Win Scott Eckert's Blog: Win Scott Eckert.com, page 7

The Chronologically Confounding Case of Korak the Killer

As I mentioned in a prior post, Sunday-style color comic strips are available on www.edgarriceburroughs.com.

I've read the Korak the Killer strip, written by well-known comic book scribe Ron Marz. This is a new, original tale in which Korak agrees to help Princess Nemu, whom he encounters in the jungle as she searches for Tarzan. Tarzan is away from Africa, and so Korak agrees to help her by returning with her to her hidden city of Memnon to free it from usurpers/slavers.

Memnon first appeared in Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-Woman (Dark Horse Comics /DC Comics, 2000), which took place in November 1939. Princess Khefretari of Memnon was the titular “Cat-Woman” of the title. I noted this crossover at http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Chron7.htm and in my book Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, Volume 1 (Black Coat Press, 2010). Batman/Tarzan was also written by Ron Marz.

The Korak tale reveals that Princess Nemu is the daughter of now-Queen Khefretari. Nemu appears to be about 16 or 17, although this is purely a guess based on how she is depicted (although she is surely not younger than 16 or 17). Confoundingly, the usurpers are led by a soldier of the Reich—presumably the Third Reich. Batman/Tarzan undisputedly takes place in November 1939. The Korak tale cannot take place in the time range 1939-1945. The very earliest Nemu could have been born would be Sept 1940 (there was no evidence that Khefretari was pregnant in the Batman/Tarzan tale). Nemu is absolutely not four or five years old in the Korak tale; in fact, she and Korak almost share a romantic kiss. (We’ll come back to that.)

A creatively mythographical explanation for the timing is that the usurpers are of a type seen frequently in stories, holdover Nazis trying to rekindle former glories and establish a new Reich. With this interpretation, the Korak story could take place in 1956, ’57, ’58, etc. (depending on whether we readers ever learn more definitively that Nemu’s age is).

Now, about that kiss. This story absolutely cannot take place before Korak met Meriem in The Son of Tarzan [Third Reich story elements]. If the story takes place in the mid- or late-1950s, is Meriem dead by this time? Have they divorced? Was Korak about to “step-out” on Meriem? (The kiss was not completed; however, the storyline is not complete, so who knows what Mr. Marz has in store for Korak and Nemu.) Perhaps injecting a potential romance between Korak and Nemu was a misstep on the part of Mr. Marz. I should say I’m a fan of his work, such as the Batman/Tarzan series and his run on Witchblade.

The really cool parts… in strip #26, there is a panel in which the prior adventure in Memnon is discussed, stating that a treasure hunter was defeated by Korak’s father, including an “aided by a man who dressed like a bat.” (Nemu states that this took place before she was born, reinforcing the chronological discussion above.) In strip #33, the prior events are again discussed; Khefretari tells Korak shat she knew his father “years ago,” when Tarzan came to Memnon with “…another hero, an American”; in this panel, a Batman shadow-silhouette is seen, just like in the ’40s Golden Age Batman comics.


Cool stuff indeed. Despite the chronological conundrums and the uncharacteristic romantic interlude, I recommend this strip and have great hopes that Mr. Marz will not leave us hanging.

The Green Ghost: Declassified - Ebook out on Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook!

Along with my fellow creators, Eric Fein, David Niehaus, and Malcolm McClinton, I'm very pleased to announce that The Green Ghost: Declassified (Moonstone Books) is now available as an ebook on both Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook !


The ebook collection features seven prose tales.

Of course, if you also want the two comic stories and the accompanying illustrations to the prose stories, then please buy the print version, which is available in:

trade softcoverlimited edition hardcover"Zombies under Broadway" teaser - comic-sized edition with one prose story and "wide-vision" illustrations

The Green Ghost—magician sleuth George Chance—returns! Once a debunker of the supernatural, the Green Ghost terrorized criminals with his horrific skull-face and wraithlike abilities. But criminologist Chance came back from Europe changed—for his wartime experiences taught him: the occult and night creatures were real! Thrill to new prose and comic book tales featuring a multitude of murderers, monsters, and crossovers with I. V. Frost, the Domino Lady, and more!

Ebook contents:

ZOMBIES UNDER BROADWAY by Win Scott Eckert and Eric Fein

DEATH SCREAM OVERDRIVE by Eric Fein
Featuring The Black Shrike and The Green Ghost

GHOST OF A CHANCE by Howard Hopkins

CHANCE OF A GHOST by Win Scott Eckert

THE PHANTOM’S GHOST by Eric Fein
Featuring The Green Ghost and the Phantom of the Opera

DAME SINSESTRE by Win Scott Eckert
Featuring The Green Ghost and The Domino Lady vs. a Rohmer-esque femme fatale

MURDER IN THE MIND’S EYE by Eric Fein
Featuring The Green Ghost and I. V. Frost

I'm especially pleased that we were able to include a previously unpublished Green Ghost story by the late Howard Hopkins. Howard was a fantastic writer and a pulp expert. Hopefully the rescue of this tale and it's inclusion in this collection begins to pay back, in some small way, the inspiration and friendship which Howard showed me.

