Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar - Book 2 of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe Super-Arc!

The Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe was announced at the Burroughs panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 19, 2019!

THE FIRST UNIVERSE OF ITS KIND

A century before the term “crossover” became a buzzword in popular culture, Edgar Rice Burroughs created the first expansive, fully cohesive literary universe. Coexisting in this vast cosmos was a pantheon of immortal heroes and heroines—Tarzan of the Apes®, Jane Clayton™, John Carter®, Dejah Thoris®, Carson Napier™, and David Innes™ being only the best known among them. In Burroughs’ 80-plus novels, their epic adventures transported them to the strange and exotic worlds of Barsoom®, Amtor™, Pellucidar®, Caspak™, and Va-nah™, as well as the lost civilizations of Earth and even realms beyond the farthest star. Now the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe expands in an all-new series of canonical novels written by today’s talented authors!

EdgarRiceBurroughsUniverse.com

ERBUniverse.com

San Diego Comic-Con 2019: Tarzan, John Carter,

and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe

Some people say that San Diego Comic-Con is the convention that Jack Kirby built. I’m sure that a lot of other creators had a hand in the source material that inspired this crazy pop culture event, but if we are being completely honest, this is the house, the con, and the community that Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired.

That’s right, a line can be drawn from almost every superhero, science-fiction or fantasy icon that is celebrated at this very circus right back to Burroughs’ pulp creations of John Carter of Mars and Tarzan of the Apes. 

These days this pop culture history is mostly glossed over and rarely mentioned, but for many of us, Friday is Burroughs Day at Comic-Con, the day of ERB, Inc’s rollout of everything new coming down the pike in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe, as today’s panel revealed is the actual name of the brand going forward. 

The Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe will feature upcoming novels based on Burroughs’ worlds and characters, but with cohesive new stories that will expand on the original tales and be a part of official canon. 

The new books will be authored by talented storytellers and will be connected by what is being called “The Super-Arc.” 

Book one will be written by Matt Betts and will be called Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds. 

The second book will be Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, written by Win Scott Eckert. Mister Eckert was present at the panel and promised his tale would include the Ape Man fighting WWII Nazis riding dinosaurs. 

Book number three will be John Carter of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten, written by Geary Gravel. 

Book four will introduce a new character, Victory Harben, in a tale called Victory Harben: Fires of Halos, written by Christopher Paul Carey, who is also spearheading the book series as ERB, Inc’s new Director of Publishing.

NERDVANA

Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Video Games, News & Reviews

TARZAN: BATTLE FOR PELLUCIDAR

by Win Scott Eckert

The Lord of the Jungle returns to the Earth’s core on a mission to stop the Nazis from obtaining a powerful superweapon. But when the ape-man’s murderous adversaries partner with Pellucidar’s routed reptilian overlords, can Tarzan prevent the conquest and enslavement of all humanity in both the inner and outer worlds?

WIN SCOTT ECKERT is the legacy author of science-fiction Grand Master Philip José Farmer’s Patricia Wildman series, as well as the coauthor with Farmer of the upcoming Doc Caliban novel, The Monster on Hold. Eckert’s other professional credits include authorized tales of Zorro, the Phantom, Honey West, the Avenger, and the Green Hornet.

Additional Information

It was also announced that certain previously published authorized Burroughs novels by other writers—specifically  Philip José Farmer’s Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time and Fritz Leiber’s Tarzan and the Valley of Gold—while not a part of the new Super-Arc, are considered official canonical novels in terms of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (ERBU). A new first hardcover edition of Leiber’s novel is soon forthcoming, published by ERB, Inc., while I was very pleased to take the editorial lead in bringing to fruition the first hardcover edition of Farmer’s novel for Meteor House in 2018 (also available in trade paperback and ebook):

hardcover/trade paperback direct from Meteor HouseKindleNook

*San Diego Comic-Con photos courtesy Ric Bretschneider

PulpFest 2019...and me!

I'm pleased to announce that after much back and forth, I will be attending PulpFest 2019 in August, and will have copies of Hunt the Avenger (published by Moonstone Books) on hand!

On Saturday, August 17, from 1:30 – 2:30 PM, I'll be signing Hunt the Avenger. If you've already preordered a copy, please bring it with you and I'll be happy to personally inscribe it (even if you already bought one of the signed limited edition hardcovers). Of course, if you want to pick up a copy from me there, that's fine as well. I will have softcovers and hardcovers–probably more softcovers.

Immediately thereafter, 3:15 – 4:30 PM, I'll be joining top notch writers (featuring John Bruening, Christopher Paul Carey, Craig McDonald, and William Patrick Murray) on a panel on Contemporary Pulp: Writing Genre Fiction moderated by authorized Fu Manchu continuation author William Patrick Maynard.

That evening, 7:45 – 8:25 PM, I'll be on the FarmerCon XIV panel: Farmer of the Pulps: A Harvest of Influences (featuring Jason Aiken, Christopher Paul Carey, and Garyn G. Roberts Ph. D., with Paul Spiteri moderating).

I hope to see you there!

• PulpFest site
• Full PulpFest schedule

DEDICATION to HUNT THE AVENGER

Dedication to Hunt the Avenger (a moonstonebooks.com exclusive release—not available anywhere else!)

For Howard Hopkins.

While other pulp luminaries dissected Doc Savage and The Shadow, Howard turned his attention to becoming the world’s leading expert on The Avenger—and then generously shared his dream of penning new authorized tales with other writers, myself included…and then generously edited and shepherded into print this writer’s first licensed tale, with advice and direction that was at once kind and firm—for Howie knew his stuff.

He is greatly missed.

ORDER THE HARDCOVER

ORDER THE SOFTCOVER

HUNT THE AVENGER—a "fix-up" novel!

