Edited by Leo Grin | Illustrated by Jason Castagna
40 pages

This issue was printed in two editions. The deluxe edition, numbered 1–75, uses a black linen cover with foil-stamped blood-red text. The limited edition, numbered 76–225, uses a blood-red cover with solid black text.

Features a symposium on the twentieth anniversary of The Dark Barbarian, including detailed critical reminiscences from Darrell Schweitzer, Charles Hoffman, and Don Herron, a comprehensive series of historical commentaries and reviews, plus verse from poetic maestro Donald Sidney-Fryer, a huge Letters column, art, and more.

Contents

• “Cross Plains or Bust” by Leo Grin (Editorial)
• “Cross Plains Memories” by Leo Grin, with Bill “Indy” Cavalier, Mark Finn, Chris Gruber, James Reasoner, Gary Romeo, Damon Sasser, and Tom Verhaaren
• “Sacred Ground” by Robert Weinberg
• “Announcements” by Leo Grin
• “A Spirit on the Wind” by Frank Coffman (poem)
• “He Was Deadly” by Don Herron
• “The Lion’s Den” by Darrell Schweitzer, Gary Romeo,
• James Reasoner, Frank Coffman, and Charles Hoffman
• (letter column)
• Contributors

Notes

DELUXE COPIES DESTROYED: 0

LIMITED COPIES DESTROYED: 46

Features a symposium on the twentieth anniversary of The Dark Barbarian, including detailed critical reminiscences from Darrell Schweitzer, Charles Hoffman, and Don Herron, a comprehensive series of historical commentaries and reviews, plus verse from poetic maestro Donald Sidney-Fryer, a huge Letters column, art, and more.

Excerpts

Howard cannot be dismissed as a mere “boy’s writer” — a phrase I heard Frank Belknap Long use, when wondering why de Camp devoted so much of his energy to REH — or as just a pulp-hack, whose work, however superficially entertaining, has no more real content than a 1930s movie serial. He is worth taking seriously. His work has survived the test of time. It is not going away.

— from “After Twenty Years, A Landmark” by Darrell Schweitzer

I was writing about Howard seriously fairly early on, and in this I was joined by a few others. But our efforts amounted to little more than a few faint rappings, or perhaps a torch that was small, frail, and easily extinguished. The breakthrough came with The Dark Barbarian. This was the turning point. Before there were only hints of what could be. Afterwards, REH criticism had a model and a father figure.

— from “Hard-Boiled Heroic Critic” by Charles Hoffman

Why aren’t more people writing about Robert E. Howard? I mean, there are answers for that. It’s not exactly easy to sit down and write something. And it’s not really easy to come up with a really good idea. It’s pretty easy to just repeat what other people have said a couple of million times, but to actually come up with a fresh approach, that’s tough, and there’s a matter of luck involved with that, I think. You have to notice something at just the right time.

— from “Thirty Years as a Howard Critic” by Don Herron

Ultimately, The Dark Barbarian does what any good critical study should do. It does not make you forget the original cause of the study. Instead, it sheds light on Howard and his work and stimulates the reader into wanting to read or re-read Howard and his gigantic creations.

— Jesse F. Knight, from “TDB Reviews 1984–85”