Featured Attendee - 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 periodicals including REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies, and Foreign Comic Collector Magazine.

He has also written or co-written chapters on Howard for several academic volumes including Critical Insights: Pulp Fiction of the 1920s and 30s and Undead in the West II (with Mark Finn). His chapter "Hyborian Age Archaeology" in Conan Meets the Academy won the 2013 Robert E. Howard Foundation Award for Best Article.

His most project was editing Zombies from the Pulps! -- an anthology of classic zombie stories including "Pigeons from Hell." He is currently co-editing a collection of academic essays entitled Weird Tales: The Unique Magazine and the Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror that will be published next year as a part of S. T. Joshi's Studies in Supernatural Literature series from Scarecrow Press. You can follow him at his blog, An Age Undreamed Of.

Featured Attendee - AL HARRON

Legendary Scotsman Al Harron will once again be crossing the Western Ocean to visit the Nameless Continent. Al is one of the premier champions of Robert E. Howard in the vast reaches of the blogoshpere. He was a major contributor to The Cimmerian blog in its final years and one of the main forces behind the massively popular Conan Movie Blog. On his personal site, The Blog that Time Forgot, Al writes, not only about Howard and his works, but also other fun themes in popular culture.

Al has been nominated for several REH Foundation Awards and was co-winner of the 2010 Stygian Award for his contributions to the The Cimmerian. He is also the administrator of the REH Readers Group on Facebook. In addition to his REH activities, Al is currently developing his own comic series which is a weird fiction version of the Battle of Bannockburn -- something Robert E. Howard would have loved.

Throwback Thursday - the First REH Days

The very first Robert E. Howard Days took place June 13-15, 1986. Ten intrepid Howard Fans gathered in Dallas at the behest of Rusty Burke and then transported themselves to the magical realm of Cross Plains, Texas, to celebrate the life and work of a true Texas and American original, Ol' Two-Gun Bob Howard.

"Indy" Bill Cavalier poses in front of the house as it looked then, a ramshackle mess of a structure. We were able to tour the outside grounds (the owner's wife was elderly and infirm so we didn't go inside), but just walking the same ground where Howard trod was an emotional experience for us all.

Fortunately for us all, the citizens of Cross Plains realized that they "had" something here. They wisely formed their civic organization Project Pride, bought the house and restored it to its current beautiful state - that of The Robert E. Howard Museum. With their foresight and continuing support from fans around the world, the Legacy of Robert E. Howard is ensured for many years to come!

Howard Days 2014 takes place on June 13 & 14. There's plenty of room for all to come & visit (it is Texas, after all!), enjoy the company of good friends, sit in the Pavilion with a cool drink and tell your story about REH and continue to further his Legacy. Hope to see you there! Y'all come!

TOM GIANNI - Special Guest at Howard Days

We are happy to announce that Tom Gianni will be a Featured Attendee at Howard Days this year.
Tom is the cover artist for four REHF Press volumes of Howard's work: FISTS OF IRON (Boxing stories, Vols. 1 and 2 so far), PIRATE ADVENTURES and WESTERN TALES. He has been nominated for the REH Foundation Rankin Award, which honors the best in artwork in the Howard Community for 2013. (Winners will be announced on Friday June 13).

Tom will be in Cross Plains and will have original art and prints available that you may add to your collection. He will also appear on at least one panel and will be signing as many books as he can before his hand wears out! Tom is graciously donating an original sketch for the Silent Auction held at the Celebration Banquet on Friday evening.

Please visit his website: GIANNIART.COM to view many examples of his fine work.

Featured Attendee: 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 thirty-five years.

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. Most recently he 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 http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com.

Featured Attendee: 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 10 years, Rob has been visiting the courthouses and libraries in the Texas counties where the Howards lived. His findings often appear on the Two-Gun Raconteur website where he is a regular contributor. Rob has attended Howard Days every year since 2006, with appearances on the yearly “What’s Happening with REH” panel and co-presenting with his dad the “Travels with REH” panel in 2013.

Featured Attendee: DAMON SASSER

Damon Sasser is a true legend in Robert E. Howard fandom. In 1976 he began publishing REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, which remains the premier fanzine in Howardom nearly four decades later. In 1978 he launched another fanzine, The Chronicler of Cross Plains. In 2007 Damon created the REH: Two-Gun Raconteur Blog, the top online destination for Howard scholarship. Damon has contributed numerous articles and essays over the years, not only to REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, but also to The Cimmerian, The Man from Cross Plains, and Anniversary: A Tribute to Glenn Lord and the Howard Collector.

Damon has won numerous REH Foundation awards, including two Aquilonian Awards for the print REH: Two-Gun Raconteur and three Stygian Awards for the blog.  In 2013, Damon was inducted into the Black Circle, for his lifelong contributions to Howard’s legacy. This year, Damon plans to have a new issue of REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, debuting exclusively at Howard Days.