Guests



Robert E. Howard Days 2024

GUEST OF HONOR

ROB ROEHM

Rob Roehm is the director of publications for the Robert E. Howard Foundation and the editor of several volumes of Howard’s works, including the Collected Letters (3 volumes) and Collected Poetry, as well as the author of Howard’s Haunts and, with his father, The Brownwood Connection. The winner of multiple Cimmerian and REH Foundation awards, Rob has had articles published in all of the usual Howard venues.

For the past 15+ years, Rob has been visiting the courthouses and libraries in the Texas counties where the Howards lived.
 Rob has attended Howard Days every year since 2006, generously sharing his knowledge of Howard History and genealogy. Check out his Howard History blog at howardhistory.com.


FEATURED ATTENDEES: Some of the notable Howard Heads who may be on hand to enhance your time at Howard Days

LEE BREAKIRON

A fan of Robert E. Howard since the 1960s and a collector for nearly as long, Dr. Lee Breakiron has been a regular attendee of Howard Days since 2002 and a member of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association since 2009. He has contributed articles to various publications including The Cimmerian, REH: Two Gun Raconteur, and The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies, as well as the essay collection Two-Gun Bob: A Centennial Celebration.

Considered the leading authority on Howard fanzines, Lee posts his work at the REHEAPA web site and is currently compiling the first comprehensive Bibliography of Secondary Sources on REH. A retired scientist, he resides in New Jersey.

RUSTY BURKE

For many years Rusty Burke has been considered the leading figure in Howard scholarship. A champion for Howard purists, Rusty successfully led the battle to publish the authoritative texts and served as the series editor for the Wandering Star/Del Rey editions of Howard's works.

In 1986, Rusty was one of the attendees of the first Robert E. Howard Days, helping to found this great tradition. In 1991 he established the The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Studies, which remains the leading academic journal in the field. He has authored numerous articles, essays, and book introductions for many publications and periodicals. He has been honored with several Cimmerian awards and REH Foundation awards and in 2006 he was inducted into the Black Circle, the highest honor in Howard fandom, given for lifetime achievement. At Howard Days he will appear on panels, lead a tour of Cross Plains and will be sharing his knowledge and expertise with fans.

BILL "INDY" CAVALIER

Bill "Indy" Cavalier has long been a fixture in REH fandom and scholarship. He is the Official Editor for the Robert E. Howard United Press Association and serves on the Board of Directors of the Robert E. Howard Foundation. He is also one of the founders of Robert E. Howard Days, attending the first gathering in 1986. He continues as an organizer of the yearly event.
Bill’s artwork and essays have been featured in numerous publications including Amra, The Dark Man, The Cimmerian, REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, Knights of the Dinner Table magazine, REH Foundation chapbooks and REHupa. He is the cover artist for the Foundation Press book, "Pictures in the Fire". His article “How Robert E. Howard Saved My Life” received the 2007 Hyrkanian Award and was the springboard for the book, "REH Changed My Life". In 2011 Bill was inducted into the prestigious Black Circle for lifetime achievement in REH fandom and scholarship.

FRANK COFFMAN

Frank Coffman is a professor of English and Journalism at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois. His special interest is in the rise and relevance of popular imaginative literature across the genres of Adventure, Detection and Mystery, Fantasy, Horror and the Supernatural, and Science Fiction.

He came to Howard as part of following the Tolkien and general Fantasy boom of the 1960s and 70s. He has published a number of articles in anthologies such as Two-Gun Bob: A Centennial Celebration and Conan Meets the Academy and journals such as REH: Two Gun Raconteur and The Howard Review. From 2001 to 2003 he served as editor of the The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies and he is currently the editor of the REH Electronic Amateur Press Association. He is widely regarded as the foremost expert on Howard's verse and he is the editor of Robert E. Howard: Selected Poems.

SCOTT A. CUPP

Scott A. Cupp is a short story writer from San Antonio. Texas.  He has written in the science fiction, fantasy, western, mystery, comics and non-fiction genres.  He co-edited the tribute anthology Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard in 2006.  He has been nominated for the World Fantasy and John W. Campbell Awards.

He frequently writes about Texas, the West, and weird things.  He became a Howard fan in the mid-1960s with the Lancer anthologies and remains one today.  The forthcoming story “Hell in a Boxcar:” (Weirdbook) features REH, Jim Thompson, and boxing.