The Green Ghost: Declassified ebook is available on:

Amazon Kindle B&N Nook

Sherlock Holmes chapbook - available for preorder

I'm pleased to announce that my Sherlock Holmes chapbook, The Adventure of the Fallen Stone,is available for preorder right now from Meteor House . I'll be signing all copies at Win Scott Eckert Meet & Greet and Book Signing at Fleur Fine Books in Port Neches, TX on March 25, 2017. Thereafter, I'll ship the books back to Meteor House HQ in Atlanta for distribution to readers worldwide!

Link to preorder .

While you're there, please also consider picking up my first chapbook, Being an Account of the Delay at Green River, Wyoming, of Phileas Fogg, World Traveler, or, The Masked Man Meets an English Gentleman.

Link to order .


Thanks, and Happy Monday!

Edgar Rice Burroughs - the new "Sunday" comic strips

Many of my readers may know that on the Official Edgar Rice Burroughs site, there are ongoing comic strips of various ERB series and characters, done in the style of a weekly color Sunday strip. Some strips feature new stories, and some are adaptations of ERB novels. The strips are available by monthly or annual subscription at the site.

The Pellucidar strip tells a new tale of the ongoing adventures of David Innes and family, and some of the Sunday installments featured a crossover with Tarzan. Perhaps this is not such a big deal, given that ERB himself crossed-over the two series in the novel Tarzan at the Earth's Core, and the two series also crossed over many times in authorized comic books and prior Sunday strips (these crossovers are documented in my Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, Volume 1 and Volume  2, Black Coat Press, 2010).

The first storyline in the New Adventures of Tarzan strip, by veteran comics scribe Roy Thomas, features La and the beast-men of Opar, as well as Jane, and D'Arnot. No date is given, but the second storyline picks up straight from the first, and it is noted as the "late 1940s." Now, many Wold Newton fans know that Tarzan visited Opar in 1946 and found it deserted;* there was no sign of La, or anyone else, as noted in Philip José Farmer's Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke .** But based on the new Sunday strips, it appears that La somehow returned a few years after 1946. I am sure that a creatively mythographical explanation will arise for all this.

Of note, the second New Adventures of Tarzan storyline features crossovers with ERB's The Monster Men (a granddaughter of Professor Maxon) and H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau! (The latter is in the public domain, so no issues there.)

This is not the first time that a Tarzan comic featured a crossover with The Monster Men. As I noted in Crossovers 2:

TARZAN AND THE MONSTER MEN
Tarzan encounters the nephew of Professor Maxon, the creator of the original Monster Men, and battles a new generation of the monstrous creatures.
Story by Don Glut, Danny Bulanadi, and Dave Stevens, edited by Russ Manning, in Tarzan Weekly #2 and 3, June 18 and 25, 1977. The story brings the events of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel The Monster Men into the Crossover Universe.


*Perhaps this mystery will be explained in an authorized Tarzan story someday! 

**I am of course fully aware that Mr. Farmer, in Tarzan Alive, identified Tarzan at the Earth's Core as a "fictional" adventure of Lord Greystoke. And yet, in his timeline of the Ape Man's life, he noted the date when it would have occurred, had the events been true. Other than Tarzan, Pellucidar is my favorite ERB series and I am loathe to dismiss it from my own interpretation of the Wold Newton Universe or the larger Crossover Universe. Perhaps Mr. Farmer's love of all things ERB compelled him to note the date for Tarzan at the Earth's Core, despite the fact that it may have contradicted the realistic biographical premise of Tarzan Alive.

The Best of Farmerphile

The Best of Farmerphile

Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer was a quarterly fanzine that ran fifteen issues from July 2005 to January 2009. Michael Croteau served as Publisher for all fifteen issues; Christopher Paul Carey and Paul Spiteri coedited the first ten issues, while Spiteri and I coedited the last five. Thanks to the generosity of Philip José Farmer and his “Magic Filing Cabinet,” Farmerphile published—for the first time anywhere—short stories (mostly not science fiction), excerpts, articles, speeches, and letters written by Farmer. It even serialized the novel Up from the Bottomless Pit (not included in this collection, but forthcoming from Meteor House).

Farmerphile also contained articles and appreciations from Farmer’s fans and from his fellow science fiction authors, from critiques of his work to stories of personal encounters, and everything between.

