The Black Forest 2

There an article/interview here with Todd Livingston, one of the
creators of THE BLACK FOREST 2. It's about 3/4 down on the page.


The story sounds absolutely fantastic, and we get a bonus WICKED WEST tale too!

As far as I know, this is the first mention of my Wold Newton essay which is a backup feature.

I like what he has to say about it. ;-)

Interview with Jazma Online

The kind folks at Jazma Online have interviewed me about the new Wold Newton book. You can read it here.

Tarzan Alive - the new edition

I received a copy of Philip José Farmer's Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life and about 10-15 Doc Savage paperback reprints from a family friend when I was nine years old, in 1975. The first Doc I read was, I think, Meteor Menace. Farmer's book was a great introduction to the character, but the crossover with the Wold Newton family tree probably scarred me for life, but in a good way. I was so young and impressionable at that age that I couldn't help but think of the characters in the terms in which Farmer presented them, i.e., that they were all related through this cosmic event (the Wold Newton meteor strike).

Unfortunately, I was not able to locate a copy of Tarzan Alive (with the other half of the family tree) until it was reprinted in 1981, but of course once I read it, I became more entrenched than ever in the Wold Newton concept.

Unfortunately, these books have been out of print for almost 25 years. So I'm very pleased to announce that Bison Books (University of Nebraska Press) is reprinting Tarzan Alive, currently slated for publication in Spring 2006. Bison Books has recently published other genre books, including ERB titles from the Venus, Mars, Pellucidar, and Caspak series, as well as Edwin Arnold's Gullivar of Mars.

More details on the reprint of Tarzan Alive are on the Official Philip José Farmer Home Page, including science-fiction writer Mike Resnick's involvement in writing an Introduction to the new edition.

And I am not too humble to neglect mentioning something else that has not yet been announced on the Official Philip José Farmer Home Page (but will be soon). I have been asked to write an Afterword for the new edition, which is probably the greatest honor and thrill I can think of, other than the upcoming publication of Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe.

Now I (and Mike Croteau of the Official PJF Home Page, who has been an immense help) need to get working on Bison Books for a new edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.

Who's Going to Take Over the World When I'm Gone?

Since some other contributors to MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE (now available for Pre-Order from Amazon), have seen fit to post briefly about their essays, I thought I'd do the same.

"Introduction: Myths for the Modern Age: Farmer’s Wold Newton Family and Shared Universe" introduces the Wold Newton concept, provides a complete listing of Farmer's Wold Newton works (and some peripheral ones), and discusses how various Wold Newton "Game"-players have gone about expanding upon a shared universe.

"Who's Going to Take Over the World When I'm Gone? (A Look at the Genealogies of Wold Newton Family Super-Villains and Their Nemeses)" builds upon a few key facts provided in other articles included in MYTHS, and then along the way we learn more about the genealogy of Professor Moriarty(s), Fu Manchu and his daughter Fah Lo Suee, Doc Savage, and the Smiths (as in Sir Denis Nayland, not Morrisey's band). And what would this excursion be without some references to James Bond, U.N.C.L.E., Master of Kung Fu, and Kerouac. Yes, Kerouac.

If you haven't seen it yet, here is the cover to MYTHS by Hugo-nominated artist John Picacio. Amazing.

Wold Newton book listed on Amazon (pre-order)!

MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE, is now available for Pre-Order from Amazon!!

As well as direct from the publisher.

Woo-hoo!

Wold Newton book contents

I can finally announce the contents for MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE (formerly titled CREATIVE MYTHOGRAPHY) (pre-order here)

