.

Time passed, and I never replaced that lost copy of PASSION WEB. Then I found out that none other than the great Western and adventure novelist Ben Haas wrote most of those William Kane books, including PASSION WEB. I’ve been on the lookout for an affordable copy ever since and came across one recently. I read it within a few days of getting it. Not going to miss out this time!

The cover by Robert Bonfils makes this look like a Western, and it sort of is a contemporary (1964) Western, set mostly on a dude ranch in West Texas and in the nearby small town. The protagonist is Lois Frost, a beautiful, ambitious young secretary at an oil company who has been promised a promotion to an executive job if she can weasel some vital information out of geologist Kirk Parsons, who works for a rival oil company. Lois is willing to do the job no matter what it takes, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. The dude ranch where Lois stays while pursuing her goal is owned by beautiful Tess Welch, who struggles not only to keep the ranch going but to control her burgeoning feelings for Lois. The neighboring ranch is owned by champion bronc rider Clint Sandifer, who has a violent streak, a fondness for whips, and a hankering for beautiful young Maria Galindez, who’s married to one of Clint’s ranch hands.

Most of the book is taken up by Haas’s skillful mixing and matching of those characters, plus a mystery of sorts over the location of a fabulously valuable pool of oil, before everything comes to a head at a rodeo. (Where else?) His smooth prose is a joy to read, as always, and keeps things moving along at such a fast pace that I raced through the book and enjoyed it quite a bit. There are a lot of sex scenes and they’re fairly graphic, but they’re well-written and actually have to do with the plot most of the time. Not only that, but there are several scenes of unexpected violence that would be right at home in one of Haas’s adventure novels, and his descriptions of the West Texas landscape are excellent. He’s just one of those writers whose work really resonates with me, no matter what the genre.

So I’m glad I finally got my hands on another copy of PASSION WEB. I really had a good time reading it. I found another William Kane book that wasn’t too pricey for my taste and ordered it. I figure I’ll enjoy it, too.

Now Available: Texas Bushwhack - James Reasoner

In the Texas panhandle, a stagecoach full of passengers rolls southward over lonely, dangerous trails. A group of buffalo hunters led by a brutal, ruthless killer stalks one of the last of the great herds of the shaggy beasts. And a Comanche war party under the command of the legendary chief Quanah sets out to drive the white invaders from their lands.

These three groups will come together in a frenzy of fire, blood, and death in TEXAS BUSHWHACK, the latest Western from bestselling author James Reasoner. Full of violent action and compelling characters, this is a novel sure to please readers of traditional Western tales.

This Western novel is available now on Amazon. Here's a brief excerpt from the book:

His breath caught in his throat as he saw the animals covering the plains on either side of the creek, and he felt a surge of excitement. He had found the herd!

Compared to some of the massive herds he had seen in Kansas, this was a small one. His experienced eyes scanned the scene and set the number somewhere between thirty-five hundred and five thousand. But the herd would furnish a good kill, especially for this time and this place.

As he sat his horse and looked down across the valley at the grazing animals, he almost felt sorry for them. They had been driven down here by the gun, and now they were running out of room. The herds would continue to drift south, but Trace doubted that many of them would ever reach Mexico, not that they would be safe even if they did.

When the buffalo were gone, that would be the end of them, the end of a lot of things.

More books coming soon!

Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants: When Men's Adventure Magazines Got Weird - Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle, eds.

The men’s adventure magazines of the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies certainly published a wide variety of material, and while it wasn’t as common as some other genres, you could sometimes find tales of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in them. ATOMIC WEREWOLVES AND MAN-EATING PLANTS: WHEN MEN’S ADVENTURE MAGAZINES GOT WEIRD, the latest volume from the Men’s Adventure Library edited by Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle, collects some of the best of those offbeat stories, with the usual great cover and interior illustrations to go with them. With some of these, their MAM appearances were reprints from other magazines such as WEIRD TALES and GALAXY, but some were written specifically for the men’s adventure market.

My favorite story is one that wasn’t a reprint when it was published in a men's adventure magazine. “The Man Who Couldn’t Die” by Gardner F. Fox appeared originally in the August 1961 issue of ADVENTURE, the iconic pulp-turned-MAM. Fox, of course, is a legendary name in comic book history and also wrote scores of well-received paperbacks in various genres. This science fiction story is about a sociopathic criminal whose brain is transplanted into a robot body so he can go on a space voyage outside the solar system in search of habitable planets. Of course, what he decides to do instead is to become the greatest criminal overlord the solar system has ever seen. But then, as you might expect, things don’t turn out exactly as he plans . . . This is an excellent, fast-moving yarn with a nice twist at the end. I really had fun reading it.

Another well-known SF author, Theodore Sturgeon, contributes “The Blonde With the Mysterious Body”, from the April 1962 issue of MEN. This one appeared originally as “The Other Celia” in the March 1957 issue of the science fiction digest GALAXY. It’s a wryly humorous, genuinely creepy tale about voyeurism.

“The Hunted” by Rick Rubin, from the October 1961 ADVENTURE, is a top-notch story about humans on the run from robots bent on hunting them down. The twist ending is a little predictable, but Rubin, whoever he was, does a really good job of creating suspense and keeping things moving at a brisk pace.

In horror fiction, you don’t get much more well-known than H.P. Lovecraft, who is represented here with his story “The Rats in the Walls”, reprinted from its January 1959 appearance in SENSATION. The story appeared first in WEIRD TALES in 1924. Another horror tale that appeared first in WEIRD TALES (in 1940) is Manly Wade Wellman’s “Song of the Slaves” from the April 1959 issue of CAVALIER. As you’d expect from a Wellman story, it’s very well-written, and even though you’ll probably see the ending coming, it’s still really effective and downright chilling.

Elsewhere in this volume, you get stories about vampire bats, vampire tarantulas, giant lizards, man-eating trees (by Robert Moore Williams, the veteran SF and Western pulpster), devil worshippers, virgin sacrifices, crazed chicken choppers (a truly weird but good story), mad doctors, evil Nazis (but I repeat myself), and a really good Korean War/Civil War story that reminded me of the great Haunted Tank comic book series. Add some fine essays and introductions by Mike Chomko, Stefan Dziemianowicz, and editors Deis and Doyle, and you’ve got one of the best volumes so far in the Men’s Adventure Library. I had a wonderful time reading ATOMIC WEREWOLVES AND MAN-EATING PLANTS, and I give it a very high recommendation. It’s available in hardback (with a bonus story) and paperback editions.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Fiction Weekly, April 20, 1940

An issue of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY was the first actual pulp I ever owned, so I've always had a fondness for the magazine. This issue has a nice cover by Emmett Watson, who provided excellent covers for many Munsey pulps, and there's a strong line-up of authors inside: Donald Barr Chidsey (with a Morton and McGarvey story), Hugh B. Cave, D.L. Champion, G.T. Fleming-Roberts, Walter Ripperger (who was a very prolific author of detective and adventure yarns for various Munsey pulps but almost completely forgotten now, probably because apparently he never wrote any novels), and a couple of authors unknown to me, Lois Ames and B.B. Fowler. Like ARGOSY, DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY is a frustrating title for collectors because it ran a lot of serials, but there's plenty of good stuff in those pages anyway.