Robert E. Howard Readers discussion
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I loved these Weird Menace stories by REH. I've only read the first Fu Manchu novel which I enjoyed but in my estimation REH's stories were so much more visceral that I enjoyed them more. Of course REH could always be depended on to make the character a very athletic one who would engage in fisticuffs and in some cases the utilizing weapons with blades such as axes, etc to bring his stories to a more violent conclusion. He could write action and battle scenes bettter than anyone I've seen. The Fu Manchu stories by Sax Rohmer were a bit more intellectual if I remember correctiy.
While I credit Rohmer with the creation of such a character, I loved REH's handling of Skull Face better.
Yes, Michael. I agree with you on every point.Just on the first page, I am struck by the similarity in how REH describes the Skull-Face with how Mary Shelley described the Creation... I wonder if REH read "Frankenstein."
Vincent wrote: "Yes, Michael. I agree with you on every point.Just on the first page, I am struck by the similarity in how REH describes the Skull-Face with how Mary Shelley described the Creation... I wonder if..."
I agree.
"Skull-Face" is, of course, the first story in the collection.I was surprised that the protagonist, Steve Costigan, was portrayed as a drug addict. It's unusual for REH to portray his heroes as having a weakness like that. Yeah, Conan might start out in a desert, near death, but that is more his circumstance than a personal weakness. It's unusual for REH to give his characters PTSD, no matter how much war they have seen. I am thinking PTSD wasn't really much of a thing back then, considered to be "Shell Shock" at the time. Our hero in this story was at the Battle of Argonne, which places this story after WW1.
He is restored by Skull-Face and freed of his addiction, so Steve opts to work for him. This is unusual for REH as well. He uncovers a spy (John Gordon), but allows him to live. Steve also meets his dream girl, an oriental woman, who gives Steve a very vague warning, which is basically what Sax Rohmer would give his heroes: vague, useless warnings. Chapter 6 felt especially Sax Rohmerish.
REH mentions that Steve's sense of morality has been blunted or diminished. Again, this is at variance with most of REH's heroes. Steve was to impersonate someone, but that someone was found and reported as murdered before he could do so, so plans had to change. And then Steve becomes his own man, feeling his debt paid - and he feels more like an REH hero, acting as soon as thought of action enters his head, and revealing Skull-Face.
Skull-Face reveals that Steve is his slave, and without his aid cannot overcome his addiction. I've read criticism about REH's characters, that they are all cut from the same cloth, but this is VERY different from a standard REH character. This flaw sets up a fantastic amount of tension that wouldn't exist with Conan or Bran Mak Morn. It's also different from Sax Rohmer's set-up: REH isn't creating a Holmes/Watson team against a Moriarty arch-enemy, which is what Sax Rohmer did (Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Dr Petrie were very much a Holmes & Dr. Watson clone).
Oh, this is brilliant. The description of the need for Skull-Face's drug was top-notch. Never was Conan held in such bonds. Skull-Face wants Steve to murder someone.
It's interesting that REH uses the Steve Costigan character here, a character that has both been used as an REH stand-in (Post Oaks and Sand Roughs & Other Autobiographical Writings) and as a comical character (Sailor Steve Costigan, from Fists of Iron: Round 2), as well as other uses. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that.
Zuleika reveals her part in Steve's plight, but he is in love with her so it doesn't matter. In some ways, Zuleika is reminiscent of Rohmer's Kâramanèh, and her love of Dr. Petrie. She is Circassian, from a region bordering on the Black Sea. She reveals that Skull-Face is Kathulos of Egypt.
My pet philosophy on Skull-Face, my head-canon, if you will, is that Kathulos of Egypt is none other than Thulsa Doom of the Kull stories, who went by the nom-de-plume of Kuthulos. Later, we will see that Kathulos of Egypt is actually from Atlantis... which ties it even closer to the Kull stories. I honestly think Skull-Face is none other than Thulsa Doom. Sure, maybe REH just reused a concept from an unsold story, but I like to think they are one and the same. Like I said, head-canon; take it or leave it.
Anyway, Zuleika reveals that "He is the greatest sorcerer in all the world and knows all ancient magic and everything." Steve states that he is a mere husk of a man, only mighty of strength because of Skull-Face's elixir. This is not your standard REH character. Indeed, in some respects it is more like the much later character of Elric by M. Moorcock.
Steve encounters John Gordon again and tries to enlist his aid. Gordon is a more standard REH hero, even with steely grey eyes.
REH uses a lot of wonderful quotes to start the chapters. Anyway, Skull-Face is onto Steve and Gordon's plan, but he is off by a half hour. Yet Skull-Face escapes. Steve and Gordon talk, filling in each other with some details the other lacked. Skull-Face is a high priest of a Scorpion Society in northern Africa. Gordon knows Skull-Face by the name, "The Scorpion." His aim is a Black empire, with himself as Emperor of the World, with the complete overthrow of the white races. To this end, he has banded together elements of the black, the brown, and the yellow.
Steve figures he has about four days of elixir left, after which he will be little more than a blubbering blob of a begging addict.
Steve is brought by Gordon the scene of a murder, a murder by one Yar Khan (Yar ali Khan?), an Afghan with a tulwar. He soon hears of a mummy case that was brought up from the ocean... and a scholar believes the mummy-case is from Atlantis. From a picture, Steve identifies the mummy as Kathulos! He is from Atlantis, not Egypt!
John Gordon is captured by Kathulos, and Zuleika tells Steve of this... and of Gordon's impending sacrifice. Steve springs into action! He took the last of his elixir and became a superman! He gets into Skull-Face's lair and can't find anything. In a fit of pique, he throws a statuette and accidentally unlocks a secret door.
Steve faces Yar Khan. One of the things I love about REH is that he doesn't really prolong a fight. It's fast, furious, and brutal, and this fight scene is all of that.
Vocabulary: teocalli - a temple of the Aztecs or other Mexican peoples, typically standing on a truncated pyramid.
Steve disguises himself and rescues Gordon by simply acting boldly while everyone is just stunned into inactivity because they didn't expect anything of the sort. A huge group fight ensues, which REH describes with great economy, yet totally giving a picture of the scenario.
