31 Nights of Halloween: The Mime 5
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The Mime is the second-best series from the twisted mind of writer/director
Alex Magana, with The Smiling Woman being well ahead of the completion..
The Mi...
'Knives Out' is a great Who-Dunnit
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*Knives Out (2019)*
Starring: Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don
Johnson, Michael Shannon, Christopher Plummer, and LaKeith Stan...
Happy Birthday to Boris Karloff
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On this day in 1887, the great Boris Karloff was born. To mark his
birthday, here's a review of one of his many films that deserve more
attention than it g...
Time has left this Lugosi drama behind
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*Postal Inspector (1936)*
Starring: Ricardo Cortez, Patricia Ellis, Michael Loring, and Bela Lugosi
Director: Otto Brower
Rating: Five of Ten Stars
When a n...
If you want a heart-stopping amount of horror comics, fiction, and RPG stuff (including the core rules for ROLF!), you need to grab A BUNDLE OF HORROR! It's got more than 20 great products, including our Halloween specials and an even lower price. This bone-chilling pile of terror is a very Halloweenish $13--roughly half off what it would cost you to buy each book separately.
Sing of my ancestors!
Sing of them with pride!
Sing of fair America,
Green prairies and blue tide!
One was born in County Cork!
Hail the shamrock green!
(One was named Abraham
Simeon Levine.)
One held rule in Dundee,
Friend of the Montrose.
(One sold nuts and apples
Where the river Tiber flows.)
One drank ale in Devonshire,
One scaled Lomond's crags.
(One grew up in Warsaw
And peddled clothes and rags.)
One sailed out from Liverpool,
Bold and free and glad.
(One lended cash at high
Rates in Petrograd.)
Och, oi, oi, and hoot mon!
Gott sie dank go bragh!
Gevald! Be dommed! Diavoli!
America iss braw!
Shure, its meself thot loves the land,
Vy shouldn't I? Oi oi!
Some fellow he no lika diss,
I'm nae you kind o' boy!
Its aiche mon for his ain, py hell!
A feller got to stand
An' tella people who he iss
And brag on his own land!
Vun nation unt vun langvitche!
Oi! And go for business fine
To Michael Israel Malcolmsky
Gammettio O'Stein.
As some of you are probably aware, I publish RPG material and fiction anthologies through a little outfit called NUELOW Games.
We've been doing okay with our fiction anthologies in the Robert E. Howard Collection, which are put together by yours truly, but I wish we were doing better. I like putting gas in my car, and I like even more the notion that people out there discover that Howard was a lot more than just a guy who created Conan and wrote fantasy stories. I have this crazy idea that if interested readers saw ratings or comments on the titles, they might turn into actual readers.
With that in mind, I am offering interested readers of this blog each one free copy of one of the following NUELOW Games collections of classic pulp fiction. I am hoping that you'll post rankings or reviews at DriveThruFiction.com when you're done with the book--be they good or bad--and I wouldn't mind coverage on your various blogs either. No strings attached, however... if you want a free book, just put a reply at the bottom of this post with an email address so I can send you the free download link. Or you can email me at stevemillermail [at] gmail.com; mention 'free NUELOW book' in the title.
Here's a list of the books that are subject to this offer; pick one in a genre you like. They are all in pdf format, which is compatible with most ebook readers, but can certainly be read on all desktop and laptop computers, as well as iPads and iPod Touches. Click on the links for more information.
Alice in Blunderland by John Kendrick Bangs - Political Satire (more than a century old, but still sadly relevant)
Shanghaied Mitts by Robert E. Howard and Steve Miller - Adventure/Comedy Fiction
Steve Costigan has quite a lot in common with the character in the song, I thought. They both travel to exotic cities, but they are usually so wrapped up in their sport--chess for the guy in the song, boxing for Costigan--to even notice the sites or other opportunities the places might offer.
And then there's the refrain, "One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble." At least one hard man is invariably humbled in the Costigan stories....
Having so reflected on the song, I decided to chase it down and see if it matched my memory. It did, sort of. Here are the top three versions and/or videos I came across.
First, here is the one that is best know. It's the official version of the song that was used to promote the musical and tie-in record from which it was drawn, "Chess". It features Murray Head, who was also the lead in the stage production. and it topped the charts all throughout Europe for months.
I also found that lots of the tone and imagery in the video is actually in line with that found in the Costigan stories, but that is because they both draw from the same well.
Another version of the song, which became a hit even before the "official" song had hit the airwaves was this one. It's an interesting arrangement, as its delivery and style of the video puts you in mind of a reporter while the song is being performed rather than a player like during the Head version.
And then there's this one. I'm including it mostly so you can test your stamina. But also because it's performed by disgraced boxing champ Mike Tyson. (By the way, Tyson is the sort of guy that Costigan would have gone out of his way to beat the crap out of. Not only did Tyson have a reputation, but he was an abuser of women and so would deserve to be laid out on the canvass.)
Please check out "Fists of Foolishness: The Tales of Sea-faring Boxing Champ Steve Costigan". I think it features some great writing and some funny stories, whether you like boxing or not. (I happen to think boxing is boring and a waste of time, blood, and brain cells on the part of the athletes taking part, but I still love these stories.)
This book is the first in a projected two-volume series, with the follow-up, "Shanghaied Mitts: More Tales of Sea-faring Boxing Champ Steve Costigan" presenting an additional ten stories.
Black Vulmea's Vengeance (Donald E Grant Publisher, 1976) Author: Robert E. Howard Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
Donald E. Grant produced this and other deluxe volumes of R. E. Howard's stories a couple of decades ago, focusing primarily on the ever-popular Conan tales. Well, like the six volumes of the Bean R.E. Howard Library (which, among other things, collected all the Bran Mac Morn, Solomon Kane, and King Kull tales in single, affordable volumes), Black Vulmea's Vengance collects a handful of Howard efforts that showed that he could create heroes, action, and character interplays far more interesting than anything found in his most famous stories.
Two stories and the novella found in this volume can either be read as top-notch pirate stories, or they can be read as typical Howard action tales. What *isn't* quite typical Howard, though, is the presence of female characters that display a bit more depth than one usually finds in his work.
Considering the relative age of this book and the fact that I received a first edition when I ordered it, I imagine that there are only a limited number of these left. I urge all Howard fans, as well as those who appreciate well-written adventure fiction, to order a copy. The price is definately right for these fine, hard-to-find tales. The book would have received Ten Stars if the colour plates present had been better executed. They were the only dissapointing aspect of this hardcover collection.