Heroes of Dark Fantasy, Returning from the Aether…
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
posted by Al Harron
I’m from a family of computer users: my uncle worked at the old IBM installation, and we all got a bit obsessed with technology. I was on the Net comparatively early compared to my classmates, probably about ’95 or ’96. Still, it wasn’t until ten years later or thereabouts that I discovered Dale Rippke’s “Heroes of Dark Fantasy,” which I stumbled upon in my search for Conan and Howard on the internet.
“Heroes” was a revelation to me: extrapolating ideas and theories based on Howard’s stories in a “pseudo-historical” context was something that I found riveting. I distinctly remember being awestruck by Dale’s pieces on the Acheronians, Proto-Stygians, the Green-Stone City builders and more, essays that lit a fire in me that I’ve been tending to this day. His later theories on the lands beyond those mapped by Howard in his “To The Styx and Beyond” and “The Blue East” essays should be considered the standard for future Hyborian cartographers. My Hyborian Age Gazetteer series is directly inspired by Dale’s own Gazetteer Hyboria. I have my copy of The Hyborian Heresies standing proudly next to The Dark Barbarian, The Barbaric Triumph, and my various issues of The Cimmerian and Two-Gun Raconteur on the Robert E. Howard Scholarship shelf in my miniature library.
Dale’s absence from the Net in the past few years has formed a noticeable gap in Hyborian and Thurian studies. However, Paul McNamee has alerted us that Heroes of Dark Fantasy is making its grand return from the Four-Hundred-and-Four Acre Not-Found Forest. Thus far, only the Kane pages have been uploaded, but I’m sure the links to Brak, Conan, Druss, Elric, Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, Imaro and Kull will follow, and that one of the top names in Hyborian studies will make his triumphant return.
A lot has happened since Dale took a break from Howard studies: Howard on the Silver Screen (or something purporting to be), the doom of The Cimmerian journal, the loss of Steve Tompkins and others. The return of the Hyborian Heretic could only mean more lively debate and insight into our favourite author and the genre which he founded.