Steve is captured and Skull-Face refers to him as his "Frankenstein Monster" (if you recall, I felt Skull-Face's description was reminiscent of the Creation's description; I don't know if REH read the book, but he was at least familiar with the concept). And it is here that he announces that he is Kathulos of Atlantis! John Gordon shows up and shoots Skull-Face. Wounded, Skull-Face escapes through a secret door. Gordon unlocks the cage where Steve is captured and they flee.
Skull-Face had placed explosives underneath most of London, and a tenth of the city was destroyed. Steve took a stolen elixir and drank it, desperate to live despite his addictive need. He is cured of his addictions.
Steve and Gordon do not know the fate of Skull-Face, but they know the world has been quiet.
I really love this story. Although inspired by Sax Rhomer, this story reads much differently. It's much more action-driven, and is more about ancient horrors than the "yellow-menace." It's very much REH at it's core and it reads like REH, not Sax Rhomer. There are no Holmes & Watson characters, and the only real thing one can compare is the love between Steve Costigan and Zuleika, and the love between Dr. Petrie and Kâramanèh. Kâramanèh finds an REH equivalent in Zuleika almost exactly.
As Michael mentioned above, the Sax Rohmer characters are far more intellectual, and the REH characters far more physical. This isn't mere Rohmer pastiche. This is very much REH writing at his best. This is an EXCELLENT story.
"The Noseless Horror" has a John Gordon character, which I assume is the same character as in "Skull-Face," but here he is described as a wealthy sportsman, whereas in "Skull-Face" he was a high-placed British official that worked with Scotland Yard. These things aren't mutually exclusive, of course, but it is odd that he isn't similarly described. I am just not sure this is the same character or not. REH often re-uses names, so it's hard to say.John Gordon, along with the unnamed narrator, is summoned to the estate of Sir Thomas Cameron, an Egyptologist and explorer. They arrive and find the gate opened by a tall dark-skinned Sikh from India dressed in Oriental clothes. He is also noseless. His name is Ganra Singh.
Sir Thomas Cameron says he has found the most extraordinary mummy, one which has not had the internal organs removed. It is also revealed that Sir Thomas is not above giving his rivals false information that might lead to their deaths. We find out that he basically did that to one Gustave Von Honmann, who was killed slowly and fiendishly, shrunk and withered, and stored into a chest as a fetish item because of Sir Thomas's misleading tomfoolery. Von Honmann swore revenge, alive or dead.
As John Gordon and our narrator prepare for bed, Sir Thomas calls out for help, and it is here that we learn our narrator's name is "Slade." They find Sir Thomas dead, with a dagger in his chest. He had called out for Ganra Singh too, and his last words were "-Noseless-the noseless one-."
John Gordon and Slade lock the noseless Sikh in a room, but Gordon feels something supernatural had happened. Gordon mentions a Bertillon expert, which was a way of identifying suspects based on measurements and things (it's now outdated). Gordon decides to be a detective and look the room over.
While exploring, Slade notes that the mummy case is empty and then encounters a noseless thing with a hideous, distorted goblin image. Is the noseless Sikh a red herring? Slade runs back to Gordon, who has discovered that the strange mummy was found not far from where Von Honmann had met his end.
They meet the mummy, and are rescued by the Sikh. Gordon is described as a lion hunter (instead of a government agent), so, again, I suspect this is not the same character as in "Skull-Face." (Note: there is a Ganra Singh in "Skull-Face," but he has a nose there and is not the same character)
All in all, it is a fun story, but not a great story. Every beat of the story is telegraphed long in advance. The reader knows the mummy isn't ancient, that it's the fetish-mummy that was made of Von Honmann, and that the Sikh isn't the "noseless one" despite his lack of a nose. It's entirely too predictable. The only reason this story works at all is that REH is a master at story-telling. It's still an enjoyable read.
I have no idea when REH wrote this (it wasn't published in his lifetime), but I wonder if it predated "Skull-Face." It has so many similar elements, it almost feels like a precursor.
"The Brazen Peacock" starts off with Erich Girtmann arriving at the unnamed narrator's house suddenly. He reminds the narrator that he owes him a life debt. Erich has stolen the brass idol (inlaid with gold) of Melek Taus. I did a fair amount of reading and research about Melek Taus when I was writing Shem - Gateway to the South, and I owe a lot to this story for that. Anyway, the next portion of the story is Erich telling how he tricked the Yezidees and stole their idol and uncovered their treasure. He now plans to sell the idol back to the Yezidees in exchange for their treasure.
About halfway through the story we learn that our narrator is named John Mulcahy. John agrees to help Erich because he is white and because he owes him a debt.
The Yezidees attack John, disguised as his servant Ali, but in true REH fashion, John repels the attack and then goes to where Erich is hiding. There are eight Yezidees holding Erich and Ali captive. John skulks around. He shoots a Yezidee, which brings the others running, so he climbs a wall and attacks the one remaining Yezidee from behind.
He frees Ali and Erich, but in his haste to find an exit, Erich is killed. Quickly, John puts the barrel of his gun against the idol, threatening to blast it into bits. Because John and Ali had never actually touched the idol, the Yezidees agree to take their idol and leave, promising to leave John and Ali alone.
This is a pretty weak tale, in and of itself. I can see why it wasn't published during REH's lifetime. REH gets many facts about the religion correct, such as the Yezidees not speaking the name of Satan, the importance of the color blue, and the sacredness of fire. The ending felt kind of sudden, like REH had written the characters into a corner, and had a kind of ending where everyone was left as they had been if Erich had not entered into any of their lives. No one is better or worse off. There is no character development, and the adventure serves only to kill off Erich (the antagonist), and leave everyone else off exactly as they started.
It was fun read, though. REH knows how keep a reader interested and turning the pages, and that skill shows through here, despite the faults in the story.
"Black John's Vengeance" is also known as "The Black Bear Bites." It was rejected by Argosy, Adventure, and Far East. It was first published in 1974. The first paragraph is laden with mystery and atmosphere. Dang, REH could write. It also sets up the scene, and tells us the unnamed narrator is watching the house of Yotai Yun, a Chinese merchant prince. The narrator's friend (Bill Lannon) had gone into that house some time prior and was afterward found dead, floating in the Yangtze River. The narrator wants vengeance for the death of his friend. I assume the title (Black John) refers to the narrator.
