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The Return of Skull Face
Return of Skull Face
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
21 people want to read
About the author
Robert E. Howard
3,016 books2,658 followersRobert Ervin Howard was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. Howard wrote "over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion" and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of "a sombre universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror."
He is well known for having created—in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales—the character Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond.
—Wikipedia
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
He is well known for having created—in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales—the character Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond.
—Wikipedia
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 29, 2024
I guess if you are a REH completest then you'll want to read this book. It based on an incomplete story fragment and outline. I do not think the completing writer did justice to both REH or the character. not recommended
February 2, 2014
This book is not pure Howard. It was actually finished by well known science fiction/fantasy writer Richard A Lupoff and published in 1977 by a small publishing company from Oregon named Fax Collector's editions. The late Glenn Lord who was the agent for the Howard Estate for many years commissioned Mr Lupoff to finish the story from an unfinished fragment (which has since been published in "Tales of Weird Menace" by the Robert E Howard Foundation. The fragment was titled "Taverel Manor" and there was no mention of Skull Face in it.
I'm not normally a fan of these posthumous pastiches or completed fragments but in this case I feel Mr Lupoff did a worthy job. He left Howard's portion alone which takes up almost the first third or more of the story (although he was tempted to polish it up) and stayed as close as he could to the "pulp type writing" that birthed this type of story.
It is the sequel of a well known Howard novella named "Skull Face" which was itself derived from the many "yellow peril" pulp fiction stories that were popular at the time and which were in turn inspired by Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu series.
In my opinion, Howard's fiction surpasses "The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu" in that the action is faster paced with more action and the villain is a bit more "over the top" using not only the "yellow peril" and other racist fears of the time but making his villain more supernatural and invincible in many ways.
The major characters from Skull Face return in the sequel. Steve Costigan, the recovered opium addict and one time minion of Skull Face (same name as his humorous boxing sailor but not the same character); John Gordon, the British agent; Zuleika, Costigan's love interest and slave of Skull Face; and he also adds Joan La Tour who appeared in other Yellow Peril stories that Howard wrote which featured the heroic detective Steve Harrison, like "Lord of the Dead"; and of course Skull Face himself: Kathulos of Egypt, who is actually a sorcerer from Atlantis come back to life to restore Atlantis to domination over the world.
This story moves quickly as Lupoff did not want to write much more of the story than Howard himself did. It climaxes with a watery duel between Steve Costigan and a half squid-half lamprey sea monster for the life of his love, Zuleika.
I do not want to give too much away but surprisingly one of the major characters dies in the story which I am not sure Howard would have approved of, but overall the story is a good read and can be read in one sitting as it is only 96 pages which include some great BW illustrations by Stephen E Leialoha.
I'm not normally a fan of these posthumous pastiches or completed fragments but in this case I feel Mr Lupoff did a worthy job. He left Howard's portion alone which takes up almost the first third or more of the story (although he was tempted to polish it up) and stayed as close as he could to the "pulp type writing" that birthed this type of story.
It is the sequel of a well known Howard novella named "Skull Face" which was itself derived from the many "yellow peril" pulp fiction stories that were popular at the time and which were in turn inspired by Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu series.
In my opinion, Howard's fiction surpasses "The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu" in that the action is faster paced with more action and the villain is a bit more "over the top" using not only the "yellow peril" and other racist fears of the time but making his villain more supernatural and invincible in many ways.
The major characters from Skull Face return in the sequel. Steve Costigan, the recovered opium addict and one time minion of Skull Face (same name as his humorous boxing sailor but not the same character); John Gordon, the British agent; Zuleika, Costigan's love interest and slave of Skull Face; and he also adds Joan La Tour who appeared in other Yellow Peril stories that Howard wrote which featured the heroic detective Steve Harrison, like "Lord of the Dead"; and of course Skull Face himself: Kathulos of Egypt, who is actually a sorcerer from Atlantis come back to life to restore Atlantis to domination over the world.
This story moves quickly as Lupoff did not want to write much more of the story than Howard himself did. It climaxes with a watery duel between Steve Costigan and a half squid-half lamprey sea monster for the life of his love, Zuleika.
I do not want to give too much away but surprisingly one of the major characters dies in the story which I am not sure Howard would have approved of, but overall the story is a good read and can be read in one sitting as it is only 96 pages which include some great BW illustrations by Stephen E Leialoha.
July 26, 2021
I read this last year in the complete Skull-Face collection, but quickly re-reading this FAX version was again enjoyable, especially with the splendid illustrations from Stephen Leialoha.
A fun, frentic-paced tale of subterfuge, sabotage, fisticuffs and fearsome deep-sea creatures. Deadly foes rise again, and unfortunately heroic characters don't survive. Mighty fists and bulldog determination win the day - and the girl - though!
A fun, frentic-paced tale of subterfuge, sabotage, fisticuffs and fearsome deep-sea creatures. Deadly foes rise again, and unfortunately heroic characters don't survive. Mighty fists and bulldog determination win the day - and the girl - though!
July 22, 2016
This was weird. Not strictly “Weird Tales” weird, but a little weird weird. I read this original 1977 hard-back printing of the Lupoff/Howard collab with original illustrations... story aside, the effect was very much like reading kids books out of the school library back in the 80s. The ink-wash illustrations actually feel a lot like those in the 70s childrens' books. Maybe if they'd secured Jeff Jones or Frazetta or somebody things might have felt more in place...
