Swords And Sorcery!

This month the focus will be on one of my favorite genre categories, the often maligned Sword and Sorcery category.  The form was given its name many many years after it evolved in the pages of Weird Tales largely because of the enormous success of Robert E. Howard and his distinctive creations Conan, Kull and Solomon Kane. Many tried to follow in Howard's footsteps, including C.L. Moore with her Jirel of Jory stories. One team of young creators were Fritz Leiber and Harry Fischer, who created between them two of the sub-genre's greatest and most durable heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

This month I'll be looking at those classic Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories along with the relatively few comic book adaptations of those exceedingly clever stories. Expect these looks at Fritz Leiber's famous heroes to be clustered around the weekends.

Also in the "Favorite Cover of the Day" slot the Dojo will be showcasing most of the Sword and  Sorcery characters who have appeared in comics over the last many decades. I included some heroes who actually pre-date the identification of the genre, but who have (to my mind at least) all or nearly all the characteristics of the form.

Also I've been hankering to take a long leisurely look at the classic Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith Conan stories. The development of Smith on that series has always fascinated as it was apparent even to a novice fan like me that he was improving as an artist and a storyteller with each and every installment.

And to add a bit more sorcery to all the swords, I'll also be trying to look at some of my favorite Doc Strange tales. He's a character who has suffered some ups and downs through the decades but with a high-profile movie set to drop next month, this seems a propitious time to refresh my understanding of some of lore of the good Doctor.

Should be a fun month as we laze around in the decadent and decidedly deadly domain of Lankhmar and similar climes.

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