Is that a "redband" trailer in your pants? Or are you just glad to see me?

Here comes Drogo!

Err..uhh,,I mean CONAN!

More Conan the Barbarian in 3D Videos

Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword #1

As discriminating and thrifty as I try to be in my comics purchases I keep running into titles that have me reaching for my wallet just about every week lately.
Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword is just such a title.

Dark Horse has gathered some great material that has so far rarely been seen in the world of Sword & Sorcery comics. We are all well familiar with Conan, Kull and most recently Solomon Kane, but Dark Horse is taking the unprecedented step in printing tales of some of Howard's other, lesser-known adventurers. Dark Agnes (the original template for Red Sonja), the Pict King Bran Mak Morn, and of course one of my personal favorites Francis Xavier Gordon also known as "El Borak".

Each appears in serialized form and shares the book with a tale of the one and only Conan.

If you're a Sword & Sorcery junkie like myself, you really cant pass on this.

"Sword Woman" available next Tuesday 01/25/2011

Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures

From the Amazon website:

The immortal legacy of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian, continues with this latest compendium of Howard’s fiction and poetry. These adventures, set in medieval-era Europe and the Near East, are among the most gripping Howard ever wrote, full of pageantry, romance, and battle scenes worthy of Tolstoy himself. Most of all, they feature some of Howard’s most unusual and memorable characters, including Cormac FitzGeoffrey, a half-Irish, half-Norman man of war who follows Richard the Lion-hearted to twelfth-century Palestine—or, as it was known to the Crusaders, Outremer; Diego de Guzman, a Spaniard who visits Cairo in the guise of a Muslim on a mission of revenge; and the legendary sword woman Dark Agnès, who, faced with an arranged marriage to a brutal husband in sixteenth-century France, cuts the ceremony short with a dagger thrust and flees to forge a new identity on the battlefield.

Lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist John Watkiss and featuring miscellanea, informative essays, and a fascinating introduction by acclaimed historical author Scott Oden, Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures is a must-have for every fan of Robert E. Howard, who, in a career spanning just twelve years, won a place in the pantheon of great American writers.

Solomon Kane

Until the "Official trailer comes out (or you tube removes this), this is all we have. I'll take it.
Thanks Chris.

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard

Tuesday October 28, 2008

Black Canaan - Savaged!

You know it was a good game when you’re still talking about it the next day!

Last night I ran my first session of Savage Worlds, and a good time was had by all.

It was a Pulp setting using “Seasoned” level characters and an adventure in the Louisiana Bayou country adapted from the short story “Black Canaan” a pulp classic written by Robert E. Howard.

The players were my oldest minion Anthony, and four other good friends. We had one experienced Deadlands player but everyone else was totally new to the system, though we caught on real quick.

As all gamers out there know, you can read and reread the rules till you can quote passages verbatim and you can roll up dozens of characters but none of it compares to actually sitting down and playing the game.

We soon learned what edges we should have taken and what actions worked for the group and what didn’t. Combat was really quite different from anything we had ever experienced, and that wasn’t a bad thing it was just different. We soon wrapped our heads around things like the extra D6 that all PC's get to roll, and the fact that if for instance, you do a D8 damage and happen to roll an 8 you get to roll again, and if you roll another 8, then you roll again -and so on.

Our first combat encounter wasn’t fast and furious but it sure was fun. Each encounter thereafter went smoother than the last. And what started as a one shot pick-up game may very well turn into a regular game of choice. We have another game tentatively scheduled for week after next, at which time I turn over the GM duties to one of the other guys and actually get to play!

Pulp Thursday-Special "Planet Stories" Edition

If you’re a pulp fan you really need to pay attention to this: Paizo Publishing has a new line of books called Planet Stories. Each month they are releasing a new volume of fiction by some of the best writers in the pulp genre. Names like Robert E. Howard, C.L. Moore, and Henry Kuttner. Characters such as Elak of Atlantis, Michael Kane, and Jirel of Joiry.


Some of these stories haven’t been in print in decades. You could comb through a hundred used bookstores and spend big bucks on eBay and you still would not be able to assemble a collection as complete as the one Paizo is putting together. The books are crisp and new, the covers have beautiful art, and once you get a set on your shelf they are gonna look great.


Paizo even has a deal for you. The thing is, sales of these books have been good, not great, but good. Face it we are talking a niche market here right? So they need to generate interest and get the word out there. So to do that Paizo has started a subscription service for the Planet stories line. Subscribe to Planet stories and each month you will get a brand new title at 20%off the cover price. I just did it myself and my monthly out of pocket is $14.31 for a brand new trade paperback delivered to my door. Could you get a copy of Almuric cheaper? Maybe. A brand new copy? Delivered to your door? Hell no.


