Book Review – “The Savage Tales Of Solomon Kane” by Robert E. Howard

Solomon Kane is one of Robert E. Howard’s most enigmatic characters. First appearing in 1928, there were nine short stories, three poems and four fragments written by Howard about the dour-faced Puritan avenger. All of these woks appear in “The Savage Tales Of Solomon Kane” by Robert E. Howard. This edition contains all of Howard’s published work on Kane, as well as the known fragments that were never completed. Also included is a dedication to Robert E. Howard by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft admired Howard as a writer and as a man. Through their correspondence, they shared their ideas and experiences with each other, forming a friendship that lasted until Howard’s death in 1936.

Some of the Kane stories are much darker than others, but they all share the same dark mood, symbolic of Kane’s time. Taking place sometime during the late 16th, early 17th centuries, the stories follow the Puritan avenger all over the globe. From England, Africa, Cathay, and beyond, Kane travels the world and goes where fate leads him, one day at a time. Read more

Michael Bassett on the SOLOMON KANE movie: "It’s classy and intense"

QuietEarth.us has some really cool news about a movie I’m fairly giddy about…

In my cinema obsessed mind, Michael J. Basset is currently battling Neil Marshall for British genre director supremacy and, as it stands right now, it’s a dead heat. Both have proven themselves to be genre aficionados who are hungry for attention and equally adept at creating hard edged flicks with great ensemble casts. In fact, each burst onto the scene in the same year (2002) with equally impressive first features- Marshall with Dog Soldiers and Bassett with Deathwatch. Their follow-ups were just as impressive, though Marshall’s The Descent managed to capture the collective conscience while Bassett’s fantastic Wilderness failed to find a large audience.

So now it’s all down to Bassett’s adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Soloman Kane to decide which director will be the new strong arm of British genre film. Doomsday was hard-core and a real blast no doubt, but Bassett’s Kane might trump it based on the fact that it won’t be as steeped in obvious homage. But where’s the film? It was supposed to be out in 2008 but there has been nary a word or new piece of marketing for the film since those early teaser posters dropped at the end of ’07. Well just today, Bassett updated us on the status of his dark fantasy epic which sounds oh so close to being unleashed. Read more

Comic Book Review – Solomon Kane #4 – Dark Horse Comics

I have been a fan of the Solomon Kane stories by Robert E. Howard for several years. I have all of his published works on the character, plus his fragments. “The Castle Of The Devil” is one of the fragments that Howard either decided not to finish or set aside to finish at a later date. The fragment itself has just enough in it to set a tone for the story so that it could go in any direction, be it a human enemy or something supernatural. Dark Horse Comics and Scott Allie decided to take the supernatural approach for this mini-series, which takes the fragment of “The Castle Of The Devil” and fleshes it out to create a complete story.

I would definitely suggest reading the series from start to finish as the majority of the writing doesn’t lend itself to jumping in mid-story, in case you’ve read the original fragment and just want to find out what happens after that. Allie seems to bounce around with the dialog, which caused me to back track several times to make sure I was where I thought I was in the story.

Mario Guevara and Dave Stewart’s combined talents give the series a bleak, sketchy feeling that reminds me of an overcast day that just won’t clear up. Some of the pages gave me the impression that some of the coloring was added as an afterthought. The blood effects, for example, don’t really feel like a natural part of the page in some of the panels. It almost seems like the pages were headed for the printer and someone decided to splash a little red here and there at the last minute.

Dark Horse’s Solomon Kane is a series that you’re either going to love or not. I will read the final issue, but I won’t be adding it to my list of books to re-read. I’ll stick with Howard’s originals.

Solomon Kane #4 of 5 – Dark Horse Comics
Writer – Scott Allie
Artist – Mario Guevara
Colorist – Dave Stewart
Letterer – Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Cover Artist – John Cassaday
Cover Colorist – Dave Stewart
$2.99 – 32 pages

The Horror Stories Of Robert E. Howard – Shipping 11/05/08

I have an old paperback copy of Robert E. Howard’s Cthulhu Mythos stories and I’ve pretty much just about worn it out. It is my favorite horror collection (Stephen King does come a close second) and I will pull it out a couple of times a year and immerse myself in its shear gut-wrenching terror.

Shipping this Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 is Howard’s horror stories published by Del Rey. I can’t wait for this one. I’ve read some really creepy horror stories by the likes of Stephen King, Graham Masterton, Robert McCammon, and others, but Robert E. Howard gives you a non-stop, look over your shoulder, creepy, gut-wrenching ride that I’ve yet to see repeated.

Here are Howard’s greatest horror tales, all in their original, definitive versions. Some of Howard’s best-known characters–Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, and sailor Steve Costigan among them–roam the forbidding locales of the author’s fevered imagination, from the swamps and bayous of the Deep South to the fiend-haunted woods outside Paris to remote jungles in Africa.
The collection includes Howard’s masterpiece “Pigeons from Hell,” which Stephen King calls “one of the finest horror stories of [the twentieth] century,” a tale of two travelers who stumble upon the ruins of a Southern plantation–and into the maw of its fatal secret. In “Black Canaan” even the best warrior has little chance of taking down the evil voodoo man with unholy powers–and none at all against his wily mistress, the diabolical High Priestess of Damballah. In these and other lavishly illustrated classics, such as the revenge nightmare “Worms of the Earth” and “The Cairn on the Headland,” Howard spins tales of unrelenting terror, the legacy of one of the world’s great masters of the macabre.

560 Pages
Softcover Read more

Solomon Kane – A Character Profile

Solomon Kane was created by Robert E. Howard sometime around 1928. Howard created 9 short stories, 3 poems, and 4 fragments about his Puritan avenger.

The following is a description of the Solomon Kane character from the novella “The Moon Of Skulls”, which was published in 1930. Read more

Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane #1 Preview – Marvel Comics

Written by Scott Allie, penciled by Mario Guevara, colored by Dave Stewart, covers by John Cassaday and Joe Kubert.

Robert E. Howard’s vengeance-obsessed puritan begins his supernatural adventures in the haunted Black Forest of Germany in this five-issue adaptation of Howard’s “The Castle of the Devil.” When Solomon Kane stumbles upon the body of a boy hanged from a rickety gallows, he goes after the man responsible–a baron feared by the peasants from miles around. Something far worse than the devilish baron or the terrible, intelligent wolf that prowls the woods lies hidden in the ruined monastery beneath the baron’s castle, where a devil-worshipping priest died in chains centuries ago.

32 pages, $2.99, in stores on Sept. 24.

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