Savageology sports a truly impressive table of contents. Are there any pieces that are particularly rare or that were difficult to get included?
We really wanted to include “Doc Savage and the Cult of the Blue God,” a screen treatment Farmer wrote for George Pal as a potential sequel to the movie, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze. It took a bit of time to negotiate with Condé Nast for permission to reproduce this, but it worked out in the end.
Another item that was a lot of work, but really worth the effort, is the expanded version of the 8,000-word interview Will Murray did with Farmer in 1989 for Starlog magazine (published in 1990). Murray gave us access to the tapes of the over three-hour long interview, and we were able to expand it by over 10,000 words.
Meteor House has now brought out two editions of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Is it accurate to describe Savageology as a companion piece to that biography?
Yes, absolutely. We believe anyone who enjoyed Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life will find this book just as educational and entertaining.
Doc fans can be notoriously split on how they view Farmer’s Savage-related writings. Would you say Savageology is aimed more at Farmer fans or Doc fans?
Both. We’re hoping this book may bridge that gap some. We always want to stress that Farmer absolutely loved Doc Savage. He had many different takes on Doc; he was not a black-and-white thinker and creator. So one of the points of the book is not adherence to one, strict interpretation, but rather an all-encompassing enthusiasm for the character and for fandom, something that everyone can share in. As Farmer and Murray discuss in the interview, Farmer was striving to explore the character of Doc Savage, to get into the essence of what a superhuman would actually be like.
Of course, some of that split has to do with Farmer’s creation of Doc Caliban, as Chuck Welch points out in his piece that acts as an introduction to the collection. There is some Doc Caliban content in this book. What are the essential differences between Doc Savage and Doc Caliban?
Put simply, Doc Savage is not flawed. He rarely makes mistakes, and he rarely, if ever, regrets a course of action he has taken. Doc Caliban is just as brilliant, both mentally and physically, but he comes with all the hangups and neuroses that we all have, coupled with the baggage of his highly unusual upbringing. Consequently, Caliban made a deal with the Devil when he joined The Nine. That’s not a decision (a mistake) that Savage would have made.
I never got to meet or interact with Phil before his and Bette’s passing, but you all at Meteor House did. Do any of you recall having conversations with him about Doc (Savage/Caliban) that readers here may find interesting?
Not about Savage or Caliban specifically, but rather pertaining to the novel about Doc’s daughter, Patricia Wildman. Win Eckert and Chris Carey were sitting with Phil and Bette, having a deep discussion about the approach Win should take in completing Phil’s unfinished novel The Evil in Pemberley House. At issue was whether to excise the highly graphic sex scenes Phil had written, or leave them in. Bette was in favor of deleting the sexual material; Phil wanted it left in but seemed resigned that due to the sensibilities of the late twenty-aughts (the book saw publication in 2009), the material would be removed. In the end, the sex scenes were deemed essential to the plot, theme, and character, and were left intact. It was an interesting conversation, to say the least.
Do you have plans for any more themed collections like Savageology and The Man Who Met Tarzan?
MH: We would like to someday publish a collection of Farmer’s writings relating to Sherlock Holmes, both fiction and non-fiction. And if we ever reprint his novel, A Barnstormer in Oz, we’d like to also include several shorter pieces he wrote about Oz. Perhaps one day we’ll collect his original Sturch stories and maybe do a collection of his shorter Riverworld stories.
And finally, what do you think Farmer would have made of books like Savageology and The Man Who Met Tarzan?
Farmer loved these characters so much he spent years researching them and writing about them. We think he would have liked how the pieces were presented and how, in concise volumes, he could see how his own thinking on these two iconic characters developed over time. And also appreciate the further study of these characters he inspired.
Thank you, Paul, Win, and Mike for your time. I look forward to seeing you all at PulpFest.
Thank you, Anthony, this has been a lot of fun!
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