By Any Other Name: Robert E. Howard and The Whole Wide World

SPOILERS AHEAD-

Few writers from the pulp era of the 1920s and 1930s have made as great a dent in the popular consciousness as Robert E. Howard. His work spanned every genre, from sword and sorcery, to boxing tales, to dark fantasy. His horror short stories are among the best of the mid 20th century, including the awesome "Pigeons from Hell." His two-fisted, red-in-tooth-in-claw characters have becomes icons of dark fantasy and geek culture. Conan the Cimmerian, Solomon Kane, and Red Sonja have or will be given blockbuster treatment from Hollywood. And who doesn't know at least one person who can sputter in bad Austrian the "What ... (more…)

There is a kindred spirit in horror and noir fiction. Stories of moral ambiguity and monstrous nature of human beings are their bread and butter. Tom Piccirilli made his name in horror before shifting his skill set into the literary noir of his recent novels like Midnight Run and Cold Shot. Stephen King cites such authors as Jim Thompson and James M. Cain as critical favourites.

One author who I think fits as a link between horror and noir that does not get enough attention is Nelson Algren (1909-1981). Best known for the movie adaptation of his novel The Man with the Golden Arm (which won Frank Sinatra the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of a junkie jazz musician), Algren's work is ... (more…)

From the Wings of Perodactyl : The Tough and Beautiful world of Mark Schultz

In this second installment surveying the work of Flesk Publications, I get to introduce you to illustrator, writer and comic book artists Mark Schultz. Born in 1955, Schultz is best known for his alternative comic book series Xenozoic Tales, better known as the cartoon Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, a post-eco disaster adventure series that follows the escapades of mechanic Jack Tenec and his love interest, the tough and beautiful scientists Hannah Dundee. Cars, monsters, and wild jungle landscapes provide the iconic backdrop for the Jack and Hannah??(TM)s various environmental hijinks. While the series is on pause, ... (more…)

Since 2002, Flesk Publishing has been producing great collections of eclectic and obscure artists of the past and present. For horror fans, two names may be of interest. One is a certified legend of cover art, and the other a rising star in the world of comics. Over the next two columns, I'll profile each, starting with long time illustrator and master of the evocative paperback cover James Bama.

While best known in genre circles for his awesome covers for the resurgent Doc Savage titles put out by Bantam, most baby boomers and Gen X nostalgia freaks will know James Bama from two legendary genre affairs: the covers of the Aurora Horror Monster Kits and the first illustration of Star Trek.

... (more…)

Fearzone has a love of comic books, from our illustrious leader's illustrated Johnny Gruesome graphic novel to the regular additions to Comics Zone. But while most of the work looked at so far has modern and clearly horror (and, in the case of Jenna Jameson's Shadow Hunter series, seductively horrible), I'd like to cast your eyes back to 1995. A magical year when the NATO air campaign against Serbia was in full swing, Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" gave us all a reason to live, and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon started a blasphemous, mixed-genre comic series that caused the Bible belt to rupture its spleen from sacrilege .

I'm talking about PREACHER.

For five years, Ennis and Dillon created a ... (more…)

PART II

THE HORROR OF WAR: THE HELL OF TOTAL WAR

The Second World War outdid the nightmare of the first in terms of scope and size. The nightmare of No Man's Land was soon swallowed by the macabre associated with names like Stalingrad, Iwo Jima, and Auschwitz. Anyone who has watched the opening sequence of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, a fictionalized account of the horrors of D-Day, is usually stunned by the meat grinder of modern combat. As critical and brutal as the opening of the Second Front in Europe was, it was unlike the industrial cauldron of hell that raged in the East.

The memoir of German soldier Guy Sajer is a long ode to death. While fighting on the Eastern Front, Sajer's entire existence ... (more…)

Welcome to the inaugural feature of By Any Other Name, a column dedicated to horror outside the traditional definitions of the genre. So, while the rest of the intrepid crew of Captain Greg's fine vessel the USS Fearzone will be dealing out their steady hands of horror goodness, I'm going on a stealth mission to find horror where you might least suspect it.

And who am I?

Jason S. Ridler, freshly minted Ph.D. in War Studies, former cemetery groundskeeper, and writer. My fiction has appeared in The Back Alley, Nossa Morte and Dark Recesses, among other fine establishments, and my non-fiction has been published at Clarkesworld, the Internet Review of Science Fiction, and Dark Scribe (... (more…)