An anthology in chapbook format from 1976. It contains THE DWELLERS UNDER THE TOMB.
Whispers Volume 2 Number 2/3, June 1975. Contains a letter from Howard to Wilfred Blanch Talman written circa September 1931. The letter starts like this: “Dear Mr. Talman:
Thank you very much for the letter you wrote to Street & Smith.” It’s numbered #175 and can be found in The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard Volume 2 as well.
Also there is some color artwork on pp. 66 & 67, courtesy of Donald Grant, published here before appearing in “The Tower of the Elephant” by Robert E. Howard that Grant published later in 1975.
A fanzine or periodical edited by Jonathan Bacon from 1975. Issue 4 and 5 contains the story ‘Man with the Mystery Mitts’, ‘War to the Blind’ (poem), ‘The Abbey’ (fragment) and ‘The Day Breaks Over Simla’ (poem)
Front cover art by Allen Koszowski. Tribute to Robert Weinberg and Joel Freiman with their 1960s fanzines DEEPER THAN YOU THINK on Robert E. Howard and Weird Tales. A 7 page 1980 interview with Lin Carter. Art folio from the A. Merritt novel CREEP SHADOW.A 2 page folio of covers from foreign H.P. Lovecraft books. An interview with Wally Wood. A reprint of his original story THE END (which was revised and rewritten without his permission in the magazine 1984), and more.
Features include an in-depth 50 page article by Rick McCollum on the classic writers of fantasy in the early 20th century. “The Most Popular Stories in Weird Tales 1924-1940”, a 1969 article on Robert E. Howard by Bob Weinberg, an author index to FANTASTIC NOVELS and FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES. Art by Eduardo Barreto, Allen Koszowski, Berni Wrightson and more. Front cover art from an unpublished 1971 issue of SATELLITE SCIENCE FICTION.
The Annotated Guide to Robert E. Howard’s Weird Fantasy scrutinizes this full range of Howard’s dark fiction by listing, summarizing, and critically analyzing more than 50 tales. Surveyed not only are widely anthologized horror classics like “Pigeons from Hell” and “The Black Stone,” but also many lesser-known tales that further illuminate Howard’s genius for creating “real emotions of spectral fear and dread suspense,” as the great H.P. Lovecraft said.
The purpose of this book is twofold. First, and foremost, it is to provide a reading guide to the sword-and-sorcery fiction of Robert E. Howard. The second purpose of the book is to provide some critical commentary on the fiction and Howard’s writing in general. While much has been made of sword-and-sorcery, little critical writing has ever been done on the subject. Too long sword-and-sorcery, perhaps even all fantasy fiction, has been ignored by critics. Hopefully this work will be the first of many dealing with such aim.