The narrator figures out that a nearby fishing hut is the secret way into the great house he watches and he knocks out a guard to get in. He wanders into an armory in the dark and figures the Chinese here are planning some kind of armed revolt.
He finds a secret passage and spies on the proceedings. He sees Yotai Yun and a tall, black-robed figure in a black mask - the Hooded Lama! The Hooded Lama leads a devil-worshipping cult. Indeed, they worship the Old Ones and Cthulhu. Yes, this is now a Mythos story.
The man who guarded the secret entrance at the hut apparently woke up and now told Yotai Yun what had happened to him. They know a spy is present. We also learn the name of our narrator: Black John O'Donnell. O'Donnell is described as a great black bear of a man (which explains the usual title for this tale, "Black Bear Bites").
Yog-Sothoth is also mentioned. There is a fight when Black John is discovered, and he crashes through the wall when he kills his attacker, landing right in front of Yotai Yun and the Hooded Lama. They had guns, but did not shoot him, instead ordering their lackeys to attack with clubs and knives. In a furious burst of energy, Black John escapes. The enemy gives chase, and Black John evades, cornering his two main foes. A gunfight ensues. The Hooded Lama goes down even as bullets slam into Black John. Then Yotai Yun dies. The Chinese police, alerted by a surviving servant, arrive in time to help arrest the situation and give aid to the badly wounded Black John.
We also get a nice twist at the end when the Hooded Lama's hood is pulled off - a twist that also explains how the Hooded Lama knew to fear Black John.
All in all, a pretty good story. I liked it better than the last two, but not on par with Skull-Face. It was atmospheric and tense. Not sure why it didn't sell. It is a pretty straight-forward plot, so maybe that's why. Until the end, there aren't really any plot twists or anything. Black John O'Connell is a pretty standard REH character. The bear motif was interesting (REH characters are often described with animal characteristics), but he was faster than expected for his size, was a large man, and very powerful. He has a single-minded focus on whatever goal he has in mind.
I think what really sets "Skull-Face" apart from the rest of REH's oeuvre, was that Skull-Face's Steve Costigan character was weak and drug-addicted. It really made him stand out. Black John O'Connell didn't really have anything that makes him stand out among REH's many strongman characters. I wonder if that is part of the reason this story didn't sell. No matter, I guess. I enjoyed this story a lot, and that's what matters.
"Talons in the Dark" was originally published under the title of "Black Talons" in Strange Detective Stories, December 1933. I have it under that name in The Exotic Writings of Robert E. Howard as well. Joel Brill is unhappy at the lack of progress in his research on the reason for a "certain ceremonial dance practiced by a certain tribe on the West African Coast." He complains to Buckley, who suggests John Galt and Jim Reynolds as possible sources of information on the subject.
Joel Brill calls Jim Reynolds' home and gets Yut Wuen on the line, but Yut Wuen claims Brill called Reynolds and hour ago. Has the Chinese servant made a mistake or did someone impersonate Brill? Yut Wuen tells Brill where Reynolds was headed, so Brill and Buckley decide to go there.
They find Reynolds' car, but no sign of the man. Brill has a key to the cottage and they find Reynolds' body. Even though Buckley is Brill's alibi, Buckley kind of suspects Brill did it.
Later, Brill is jumped and captured by Reynolds' servants. The servants have decided Brill is guilty, and they are going perform the execution via rat torture (upside down bowl on abdomen with rat in bowl, heat bowl slowly).
Suddenly, a dark form is in the room, slaughtering all the servants. Brill is freed by a dying servant, and the room looks like a tornado had unleashed itself within, smashing everyone, and blood & guts everywhere. He follows blood stains and finds an African, dying, with knives on his fingers - a leopard man from the Egbo tribe. And then John Galt arrives.
John Galt then begins his confession, and we get a lot of exposition. Galt had befriended the leopard man and offered to help him find Reynolds (who had stolen gold from his tribe) in exchange for some of the gold. It was Galt who imitated Brill's voice. Brill refuses to help and then starts a gun and knife fight where both parties can't aim. Luckily, Buckley arrived and shot Galt, stopping him, but not killing him.
All in all, not a bad little story. It wasn't long, and it was packed with action. Howard wrote it well. I can see why this one sold, but the last couple hadn't. It had hints that something supernatural was happening, but it wasn't. Also, I've liked Leopard Men ever since I was young, and read Tarzan and the Leopard Men. I did a bit of research on the real-life Leopard Men for the Conan RPG also.
I am still not sure of the wisdom of changing the published titles back to REH's original titles. It makes it harder to keep track and discuss the stories. Kind of like how everyone talks about X, formerly Twitter... It seems to me that it would be better to keep the published title, and give it a notation as to what REH's original title was. IDK. Or retitle it, but give it a footnote as to the published title. Any thoughts?
Interestingly, the Acknowledgements, on page vi, does mention the title change of "Black Bear Bites" to "Black John's Vengeance," but NOT the change of this story's title.
Vincent wrote: ""The Noseless Horror" has a John Gordon character, which I assume is the same character as in "Skull-Face," but here he is described as a wealthy sportsman, whereas in "Skull-Face" he was a high-pl..."Indeed, there are similarities between The Noseless Horror and Skull-Face. Both stories have strong heroic characters named John Gordon, involve evil beings with grotesque appearances found in mummy cases, and Sikh characters named Ganra Singh, although the two Sikhs are clearly not the same person. REH may have tried out the names in The Noseless Horror before going on to write Skull-Face. And it would make no sense to give characters in a later story the same names as characters in a published story when those characters aren't the same individuals.
Charlie wrote: Indeed, there are similarities between The Noseless Horror and Skull-Face. Both stories have strong heroic characters named John Gordon, involve evil beings with grotesque appearances found in mummy cases, and Sikh characters named Ganra Singh, although the two Sikhs are clearly not the same person. REH may have tried out the names in The Noseless Horror before going on to write Skull-Face. And it would make no sense to give characters in a later story the same names as characters in a published story when those characters aren't the same individuals.You made several excellent points, Charlie!
