(Night) Winds Blowing for Kane—Toward a Karl Edward Wagner Revival
(Night) Winds Blowing for Kane – Toward a Karl Edward Wagner Revivalby Brian MurphyAs of this writing there are rumors—and more than rumor—of a Karl Edward Wagner revival, including his sword-and-sorcery/dark fantasy stories of Kane. I for welcome our immortal hero-villain overlord, and in the meantime encourage anyone who has not read the Kane stories to seek out the collection Night Winds.But first, evidence of a KEW...
Kane Meets Elric: Karl Edward Wagner’s “The Gothic Touch”
Kane Meets Elric: Karl Edward Wagner’s “The Gothic Touch”by Fletcher VredenburghKing Kong vs Godzilla, Green Gargantua vs Brown Gargantua, Superman vs Batman: these are the sort of epic contests I envisaged when I realized Karl Edward Wagner had penned a story bringing his thoroughly detestable and awesome Kane together with Michael Moorcock’s more effete cursed albino, Elric of Melniboné. I mean, these are two of...
The Mad Dream Dies: Karl Edward Wagner’s Bloodstone
The Mad Dream Dies: Karl Edward Wagner’s Bloodstoneby Bill WardAliens, lost civilizations, superscience vs. sorcery, perilous expeditions, a warrior maid, sentient crystalline entities, virgin sacrificing witches, bandits, ambushes, teleportation, a magic ring, cosmic visions, possession, a conjured tsunami, desperate battles, a jungle-shrouded city, cross and double-cross, devolved frogmen, a field tracheotomy, wall-leveling...
Preserving the Flame: A Review of Phantasmagoria Special Edition Series #5: Karl Edward Wagner
Preserving the Flame: A Review of Phantasmagoria Special Edition Series #5: Karl Edward Wagnerby Brian MurphyWhat makes Karl Edward Wagner’s best writing so powerful? I believe he was chasing a dark muse, dangerous and unpredictable, vital and vivid. The one we see on the page of “Into the Pines,” a story which alone makes the new Phantasmagoria Special Edition Series#5: Karl Edward Wagner, worth its price tag: Out into the pines...
Ten Sword-and-Sorcery Tales For the Haunting Season
Ten Sword-and-Sorcery Tales For the Haunting Seasonby Brian MurphyOn a blog such as this, I doubt I’m alone in my irrational love of Halloween, a holiday for me that, more than Thanksgiving or Christmas, evokes a Ray Bradbury-like level of nostalgia and anticipation. Here in New England, I find that as the leaves begin to turn and October shadows lengthen, so too do my thoughts drift from my natural sword-and-sorcery bent toward the...
Where to Start With Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane
Where to Start With Karl Edward Wagner’s Kaneby Brian MurphyHis visitor was not a reassuring figure. At rather more than twice the thin man’s bulk, he sprawled half out of the room’s single chair. His massive frame exuded an aura of almost bestial strength. The figure might have been that of some great ape, clad in black leather trousers and sleeveless vest. Ruthless intelligence showed in the brutal face, framed by nape-length red...