Season 2 Episode 7: Finale to the Road of Queens!

Greetings, adventurers!!! Here we are, at another crossroad. What have we learned on the Road of Queens? What did you have to say? We tie things together here for the stunning conclusion of Season 2! We discuss some of the women in Robert E. Howard's work and life, and get into a deep mailbag. A BIG THANKS to everyone for your comments! We will undoubtedly return and tread the paths that we discovered branching from the Road of Queens someday. But for now, we must move along yet another road toward other adventures...

Random 'One Things' for this episode:

Jon: Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Josh: Leslie Klinger's The New Annotated Dracula

Luke: John Scalzi's Old Man's War

Other web-resources you may find helpful:

Check out Skulls in the Stars' essay on Robert E. Howard's correspondence regarding his views on women in history (and women in general). 

Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Amazons and Amazons II!

Jeanne D'Angelo's art can be found on her Instagram account and also on her blog!

Chris Hutson's art can be found on his blog. Here's his art inspired by Conan story, "People of the Black Circle!"

Matt Smith's Barbarian Lord and other art can be found on his website(s)!

Terence Handley's Tellers of Weird Tales is an amazing resource for the creators of the weird pulps! 

Finally, check out the Averoigne inspiration (from Clark Ashton Smith) for the Dungeons & Dragons module, Castle Amber, back in the day! (Thanks for the voicemail, Matt!)

And, what do we have in store for Season 3?

Art by Tim Truman

SOLOMON KANE - The Avenging Puritan himself! Get into it! Much of the original Kane content is available in the public domain, or you can check out a more comprehensive collection released by Del Rey! We'll be using the Del Rey as our authoritative text which has the stories listed in order of completion, not publication. We'll be starting with Skulls in the Stars, which you can read on Project Gutenberg Australia.

Final bits:

Don't forget that you can support The Cromcast by signing up for your free trial of Audible at audibletrial.com/thecromcast. We recommend trying out one of their THOUSANDS of titles!

Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. 

Our epic closer is a portion of Kvelertak's Evig Vandrar, or, The Eternal Wanderer, from their second album, Meir. These Norwegian guys turn it up to ELEVEN. And we're pretty sure they broke the knobs off the amps.... 'Cause they keep that eneit there. Check out both their first and second albums... If you like the metal, you won't be disappointed. All music was obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work!

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)

Leave us a voice mail! (859) 429-CROM! (That's 859-429-2766)

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Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner! Or, check us out on iTunes! Don't forget Stitcher!

Season 2 Episode 4: The Shadow of the Vulture (Or, Suleiman's Big Day Out)

   

 

It was a woman, dressed as von Kalmbach had not even seen the dandies of France dressed. She was tall, splendidly shaped, but lithe. From under a steel cap escaped rebellious tresses that rippled red-gold in the sun over her compact shoulders. High boots of Cordovan leather came to her mid-thighs, which were cased in baggy breeches. She wore a shirt of Turkish mesh-mail tucked into her breeches. Her supple waist was confined by a flowing sash of green silk, into which were thrust a brace of pistols and a dagger, and from which depended a long Hungarian sabre. Over all was carelessly thrown a scarlet cloak.

This surprising figure was bending over the cannon, sighting it, in a manner betokening more than a passing familiarity, at a group of Turks who were wheeling a carriage-gun just within range.

“Eh, Red Sonya!” shouted a man-at-arms, waving his pike. “Give ‘em hell, my lass!”


And thus are we introduced to a new character along the Road of Queens, Red Sonya! While she may not be the She-Devil with a Sword that is popular in contemporary culture, she is the most compelling character in our story for the week, “The Shadow of the Vulture.”

So, grab your favorite liquor and join us as we venture back to the days when the Ottoman Empire flourished under the steady hand of Suleiman the Magnificent and the days of Christian Europe appear to be numbered! Let Howard paint for you a picture of the bloody Stand of Vienna, albeit peppered with the fictional but dastardly Mikhal Oglu, the drunken Gottfried von Kalmbach, and the deadly Red Sonya of Rogatino.

You can read the story here: The Shadow of the Vulture

Or you could enjoy it as part of the Del Rey collection, Sword Woman and Other historical Adventures!

Next time, we journey into territory undreamed of! What happens when the Robert E. Howard podcast reads and discusses a story by another author? That is precisely what will happen next time, when The Cromcast covers the first Jirel of Joiry tale by C.L. Moore, "The Black God's Kiss!" Join us!
 

This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/



Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0


Ending theme: "Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants. Used without permission.

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)



Leave us a voice mail! (859) 429-CROM!



Follow us on Twitter! Or on Facebook!



Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner! Or, check us out on iTunes!



The music included in this episode's discussion is used without the permission of the creators. All music was obtained legally. We hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase their work. Support the artists!

SEASON TWO: THE ROAD OF QUEENS

Hile, adventurers! Here we stand, with a new path before us!

Season Two of The Cromcast will cover many of the heroic women of Robert E. Howard. Will you join us on this adventure? If so, tighten your belt, adjust your cutlass, and be of stout heart! The stories we'll cover are as follows....

Helen Tavrel, Swashbuckling Pirate of the Caribbean!
The Isle of Pirate's Doom

Dark Agnes de Chastillon, the French Heroine that Meets Out Death with a Sword!
The Sword Woman
Blades for France

Red Sonya, the Sword and Pistol-Wielding Princess!
The Shadow of the Vulture

Beyond that, we'll return to some discussion of our favorite Heroines of the Conan Stories. We'll also cover the Red Sonja character that is so well-known from comics and film, and we'll of course have some talk regarding Novalyne Price Ellis! Will you join us?

Bonus Episode: Side Quest #1 (or, The Long Con)

The Cromcast recently went on an adventure... a side quest To the 2014 Lexington Comic and Toy Con!
 
We're excited to showcase some of our schwag, and we were able to snap a few pictures along the way! If you're interested, then please read on! If comics aren't your thing, then just sit tight. Episode #20 will be dropping before you know it!

This first sketch was given to us by our buddy, Justin Stewart! You remember him, right? Awesome artist and fellow podcaster? We talked with him back in Episode #15 about Conan and comics! He and the rest of the Beaucoup Pop crew were holding down the "1000 section" of the con... Kentucky Proud!

And here's a Red Sonya sketch that Luke commissioned Jay Myers! Jay's another Lexington artist and, man, he KILLED it with this commission! Seriously, this guy has some chops. Check out loads of his art here!

 

And then we come to Stephen Moore's piece... Stevie's the brain and art behind Studiospectre. It was awesome to talk with him about weird fiction and his interest in paleo-art.You can be sure we'll be talking with Stevie down the road. But until then, you can check out some of Stevie's work here!

And one more Kentucky Proud artist! The pics above are from Sara Turner's new mini-comic, "The Boneyard!" Sara writes The Ghosts of Pineville (buy it here), which is hands-down one of the best all-ages ghost stories out there. Do you have a "weird" little niece or nephew in your life? Daughter or son? Seriously, buy them one of these books... They will love it. Or end up peeing their pants. Maybe both.

And now how about an interview photo or two?

This first photo is of Mr. Gary Kwapisz, a comics stalwart! Gary was kind enough to talk with us about his past work on Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan and also about his upcoming work, Stonewall's Arm! Gary's run in comics is amazing. Check out his body of work here!

This second photo is the hardest workin' man in the comics industry, Victor Dandridge! Victor's on the right, calling out Mark Waid and doing one of the best "bad" Schwarzenegger impressions you've ever heard. The "mic man" is our very own Cromcaster Josh,  and Mr. Smiley there is Cromcaster Jon!

As you'll hear in the interview, Victor has a hand in a LOT of projects. The guy's energy is astounding. Check out his company, Vantage Inhouse Productions here. You can get the scoop there about U Cre-8 Comics, his line of 8 bit art, and all of his company's comics work!

And finally.... How about we wrap things up with some of our biggest scores from the con....

 

Jon made out like a villian with a slew of some comics, and was able to get killer autographs from Jim Steranko and Mike Royer. No lie, those fellows are living legends!



In addition to some Kentucky Proud sketches, Luke was able to bag over 500 pages of The House of Mystery, as well as a collection of the first issues of the original Vampirella series. Horror anthology goodness!

All in all, the Lexington Comic and Toy Convention was a huge success. 2015 will be the fourth year for this event, and it looks to be even bigger and better, with even more guests and vendors! Be sure to keep your eye on the LCTC website and think about adding it to your calendar next spring!

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)
Also, you know you wanna follow us on Twitter!
Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner! Or, check us out on iTunes!

Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Art Party Friday: January 10th 2014

Hello Cromrades! Luke here, standing in for Sir Jon. We want to show off some cool Howard inspired art out there on the interwubz. If you have any art you wish to share, be you the creator or just an admirer, please email us at thecromcrast@gmail.com with the image and source and we will try to feature it here on the blog! Also, please visit one or all of the sites for these talented folks. You can always find art for purchase, prints, or even coffee mugs to buy!

Since we're prepping for an upcoming episode focusing on Conan in comics, let's focus on some of the artwork from Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan magazine! It's crazy how long that magazine ran... 235 issues! Seriously, if you have 15 minutes to kill, just take a trip over to Comic Vine and look over all the great stories and articles that ran in that series.