Yes. I think you are right. The whole "Noseless Horror" felt like a precursor to "Skull-Face." That wasn't immediately apparent to me when I started the story, and I didn't remember the story well enough from my last read. By the time I finished the story, I realized it definitely felt like a discarded draft, and REH just reused the names he liked.
Yep, it would definitely not have made sense to use the character names in a later story that were not the same as those in a published story.
That's one reason I wish there was more background provided in these books, such as dates of publication, approx. dates of writing, and so forth (there is such info in the introductions, of course, but it isn't usually comprehensive). I very much feel "The Noseless Horror" was written before "Skull-Face."
"The Hand of the Black Goddess" is unique to my collection, meaning I don't have any other copies of this story. There is a Lin Carter-edited (rewritten) version called "Scarlet Tears" in Weird Tales 1, but it is HEAVILY edited and rewritten, barely the same story. As it stands, this is my only version of this story I have, and it's the purest one available. To me, that just makes this book a little more valuable.Brent Kirby encounters a Hindu man in the hallway to his own office. This Hindu warns Kirby not to interfere in things, but Kirby doesn't know what the man is talking about. Kirby is a partner in a detective agency, Kirby & Gorman. He finds a dead man in his office and runs out to find the police, bringing back an officer called Donovan. He passed a woman in the hallway in his rush to find a police officer.
We soon meet Kirby's partner, Butch Gorman, who is described in Conan-like terms. They find a woman hiding in their office closet, a woman named Gloria Corwell, who was the same woman Kirby passed by in the hallway earlier. She identifies the body as William Harper and wants to hire the detectives.
A villain named Khemsa (a name REH would reuse in "The People of the Black Circle) is harassing Gloria's family. As Gloria is imploring Kirby and Gorman to help her, Khemsa attacks the office, paralyzing Kirby and Gorman with venomous blow darts. He tells Kirby that he had given Kirby one warning today (he was the Hindu who accosted Kirby earlier). Khemsa is a votary of Kali, a Thug. Khemsa goes to strangle Gloria, but Butch Gorman breaks free of the paralytic and clobbers Khemsa. Kirby, Gorman, and Gloria run for a car.
They drive toward Corwell Manor. BTW, as an aside, this drive to the Manor is where the rewritten "Scarlet Tears" begins. All the prior stuff is excised; also Lin Carter removed the Butch Gorman character (Kirby's partner).
Anyway, they get into the Manor and find Gloria's uncle unconscious (they thought he was dead at first) and a dead servant. As they search the house and grounds, Kirby gets into a fight with a Thug on the grounds and finds another man, the one Khemsa wants, Farnum. Gorman goes missing. Kirby is frustrated and demands to know the full background.
Farnum came to Corwell and asked for financing for a venture in India. Farnum was after the treasure of Akvar, the Great Moghul. A year passed and Corwell had basically written off the loan as a bad gamble, when Farnum arrived at Corwell's house, claiming he had found the treasure. Unfortunately, a disgraced Brahman named Ditta Ram joined up with Farnum. They found the treasure trove and Farnum decided he didn't want to split it with Ditta Ram, so Farnum threw Ditta Ram into the Jumna River. Ditta Ram is pissed and is now after Farnum with a gang of Thugs. Oh, and the Sons of Akbar (who had the treasure) are after him too (and Ditta Ram). So it's kind of a three way war. (Note: The "Scarlet Tears" backstory is substantially different).
Corwell tells Farnum to take his jewels and leave, but Farnum discovers the jewels are already gone!
The story shifts to Kirby's partner, Butch Gorman, and when Gorman had left the house (The "Scarlet Tears" version keeps it in the present and replaces Gorman with Kirby). Gorman is definitely the "Conan" of the story. His ancestors were pioneers who battled native Americans. He battles a Thug who had the jewels in a curiously carved metal box (it's a jade box in "Scarlet Tears"). The Thug in question is Ditta Ram himself!
Kirby negotiates a peace with Ditta Ram, and when Ditta Ram goes out to make it happen, Khemsa betrays Ditta Ram. Everyone goes back to the house and the Thugs attack. REH describes the battle well (and Lin Carter cuts most of this in "Scarlet Tears"), and Gorman is amazing in this battle (again, very Conan-like). I really loved how REH described this whole fight. Gorman is the last one standing. He is about to be taken out with a shotgun wielded by a Thug, when the Sons of Akbar arrive.
The Sons of Akbar allow Kirby, Gorman, Gloria, and Corwell to live, and they take the jewels.
All in all, a real lively story. Never published in REH's lifetime, the final battle is a real crimson battle of descriptive furies at work.
As I mentioned throughout this, there is a version of this story called "Scarlet Tears" in Weird Tales 1. In addition to the changes I already mentioned, there are no Sons of Akbar in this version, Richard Corwell is the one who stole the gems, and Khemsa is an undead mummy who dies when the jewels are destroyed. Also, Roy Thomas adapted the "Scarlet Tears" version in Conan the Barbarian #261.
Vincent wrote: "Charlie wrote: Indeed, there are similarities between The Noseless Horror and Skull-Face. Both stories have strong heroic characters named John Gordon, involve evil beings with grotesque appearance..."Yes, approx. dates of writing would be welcome. Unfortunately, Patrice Louinet has not written an essay about the genesis of these weird stories yet. I think the editor should have put "Noseless horror" ahead of "Skull-face", but probably they wanted to start the volume with this famous story.
Charlie wrote: "Yes, approx. dates of writing would be welcome. Unfortunately, Patrice Louinet has not written an essay about the genesis of these weird stories yet. I think the editor should have put "Noseless horror" ahead of "Skull-face", but probably they wanted to start the volume with this famous story."Yeah, I wish he had an essay for each of these volumes as well. And I really love the idea of putting the stories in chronological order... but starting the volume off with the best and most famous story in this category does make a lot of sense. But some kind of footnotes would have been very welcome - after all, these volumes were put together by experts.