Introduction: Myths for the Modern Age
Win Scott Eckert

Wold-Newtonry
Dr. Peter M. Coogan

The Arms of Tarzan
Philip José Farmer

The Secret History of Captain Nemo
Rick Lai

From Pygmalion to Casablanca: The Higgins Genealogy
Mark K. Brown

A Reply To "The Red Herring"
Philip José Farmer

The Daughters of Greystoke
Chuck Loridans

The Green Eyes Have It - Or Are They Blue?
Christopher Paul Carey

The Two Lord Ruftons
Philip José Farmer

Kiss of the Vampire
John A. Small

Name of A Thousand Blue Demons
Cheryl L. Huttner

The Great Korak-Time Discrepancy
Philip José Farmer

Asian Detectives in the Wold Newton Family
Dennis E. Power

This Shadow Hanging Over Me Is No Trick Of The Light
Jess Nevins

The Lord Mountford Mystery
Philip José Farmer

The Magnificent Gordons
Mark K. Brown

The Legacy of the Fox: Zorro in the Wold Newton Universe
Matthew Baugh

From ERB To Ygg
Philip José Farmer

Who's Going to Take Over the World When I'm Gone?
Win Scott Eckert

Jungle Brothers, Or, Secrets Of The Jungle Lords
Dennis E. Power

A Language For Opar
Philip José Farmer

Watching the Detectives, Or, The Sherlock Holmes Family Tree
Brad Mengel

Fu Manchu Vs. Cthulhu
Rick Lai

Jonathan Swift Somers III
Philip José Farmer

John Carter: Torn from Phoenician Dreams
Dennis E. Power and Dr. Peter M. Coogan

D is for Daughter, F is for Father
Mark K. Brown

The Monster on Hold
Philip José Farmer

Travels in Time
Loki Carbis

A Review of Final Menacing Glimpses
Art Bollmann

Here's the knock-out cover by John Picacio:

Thumbnail cover

Big cover

Phil Farmer's Wold Newtonian essays included in MYTHS are hard-to-find, and appeared in various fanzines or other publications over the years. It is certainly a boon to have them collected here in one Wold Newton-oriented volume. Almost every contribution from the "post-Farmerian" writers has been revised -- sometimes significantly -- for this book. These are the official publication versions. All in all, this is going to be a 400-page book.

Now, going over the list of essays, some folks might be asking, "where the heck is the Crossover Chronology, which Win has been saying will be in the Wold Newton book?"

Like I said, the book is already going to be 400 pages, without the Crossover Chronology.

Therefore, MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE will come out in November 2005, as planned, with all the articles listed above included. And a second volume, another 300-400 page tome, THE CROSSOVER CHRONOLOGY: MORE MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE (this is a working title; it could change) is slated for publication in Spring 2006.

So, it's back to work for me! Gotta add in some more crossover entries. I am quickly learning that there is no such thing as "done." Not that I'm complaining.

While I'm at it, I may as well plug my short story in the anthology TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN 1: THE MODERN BABYLON. It's an anthology from Jean-Marc Lofficier's Black Coat Press. It features short stories inspired by French pulp fiction, written by several Wold Newton "creative mythographers," including yours truly, Matthew Baugh, Greg Gick, and Rick Lai, as well as much more established science-fiction writers such as Brian Stableford, Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier, John Peel, Terrance Dicks, Chris Roberson, and Robert Sheckley, among others.

Nor are the stories limited to only French characters... Wold Newton Family members such as Doc Savage, Fu Manchu, Sherlock Holmes, and The Shadow, all make appearances in the anthology (even if some of them appear in disguise), as do perennial French Wold Newton Family members C. Auguste Dupin and Arsène Lupin. Several of the stories refer to or utilize Phil Farmer's Wold Newton Family theories and concepts. For fans of the MONSTAAH corner of the Wold Newton Universe, there are stories featuring Frankenstein's Creature, the Cthulhu Mythos, and Erik (Phantom of the Opera).

My story, "The Vanishing Devil," is a sequel to Guy d'Armen's DOC ARDAN: CITY OF GOLD AND LEPERS.
I don't think it's giving anything away to say that it features Doc Ardan and the nefarious Doctor Natas in a follow-up confrontation... nor that Doc Ardan might just be a certain Savage pulp hero, as Natas might really be a very long-lived Devil Doctor.

TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN is now available...
-direct from the publisher

-from Amazon

-and is listed in the March 2005 Diamond Previews, so you can order it from your local comic shop that way.