Aug 25
Click for larger imageChauncey Comments: “We’re gonna need a bigger coop!”
Published 1979
(Average: 4.00 out of 10)
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Chauncey Comments: “We’re gonna need a bigger coop!”
Published 1979
(Average: 4.00 out of 10)Loading...
(9.27 out of 10) (9.22 out of 10) (9.03 out of 10) (9.02 out of 10) (9.02 out of 10) (8.98 out of 10) (8.97 out of 10) (8.97 out of 10) (8.95 out of 10) (8.94 out of 10)
August 25th, 2022 at 12:45 pm
Lens flares … of the Hyborian Age.
Actually, “Pigeons from Hell” is not one of Howard’s sword-and-sorcery tales. It’s more of a Southern gothic. So there are several historical inaccuracies on the cover. For one thing, the woman should be wearing gingham.
And it’s also a short story, not a novel. So unless this is an anthology with other tales, it’s going to be one thin book.
Trivia: There was a TV adaption of this story a long time ago. It was an episode of Boris Karloff’s Thriller television series, airing in June 1961. It’s one of the top-rated episodes from the show. But they changed it because of the racial element of Howard’s story. The story can be found online and is worth a read.
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20170655
August 25th, 2022 at 2:16 pm
The force field is dropping on the Death Spire, now Luke has his only chance to rescue Princess Leia from the clutches of Darth Loin Cloth.
August 25th, 2022 at 2:17 pm
@Tor Mented
All very true, but back in ’79 Howard was much better known for Conan (and comics thereoff) than he was as a horror writer. Perhaps that’s why they’ve used what looks like an inventory cover left over from the Conan books for a collection of his horror stories?
August 25th, 2022 at 3:45 pm
@Max: True, but a reader expecting sword and sorcery might feel it’s a bait-and-switch if it doesn’t contain any.
I looked up the contents and can’t tell if any of these stories are sword and sorcery. I have read several of them and can rule them out as s-and-s, though.
7 • Introduction (Pigeons from Hell) • (1976) • essay by Glenn Lord
11 • Pigeons from Hell • (1938) • novelette by Robert E. Howard
53 • The Gods of Bal-Sagoth • [Turlogh O’Brien] • (1931) • novelette by Robert E. Howard
105 • People of the Dark • (1932) • short story by Robert E. Howard
133 • The Children of the Night • [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] • (1931) • short story by Robert E. Howard
155 • The Dead Remember • (1936) • short story by Robert E. Howard
167 • The Man on the Ground • (1933) • short story by Robert E. Howard
177 • The Garden of Fear • [James Allison] • (1934) • novelette by Robert E. Howard
201 • The Thing on the Roof • [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] • (1932) • short story by Robert E. Howard
215 • The Hyena • (1928) • short story by Robert E. Howard
233 • Dig Me No Grave • [Cthulhu Mythos Tales] • (1937) • short story by Robert E. Howard
253 • The Dream Snake • (1928) • short story by Robert E. Howard
263 • In the Forest of Villefère • [De Montour] • (1925) • short story by Robert E. Howard
269 • Old Garfield’s Heart • (1933) • short story by Robert E. Howard
283 • The Voice of El-Lil • (1930) • novelette by Robert E. Howard
August 25th, 2022 at 3:53 pm
Pigeons from Hell?
Hm, must be a true story of the big city….
August 25th, 2022 at 4:00 pm
I have read most of those stories. Of all I remember, only The Gods of Bal-Sagoth would possibly qualify as swords and sorcery. Though I may be remembering the Marvel Comics adaptation (with one of the characters converted to Conan, of course) more than the original short story.
Oh, and though I wouldn’t rate the quality as high, it does appear that the cobras were drawn by someone who had actually seen a picture of a cobra before, so kudos to Mr. Maroto for that, at least.
August 25th, 2022 at 4:06 pm
There has to be a better way to lance that boil on her knee.
August 25th, 2022 at 5:12 pm
I prepared to be convinced that the title is actually pretty decent one for Howard’s story but pairing it with this image just looks like taking the piss. (Of course we know that it’s really just incompetence and or money grubbing.)
August 25th, 2022 at 8:42 pm
That rearing cobra seems to be laughing, probably because he’s about to bite Conan on the bum.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:04 pm
Publisher: “Saay…! Who painted this cover?”
Editor: “Some Spanish guy. He’s really good at making boobs look tasteful.”
August 25th, 2022 at 9:25 pm
A remarkably unbloody axe.
Pigeon from hell…The Pretenders, ‘Back on the chaingang’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK3uf5V0pDA
August 26th, 2022 at 1:40 am
Pigeons From Hell. Or as most of us simply say, Pigeons.
Faux-nan’s got weird abs. Baby got back, and thighs, and… IDK what’s going on with her right leg.
I wonder if there are any cobras, barbarians, barbarian women, or winged evil in any of the stories? The title one certainly wasn’t, and I can see why it had to be changed for TV. Yikes; I suppose we ought to be glad he used the then-polite “Negroes” at least.
August 26th, 2022 at 2:03 am
This cover’s for the birds.
Blond-nan won’t rest until he gets his left bootie back!
August 26th, 2022 at 2:53 am
@ex-noob: somewhere, an older version on the blonde is looking at ths cover and singing: I found a picture of you, ohhh, those were the happiest days of my life.
Or maybe Fauxnan’s singing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zTuWPjYDL8
Another hellish pigeon song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO5GWJJP3FM
August 26th, 2022 at 12:18 pm
@GSS ex-noob
“I wonder if there are any cobras, barbarians, barbarian women, or winged evil in any of the stories?”
There isn’t in the stories in that collection (I’m pretty sure) but there is a Conan story with an inaccessible tower he has to rescue a ladyfriend from by getting one of the local Wingmen who the evil wizard (of course) has in his employ to fly him in over the field of black lotus that surrounds the tower.
That’s why I said I think this might be an inventory cover left over from the publisher’s last salvo of Conan reprints. Hadn’t Karl Edward Wagner started the campaign for real Conan and done the first set of Howard-only Conan collections a year or two before this book came out in ’79?
August 26th, 2022 at 11:51 pm
@Max: Your recycled cover idea is certainly plausible. They just slapped a leftover Conan cover and a big reference to the Cimmerian on this, ignoring the fact that there’s no barbarian action in this book.
August 27th, 2022 at 5:30 pm
The bouncers at the ren faire have gotten a little aggressive