"Sons of Hate" again have us with the private detectives Butch Gorman and Brent Kirby. I'm assuming at the start of the story that these are the same characters as in "The Hand of the Black Goddess," but I could be wrong (as I was with "The Noseless Horror"). They still occupy the only occupied office in their building, so that much is the same. The characters are described in the same ways as well. Butch Gorman is basically a red-headed Conan-like character. Brent Kirby is a contrast to him, slim and compact, with nervous energy.This story, like the last one, also did not sell and was not published during REH's lifetime. Also, like the last one, this book is my only copy of the story.
Kirby and Gorman are waiting for their newest client, when they hear a disturbance in the building. Their client, Colonel Pembroke, is being attacked! They chase off the assailant. He believes a man named James Stalbridge is out to kill him. Stalbridge's brother had looted an Egyptian tomb and hidden the treasure. This brother told Pembroke, who went and took the treasure from its hiding place. James Stalbridge wants to kill Pembroke. James knew Pembroke only as John Ravenby, and only now learned his true name. Kirby sends Gorman with Pembroke as protection.
Later, Gorman calls Kirby and tells him to get over to Pembroke's. Kirby is then accosted in his own office, but he turns the table on the man, and drives out to Pembroke's, where he is attacked again. He was rescued by Gorman. REH's description of the battle at the car is excellent.
Some twists in the story ensue. And... I really like the team of Gorman and Kirby. Kirby's mind and Gorman's brawn work well together. When Kirby reveals Juan's complicity, and he attacks, you really see this teamwork at the fore.
Soon, there is a third party in the mix, and Kirby and the rest of the named cast is captured. Gorman seems to be dead. An Arab stands ascendant over them all. This Arab is Kerim Ali, son of Achmet Kerim, and Achmet was someone Pembroke knew in the old days. Much like Stalbridge, there is hate there. REH writes, "What a heritage of hate was theirs, molding their lives into vessels of vengeance for men who had died before they were born. Fanatics both, sons of hate..." (roll credits).
But then the lights go out and bedlam breaks loose. Kirby, with his quick mind, figures out what is what and says so. Juan is revealed, and Kerim Ali is furious, coming up with alternative plans. Violence was happening, but then Gorman, alive, arrives. Gorman kills a man and frees Kirby. Ali returns and Gorman goes to work, Conan-like.
The ending was a bit lack-luster, and too quickly wrapped up, with Stalbridge suddenly giving up his claim to the treasure in favor of Pembroke's niece. All neat and tidy, to be sure, but... kind of weak.
It was a good story, with a fairly weak ending after the combat ensued. If it didn't sell, I think it was that ending that killed it. Great story until the last few paragraphs, really. REH just wrapped it up too neatly.
"Moon of Zambebwei" was published in Weird Tales as "The Grisly Horror." I'm still going to say that I wish the book either retained the published title and footnoted the original, or used the original title and footnoted the published title. It helps when discussing a story to just be able to give it a consistent name without having to constantly refer to both names. However, I will say that most of the reprints I have uses "Moon of Zambebwei."Let me see...
The Weird Writings of Robert E. Howard: Volume 2 - The Grisly Horror
Black Canaan - Moon of Zambebwei
Trails in Darkness - Moon of Zambebwei.
I guess it's been known as Moon of Zambebwei since 1978, so I guess I can give them a pass on this one.
Also, I should note that Zambebwei is spelled differently than Zembabwei (a Hyborian age Black Kingdom), and differently than Zimbabwe (historical African nation). I suspect this is on purpose. He summons up ideas of Darkest Africa with the name, without actually impugning any real historical place. In this story, Zambebwei is a horror-haunted region of Africa that white men generally do not visit. It's a land of jungle and black swamp (which could be a portion of the real life country). A horrible cult religion is practiced there, a cult dedicated to Zemba.
This story was adapted as a Conan story in CONAN THE BARBARIAN #28, Marvel, July 1973.
Bristol McGrath is in a Mississippi pine-woods and he is a haunted man. He has been summoned by his enemy, who wrote a frantic appeal for aid, mentioning the name of a long dead woman. He comes across an Arabic man staked to the ground.
Recognizing a warning when he sees it, he feints a return back the way he came, but he knows the secret ways of the forest here. He goes by these darksome routes to his enemy's manor. He finds his foe hanging by cords, being tortured by a black man. Bristol kills the black man and frees his foe. His foe, Richard Ballville, admits that he kidnapped the woman Bristol loved and kept her here for three years. He tells him how he brought John De Albor, a fiend from East Africa, to his estate to use magic on the woman... and how things went SO wrong.
After his foe dies, Bristol encounters another ally, one Ali ibn Suleyman, the brother of Richard Ballville's servant, the one that was staked out on the road. They head out into the pine-woods for the girl's hiding place. He finds her... and so does John De Albor!
The girl is captured and hauled off to be made a sacrifice to Zemba. Bristol shakes free of a paralytic poison and follows. The blacks didn't like that John de Albor didn't want to sacrifice the girl to Zemba when the Moon of Zembabwei rose, so they captured him. Bristol and John de Albor team up. As night falls, they steal away to the House of Zemba.
More twists, and Bristol battles a Zemba, a primordial carnivorous ape! He rescues the girl and all is well.
All in all, a pretty good story. Very solid with a clear protagonist and a threat to a girl by foreigners. More of a horror story than a "weird menace" tale, since world domination by a foreign force really isn't the goal of the villain, but it works here, I guess. As a modern editor, I'd edit out all the n-words, but that was the time, and the point of these volumes is to print REH as he wrote. I liked the ape fight at the end, and thought the overall scene was pretty good. I liked that Bristol and Ballville were childhood friends turned foes. I can see why it sold.
This collection sounds pretty good. Where did you get it? I can't seem to find it on Amazon.
RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "This collection sounds pretty good. Where did you get it? I can't seem to find it on Amazon."I got mine from the Robert E. Howard Foundation. They'll be reprinting it soon enough as an "Ultimate Edition," which should be available on Amazon.
It's sold out, but here's the original link:
https://rehfpress.com/shop/tales-of-w...