MARK FINN

Mark Finn is an author, actor, essayist, and playwright. His biography, Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, was nominated for a World Fantasy award in 2007. His articles, essays, and introductions about Robert E. Howard and his works have appeared in publications for the Robert E. Howard Foundation, Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Comics, The Cimmerian, REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, The Howard Review, Wildside Press, and he has presented papers about Howard to the PCA/ACA National conference, the Authors and Writers Conference, and lectures and performs readings regularly.

When he is not working in Howard Studies, he writes comics and fiction, dabbles in magic, acts as a creative consultant for media companies, and produces and performs community theater. He lives in North Texas with his fiancé Janice, too many books, and an affable pit bull named Sonya.

BEN FRIBERG

Videographer Ben Friberg first discovered Howard's amazing work not long after college when he found the Baen edition of Solomon Kane at an Abilene bookstore and the rest was downhill from there. He attended his first Howard Days in 2005 and has been an attendee at every Howard Days since. After trying his hand at gathering material for a Howard Days documentary, he decided he could best serve Howard Fandom by recording all the panels presented over the two day event and posting them for free on Youtube. For the past few years he's been honored to be the unofficial Howard Days videographer, doing his best to make sure that each Howard Days is saved for future generations of Howard Fandom. In recognition of this work he received the 2014 Black River award for outstanding achievement by the Robert E. howard Foundation

FULBRIGHT & HAWKES

Christopher Fulbright and Angeline Hawkes have been inspired by Robert E. Howard since childhood. Professional Horror and Fantasy writers, Fulbright & Hawkes are former members of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association. Their annual pilgrimage to Cross Plains for REH Days usually results in a new Howard-inspired work of fiction or at the very least a long list of awesome ideas.

Christopher Fulbright is a journalist turned technical writer whose fiction has received honorable mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and Best Horror of the Year. Angeline Hawkes is a former high school teacher turned Bram Stoker Award nominated writer who writes primarily historical horror and heroic fantasy. Her heroic fantasy series Tales of the Barbarian Kabar of El Hazzar, is very much inspired by Howard's works.
When not writing individually or collaboratively, the Texas Twosome are busy parenting four children and an insane cat who fancies himself "the fifth child." 

CHRIS GRUBER

Chris Gruber has been involved in Howard Studies for over a decade and has served on the review board for The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies since 2008. He has authored award-winning essays and introductions that have appeared in publications such as Boxing Stories, The Cimmerian, REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, and Echos de Cimmerie. He was the editor of Boxing Stories by Robert E. Howard, published by the University of Nebraska Press, and is the co-editor of the four-volume collection Fists of Iron by the REH Foundation Press. Chris has also presented his original research for both academic and popular audiences and has been an instrumental force in revealing the impact that the “sweet science” has had upon Howard and his fiction.

DIERK GÜNTHER

German scholar DrDierk Günther has been a fan of Robert E. Howard since the age of ten, when in a second-hand bookstore in Frankfurt he laid his hands on a book featuring Conan of Cimmeria. Together with his wife Chie, Dierk has been living in Japan for over 20 years where he works as an associate professor of English Literature at Tokushima University.

He has given presentations about Robert E. Howard at academic conferences in Japan and the United States and also published academic essays about Robert E. Howard, Pulp Fiction and the history of German prisoners of war who were interned in Japan during WW I. Dierkearned his doctoral degree in 2020 from Hiroshima University.

DAVE HARDY

Dave Hardy is an author, critic, and mead-maker. He started reading Conan comics in the fifth grade and Roy Thomas's adaptation of "Worms of the Earth" in Savage Sword is one of his fondest memories. Dave has written articles for REH: Two-Gun Raconteur and The Cimmerian, and penned the introduction to The Early Adventures of El Borak as well as the critical essay in El Borak and Other Desert Adventures. He is a regular attendee at Howard Days since 1999, and is a former member of REHupa.

Dave has written short fiction for many different markets including Frontier Tales, RAGEMachine, and Dark Worlds Magazine. His fantasy novel Crazy Greta was published in 2012 by Musa Publishing, and his frontier-adventure novel, Palmetto Empire is coming from Rough Edges Press in June 2014. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and daughter.

PAUL HERMAN

Long-time fan, publisher, editor, bibliographer and self-declared expert on REH, Paul Herman first discovered Howard his senior year in high school. In the near 40 years since, his discovery has led him down a strange and twisting path. Paul has edited and published REH via Wildside Press, Girasol Press, and his own Hermanthis Press. Paul’s REH bibliography, The Neverending Hunt, massively increased the published listings of REH’s works, and was used as the basis for the Howard Works website. Paul has personally handled virtually all the typescripts of REH, a typewriter claimed to be REH’s, and REH’s own writing table, as well as being a long-time friend of Glenn Lord. Shaking his hand passes on some serious karma.