I'm contributing four pieces to the Best of:

The Farmerian HolmesExcessively Diverted, Or, Coming to Pemberley HouseOnly a Coincidence: Phileas Fogg, Philip José Farmer, and the Wold Newton FamilyGribardsun through the Ages (cowritten with Dennis E. Power)
The Best of Farmerphile is available in two editions: a Trade Paperback and a Hardcover Limited Edition. The hardcover is not “officially” a signed limited edition, but when the book debuts at PulpFest/FarmerCon XII in late July 2017, we will get as many contributors on hand as possible to sign it before we ship the books to those preordered (shipping will occur immediately after PulpFest/FarmerCon XII).

Preorder - Trade Paperback edition
Preorder - Limited Edition Hardcover

Green Ghost teaser!

Wondering what the Green Ghost is all about? Check out this teaser from Moonstone! This features the short story "Zombies under Broadway" (by Win Scott Eckert & Eric Fein) with "widevision" illustrations by David Niehaus). So, if you want a taste of The Green Ghost: Declassified collection but haven't yet taken the plunge on the whole book, please give our short story a shot! 

To be clear, the "Zombies" story is in the larger Declassified collection, so to those who already bought Declassified--thank you! If you've been on the fence, please give our "Zombies" teaser a look!

The Green Ghost: Zombies under Broadway (teaser)

The Green Ghost: Declassified (softcover collection)

The Green Ghost: Declassified (limited edition hardcover)

A Sherlock Holmes chapbook

"The Adventure of the Fallen Stone: Being the First Part of the Account of The Dynamics of a Meteor" By John H. Watson, M.D., edited by Win Scott Eckert, is now available for preorder! This is the second limited edition chapbook from Meteor House.

Preorder from Meteor House

April 1917. Sherlock Holmes has returned to Mother England following his 1916 African adventure. In retreat at his country cottage, tending to his bees, Holmes’ peaceful solitude (or perhaps deadly boredom) is shattered by a murder at a local inn… 

Thrust back into the shadowy fray of Great War espionage, the detective’s brother Mycroft sets Holmes and Watson on the perilous trail of a cunning German mastermind.

Join Holmes, Watson, sleuths Harry Dickson and J. Saxon Blake—intriguingly, both master detectives with digs on Baker Street, who greatly resemble Holmes in demeanor, speech, and aspect—and the alluring Isis Vanderhoek as they race across England in pursuit of a master villain and a stolen flower with remarkable medicinal properties.

WHAT is the mysterious lotus vitae?

HOW is it related to a meteor that fell in Yorkshire in 1795?

WILL Holmes and company success in preventing the nefarious Von Bork’s latest scheme?

There is a very short preorder window as I will be signing these at Fleur Fine Books in Port Neches, TX, on March 25th! (Facebook event: Win Scott Eckert Meet & Greet and Book Signing)

Preorder from Meteor House

The Green Ghost: Declassified on Goodreads

Goodreads page is now up for The Green Ghost: Declassified. Reviews are welcome. 

The Green Ghost: Declassified can be ordered direct from Moonstone Books.

Ebook is coming soon....

Green Ghost shipping update

Retailers now shipping and getting this in readers' hands....

2017 (and Beyond) Writing Projects

Following on the heels of my 2016 writing review, this is an overview of what I have planned for 2017 and 2018. I'm happy to say that most these projects are firm commitments, and won't leave much space in my schedule for additional work.

That said, I am always open to discussing chance-of-a-lifetime, no-way-can-you-turn-this-down projects!


The Avenger–Domino Lady short story. In my Avenger story "Death and the Countess" (The Avenger Chronicles, Moonstone Books, 2008), I referred to an "untold tale," the first meeting of The Avenger and the Domino Lady. I am currently in progress on this story, which fills a neat little space between Ron Goulart's "The Return of the Iron Skull" and "Death and the Countess."

Next, an Avenger novel for Moonstone. Novella length, really, but who's counting. This one is already generally plotted and should not take long to write once I get cranking.



A Sherlock Holmes short story to be submitted to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part VII: Eliminate the Impossible. I have the idea for this, but have not plotted or outlined it yet. It may well be a semi-sequel to my tale "No Ghosts Need Apply" (The Phantom Chronicles 2, Moonstone Books, 2010). That story had a neat bit of Wold-Newtonry (if I do say so) which has gone largely unnoticed, and which I'd like to extend in the Holmes tale.

The biggie... completing Philip José Farmer's unfinished fourth Doc Caliban novel, The Monster on Hold, due out from Meteor House in Summer 2018. This will require rereading A Feast Unknown, Lord of the Trees, and The Mad Goblin (for the umpteenth time), as well as intensive research, detailed outlining, worldbuilding, writing, rewriting, and polishing. I expect to spend the bulk of my writing time between now and spring 2018 on this. 

Slipped in the cracks of all this I will be continuing to research and put together material which will result in a proposal for a licensed character I would very much like to write.

It feels good to be back in the game.