Robert E. Howard Readers discussion

I just sent my money to register for the banquet at Robert E Howard Days this June. the last time I went was in 2011 http://www.howarddays.com/
It takes place Cross Plains, TX June 12-13 this year.
It's only $15 per person to cover soft drinks, donuts and the Friday night dinner banquet and it assures you a seat at the the Caddo Peak BBQ as well.
Artist Mark Schultz is the Guest of Honor.
Anyone else plan on going?

Anything like this on the west coast?

No, this is kind of a special gathering of Robert E Howard fans and scholars in Cross Plains, TX where Robert E Howard lived. The home he lived in with his parents is now a museum run by Project Pride a historical group in Cross Plains and the Robert E Howard Days is centered at the House,a pavilion on the grounds, the Cross Plains Library and a meeting hall in the town. There are also bus tours and walking tours around and about the area where Howard lived. It's not a large gathering but it is fun. Fortunately I only live a couple of hours away and so it is not hard for me to get there but some people come from as far away as Scotland and France.

BTW when I say special I don't mean inclusive. It's wide open for anyone to come who enjoys Robert E Howard. They love having new people come. I've always attended with 2 of my sons and they used to get a lot of attention because everyone likes seeing young people getting into REH too! Paradox Entertainment that owns the rights to REH's work always has someone come out and join in panel discussions and there are always authors, poets, artists and REH scholars who answer questions and speak on a wide range of subjects about Howard. In 2011 we were told by the Pardox Entertainment people that Jason Momoa had planned to come but had to attend a family wedding. He wanted to come out to the pavilion on Friday night and have beer with everyone. This is an annual thing along with a poetry reading of REH poems of which there are many.

I will definitely plan out a trip to Texas one year. I've wanted to go to Austin for quite some time so will have to plan out Robert's homeland as well! Thanks for the info.

If you go at another time of year let me know and I will send you info about where to go. You have to call to set up a museum tour

Just checking to see if anyone else plans to go to Cross Plains. I noticed that Fredrick Malmberg, who left Paradox Entertainment, just bought them out along with all of the rights to Robert E Howard's characters. He wants to produce a Conan movie with Arnold and I understand that a Bran Mak Morn movie is in the works (again!) from Universal. I notice that a new facsimile edition of one of the rarest writings by Robert E Howard, "The Hyborian Age" will be release this summer by Skelos. It will be available first in Cross Plains. Hope they have enough on hand!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Hyborian-Ag...

I was able to get two copies of "The Hyborian Age".
Howard Days was superb. I made it just in time for Friday night's dinner. Mark Schultz spoke and showed a slide show of artwork that inspired him as well as showing his own artwork.
Inspirations for Conan were Margaret Brundage (Weird Tales cover artist); Wallace Wood (Gnome Press "The Return of Conan" dustcover artist); and Frank Frazetta. In Mark's Conan art, he went back and read the stories and tried to adhere to the stories more than other artist's work though. His hair on Conan is the "square cut black mane" and the muscles are not as pronounced. Conan was strong but being strong does not necessarily mean musclebound. His muscles are more in keeping with a warrior or laborer than with a body builder.
I sat next to Val Mayerik who is an artist currently living in Austin, TX. He was extremely nice. He worked for all of the comic book publishers at one time or other. He worked on the Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" and "The Savage Sword of Conan". He was also a co-creator of Howard the Duck. Check out his website http://www.valmayerik.com/. You can order his artwork. After the banquet we went to the legendary "ice house" to see Jeff Shanks, Chris Gruber, and Mark Finn read from Howard's Boxing Stories. "Kid Lavigne is Dead", "Pit of the Serpent", "A Night in Shanghai", and others. Finally about 20-25 of us partook in a Poetry Recital on the Howard Museum porch and took turns reading REH and HPL poems. It kicked off by reciting "Cimmeria" in 4 languages...English, German, French, and Japanese.
The BBQ at Caddo Peak was canceled this year due to an abundance of snakes. We had so much rain in Texas it brought out the snakes like copperheads, etc.
We had 3 great panels on Saturday. The final one was a huge surprise. Brad Howard, his daughter Amanda, and his brother Jeff Howard arrived with Dr Howard's old copy of "A Gent from Bear Creek" (13th known copy in the world.They also brought the Family Bible purchased in 1857 which had REHs and his family's birthdates marked in it. Jeff and Brad are the grandchildren of REHs 1st cousin. They live in Sherman, TX. They also had a brand new unpublished photo of REH.
I also got a chance to speak to James Reasoner, a well known author and Robert E Howard fan. He is a goodreads author as well. He is a great writer. He lives in the Fort Worth area and I highly recommend his books. He is also a very nice gentleman and likes all of the same things I do as we are about the same age.

I uploaded some pictures

Thanks! Nice to see the place & people.

You're welcome. One of the best panels was on Saturday morning. It was chaired by Rusty Burke, one of the editors of "The Meaning of Freedom". It was an hour long panel discussing and answering questions about the correspondence between Howard and Lovecraft from 1930 to 1936.
The name of the 2 volumes came from Howard's proclaiming that he wrote for $ and to gain his freedom from the menial jobs he worked as a soda jerk and clerk. Lovecraft claimed he was into writing for the art's sake. Money was not as important to him.
Also, these letters had a running thread through them pertaining to the 6 year debate of the civilization vs barbarism argument.
Through the letters we see the correspondents discuss their personal lives as well. It was fairly humorous when Howard discusses boxing and football in his letters for we know that Lovecraft had absolutely no interest in sports. Rusty points out that the two were so far apart in terms of personality and personal likes that had the two been corresponding via internet one of them would have most likely "unfriended" the other. It was often heated. Bob Howard took offense at everything and Lovecraft enjoyed teasing and probably didn't expect to be taken so seriously.
Another panel was on the new Conan RPG game being worked on. Jeff Shanks, Mark Finn and I believe our own Vincent Darlage are collaborating on it. This game will only utilize Howard's characters and stories as purists are the consultants on the background for this game. Patrice Louinet already worked on a similar game and the earned over $3MM on Kickstarter. The goal was $80K.

Michael wrote: "Just checking to see if anyone else plans to go to Cross Plains. I noticed that Fredrick Malmberg, who left Paradox Entertainment, just bought them out along with all of the rights to Robert E Howa..."

Excellent stuff, Michael. Thank you!