Whether whispering around a flickering campfire or crashing flagons in an echoing mead hall — today the mighty gather to celebrate the Day of Might!
It has been a full year since the Peerless Skull reinaugurated his Mighty Day — the Day of Might — that day upon which we mere mortals gather to discuss, reflect, and partake (vicariously) in the deeds and daring-do of the highest form of storytelling: sword-and-sorcery! And thus on this, the second great day in honor of the classic works and immortal authors of the only genre that dares to combine the peanut butter of adventure fiction with the chocolate of supernatural weirdness, we clang cymbal, bang gong, and brast horn to salute the mighty of the past and of the present age.
Two of the Skull’s least-likely-to-be-immolated minions, Joseph Goodman and Howard Andrew Jones, have taken a break from red-handed swordwork, sheathed their blades, and sat down to discuss the meaning of the day, what they’ve been reading and doing, and the latest developments of Tales From the Magician’s Skull! During the conversation, the Explorer of Be-Cannoned Catacombs and the Broken-Footed Blackbelt trade recommendations for Harold Lamb, Keith Taylor, a Robert E. Howard western, Charles Saunders’ Imaro, and TFTMS stalwart Adrian Cole’s latest, The War on Rome. News that shipping delays have been resolved thanks to sorcerous intervention by the Cranial Catastrophe himself, and glad tidings of Howard Andrew Jones’ five book deal for his Hanuvar series, warrant peels of thunderous gonging throughout the land!
Many doughty hearts and keen-edged minds have shared their plans for the Mighty Day over the last week: Terry Olson, Ken Lizzi, Robert Rhodes, D.M. Ritzlin, Seth Lindberg, and Matt John have all weighed in on the importance of the mightiest of genres with videos in praise of the Skull and his plans to encircle the globe in sword-and-sorcery fiction! Such proud modern warriors are part of the rising tide of practitioners and fans inaugurating a new golden age for sword-and-sorcery, and many more discussions in this vein may be found on the Skull TV playlist, below.
And as always, the Skull’s cyber minions toil electronically to further the cause of sword-and-sorcery appreciation week in, and week out, with a variety of articles, essays, and reviews of great works old and new. A great place to begin is with our Where to Start articles, which break down some of the more complicated or confusing bibliographies for the benefit of readers new to a particular author. Our Short Sorcery and Book Reviews categories look at classic short and novel length tales respectively, and Classic Covers celebrates the rich array of creative art so integral to fantastic fiction. Of course, browsing by author on the Tales From the Magician’s Skull website will yield even more reflections on the greats, such as Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock, C.L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, Leigh Brackett, Poul Anderson, and Karl Edward Wagner — to name just a few.
Go Forth in Glory!
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