2024 marks the 90th Anniversary of the Robert E. Howard story “Queen of the Black Coast” which introduces Belit, a self-styled pirate queen, who turns out to be the One Great Love of Conan the Barbarian. She comes to a tragic end but returns from the afterlife for one singular act to rescue the Cimmerian hero.
That final aspect was used instead for the character Valeria in the 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie. Yet, though she only appeared in just one prose story by Conan’s creator, Belit, in another medium, ended up having a life well beyond it. A life at the hands of other creators that, at times, was a life independent enough to not just share the spotlight with her lover Conan but to steal it outright from him.
First came the 1952 unlicensed Mexican comic that made her a front and center protagonist, due to being perceived as a far more viable character to have fantastical adventures around than Conan, who ends up being turned into a blond and fading to second-banana status, and her original crew of African Corsairs replaced with a crew more akin to Vikings. This comic, La Reina de la Costa Negra, lasted through to the early 1960s in Mexico.
Later in 1976, when the Conan the Barbarian comic came to a point to adapt “Queen of the Black Coast”. writer Roy Thomas took a passage from Howard’s original story, in which Howard notes over a passage of time, Belit and Conan worked as pirates together to turn her and her pirate crew into a supporting cast for Conan for three and a half years in real time, spanning 43 issues, so much so that when it reached issue #100, it was the point for the comic to adapt the fateful ending of the story, young readers unfamiliar with original material were shocked at the stunning turn of events that leaves Conan grieving.
The story was revisited during the Dark Horse Comics run of the 2000s, with Becky Cloonan being the first woman artist to draw her since the Margaret Brundage cover of Weird Tales.
When the Conan property moved to Marvel Comics again in 2018, a conscious attempt was made to try to make her again the star of her adventures before her fateful encounter with the Cimmerian, while more recently, Ablaze Comics used the public domain status of the stories to derive the comic Belit and Valeria (and Ablaze trying very very hard to make it just mindless cheesecake).
This year, Heroic Signatures is working with Titan Books to recruit various authors of note to do their takes on not just Conan but other characters created by Robert E Howard, who were the stars of their own stories by Howard… and Belit, who became a star by other hands.
In this case, they have recruited V. Castro, the Mexican-American author of horror and dark fantasy (and who might be familiar with La Reina de Costa Negra)
to do her tale, “Shipwrecked” which is now available at all online retailers this month.
Between this story, another upcoming story from Michael A. Stackpole, plus her turn in the new Conan the Barbarian comic, depicted below with inspiration from silent film actresses) It seems a character once defined by her death is now well on her way to becoming one of the liveliest during this revival of Sword & Sorcery.
For further reading on her, check out this long-form essay about her on Conan.com by Lo Terry.
Feature Review:
Next week, the first new novel in 7 years from John R. Fultz drops, and he was kind enough to provide an advance copy.
Within the world of Yhorom is unquestionably a fantastical secondary world mixing Fultz’s talents at evoking a lush decadence in keeping with the sorcerous empire that holds sway over both humans and the lesser caste Scaleborn, who mainly resemble humans but for patches of scales somewhere on their flesh that they do their best to keep hidden through clothing to protect their secret.
Within this setting is one such Scaleborn, the former monk Thold, who breaks out of prison, driven by a vision of a lost treasure in an ancient city he wishes to retrieve, taking him through a land that reminded me a little of the grittier Shaw Bros. period martial arts films of the 1970s filtered through the sensibilities of Tanith Lee.
I raved about Fultz last month, and it is a delight to be reading this novel showing he hasn’t missed a step in the meantime, with vivid, earthy characters, and knowing even as this first novel drops, he has a second novel in this series awaiting publication for later this year.
If this piques your interest, you can pre-order Immaculate Scoundrels on Amazon at this link. It is highly recommended.
In Comics:
Many people are getting hyped by Babs, a new Sword & Sorcery comic from the Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows team that is either a parody, a satire, or just general comedic silliness. I will need more information to get excited, as I prefer Ennis when he’s writing war comics in a serious tone than most of his attempts at comedy in other genres, but we’ll see.