I don’t work for Paizo and I’m not getting a cut of the sales. I’m writing this because I love the genre and I believe in what they are trying to do. What I’m getting at here folks is supporting the effort. Those of you who join me on Thursdays to get news on pulp stuff have got to see the value in this.


These stories are the inspiration that fueled Gary Gygax, Stan Lee, and all the giants of the comic and gaming world. And now you can have brand new complete collections of some of the best Pulp, Sword & Sorcery, Sword & Planet, and Science Fantasy out there.
Tell you what, if your still on the fence about this, then buy one title or go down to your nearest Barnes & Noble or Borders and flip through Black God’s Kiss or City of the Beast. After that, if you still can’t see the value then there ain’t much more I can say. But as for me, I’m taking the dive.

Pulp Thursday

Turok son of stone DVD
The classic Dell comic character who had a brief resurgence at the end of the 20th century is headed to DVD. The trailer looks cool. With all the dinosaurs chomping people in half , it’s probably safe to say this one ain’t for the kiddies.





Dark Kingdom
Image comics came out with the Death Dealer comic a few months ago. Now we have Dark Kingdom set to hit the shelves in April. So far, it looks like Image is gonna do the whole Molly Hatchet catalogue.




Red Nails
There may never be a Red Nails animated DVD, but by the Gods there will be a complete audio version available for download!






Italian pulp
The Acrobatic flea gave me the heads up on this one.
I have no idea what this site is saying, but I had a great time checking it out.
Here is the skinny on it:
La Domenica del Corriere (”Sunday Courier”) was Sunday insert for Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper that ran for 90 years, from 1899 to 1989. For most of that time the section featured a full-page illustration on its cover each week.
These were often dramatic gouache or watercolor illustrations, almost in a pulp-illustration vein, but they presumably illustrated actual news stories (think of all of the notable and dramatic events that occurred during that period of time).
There is a site devoted to them at www.illustrated-history.org/, containing an archive of the illustrations and a bit of the history.
There is a search function on the home page that allows you to search by region (Per luoghi), by artist (Per autore) or event (Ricerca avanzata), with attendant drop-down menus.
It appears that there is a concentration on two artists in particular, Walter Molino (above left) and Achillies Beltrame (above right), whose work is sought after by collectors. Searching for these two may be a good place to start. Once you are on a page with a featured illustration, clicking on that image provides a pop-up with a wonderfully large reproduction of the painting. (I’ve included a full-size crop from a small section of each illustration above.) You can also informally browse from an illustration page to other pages by incrementing or decrementing the database number at the end of the URL in your browser’s address field.
Some of the illustrations are less interesting than others and there is some repetition of subject as they looked for sensational topics to illustrate (lots of train wrecks and other disasters), but some of these images are just wonderful and make the trouble of searching and browsing worth your while.
This is intended to be more of an illustrated history than an appreciation of the artists, but it serves as both. You can take a fascinating stroll through the early to mid 20th Century and view some wonderful pulp-style illustrations in the process.
I also found a blog on a site devoted to the paper, Blog del Club Domenica del Corriere, also in Italian, that features the illustrations, but doesn’t dwell on them exclusively.




Gold Monkey
Now I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up…It’s just a rumor…But, “Tales of the Gold Monkey” could finally be headed for DVD!

And that is your Pulp Thursday Report!

Happy Birthday Bob

102 years.

My ZeFRS resolution

ZeFRS really is a cool system.
I think it captures the flavor of Sword and Sorcery better than most systems out there.
In its original inception as the engine for the TSR Conan RPG, it was one of the first games that asked questions like; where did you come from? What did your father do? What is your story? On the character sheet, right after your characters name and your name, is the word STORY in big bold caps. The character sheet doesn’t even deal with stats until after you have written a bit about your character. The stats had their place, but right off the top the game wanted you to start thinking of a background and a concept for your character. In a way, it was a story telling game before “story telling” games were cool.

Mark K and a bunch of the guys over at the ZeFRS board put a lot of hard work in taking the game, dusting it off and making it available for everyone (all this with the blessing of the author Dave “Zeb” Cook, no less).

Alas, the forum has gone a bit cold (my fault as much as anyone’s). But despite the lack of posts, I’ve noticed that whenever someone on any of the various RPG boards I haunt mentions a need for a good S&S game, ZeFRS is right up there at the top of the list of recommendations.

I keep telling myself that I have to do something with this game- Create a world, write an adventure, try to add something to the efforts of the ZeFRS crew. But there is always something pressing at my free time- Legends of Steel, Broadsword expansions, a hard drive crash, the list goes on. But I’m resolved to do something this year with it.

Is there a book or series that would benefit from a ZeFRS treatment? Conan’s been done, Thongor’s been done, Lankhmar? Done. What else? Sinbad (Harryhausen’s style Sinbad)? “Jack of all Trades”? Gor? I’m not sure, but ZeFRS definitely deserves some more love.

Any ideas out there?

Thank goodness for gift cards

My family tries, I have to give them that.
My mom knows I play D&D, but she knows nothing of D&D so I can always count on some type of pewter dragon holding a crystal ball or a porcelain wizard figure.

“She who must be obeyed” doesn’t game, but she’s well versed in all the peripheral accoutrements that are “must haves” for gamers - DVD sets of Sci-Fi shows, nice books on ancient civilizations, action figures of favorite licensed characters, etc. so she’s able to fill my stocking with cool stuff even though she doesn’t know the difference between GURPS and D20.

Fortunately, a recent development has taken hold during the holidays that is proving to be the best thing since pre-painted for gamers; the gift card.

Thanks to the gift card and the internet, it’s now possible for us to get those gifts we dream of, but knew Uncle Fred and Aunt Inez would never have the savvy to get for us.

This year amongst my colognes, sweaters, DVD’s, Pewter Wizards and stuffed dragons I got a healthy number of gift cards. The last couple of nights have been spent merrily shopping the internet and making my own holiday wishes come true.
Here’s what the Evil DM got in his virtual stocking…


First off of course gamebooks.

GURPS. I own dozens of RPG's and hundreds of Modules, splatbooks and accessories. But at the end of the day there are only a handful of tried and true favorites AD&D is #1, and right behind it is GURPS.





Solomon Kane is a "no brainer" How could I call myself a REH fan and S&S gamer and not have this volume?

I haven't played any Hero system games in years. But I still buy their products. Their pulp line of games is one of the best for source material, no matter what system you use. Valdorian Age is a Sword & Sorcery campaign book for Fantasy Hero- need I say more?

Why I waste 3.99 a pop on comics these days is beyond me. Especially when they do stupid shit like kill Captain America? I would get more satisfaction by going bronze and collecting all the great titles from my youth. That's one of my new years resolutions: stop buying new comics and get back to the good stuff- I just picked up the entire run of Marvel Presents featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy for less that the price of four current titles. It makes no more sense for me to keep buying the new stuff when there is so much good old stuff at lower prices.

And while on the subject of comics my next fanboy project is to recreate three of my favorite teams from yesteryear the Defenders, Champions, and Bronze age Avengers. Here is my starter kit:

So once again, thank goodness for gift cards. They made the Evil DM's Holidays just a bit brighter!

Thursday Pulp

The big news for me this week is that I hooked up with a gaming group! Not only are we going to start a regular campaign, it’s gonna be a PULP campaign! Top Secret: SI / Agent 13. Life is good.

So in celebration, here are a few of the newer offerings in the world of Pulp Gaming-


THRILLING TALES: The Golden Idol of Sikral $5.00
I'm usually a bit leery of Adamant's offerings, but this appears to be a reprint of a Hero games product. I enjoy the stuff put out for Pulp Hero.


Pulp Hero: The Golden Idol of Sikral $3.00 (Same adventure-lower price)





Boomtown Planet - Saturday Edition
I never heard of this game until today. if I hadn't spent my gaming allowance on stuff for the Top Secret game, I might have picked this up. I probably still will, just not this week.


BASH! Sci-Fi Edition
Not really Pulp Per se- But I really like the BASH line of games. And anyone can build a retro Flash Gordonesque campaign using these rules. This is another purchase that's gonna have to wait. At $15.00 BASH is starting to get a little pricey for a PDF offering (no pdf should cost more than $15.00).

Fantastic Worlds: Pulp Action in the Far Reaches of Space
I don't play miniatures games, but if I did- this would be the one. It looks way fun!



Bumbles Pounce
The Cimmerian has posted this amusing tale of that great polar explorer / prospector Yukon Cornelius!
Enjoy!



And that's your Pulp Thursday report!

Conan on 45

I added a little Conan treat to my “Forgotten files” site.

Pulp Thursday

Have you noticed that Pulp Thursday hasn’t exactly been coming out on Thursdays?
Well it’s not you, it’s me. I have lots of irons in the fire at the moment both professionally and personally, so for the time being please bear with me. One day we’ll bet back on schedule, and with that said:



Dial “P: for Pulp!
It’s that time again. Time for you to get over to the Dial P for Pulp! Site and download the latest episode!




My buddy Paul Schultz presents: The serial Squad.
Paul Schultz is an illustrator and a friend of the Lair. His latest project- Serial Squad looks very promising

I’m looking forward to this. Paul, please keep me in touch on your progress.



Young Indiana Jones
It’s out! It’s on the shelves! It’s at my Amazon store! (*wink, wink nudge, nudge*)
No more downloading pirated episodes on EMule only to find out it’s a dubbed episode from Russia. You can actually, honestly own a copy of your very own!