It's one of those books that those who have it are holding onto it. I can't find it on eBay or Abebooks. It was a limited edition of 200. Mine is #180.
When the Ultimate Edition is released, I highly recommend grabbing it up.
"The Black Hound of Death" was published in Weird Tales in 1936, but my first encounter with it was actually THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #219, where it was adapted as a Conan story. A couple of years later, I was able to read it as intended, in a restored text version, in Trails in Darkness. Later, I was able to enjoy a facsimile reprint of its Weird Tales appearance in The Weird Writings of Robert E. Howard: Volume 2... and of course I have it in the volume I am currently reading and discussing.
Robert E. Howard spends about three paragraphs describing just how dark it is. That sounds like overkill, but it actually sets the tone of the story well. For purposes of this summary & review, let's just say it's pretty darn dark. No... let's go a bit further. Basically REH gave us his version of this line: "It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black."
Our protagonist, Kirby Garfield, is looking for Tope Braxton (have you noticed how REH names his characters like they are soap opera stars? Bristol McGrath, Tope Braxton, Butch Gorman, Kirby Garfield, Richard Brent, etc. Who names their kids "Bristol"? It can't POSSIBLY be more than 1 out of every 124,043 baby boys. Anyway, Garfield is looking for Braxton, and hoping to get a warning to his buddy, Richard Brent.
He encounters Jim Tike, a mortally wounded man, who tells him a man tore him to bits. Then Garfield is attacked by a frightening figure. Already, REH has the scene set. I think his "none more black" description set the stage, and the weird figure that attacks out of that darkness already feels more weird, more frightening than it might otherwise. Those three introductory paragraphs paid off well here. REH could write well, that is certain.
He reaches Brent, warns him, and then the man chases Garfield off. Garfield meets Brent's servant, Ashley, who is bringing Brent's favorite niece to him, Gloria Brent. Maybe I've read this a lot, but it seems to me that REH uses the name "Gloria" a lot. I wonder if he favored it... and if he did, why?
Brent tells the story of him and Adam Grimm, and their adventure in Mongolia... and how Brent betrayed Grimm and left him in the hands of the votaries of Erlik. They changed Grimm into something inhuman, something with more than a hint of hound. Grimm hunted down Brent.
Braxton finds Brent and a gory and brilliant fight ensues. Braxton dies, and Brent finds a way to rescue Gloria. Ashley and Brent, however, do not make it out alive.
I can see why this one sold. Absolutely solid story-telling. Good characters. Excellently written villains. Again, this one belongs in the The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard volume, but since it wasn't, they put it here. I guess the Mongolian angle makes it appropriate for this book, but it's tangential at best. Still, it probably belongs here more than any other REH Foundation book. Fantastic, top-notch weird tale.
"The Devils of Dark Lake" was a great mix of adventure, horror, and yellow menace (although the bad guy was a white man who was merely born and raised in China... and also a Neanderthal man was his ally). The narrator, a man named Steve (another favorite name of REH) who gets a frantic call from his neighbor, Joan Grissom (REH seems to favor Joan as well). A monster has killed two of her friends and is trying to get to her! The narrator drives quickly to her house and finds that she has been hauled off and her two friends were indeed brutally murdered. Her husband, Dick Grissom, is not there.
Steve meets Celia La Tour and her brother Bartholomew, both from Haiti. They are hunting Rackston Bane, who is the man who sent the monster after Joan and Dick Grissom. They all know Rackston Bane, a man who wanted Joan, but Joan wanted Dick. He was raised in China and "absorbed more Chinese ideas than is good for a white man." He collected a troop of horrors while in the "slimy mazes of the East." Rackston Bane has a stronghold on Cannibal Island on Dark Lake.
They reach the hideout, but the Haitians are captured. Bartholomew is decapitated, and Celia is nailed to a giant wooden X. Dick is about to be dropped into a tank filled with venomous snakes, and Joan is naked on a table, about to be given the rat torture. A huge fight scene, and Steve (with an assist from Celia) emerge victorious.
The ending comes a bit abruptly, but it was an enjoyable tale. It definitely belongs in this collection. Absolutely had yellow menace in it, as well as straight out weird menace - all sorts of vile monsters live in Asia, apparently. This story was rejected by Standard Magazines, Inc. on October 14, 1935 and by Popular Publications on November 15, 1935. Standard Magazine thought it had too much horror in it, and Popular Publications thought it had too much adventure in it.
I liked it.
Vincent wrote: "...When the Ultimate Edition is released, I highly recommend grabbing it up."Definitely will do. Thanks for the info!
"Guests of the Hoodoo Room" was not published during REH's life, but he did submit it to at least one magazine. The first page or so of dialogue was a little rough for me. Maybe I am just not used to 1930s slang, or it's just badly written dialogue (or both), but it was clunky for me, filled with words and phrases like 'bo, nabob, Dago red, flophouses, been to the bulls, giving someone the horse-snicker, jits, town-clowns, and so on. With one exception, I understood it all, but it read like someone was going hard-core to make the characters sound tough or "authentic," but it was so filled with slang it just... clanked for me.
I am not sure what a "jit" is. From context, it's money, and it's less than four-bits.
Anyway, the protagonist is Butch Cronin, and he's been approached by a hobo named Smoky Slade. I mentioned before that REH seems to have a knack for naming people like they are in soap operas, but they serve a good purpose: giving you the character without having to spend time telling you about the character. Smoky Slade sounds like a shady, shiftless character. And he is. Butch Cronin... "Butch" makes me think of bulldogs, and "Cronin" sounds like "Conan" and seems similar to "Cro-Magnon." Immediately, without description, I picture a heavily muscled tough-guy, a fighter. Later, when the description is given, this will bear out as accurate... but REH pulled it off with just the name.
The plot is similar to that of "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" (AKA "Shadows in Zamboula") with a hotel where if a certain room is taken, the guests never officially check out. Butch Cronin goes into that room to investigate disappearances from the room after Smoky Slade begs him to (Smoky barely got out of the room alive, and quite by accident). Butch Cronin is captured by some Chinese men (after killing one), and then is given over to the police as a thief and a murderer.
