Robert E. Howard Readers discussion

Just returned from Robert E Howard Days 2018 in Cross Plains, TX. Much fun! Hard to explain to some people why visiting a little town in the middle of nowhere in Texas in the heat of the summer is so much fun. The temps were supposed to be up to 105 degrees but fortunately we had a cool spell and they were only up to about 98. As usual though I arrived about 5pm on Friday missing all of the panel discussions the first day but was on time for the silent auction and banquet. Bill "Indy" Cavalier was the guest of honor and spoke on the subject "How Robert E Howard saved my life". He and Rusty Burke go back the furthest in Howard Fandom now. Indy mentioned that he has edited and sent out 193 consecutive REHUPA (Robert E Howard United Press International) publications. The longest running Howard Fanzine to my knowledge. An enormous feat! On Saturday there were some great panel discussions. The first was a discussion of Solomon Kane. It is his 90th birthday this year! He is one of the all time favorite characters that Howard has created. He was also one of the very first pulp characters to be in a series of stories published in the pulps. This is before The Shadow and other super hero type pulp characters which came later. The Solomon Kane movie was discussed as well and how it fell somewhat short of being the character that REH envisioned because of the need for an origin story. It was discussed that Kane in a sense had no real origin in that he showed up when evil appeared and vanished when the evil was vanquished. The second was about games. There are some great games coming out or that just came out. I am sorry I am not the best person to talk about the games as I do not play them but they look fantastic. It may be time for me to start as there is a very cool new Solomon Kane board game with incredible artwork. Lastly there was a great panel on "What is up with REH"? Fredrick Malmberg, whose company Cabinet Entertainment owns the Robert E Howard and Conan Properties spoke and he said that Marvel Comics will be publishing 3 different Conan Comics by January 2019. The Marvel Preview comes out in a few days. He mentioned that a Conan TV show is indeed going to air on Amazon and the plan is to use real Howard stories as the basis for each episode. He did mention the fact that when Hollywood gets involved with the movie they lose too much artistic license. With a TV series it is not necessary to delve too long on origin stories, etc. In a series the characters can be fleshed out and their back stories can be revealed in pieces rather than creating a whole movie to explain. The stories can jump right into the action with a fully formed character. This is exciting news! Also plans are in the work for an El Borak series, Mark Finn suggested the actor Christian Kane to be considered for the part of El Borak. Other characters in the works are Solomon Kane, Dark Agnes, and a movie remake of "Pigeons from Hell" set in the same time period and place as the original story (1930s South). Mr Malmberg suggested that next year he would bring some of the people who work on the Conan TV series as well as some Marvel Comics people to Cross Plains. He said this year the TV series developers could not discuss the series until it comes out so they did not come this year. I also picked up the new "Pictures in the Fire" which I purchased from REH Foundation, got it signed by Indy who did the artwork for the cover. Also I ran into Bobby Derie and he gave me some books he was giving away.....His REH Bar Guide, an index for "One Who Walked Alone", and a book of his essays that have been published in many of the REH Fanzines. Just met him online a few short years ago and he has become known as a foremost scholar of pulp fiction. Loved his "Sex and the Cthuhu Mythos" and the index to Howard's letters are indispensible for anyone who reads and studies them. He also has a wealth of knowledge about Clark Ashton Smith and of course Lovecraft. One other thing...REH Foundation plans to publish "Post Oaks and Sand Roughs" by the end of the year. It is a semi fictional autobiography of Robert E Howard. He was inspired by Jack London's "Martin Eden". It is not his best work but is a great insight into his life. It will be published along with other autobiographical sketches and articles. Also in the future is another revision of the Collected Poetry and a revised version of Robert E Howard's Letters with additional material which was unknown when the first volumes were published. The goal of the Foundation is to publish everything Howard ever wrote that has not already been in print by other major publishers. I'm sure others will add to this discussion who will be able to expound on the event in greater detail and with more insight than I can.

Good to see you at Howard Days, Mike! Glad you like the books.

Bobby wrote: "Good to see you at Howard Days, Mike! Glad you like the books."
Same here. I also enjoy your blogs and essays on FB!

Great read. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I watched the Youtube videos of the events from the last couple of years and hope to come one day from Copenhagen all the way to Cross Plains to participate at Howard Days.

REH is one of my biggest inspirations in my writing.

Lars wrote: "Great read. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I watched the Youtube videos of the events from the last couple of years and hope to come one day from Copenhagen all the way to Cross Plains to par..."

You would be in good company.

Thanks for the R.E.H. Days update, Michael. It's great that we can always rely on you for a detailed account of it. Happy to hear you had some respite from the heat, however slight.