Dispatches from the silver key

Arcane Arts

I’m back from a sorely needed week+ vacation up north at our family camp in Andover, NH. Lots of pontoon boat rides, long walks with my wife, copious amounts of beer, good fellowship … and some sword-and-sorcery, of course.

In the last issue of Arcane Arts I briefly recapped the June 20 online conference Afterlives of World Building: The Legacy of Robert E. Howard, in which I was asked to serve as a panelist. You can now view the recordings of the two panels and the Sara Frazetta keynote on The Dark Man journal Youtube channel.

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​Give them a listen; I plan on listening to the last two. I had to logoff from the conference early and entertain a cabin full of guests. Catch me in the loft wearing a “Grin and Beer It” t-shirt 😊

The second helping of northern S&S came in the form of a visit from the great Tom Barber. We enjoyed a nice pontoon boat ride together and got caught up.

I learned as I always do a little bit more about Tom’s halcyon days as a commercial artist. I discovered his agent was Roy Torgeson, perhaps best known as editor of a short story series called Chrysalis and a second, the short-lived Outer Worlds. The first seven volumes of Chrysalis were issued by Zebra as paperback originals, the last three by Doubleday as hardcovers.​

Torgeson’s efforts in speculative fiction seem to be confined to the late 70s and early 80s and he died in 1990.

Tom gave me 10 paperbacks (!) with covers he illustrated back in the day. I was looking at the jacket of Jack of Swords: Dumarest of Terra #14 by E.C. Tubb (DAW, 1976) and found this non-flattering blurb of Robert E. Howard by Lester Del Rey.

Breezy Howard dismissals were incredibly common and part of the reason he (and by extension, S&S) had such a poor critical reputation in the 70s and 80s, as covered in Flame and Crimson and elsewhere.​

Tartakovsky’s Conan

Chiming in on the recent big announcement. You know what that is already though I suppose there is an offhand chance you are living under a rock, or lost somewhere in Stygia.

I am genuinely happy to hear the news and hope it’s a big success. I watched the first season of Primal and enjoyed it very much, but petered out during season 2 (honestly I think I got busy and neglected to get back to it; I didn’t lose interest, just momentum). Genndy Tartakovsky has voiced a deep admiration for REH and so this seems to be a terrific match. The choice of “Queen of the Black Coast” is an interesting one, a story which to me contains some of Howard’s most vivid and poetic writing but is not in the top echelon of Conan stories (though it is in the top half, which still makes it fantastic). It will be interesting to see how it is adapted; I wonder if we’ll get to see Bêlit performing her famous nude mating dance on the deck of The Tigress.

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The Myth of Progress

​I’ve got a new essay up on The Silver Key, “The Myth of Progress,” my attempt to crystalize a subject I've been thinking about for some years. Technological achievement comes with tradeoffs. There is no straight line upward to some imagined utopia, only change.

The Myth of Progress is related to our obsession with more—more ease, more convenience, more of everything—which we think will make us happier but all come at a cost. Environmental degradation, alienation from nature and other humans, and stunted growth (how can we create sword-and-sorcery if we have zero relationship to conflict, or even hardship?).

It's also related to the mistaken belief that utopia here on earth is possible. It's not.

Living a good life is all about balance, mind and body.

For wisdom we can look to Mr. Miyagi: “Lesson not just for karate only, lesson for whole life.” Hey, I just watched Kobra Kai, which nails a well-deserved nostalgia for the old, and necessary infusion of new, in the right proportions. I'm slowly making my way through the show and recommend it.

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Heavy Metal updates

Now some real progress, on the forthcoming heavy metal memoir.

I entered the freelancer edits into chapter 9 and have started on chapter 10—of 11. The finish line is getting a lot closer.

Again I wonder: Will anyone read it? Does it have any value? It does, to me, and that makes it a project worth pursuing.

​I also recently celebrated 100 Metal Fridays on the blog. ​

Invaluable de Camp interview archive

I received a fantastic gift in the mail from Lovecraft/Howard scholar Bobby Derie this week: “… when I last see him”: The de Camp Interviews on Robert E. Howard. ​

Dark Valley Destiny is controversial. Authors L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp conducted priceless interviews with dozens of people who knew Howard in his lifetime, but reportedly asked leading questions in the process to fit preconceived notions about his nature. The resulting biography is both invaluable and flawed.

The original de Camp interviews are available but hard to access. Enter Derie. He got in touch with the de Camp heirs and received permission to print a one-shot book, which included various scans and phone photos of the original interview transcripts located at the Harry Ransom center. Some of these are transcribed from shorthand.

The book is limited to 100 copies and given to attendees at Howard Days 2026. I was blessed to receive a free copy in the mail. It will make an invaluable research tool for those who continue to look between the lines and comb through the pages of history for the real Robert E. Howard.

Weird Studies podcast covers Alien

The latest Weird Studies podcast is on Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). As usual a fantastic conversation on which to eavesdrop. The hosts draw comparisons between the rapidly morphing alien and H.P. Lovecraft’s use of “indescribable” monsters (Lovecraft was an overt influence on the film’s screenwriter Dan O’Bannon), the shift from gothic monsters to cosmic/nihilistic horror in 1970s film and a forthcoming interesting sounding book on the subject by Appendix N author Peter Berbegal, and a comparison of the biblical Kane with Thomas Kane, Officer on the USCSS Nostromo, that somehow works.

I also appreciated the hosts’ criticisms of the incessant need to “franchise” successful properties like Alien, a process that can produce hits and revenue but inevitably leads to a steady drain of wonder and disenchantment. I continue to recommend Weird Studies.​

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