Now if they can just get a DVD set released for "Tales of the Gold Monkey" and the "Conan the Adventurer" cartoon series, I’d be a happy geek!.




Solomon Kane
The Solomon Kane movie is moving along nicely. James Purefoy is aboard to play the grim Puritan. I enjoyed the hell out of Purfoy’s portrayal of Mark Anthony in the awesome HBO series Rome, so I have only happy thoughts for this film. *fingers crossed*




"Night Calls the Green Falcon"
Robert McCammon is a wonderful writer of horror and suspense. He has stories about aliens that terrorize a small town in West Texas and an OSS agent who just happens to be a Werewolf. One of my favorite stories from Mr. McCammon is a short story of a former serial movie star who has on last adventure hunting a killer in modern day Hollywood. It’s a great story and it’s on the web for free. Invest a few minutes and read about the final adventure of the Green Falcon – you wont regret it!






Crimefighters RPG
Call of Cthulhu is generally regarded as the Granddaddy of the pulp RPG genre. There is no doubt that it is a classic. But did you know that in 1981 in a gaming magazine called The Dragon, a young game designer by the name of Dave Cook came up with the first “Two–fisted” Pulp RPG? Before Spirit of the Century, before Hollow Earth expeditions, before Justice Inc, and Daredevils, there was – Crimefighters! Check it out and let me know what you think.

And THAT is your Pulp Thursday report!

Pulp Thursday

Pulp goodness for a new generation!

“Planet Stories™ presents classic fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy novels and short story collections to a generation of new readers and lifelong fans. Unforgettable tales from acknowledged masters like Michael Moorcock, Leigh Brackett, C.L. Moore, and Henry Kuttner stand side by side with lesser known but no less worthy yarns from tomorrow's superstars. Introductions from popular modern authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Ben Bova, and Michael Moorcock provide amusing and informative entry points to each book. With new releases every month, Planet Stories promises a master class in the genre aimed at building the greatest fantasy and science fiction library ever assembled.”





Retro space with Atomic Rocket
Here’s a cool page that has a lot of information on Rockets and other space goodies. Atomic Rocket is great place to go for inspiration for a retro space pulp game.




The Golden Compass
A little Victorian era pulp heading to the theaters this winter. Sam Elliot? I’m there.




Blade Runner: The Final Cut.

If you haven’t seen this movie on the big screen, then you haven’t seen this movie.
Here’s where it will be playing for a lucky few.

11/16 - Detroit (Main Art, Detroit - 35mm)
11/18 - Austin (Paramount, Austin - 35mm)
11/30 - San Francisco (Embarcadero, San Francisco - 35mm)
11/30 - Dallas (The Inwood, Dallas - 35mm)
11/30 - San Diego (Ken, San Diego - 35mm)
11/30 - Minneapolis (Uptown, Minneapolis - 35mm)
12/7 - Denver (The Landmark @ Greenwood Village - Digital)
12/7 - Philadelphia (The Ritz 5, Philadelphia - 35mm)
12/25 - Boston (The Brattle, Cambridge - 35mm)
1/2/08 - Austin (The Paramount, Austin - 35mm)
1/4/08 - Nashville (The Belcourt, Nashville - 35mm)
1/18/08 - Durham (Carolina, Durham - 35mm)
2/1/08 - Columbus (Drexel Gateway, Columbus - 35mm)
2/15/08 - San Francisco (Castro, San Francisco - 35mm)
2/29/08 - Sacramento (Crest, Sacramento - 35mm)




Coming in Summer of 2025!

They’re still working on it.

And that is your Pulp Thursday report!

Pulp Thursday

I found an interesting article regarding REH and racism.

http://www.destructoid.com/racism-in-age-of-conan-s-hyborian-age-36626.phtml





A couple of weeks ago I reported on Adamant Entertainments new line of Pulp adventures. I finally had a chance to look it over.
“The Crimson Emperor” is an adventure split into 5 parts. According to Adamant Entertainment each part can either be played as a standalone session or as part of a larger Pulp serial campaign. I purchased the first installment “Politics of Terror” and am happy to report that the product delivers. It’s a solid no frills adventure steeped in the politics of the 1930’s, specifically the run for the white house by a popular senator who is tough on organized crime. The information is sufficient to give both the players and the GM a sense of how to get the players involved in the adventure. The adventure is written for the D20 system but there would be absolutely no problem in converting it to the pulp engine of your choice. I have only purchased episode one, but I was pleased enough with it that I’ll give episode two a try. I’ll fill you all in on that one soon.





Conan the Phenomenon
http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-673

*Pssst!* Amazon has it for under $20.00!



And that’s your Pulp Thursday report!