Butch escapes and decides to visit the flop-house and find out what is going on. It all turns out to be a Chinese plot to turn the wealthy into cannibals so they can be blackmailed for power. Butch Cronin ends this plot, rescuing several people along the way, using very violent means throughout.
Very much a yellow-menace tale, it definitely belongs in this book. I thought the cannibalism angle was sufficiently weird, too. I thought it was a rollicking tale, with twists and turns from beginning to end. It may not have sold during his life, but it probably should have.
I enjoyed it.
"Black Wind Blowing" was Howard’s second and final appearance in Thrilling Mystery in the June 1936 issue. He was paid $40 for it (which, when adjusted for inflation, would be $904.10 in 2024).Emmett Glanton, driving a Model T, has an encounter at night with Joshua, a lumbering half-wit who worked for old John Bruckman. Apparently John asked Glanton to come over. Joshua is all worked up and ready to kill, but Glanton fought him until Joshua fell down an incline. Glanton raced off for John Buckman's place, a man he disliked, but Buckman asked him over, and since Buckman owns Glanton's mortgage, he'd better get over there.
When Glanton got there, a justice of the peace was there as well - and a beautiful dame (named Joan Zukor - I think I mentioned before that REH likes Joan as a name). Buckman owns the mortgage on Glanton's land and says he must pay it all now - OR he can marry Joan, get the mortgage free and clear, and a thousand dollars on top of that ($22,602.52 in today's money). Glanton has never met Joan, but sure... he opts to marry her, get his mortgage, and the money.
The justice of the peace marries Emmett Glanton to Joan, he collects his mortgage and money, and is sent on his way without further explanation. Joshua (the apish half-wit) seeks to ambush Emmett and Joan, but Emmett tricks him. He gets to his house and introduces Joan to his servant, Juan Sanchez. Then he gets a frantic phone call from Buckman begging Emmett to tell the "Black Brothers of - aaagh!" that Joan is now married to Emmett. The phone goes dead after Emmett hears a hideous laugh.
Emmett leaves Joan with Sanchez and races back to Buckman's. He finds Joshua's body outside. Emmett comes in, guns blazing and fists a pumpin', and the bad guys flee. Buckman is nailed to a table and is dying. But he doesn't die before giving Emmett the low-down. The bad guys are the Black Brothers of Ahriman.
Ahriman, of course, is the evil spirit, the main adversary in Zoroastrianism. He is to Zoroastrianism what Satan is to Christianity. For us REH readers, it's also a name we know from the Heart of Ahriman, which Conan uses to destroy Xaltotun in The Hour of the Dragon.
Anyway, Buckman used to be a devil-worshipper, but he eventually left their cult and lived here in America for the past 19 years. They were going to punish him by sacrificing his niece, Joan. Part of that sacrifice was to also kill the girl's protector. He thought that if he married her off, they'd leave him alone and go after Emmett.
Emmett realizes Joan is in danger and races back home. Sanchez is dead and Joan is gone. Emmett then finds the ceremony underway, a blazing electrical/magical energy wrapped around the place, preventing him from getting to her. But he teams up with the half-wit, Joshua, and they manage to save the girl.
This was a fun story. I really enjoyed it. I thought REH did a great job with his descriptions and with setting a chilling atmosphere of mystery, death, and devil-worship. The characters were good, and the menace from the east was palpable.
Now I am into the miscellanea section, with a lot of unfinished stuff on theme for the book."The Red Stone" had a pretty strong start, with a character I would have loved to have seen developed further, basically a man driven by his habits and customs. This would have made for an interesting REH character. Unfinished past the first page.
"Untitled" Takes place in London, and a girl runs into a stranger's house. The stranger is named Gordon. He has a neighbor named Falcon. Falcon is some kind of mesmerist, who uses a dagger to make a mark on the girl. Story ends.
"The Ivory Camel," an unfinished story, stars Karnes McHenry. He's happily on the farm, milking a cow, when he noticed the hatchet in the hay. He comes up blazing, a .45 roaring flame and smoke and killed a hidden Arab-Indian mixed breed who had stolen a piece of jewelry from an Oriental cult - the titular ivory camel. Later, Mr. Ord tries to talk to McHenry about this ivory camel, but it doesn't go anywhere, but McHenry does send his sister, Alice, to her friend's house, Joan Grimes (yep, another Joan). The story ends here.
"Yellow Laughter" is a fragment, having lost both beginning and the end, with about a page extant, of a man fighting Orientals.
"Taverel Manor" always excites me. It was finished by Richard A. Lupoff in The Return of Skull Face (1977) and in Skull-Face (1978). It's generally advertised as a sequel to "Skull-Face," a story I love. Is it truly a sequel to Skull-Face or was that just something Lupoff added? In this volume, we get the unfinished REH original. Lupoff hasn't touched it. Let's see what it's about, shall we?
In Chapter 1, Sir Haldred Taverel woke up from a dream about a hideous yellow face. Taverel is a young British man, and inherited wealth and a castle recently, and he isn't really all that happy about it. He has a single servant, Lo Kung. He gets out of bed and soon discovers the corpse of his servant... and really noticed the grim pagan shrine in the castle. He screams.
In Chapter 2, Haldred Taverel's fiancée (Marjory Harper) and her brother (Harry Harper) have come to a pair of private detectives: Gordon and Costigan. I haven't seen first names first, but I assume John Gordon and Steve Costigan, which makes it a sequel to "Skull-Face." Costigan was the drug-addict in that story, and Gordon was the police detective.
Anyway, Haldred Taverel and his servant are missing. Scotland Yard searched the castle and found nothing. A fellow named Hammerby is now living in the castle, claiming to have bought it from Haldred's next-of-kin. Marjory wants Gordon to run up to Taverel Manor with her and her brother and look around.
Gordon gives a paragraph version of Costigan's backstory (and yep, it's the same guy from Skull-Face, addict and all). Gordon and Costigan talk about another case that has them stymied - they traced a ring of opium smugglers out of China and clear across Europe, to be brought up short in London.