He occasionally appears in documentaries, chats with Hollywood types, and pontificates on legal matters. Paul is also a founding member of the Board of the REH Foundation. In his spare time Paul works as an Intellectual Property lawyer for a multi-national corporation, and gets his Corvette on track whenever he can.
PATRICE LOUINET

Dr. Patrice Louinet is the Editor of the definitive, three-volume Conan series from Del Rey Books (US). He won the Lifetime Achievement award from the Robert E, Howard Foundation in 2014 and the Special Award from the Imaginales (France, 2012). He was the Howard adviser for the wildly successful Conan boardgame from Monolith. He has just published Le Guide Howard in France (and has produced the English version).

He is currently serving as an adviser for Modiphius' Conan RPG, finishing translating the 12th Howard volume for Bragelonne in France and gained his PhD (dissertation on Bob Howard) at La Sorbonne, Paris, in 2020.

JAMES REASONER

A lifelong Texan, James Reasoner lives about twenty miles as the crow flies from Robert E. Howard's birthplace of Peaster and has been a fan of Howard's work for almost fifty years. Drawing inspiration from Howard's career as an author from a small town in Texas, Reasoner has been a professional writer for more than 40 years. James recently the Peacemaker Award for Lifetime Achievement from Western Fictioneers.

In that time, he has authored several hundred novels and short stories in numerous genres. Writing under his own name and various pseudonyms, his novels have garnered praise from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as appearing on the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestseller lists. His novel Hangman's Knot recently won the 2015 Peacemaker Award for Best Independently Published Western Novel. He also wrote the introduction for Robert E. Howard's Western Tales. He lives in the small town in Texas where he grew up, with his wife, award-winning fellow author Livia J. Washburn. His blog can be found at Rough Edges

ROB ROEHM

Rob Roehm is the director of publications for the Robert E. Howard Foundation and the editor of several volumes of Howard’s works, including the Collected Letters (3 volumes) and Collected Poetry, as well as the author of Howard’s Haunts and, with his father, The Brownwood Connection. The winner of multiple Cimmerian and REH Foundation awards, Rob has had articles published in all of the usual Howard venues.

For the past 15+ years, Rob has been visiting the courthouses and libraries in the Texas counties where the Howards lived.
 Rob has attended Howard Days every year since 2006, generously sharing his knowledge of Howard History and genealogy. Check out his Howard History blog at howardhistory.com.

GARY ROMEO

Gary Romeo has been a Robert E. Howard fan for over 40 years! His first exposure to REH was Marvel Comics's Conan the Barbarian #4 featuring the adaptation of "The Tower of the Elephant," which remains his favorite REH story to this day.

A longtime member of REHupa, Gary has written articles for The Dark Man, The Cimmerian, and The Chronicler of Cross Plains and he also contributed a chapter to The Robert E. Howard Reader. In addition to REH, he is an enthusiast of movies and comic books.



PAUL M. SAMMON

For over forty years, author, filmmaker, and photographer Paul M. Sammon has combined his passion for film and literature, not only working on motion pictures, but also photographing them, and writing about them. Paul has worked on many films and documentaries including Conan the Barbarian (1982), Dune, F/X, Blue Velvet, RoboCop, The Silence of the Lambs, The Addams Family, and Starship Troopers.

Paul is a long time Robert E. Howard fan and the author of Conan the Phenomenon by Dark Horse Books. In 1995 he edited The King Is Dead, a collection examining the Elvis Presley phenomenon. Paul also writes fiction, having short stories published in Peter Straub’s Ghosts (1995) and Cemetery Dance Magazine.

JEFFREY SHANKS

Jeffrey Shanks is an archaeologist, historian, and scholar of the pulp magazines and early comic books and he currently serves as co-chair of the Pulp Studies area for the Popular Culture Association. Jeffrey has contributed articles on Howard to a number of books and periodicals including REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard StudiesForeign Comic Collector MagazineCritical Insights: Pulp Fiction of the 1920s and 30s and Undead in the West II (with Mark Finn) and he has won the 2013 and 2014 Robert E. Howard Foundation Award for Best Print Essay.

He recently co-edited a collection of academic essays entitled The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror that will be published this year as a part of S. T. Joshi's Studies in Supernatural Literature series from Rowman and Littlefield. He served as a technical adviser and art director for the Conan RPG from Modiphius Games. You can follow him at his blog, An Age Undreamed Of.




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