Perhaps his time writing the Hawk the Slayer comic inspired him to think of a number of jokes that would not be appropriate for Hawk but would be acceptable here.
In Other News
+ Silvia Moreno Garcia shared the following screenshot on her social media.
While all the books sound interesting, the most relevant to her is the surprise announcement that she will return to the world of The Return of the Sorceress. Her novella was a loving tribute to classic Sword & Sorcery, but it would have been understandable if it was just a one-off experiment. Her return to the genre is terrific news.
In the meantime, her newest novel The Seventh Veil of Salome, is coming out later this summer and has a plot description that might be of tangential interest in Sword & Sorcery fans, as it details what happens to a Mexican actress who is cast in a classic peplum (aka sword & sandal) movie during the 1960s.
+ John C. Hocking revealed the cover of his upcoming book from Titan. Conan and the City of the Dead, which collects both his 1990s Conan pastiche novel Conan and the Emerald Lotus and its sequel Conan and the Living Plague.
You can find out more about the book here.
+ Howard Andrew Jones has turned in the third book in The Chronicles of Hanuvar to publisher Baen Books, and as a result, the book, titled In The Shadow Of The Smoking Mountain, is set for release in October 2024.
+ Andy Darby has a new novel out, The Blade in the Angel’s Shadow, a delightfully bonkers sounding Elizabethan weird fantasy involving time-travelling swordswomen and Lovecraftian deities manipulating us, with Dr. John Dee’s dream of a British Empire that will not fall coming to fruition.
+ Milton Davis and MVMedia have confirmed in the Sword & Soul Adventures FaceBook Group that work has begun on a third volume of the seminal Sword & Soul anthology series Griots. The series has been where authors like P. Djeli Clark, Kirk A. Johnson and Sarah Macklin first made their mark, and we’re excited to hear a third one is coming.
+ You can read a free classic Sword & Sorcery story by Joanna Russ featuring the swordswoman Alyx story at this link
Podcasts on Parade
NOTE: Due to the media blitz currently going on for the New Edge Sword & Sorcery crowdfunding, there are several podcasts new to this section. However, they are all podcasts in which New Edge editor Oliver Brackenbury is a guest.
It is advised that if you have been playing a game in which you drank whenever you saw the phrase “New Edge editor Oliver Brackenbury”, to please stop before reading this section as there is a risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver.
Without further ado:
We’ve been slowly but surely getting a rise in Sword & Sorcery cinema, especially in movies with films like The Spine of Night, The Green Knight and especially Robert Eggers’ The Northman. The folks behind The Cromcast look at the latter.
+ Dark Worlds Quarterly discusses the perils and processes of doing a sword & sorcery magazine with New Edge editor Oliver Brackenbury
+ Geekshock interviews New Edge editor Oliver Brackenbury as part of an overall episode dealing with all matters of geeky news that you can listen to here.
+ Madeline James Writes does a video interview with New Edge Editor Oliver Brackenbury about the magazine, worldbuilding, and whether Romantasy and Sword & Sorcery can work together.
+ New Edge Sword & Sorcery, as part of their crowdfunding, has had New Edge editor Oliver Brackenbury sit down with Molly Tanzer for a live-stream interview about music, the writing process, H. P. Lovecraft, and her reviving Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore for the magazine.
+ New Edge Sword and Sorcery Short Story Chat leaped from audio to the video live stream for a special episode during the magazine’s crowdfunding, where New Edge Editor Oliver Brackenbury is joined by editor Jay Wolf, NESS Copy Editor Valerie Valdes and special guest MV Media editor/publisher and author in his own right Milton J. Davis, to talk about the Kirk A. Johnson Sword & Soul meets Horror story “Cock and Bull” from Johnson’s book The Obaanax.
+ Rogues in the House sit and talk with Jim Zub over the success of the Titan Comics relaunch of Conan the Barbarian, specifically The Savage Sword of Conan black & white magazine relaunch. (You thought I would say New Edge editor Oliver Brackenbury, didn’t you?)
+ Swords & Sapphics podcast has a short, dense interview with New Edge editor Oliver Brackenbury
+ The Australian Podcast Tangenetic sits down for a more sprawling interview with New Edge editor Oliver Brackenbury.
Reviews
Genre Historian Brian Murphy reviews Scott Oden’s “Shadow of Vengeance,” starring Conan for the Heroic Legends series, on his blog, The Silver Key.
Dave Brzeski (who co-edits the excellent Occult Detective Magazine, which you can visit here) does a review at SF Crowsnest for New Edge Sword and Sorcery #1
Greg Mele reviews New Edge Sword and Sorcery #2 at Black Gate
John Mauro, whose reviews are often found in Grimdark Magazine, reviews Howard Andrew Jones’ Lord of a Shattered Land in his Before We Go Blog instead with an accompanying review of one’s City of Marble of Blood.
This Month in Sword & Sorcery Magazines
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Issue #59 just dropped and has the following stories listed within that you can read online for free:
”The Dreams from the Barrow” by Harry Piper
”Axandrjo the Silver-Nosed Vagabond” by C. D. Crabtree
”The Iron Serpent” by H R Laurence
”Doorways” by Jennifer Crow
Plus, another page in Gary McCluskey’s ongoing graphic novel adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “Spear and Fang”
New Edge Sword & Sorcery: As of this posting, New Edge is around two weeks into its crowdfunding campaign from February 15 to March 15. It was funded successfully in less than 72 hours and has unlocked a number of stretch goals, including double the art, an international shipping discount, and a pay raise for the authors. Pictured above is art from Bebeto Daroz for the cover of issue #4, a representation of a scene from a new story by Kirk A. Johnson featured within its pages.
Old Moon Quarterly: OMQ released two covers for issues for the upcoming issues 7 and 8 to their mailing list. Here is a sneak peek of their issue 7 cover by Simon Underwood.
Swords & Sorcery Magazine: Issue 145 is now up, beginning its thirteenth year.
The stories for this issue are:
”Fate of the Fair” by Gustavo Bondoni
“Djora Gumo”, by Vaughn A. Jackson
“Dragon Born”, by Chad A. B. Wilson
Weirdbook: Weirdbook #47 is out. As usual, it is a collection of weird, horror and fantasy stories, and we especially want to spotlight the following of interest for sword & sorcery fans:
”The Dragons of the Night”, by Darrell Schweitzer
”Dimensions of Scale”, by John R. Fultz
”A Dead Man’s Tale”, by Adrian Cole
”The Horror From The Stars” by Steve Dilks
”The Iron Law”, by David C. Smith.
You can see the complete table of contents here.
Whetstone: On Hiatus till 2025. You can read their 8 issue archive here.
Submission Calls
The following markets are dedicated to or specified to accept sword & sorcery.
+ Baen Fantasy Adventure Award, an annual contest, is open from Jan 16 - April 30. Story submissions max 8k words. Grand Prize $500 USD. Submission Guidelines Here.
+ BFS Horizons, put out by The British Fantasy Society, is always open. 500 - 5000 Words. Remuneration £20. Submission Guidelines.
+ Grimdark Magazine is open for submissions on the 1st of March, 2024, at 00:01 AEDT and opening up their submissions email address for two weeks until 23:59 14th of March, looking for short stories of up to 4,000 words for original fiction and up to 12,000 words for reprints. 7 c AUD per word.
They expect to purchase between 2 and 4 original pieces of fiction and a similar number of reprints. See the submission deadlines here.
+ Indie Bites, a non-profit fantasy anthology series put out by Silversun Books, is available on Kindle Unlimited and is looking for stories for both, its upcoming Wishes & Wizards and Forests & Familars-themed issue. Deadline Apr 30, 2024. Accepts up to 7500 Words. Honorarium £5. Submission Guidelines
+ Swords & Sorcery is always open. Takes up to 10k words. Payment: $25 USD. Submission Guidelines.
Thank you for reading to the end! We will be back next month, and in the meantime, we’d love to hear from you! —KB