Arriving at Taverel Manor, Costigan and Gordon note the shrine, determining that it was Tibetan, from a cult of devil-worshippers. Hammerby says it was brought to the manor in 1849 by Capt. Hilton Taverel. That evening, Costigan and Gordon discover that the Manor and a foreign ship off-shore are communicating via light patterns. As they ran back to the Manor, they are attacked, and capture a Malay named Ali Massar, a criminal known to Gordon. They arrive at the Manor and are led up to the highest tower of the Manor.
And here the fragment ends.
Of course, Richard Lupoff brings back Zuleika and Kathulos (Skull-Face) in his completion (which I might review later). But he left REH's portion as REH wrote it, which I commend him for.
Also of note, is the name Taverel. REH has used it for unrelated stories. A John Taverel is the narrator of "The Spirit of Tom Molyneaux" and appears also in "Double Cross." John Taverel is a boxing manager (these stories can be found in Fists of Iron: Round 1, among other places). John Taverel appears in the byline in "The Shadow of Doom" (Pictures in the Fire).
Another man named Taverel is one of the six people sitting in John Conrad’s study in "The Children of the Night" (much reprinted - I'm sure most of the readers here have access to it). Taverel in this story has read Machen and Von Junzt. I don't think his first name is offered in the story.
It had the start of a rousing good tale. I was glad to see the return of John Gordon and Steve Costigan from "Skull-Face," and to see that they were now working together. It's a shame REH didn't finish the story. It was very much written as a "yellow-menace" tale, but in REH style.
"The Jade God" is an unfinished tale of Kirowan and Conrad. I assume it would have been a Mythos tale, as these two are often associated with them. Kirowan and Conrad hear a murder of their neighbor and run to the rescue. It's basically a locked room murder, as the only escape route seems impossible. The only clue is the man's dying words, "The Jade God." The Jade God is a statue the victim had given to Kirowan earlier that day for safekeeping."The Return of the Sorcerer" is an unfinished tale of Abner Brill and John Ladeau who decide to raid a lamasery in the Gobi desert. They are captured and the Black Lama forces Abner Brill to bring back a twig broken from the Tree of Dreams from England. This story was a little harder to get into because Abner and John are not likable characters. I also tend not to like the "captured and then forced into a quest by the bad guys" plot; it never feels believable to me.
"Spectres in the Dark" is an unfinished horror story. An unnamed narrator is visited by Michael Costigan, a former boxer who accidentally killed someone in the ring. Unfortunately, REH writes his dialogue in a HEAVY dialect that is difficult to read. That kind of writing always pushes me out of a story. Anyway, Costigan is seeing ghosts. The next morning, the unnamed narrator has a visit from Malcolm Hallworthy and his young wife, Joan. Joan is also the sister of the unnamed narrator and likes to kiss her brother on the lips. The Hallworthies show the narrator the newspaper article that starts the story, about a murder. They go to visit the murderer, a friend to them all, in prison. His account is interesting. OK. We have a Costigan and a Joan. The next morning, the narrator reads about the violent suicide of Michael Costigan, who fired four rounds into his own chest. The narrator finds points in common with Costigan and the other man who was killed... then Joan shows up, having been whipped with a crop by her non-violent, idealist husband... and there the story ends. This one had the makings for a pretty good mystery.
"The Spell of Damballah" is an unfinished story. Mr. Kirby (Kirby is another name REH likes) and O'Brien (O'Brien is the narrator) is visited by a young man (John Ordley) worried about his fiancée, Joan Richards (another Joan). Mr. Kirby is an occult investigator. He is worried about one Ahmed Bey (at least it's not Ardeth Bey). They go to a party to meet Joan and Ahmed. Kirby recognizes Ahmed Bey as Loup, a mulatto from Haiti, and a voodooist. Funny, when I read Ahmed Bey/Loup's dialogue, I read it in the voice of Bela Lugosi. This was an EXCELLENT story so far, and I wish it had been finished.
The final story in the book is actually just a synopsis, "The House of Om." It's not fully fleshed out or written, just summarized. It starts out with too many characters having names that begin with B: Bill Blanton, Bixby, Bainbridge. It gets confusing when writers use too many names that start with the same sound. It's better to mix it up a bit.
The story would have made a good novel, and is very much in the realm of Sax Rohmer's "yellow menace" stories, but with a decidedly REH twist. Oriental plots to conquer a city, create cults, debauch the youth, and more abound. Om is a Fu Manchu type, but only in terms of planning an Oriental takeover (he's actually a white guy who became twisted in Mongolia).
The synopsis is entertaining reading, and I wish the story had been written.
I thought it was a great collection of stories. A little uneven in places, but that's to be expected when you are delving into an author's unsold and unfinished works. Also, have you noticed how often REH uses names that start with the letter B in this volume?
Black John O’Donnell
Bill Lannon
Eric Brand/The Hooded Lama
Joel Brill
Detective Buckley
Brent Kirby
Butch Gorman
Bristol McGrath
Richard Ballville
Constance Brand
Richard Brent
Tope Braxton
Gloria Brent
Bartholomew La Tour
Rackston Bane
Butch Cronin
Big Joe Daley
John Bruckman
Abner Brill
Bugra
Mrs. Bond
O'Brien
Ahmed Bey
Bill Blanton
Joel Bainbridge
Robert E. Howard Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Fists of Iron: Round 1 (other topics)Pictures in the Fire (other topics)
Skull-Face (other topics)
The Return of Skull Face (other topics)
The Hour of the Dragon (other topics)
More...
"An uneven mix of stories, from really great to merely entertaining - but all of them were good reads. I really like these books from the Robert E. Howard Foundation. It's heavy, bound well, and reads well. A lot of these stories have been unavailable or simply difficult to get. I like the inclusion of the unfinished stories and rough drafts. I do wish the book included information about the original appearances of the stories."
I'm going to re-read this and go story by story, and give a more comprehensive review for us, the REH readers. One thing that will be different this time around is that, since 2011, I have read four of Sax Rohmer's "Fu Manchu" books. Several of the stories in this collection are in a similar vein in terms of the so-called "yellow menace." I had never read those before, so I am interested in how that changes my experience with these stories.
As usual for me, feel free to comment or add to my notes, even if it is years after the fact.