Definition of a "fix-up" novel...and why it matters.

AUTHOR’S NOTE to Hunt the Avenger (a moonstonebooks.com exclusive release—not available anywhere else!)

My first published Avenger story, “Death and the Countess,” featured what I thought at the time was a throwaway line mentioning a prior adventure with the Domino Lady. I went on to pen two more Avenger tales that actually featured team-ups with the saucy pulp heroine.

• “Death and the Countess,” The Avenger Chronicles (2008)
• “Happy Death Men,” The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files (2011)
• “According to Plan of a One-Eyed Trickster,” The Avenger: Roaring Heart of the Crucible (2013)

I was very happy with how the trilogy turned out, and yet it was clear that the three tales were meant to be read together as a whole—not separated by several years as each anthology was subsequently released. A proper reading required the stories to be collected in one volume.

Too, the trilogy always felt a bit imbalanced, with socialite Ellen Patrick—the Domino Lady—only making her “on camera” debut in the second tale. With that in mind, I set out to write the prequel to “Death and Countess,” showing the actual first meeting between Richard Benson and Ellen Patrick. This took a lot of careful planning and review of the timeline (excerpted at the conclusion of Hunt the Avenger) to ensure the continuity lined up—including featuring the black-haired, normal-skinned Benson, as he appeared in the final twelve original pulp novels and Ron Goulart’s twelve Avenger novels from the 1970s (as well as an additional short story by Goulart in 2008’s The Avenger Chronicles).

Throwing caution to the wind, I also decided to remedy the dangling plotlines left by prior scribe Goulart. I penned a fifth tale to wrap it all up in a bow, with the two new stories matching the word count of the original three tales.

The resulting pentalogy should be read together as one saga…Hunt the Avenger!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the journey!

Win Scott Eckert

January 2019

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Now Taking Pre-Orders ... Hunt the Avenger!

Now Taking Pre-Orders — Shipping Direct from Moonstone Books in July 2019
(a moonstonebooks.com exclusive release—not available anywhere else!)

Out of tragedy, a hero is born! In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human.

A figure of ice and steel, Richard Benson is an avatar of vengeance—a chilled impersonal force of justice masking a cold genius and nearly supernatural power behind a face as white and still as arctic frost. His pale eyes, like a polar dawn, only hint at the terrible force evildoers heedlessly unleashed the day they created…The Avenger!

In the annals of Justice, Inc.’s battles against spies, crooks, and killers, only one malefactor has escaped The Avenger’s clutches not once, but twice—Baron Ulrich Blau-Montag, the half-man, half-machine known as the Iron Skull! 

But when Benson and his cohorts partner with the mysterious and saucy Domino Lady to hunt down the demented half-robot, and go on to clash with other supervillains, such as the Nazi spy Werner Konrad and a diabolical weapons dealer known as the Countess, a frightening pattern emerges…are they the creatures of a hidden puppetmaster?

And is Benson the hunter?

Or the prey?

Hunt the Avenger

* * * * *

Hunt the Avenger by Win Scott Eckert, with stunning cover art by Malcolm McClinton, is NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER, shipping direct from Moonstone Books in July 2019 in two editions: 

• An exclusive, signed limited edition (with a black & white frontispiece sketch of the Countess on the signature page) “UNMASKED” hardcover, featuring gorgeous Ellen Patrick—the Domino Lady—sans mask!

ORDER HARDCOVER

• A “MASKED” softcover, with Ellen wearing her trademark black domino mask!

ORDER SOFTCOVER

Hunt the Avenger - today is hardcover signing day!

Back in January, I teased Hunt the Avenger.

The book will very soon be available for preorder, shipping direct from Moonstone Books in two editions:

• an exclusive, signed limited edition “unmasked” hardcover (featuring gorgeous Ellen Patrick—the Domino Lady—sans mask)

• a “masked” softcover (with Ellen wearing her trademark black domino mask)

Today is signing day! I'm signing the frontispiece illustration—featuring The Avenger's deadly enemy, the Countess—which will then be tipped in to the hardcover when it goes to print.

As you can see, signing day in our household is a family affair! It's always good to have  helpers!

We're all waiting with bated breath for the preordering information.

Please stay tuned. It's coming soon from Moonstone Books!

The Evil in Pemberley House on sale!

From publisher Meteor House:

Our sixth biweekly sale is a discount usually only available to dealers: 40% off on one of our bestselling books — The Evil in Pemberley House, by Philip José Farmer & Win Scott Eckert. 

Pemberley is a darkly erotic novel with broad appeal to readers of pulp and popular literature, particularly followers of Doc Savage, Sherlockians, and fans of Farmer’s own celebrated Wold Newton Family.

This is our $20 trade paperback edition, which you can get for only $12 (+shipping). 

As always, please be sure to select the correct shipping option in the PayPal button below and do note that quantities are limited.

From ERB to PJF: How Burroughs Inspired Philip José Farmer - Dum-Dum 2018

On August 3, 2018, I was honored to give a guest speaker presentation at the 2018 Dum-Dum, held in Morgan City, LA, the site of the filming of the first Tarzan movie one-hundred years prior.

With thanks to Bill Hillman's ERBzine for the image conversion of my presentation, I'm pleased to make it available on Farmer's 101st birthday. Bill Hillman is also kindly hosting the presentation on his ERBzine site. 

I'd also like to thank The Official Philip José Farmer Web Page, which was a great resource as I prepared the presentation, in helping me verify that I covered everything.

In addition, I recommend downloading the accompanying audio file of my talk and scrolling through the slides/images below while listening. (Thanks to Henry Franke of the Burroughs Bibliophiles for providing the audio!)

Happy birthday, Phil!