Saturday, February 25, 2012

The Return Of Fu-Manchu!


Titan Books has got me hooked, as they are in the process of publishing again for the first time in order and completely the misadventures of Dr. Fu-Manchu. It begins as we speak with the publication of the first two novels by Sax Rohmer - The Mystery of Dr.Fu-Manchu and The Return of Dr.Fu-Manchu with The Hand of Fu-Manchu coming out later this spring.


I've read some of these here and there, but it will be thrilling to read them as they were originally meant to be read. And Titan has promised to publish them warts and all, maintaining the integrity of the questionable ethnic references, despite more enlightened notions. It's never good in my opinion to suppress these regrettable mistakes of past times, as they only confuse the issues at hand. Books and characters and writers should be judged always in the times in which they existed, and held to account for same.

As it turns out, I've only been able to get hold of the second novel so far, and I have the first on special order. I hold out hope I'll get it today, but that remains to be seen. I'm eager to begin.

It should be a fun ride. I'm looking forward to it.

Rip Off

2 comments:

  1. Rip,
    Fu Manchu was always my favorite guilty pleasure as a read. As a teenager I wound up doing a couple of illustrations for the dustjacket for the biography of Arthur Sarsfield Ward, aka Sax Rohmer (a pun on free lancer).I also got to draw the Doctor in the Marvel "Deadly Hands of Kung Fu" series.
    If you have trouble locating any of the books let me know as I have multiple copies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have all those Deadly Hands books tucked away somewhere. I need to dig them out and enjoy. I'm really looking forward to reading these, and I appreciate the offer of help. It's very kind.

    Rip Off

    ReplyDelete