First off, here's Tim Conrad's Conan in "The Forever Phial" in Savage Sword of Conan #8...

And here's the killer Red Sonja by Frank Thorne found in "Wizards of the Black Sun" from Savage Sword of Conan #23...

Finally, here's the great opener from Baron Yoshimoto's "In the Desert of Dreams," found in Savage Sword of Conan #67...

Varied art styles, same great series!

If you're interested in reading any of the comics we'll be specifically discussing in our upcoming comics episode, check out the Barry Windsor Smith art for "The Frost Giant's Daughter" (reprinted in Savage Sword of Conan #1), as well as the Buscema / Alcala art on "The Citadel at the Center of Time" (Savage Sword of Conan #7), and the Buscema / DeZuniga art team-up on "The Flame Knife" (Savage Sword of Conan #31). All penned by Roy Thomas, we hope to delve into his strengths when adapting material versus developing original content. The first couple stories are in the first Dark Horse volume and "The Flame Knife" is in the third Dark Horse volume.

That's it for this week!!! 

Look for some sweet jams early next week when the new episode drops!

Art Party Friday: Dec. 13, 2013

Hello Cromrades! It is I, Jon! I am here to show off some cool Howard inspired art I have found in my wanderings on the internet. If you have any art you wish to share, be you the creator or just an admirer, please do email us at thecromcrast@gmail.com with the image and source and we will try to feature it here on the blog! Also, please visit one or all of the sites for these talented folks. You can always find art for purchase, prints, or even coffee mugs to buy!

The first piece comes from a listener and artist, Rick Lacy! It's a digital sketch of Conan and I have to say, it's pretty rad! If you are an artist and would like your work featured here, please don't be bashful! Send 'em in and I will post them with high praise!

Conan the Barbarian by Rick Lacy

http://www.ricklacy.com/

https://twitter.com/radmartigan

Be sure to check on Rick's comic Drawing Lance, it's barbarous fun! 

Conan the Barbarian

(part of a 1970's black light poster series)

Art by Barry Windsor Smith

http://barrywindsor-smith.com/

Info on posters: http://blog.illustractiongallery.com/post/69010368703/conan-the-barbarian-1971-marvel-comics-third

Conan in battle against the "ape-demon"

Art by Richard Corben

http://www.corbenstudios.com/

Belit: Queen of the Black Coast by Chris Samnee

http://www.chrissamnee.com/

Red Sonya by Esteban Maroto

Kirby O'Donnell by Timothy Bradstreet

http://timbradstreet.typepad.com/

Queen of the Black Coast by Becky Cloonan

http://estrigious.com/becky/

Buy Ms. Cloonan's award winning, awesome to read, pretty to behold, and all digital comic,The Mire:

http://www.comixology.com/The-Mire/digital-comic/38480

That's all for this week my fellow art aficionados! Please join us here at The Cromcast next week for our latest and greatest episode!

All images are the property of the artists/companies they work with.

Episode 11: Time for a Finnterview! (or, We Can't Believe It!)

This is a big one for us! For this episode we were able to have a chat with Mark Finn, author of "Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard"! Mark recently released the second edition of this volume, which you can easily purchase from the Robert E. Howard Foundation or from Amazon. If you've listened to any of our previous shows, you've heard us previously discuss Mark's literary criticism.

Man, what a well-read, fun, and easy guy to talk with! We had a blast talking to Mark and look forward to the next time he can join us!

Want another Finn fix? Here's Mark's blog!

If you can get your hands on it, maybe check out de Camp's Dark Valley Destiny?

Want to get into the small-press 'zine scene? Check out REHupa!

Interested in some of the other pulp podcasts out there? We mention the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast and The Double Shadow; check 'em out if you haven't already!

Interested in getting yer hands on some of REH's boxing stories? You should buy Fists of Iron! Volume 1 features an essay from Patrice Louinet, but Mark will be providing the foreword for Volume 2.

Want to read about the birth and growth of the Weird Western? Check out Undead in the West II, which features literary criticism from Mark and a slew of others.

Interested in the Violet Crown Radio Players that Mark mentions in the episode? Live in Austin, or visit periodically? Then friend them on Facebook!

And be on the lookout for Mark's upcoming fiction work, The Adventures of Sailor Tom Sharkey, soon to be available from Fight Card Books!

Finally.... A BIG thank you to Beaucoup Pop!!! Without their help, this episode wouldn't have been possible. Big thanks especially to Tressa (the beer and pie are forthcoming)! If you haven't listened to their podcast before, go ahead and check 'em out. Geekery abounds :)

Thanks everyone! Happy listening!!!

Questions? Comments? Curses? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)

Follow us on Twitter!

Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner! Or, check us out on iTunes!

Beginning theme: "Sudden Defeat" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ending theme: "Anvil of Crom" arranged by YouTube user Xavier Renou and found here. Arrangement of  "Anvil of Crom" by Basil Poledouris, from the Conan the Barbarian: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Original Score: (c) 1982 Basil Poledouris; Original Album: (c) 2010 Prometheus Records. Used without permission.

Art Party Friday, Nov. 15th 2013

Hello Cromrades! It is I, Jon! I am here to show off some cool Howard inspired art I have found in my wanderings on the internet. If you have any art you wish to share, be you the creator or just an admirer, please do email us at thecromcrast@gmail.com with the image and source and we will try to feature it here on the blog! Also, please visit one or all of the sites for these talented folks. You can always find art for purchase, prints, or even coffee mugs to buy!

Conan by Bill Sienkiewicz

http://www.billsienkiewiczart.com/

Red Sonja by Jenny Frison

http://www.jennyfrison.com/

Steve Costigan and Mike the Bulldog by Andy Taylor

http://andyetaylor.daportfolio.com/

Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts by Gary Gianni

http://www.garygianni.com/

Dark Agnes de Chastillon by Francesco Francovilla

http://www.francescofrancavilla.com/

Conan #29 Cover: The Toad by Mike Mignola

http://www.artofmikemignola.com/

Art Party Friday

Hello Cromrades! It is I, Jon! I am here to show off some cool Howard inspired art I have found in my wanderings on the internet. If you have any art you wish to share, be you the creator or just an admirer, please do email us at thecromcrast@gmail.com with the image and source and we will try to feature it here on the blog! Also, please visit one or all of the sites for these talented folks. You can always find art for purchase, prints, or even coffee mugs to buy!

Conan by Caanan White (currently the artist on Uber from Avatar Press)

http://caananwhite.deviantart.com/

Red Sonja #1 variant cover by Stephanie Buscema (granddaughter of John Buscema)

http://www.stephaniebuscema.com/

Conan by James Harren

http://jharren.deviantart.com/

Solomon Kane by Michael Dialynas

http://thewoodenking.deviantart.com/

Crom versus Ymir by Breogan

http://nordheimer.deviantart.com/

Cover to Pigeons from Hell by Nathan Fox

http://www.foxnathan.com/

That's all for this week. Of course Pigeons from Hell is featured last as it will be a big chunk of our next episode:

HOWARD'S HORRORS!

Notes From the Road... Cincy Comic Con 2013!

The Cromcast recently took a trip to the Cincinnati Comic Con...

And what a day! I think it's safe to say that we "pulped it out" as much as possible. Some great buys were found, some great discussions were had, and we made some new friends of the show!!! 

What kinds of finds did we run across? Who did we meet? Well, a string of images and notes follow... If you're interested, then please read on! However, if this seems like a bit of over-indulgence, then just sit tight... Episode #6 will be coming your way lickety-split!!!

The first image here is a great commission from Alejandro Bruzzese. I asked for a Red Sonya, specifically one that was "a bit more foreboding, and a bit less cheesecake..." Needless to say, you can see that Alejandro flat-out nailed it. It's already on display in Cromcast Central. 

Besides the sketch we were able to talk a bit with Alejandro about some of his ongoing work. His webcomic, Proxy, is AMAZING! Seriously, there's not much else out there that I think does such a good job of blending the weird with the psychedelic. And then, for good measure, add just a touch of horror. JUST LOOK AT THAT ALIEN! 

The next on our list is a sketch from John Sebastian...

John is a multi-faceted guy. First, as you can tell from the above work, he is one hell of a visual artist. Lots of heavy metal linework, lots of love for the genre, lots of horror. Some serious weirdifiied and pulpified goodness there. John told me he thought this could be best described as "some sort of eldrtich sorceror trying his hand at summoning an Old One..." Or something along those lines. Regardless, it is truly horrific. And excellent!

But beyond these sketches, John is also part of the Cincinnati-based band, Grey Host! Check out their Bandcamp page and you can stream their full album, Dawn for Vultures, and buy it for a mere $6. If you're into any sort of doom / sludge metal, this is some great stuff. It's been on heavy rotation for me since we left the convention. Here's the opening track from the album... Queue it up and get yer metal on! 

From our talks with John it looks like Grey Host is in the studio prepping some new material, and at least one song has some serious Conan connections! These guys have agreed to let us feature this new song in the upcoming music episode of the podcast, so be looking for a premiere release of that song right here on THE CROMCAST!

And finally...

These images are some of the books we picked up. Some great finds, both comics and prose!

Whewww, I think that about wraps it all up. What a weekend! 

See ya on the next podcast!