Anyway! “Skull-Face” is among my favorite Robert E. Howard stories, it sustains tension and general-purpose badassery over the course of its novella length and it's kinda like a “Fu Manchu” story on steroids and mushrooms. Howard started a sequel. Howard died. 41 years later Glenn Lord hired Richard A. Lupoff to complete it.
One of the two forwards here explain that “Skull-Face” is among Howard's most popular stories (yay!) so I can't be the only one who was excited to learn a sequel existed. Sure, it's only half by Howard and most people who try to do Howard fail pretty badly (like “The Eye of Argon” badly), but dammit, it's more Skull-Face! It's... pretty much more of it. It's as close to more of it I'll ever get, unless I get on the ball and seriously focus on writing my own pastiche stuff... anyhow...
Steve Costigan and Gordon are hot on the trail of some dastardly villains, trotting the globe, some time after the mind-blowing climax of the first story. They end up at a creepy old castle in the north of England and the trail of murder, smuggling, and that title villain.
Lupoff wrote just over half of this and the Howard contribution is a draft that Lupoff left unrevised, either out of respect or sheer intimidation. It moves insanely fast, so it should be no surprise that it rushes headlong towards its conclusion (it's just under 80 pages, and there's plenty of illustrations). We do get some of that old feeling we (I) were looking for, although reflecting now I think there might be a case of sequel-ism here, working too hard to push characters back into the expected situation, perhaps too fast?
Hell with it, no regrets. Steve Costigan kicks a lot of ass and as far as sequels go, this is way the hell better than “The Daughter of Fu Manchu”.
Anyway! “Skull-Face” is among my favorite Robert E. Howard stories, it sustains tension and general-purpose badassery over the course of its novella length and it's kinda like a “Fu Manchu” story on steroids and mushrooms. Howard started a sequel. Howard died. 41 years later Glenn Lord hired Richard A. Lupoff to complete it.
One of the two forwards here explain that “Skull-Face” is among Howard's most popular stories (yay!) so I can't be the only one who was excited to learn a sequel existed. Sure, it's only half by Howard and most people who try to do Howard fail pretty badly (like “The Eye of Argon” badly), but dammit, it's more Skull-Face! It's... pretty much more of it. It's as close to more of it I'll ever get, unless I get on the ball and seriously focus on writing my own pastiche stuff... anyhow...
Steve Costigan and Gordon are hot on the trail of some dastardly villains, trotting the globe, some time after the mind-blowing climax of the first story. They end up at a creepy old castle in the north of England and the trail of murder, smuggling, and that title villain.
Lupoff wrote just over half of this and the Howard contribution is a draft that Lupoff left unrevised, either out of respect or sheer intimidation. It moves insanely fast, so it should be no surprise that it rushes headlong towards its conclusion (it's just under 80 pages, and there's plenty of illustrations). We do get some of that old feeling we (I) were looking for, although reflecting now I think there might be a case of sequel-ism here, working too hard to push characters back into the expected situation, perhaps too fast?
Hell with it, no regrets. Steve Costigan kicks a lot of ass and as far as sequels go, this is way the hell better than “The Daughter of Fu Manchu”.
August 16, 2021
I’ve had this in my collection for years, but never gave it a shot as I’ve been a “Howard purist” since the Del Rey editions of his major works were published and I became aware that a good portion of the REH books I owned at the time (Grant, Fax, Fictioneer) weren’t pure Howard - the original texts had all been altered in some way (in fact, the only pure REH I had at the time were the Berkley Putnam Conan books).
However, having just reread the original Skull Face, I decided to give Return a read - after all, it’s a short read, so if I didn’t like it, no big deal.
This is an interesting read, as you’re essentially reading a rough draft written by REH for the first third, with Lupoff frantically trying to keep the pace and tie up all the loose ends. REH throws more pulp at you in 20 pages than Lupoff should be able to contend with, but he does an admirable job. I think I picked up where Lupoff picked up where REH left off...and that’s a credit to Lupoff.
The end result is about as fun as the original and worth reading for pulp collectors - I should have read this 25 years ago! Alas, better late than never.
A nice curiosity in the way that The Challenge From Beyond is.
However, having just reread the original Skull Face, I decided to give Return a read - after all, it’s a short read, so if I didn’t like it, no big deal.
This is an interesting read, as you’re essentially reading a rough draft written by REH for the first third, with Lupoff frantically trying to keep the pace and tie up all the loose ends. REH throws more pulp at you in 20 pages than Lupoff should be able to contend with, but he does an admirable job. I think I picked up where Lupoff picked up where REH left off...and that’s a credit to Lupoff.
The end result is about as fun as the original and worth reading for pulp collectors - I should have read this 25 years ago! Alas, better late than never.
A nice curiosity in the way that The Challenge From Beyond is.
July 25, 2011
Very well-done update of a REH story fragment. Robert E. Howard wrote "Skull-face" in 1929, Richard Lupoff finished the fragment of "Returen of Skull Face" in 1977" and now I read both tales in 2011. There has been a lot of time passed between those writings. The original "Skull-face" has some dreadful racial stuff in it which made me grimace as I read it, more than most REH I've read. "Return of.." avoids this stuff thankfully. You do not know where the fragment end originally ended and were Richard Lupoff's contribution begins. Honestly, it is seems to be overall better written than the original 'Skull-Face' story but there is less of the general frenzy of most REH tales. It is very short and does not stay longer than is needed. There is an excellent battle scene at the end. I will look for Richard Lupoff's work now.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews