The Dark Crusade

“Mirage”
First Appearance: Death Angel’s Shadow, Warner Paperback Library, 1973
Translations: “Miraggio” (1992) Italian

(EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

I am back with another sampling FROM THE VAULT! This is an episode Jonathan and I recorded around two years ago that never saw the light of day. It is old and unpolished, but it is about Wagner. We hope you enjoy.

Episode notes:

Wagner on Central Weekend

The vampire books of Montague Summers
The Vampire: His Kith and Kin
The Vampire in Europe

Keep watching this space as more pieces FROM THE VAULT as well as some new podcasts and posts will be trickling through in the next several months.

Hosts: Jordan Douglas Smith and Jonathan Gelatt
Theme Music: F. N. York

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

Cold Light
First Appearance: Death Angel’s Shadow, Warner Paperback Library, 1973
Translations: German (1979) Italian (1992)
(Warning: Sexual assault and suicide are discussed in this episode.)

In this episode, we continued our Dark Crusade through Death Angel’s Shadow with the Kane story “Cold Light.” Jonathan and I were excited to have screenwriter and author Oliver Brackenbury join us for the discussion.

In addition to his writing, Brackenbury is also the host to two separate podcasts — Unknown Worlds of the Merril Collection and So I’m Writing a Novel . . . The latter podcast features author interviews and details Brackenbury’s journey writing his own Sword and Sorcery novel. Late last year, I had the chance to sit down with Brackenbury on his show and discuss Karl Edward Wagner and Kane. The episode was posted this week on his website, which you can find here.

Next episode we’ll finish our coverage of Death Angel’s Shadow with the vampiric tale “Mirage.”

Hosts: Jordan Douglas Smith and Jonathan Gelatt
Guest: Oliver Brackenbury
Theme Music: F. N. York

Oliver Brackenbury
Website
Books
So I’m Writing A Novel . . .
Twitter
Patreon

Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword and Sorcery by Brian Murphy
DCC: Empire of the East
Howard Andrew Jones
“Thoughts on Karl Edward Wagner’s ‘Cold Light'” by Jon Zaremba

We can all help prevent suicide. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States.1-800-273-8255

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

Reflections for the Winter of My Soul
First Appearance: Death Angel’s Shadow, Warner Paperback Library, 1973
Translations: German (1979) Italian (1992)

(EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

It has been a long time coming, and it is good to be back. This episode is from the vaults, recorded over a year ago! We’ll be bringing you more podcasts and blog posts soon at a sporadic but higher frequency.

Phil Gelatt joined us for this episode and talks all things structure and werewolf. We also have a great reading from Malcolm Mills to get the episode started. Show notes below.

Hosts: Jordan Douglas Smith and Jonathan Gelatt
Guest: Phil Gelatt
Reader: Malcolm Mills
Theme Music: F. N. York

NecronomiCon Providence
“There Shall Be No Darkness” by James Blish
The Were-wolf in Lore & Legend by Montague Summers
Black Gate review by Fletcher Vredenburgh
VR Food and @vrfood_film
The Beast Must Die!
The Spine of Night

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

Back in the saddle again! We’re offering you the conclusion of our coverage of Dark Crusade. Dear listeners, it pains me that I sat on the raw audio of this episode for roughly two months before I had a chance to sit down and assemble everything. Needless to say, we are all doing our best with unforeseen changes nationally and globally. Please, Wagnerds, do not let the nonmaskers know about Wagner’s “The Fourth Seal.” Agreed?

Personally, things are settling to a certain degree and I find myself living within walking distance of Wagner’s papers. As soon as things begin to safely open, I look forward to continuing the work I started researching Karl Edward Wagner at the John Hay Library. In the meantime Jonathan and I expect to be bringing you episodes once a month again through Death Angel’s Shadow.

Everyone please take in the glory of Tom Kidd’s marvelous painting of Kane in battle. For all you sticklers don’t forget Kane was fighting with both hands! This painting wonderfully captures the chaos and brutality of Kane’s fight. If any Wagnerds are thinking about a present to get for their dear podcaster to hang in his Dark Crusade offices the above painting is for sale. Check out the link below.

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/tom-kidd-dark-crusade

Join us in a month when we crack the spine of Death Angel’s Shadow and discuss “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul”.

Hosts: Jordan Douglas Smith and Jonathan Gelatt
Theme Music: F. N. York

• Gateway e-book artist unknown (2014)
• Dark Phantasms Fanzine#1 art by Bill Black (1976)

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

First published: 1976 Warner Books (“In the Lair of Yslsl” first published in Midnight Sun 1, 1974 edited by Gary Hoppenstand)
Nominated: 1977 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel

This month we are bringing you Part 1 of our coverage of Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane novel Dark Crusade. I recently read Fantasy Newsletter numbers 38 and 39, from July and August 1981, that feature a two-issue interview with Wagner. It is a lengthy interview that covers a lot of Wagner’s thoughts on how his career started and his character Kane. Highly recommended.

I can’t state enough how awesome the painting ‘Dark Kingdom’ by Frank Frazetta is. Earlier, Frazetta had painted a cover for the Kane novel Bloodstone and Wagner claims the sales from that book, which allowed him to publish Dark Crusade, were due solely to the cover art. (I would disagree.) Do yourself a favor and look at a high quality version of ‘Dark Kingdom’ here. I love the detail of his crazed eyes looking down at the skeleton below him. It can’t be fear of the dead, is it fear of what he’s wrought? Brilliant.

Thanks for joining us for another episode as Season 3 ramps up. Next month we’ll be coming back with Part 2 of our coverage of Dark Crusade. Till then, stay safe, healthy, and keep those axes sharp!

Hosts: Jordan Douglas Smith and Jonathan Gelatt
Theme music: F. N. York

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

Raven’s Eyrie
First Appearance: Chacal #2, Spring 1977 eds. Pat Cadigan and Arnie Fenner

(Warning: Sexual Assault is discussed in this episode)

We are back for season three of The Dark Crusade podcast. Once again I’ll be joined by Jonathan Gelatt as co-host as we delve into the second third of Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane stories. Below are links to some of the things mentioned in this episode. And another special thank you to Charles Edward Williams Jr., Rick McCollum, and Rusty Burke for sharing their story about working on Raven’s Eyrie. Check out the cover and pages 1& 9 below.

As far as different iterations of the story go, we forgot to mention the 1993 abridged audio recording by Sunset Productions read by Roger Zelazny. Yes, THAT Zelazny.

Eternal Champion-Armor of Ire is here.

Michael Bukowski-Seventh Church Ministries
Check out his new book here.

‘The Room in the Dragon Volant’ (appears in Through a Glass Darkly) by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

‘The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed’ (appears in After Dark) by Wilkie Collins

A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest by Amelia B. Edwards

And now what you’ve all been waiting for — the pages!

Next episode: The Dark Crusade: Prologue thru Chapter XIII
Co-hosts: Jordan Smith and Jonathan Gelatt
Music: F. N. York

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

Victor LaValle is the author of seven works of fiction and one comic book. His most recent novel, The Changeling, received the World Fantasy Award, the British World Fantasy Award and the Dragon Award for Best Horror novel, among others. His novella, The Ballad of Black Tom, won the Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for the Nubula, Hugo, Bram Stoker and World Fantasy Award among others. It has been translated into nine languages. He lives in New York City with his wife and kids. He teaches at Columbia University.

Interview Schedule:

Wednesday, August 7th: Paul Tremblay
Friday, August 9th: Kenneth Hite
Monday, August 12th: Sonya Taaffe
Wednesday, August 14th: Peter Cannon
Friday, August 16th: Molly Tanzer
Monday, August 19th: Victor LaValle
NecronomiCon Souvenir book exclusive: Dempow Torishima

Information for NecronomiCon 2019—the international festival of weird fiction, art, and academia in Providence, RI. info

Art by Andrea Sparacio info

Music from https://filmmusic.io:
“Symmetry” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

• Art by Andrea Sparacio

Molly Tanzer Molly Tanzer is the author of Creatures of Will and Temper, Creatures of Want and Ruin, and the forthcoming Creatures of Charm and Hunger. She is also the author of the weird western Vermilion, which was an io9 and NPR “Best Book” of 2015, and the British Fantasy Award-nominated collection, A Pretty Mouth. Her Mythos fiction exists within those dark absences in Lovecraft’s own work, whether she’s writing about the Asenath Waite as a cheerleader or a Nepali sherpa struck mute by the colour out of space. She lives in Longmont, CO. 

http://mollytanzer.com

@molly_the_tanz

Interview Schedule:

Wednesday, August 7th: Paul Tremblay
Friday, August 9th: Kenneth Hite
Monday, August 12th: Sonya Taaffe
Wednesday, August 14th: Peter Cannon
Friday, August 16th: Molly Tanzer
Monday, August 19th: Victor LaValle
NecronomiCon Souvenir book exclusive: Dempow Torishima

Information for NecronomiCon 2019—the international festival of weird fiction, art, and academia in Providence, RI. info

Art by Andrea Sparacio info

Music from https://filmmusic.io:
“Symmetry” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

Peter Cannon is the author of H. P. Lovecraft, a volume in Twayne’s U.S. Authors Series; Sunset Terrace Imagery in Lovecraft, an essay collection;The Chronology out of Time: Dates in the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft; and Long Memories: Recollections of Frank Belknap Long, a memoir. He’s the editor of Lovecraft Remembered and the co-editor with S. T. Joshi of More Annotated Lovecraft. His fiction includes Pulptime, a novella in which Lovecraft meets Sherlock Holmes; Scream for Jeeves: A Parody, a mix of Lovecraft and Wodehouse; Forever Azathoth, a story collection; and The Lovecraft Chronicles, a novel in which Lovecraft dies in 1960 instead of 1937.

Interview Schedule:

Wednesday, August 7th: Paul Tremblay
Friday, August 9th: Kenneth Hite
Monday, August 12th: Sonya Taaffe
Wednesday, August 14th: Peter Cannon
Friday, August 16th: Molly Tanzer
Monday, August 19th: Victor LaValle
NecronomiCon Souvenir book exclusive: Dempow Torishima

Information for NecronomiCon 2019—the international festival of weird fiction, art, and academia in Providence, RI. info

Art by Andrea Sparacio info

Music from https://filmmusic.io:
“Symmetry” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/sonya-taaffe-interview-8_12_19.m4a

Sonya Taaffe reads dead languages and tells living stories. Her short fiction and poetry have been collected most recently in Forget the Sleepless Shores (Lethe Press) and previously in Singing Innocence and Experience, Postcards from the Province of Hyphens, A Mayse-Bikhl, and Ghost Signs. She lives with her husband and two cats in Somerville, Massachusetts, where she writes about film for Patreon and remains proud of naming a Kuiper belt object.

a website: http://sonyataaffe.com/

a blog: http://sovay.dreamwidth.org/

and a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sovay

Interview Schedule:

Wednesday, August 7th: Paul Tremblay

Information for NecronomiCon 2019—the international festival of weird fiction, art, and academia in Providence, RI. info

Art by Andrea Sparacio info

Music from https://filmmusic.io:

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/