Podcast appearances and mentions of Gardner F Fox

Clio Yun-su Davis joins us to discuss Gardner F. Fox's "Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse", sexual violence, sword and sorcery LARP ideas, non-stop magical hijinx, video game boob physics, the journey in gaming, using the "rule of cool" with cultural sensitivity in mind, monsters that represent human populations, coincidences as plot devices, creative death curses, power levels for heoric gaming, and much more!

Hoi and Jeff chat with Elizabeth Chaipraditkul about Gardner F. Fox's "Kothar and the Demon Queen", demon summoning, cheesy erotica, sword and sorcery traditions, and much more!

En este capítulo llega Francisco Curihuinca a apoyarnos con lo que lee este mes. Los cómics comentados en este capítulo son: - Vicente: "Heathen 1": autora integral Natasha Alterici; Astiberry Ediciones. "Locke and Key" tomo 1, Guión: Joe Hill, Dibujo Gabriel Rodriguez; Arcano IV ediciones -Francisco: "Líneas de fuga" Guión y Textos: Óscar Gutiérrez; Arte e Ilustración: Cristian Toro; Diagramación: Daniela Venegas; Edición y Producción: Cristobal Florín. La Tregua Gestión Cultural, Colección Lenguas Negras. "Snoopy y Carlitos" (Peanuts) 1960-1961, Charles M Schulz; edición Planeta de Agostini. -Rodrigo: "Green Arrow: Año Uno". Guión: Andy Diggle, Gardner F. Fox, Dibujo: Jock. Edición-Ecc Salvat. Recuerda que también pueden escuchar nuestro #Podcast de #DevorandoComics en: -Ivoox: https://cl.ivoox.com/es/podcast-devorando-comics_sq_f1586450_1.html -spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6dYRuOsPRRM5QM3hjbvuSx?si=psrhTDwLRj-HZ7lwcxP8UQ No olviden visitar #DevorandoComics en: -Web oficial: www.devorandocomics.cl -Twitter: https://twitter.com/dibujosshinzen -Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devorandocomics.cl/ -Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Devorandocomicscl-734381686931505/ -twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/devorandocomics/videos La música de fondo corresponde a: Happy Life - Americana Volume One by Ryan Andersen is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Hoi and Jeff discuss Gardner F. Fox's "Kothar of the Magic Sword!" with special guest Liz Stewart.

J.R.R. Tolkien and perhaps Robert E. Howard aside, no Appendix N author has had as a large a pop culture footprint as Gardner F. Fox, but not for any of the works cited by Gary Gygax. Although hardly a household name today, Gardner Fox was among other things one of the most prolific comic book writers of the 20th Century. Fox was originally a practicing attorney in New York City, but still must have found it hard to make ends meet during the heart of the Great Depression--in 1937 he began writing for DC comics as well as contributing stories to many of the pulp magazines of the era. Over the course of his 30 year career with DC Comics Fox was responsible for such seminal creations as the Golden Age Flash, the Sandman, Doctor Fate, Hawkman, and the Justice Society of America. During the Silver Age of the 1960s, he would help re-vamp the Atom and Hawkman, create the Justice League of America, introduce Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, and write his most famous story, “The Flash of Two Worlds!” (The Flash #123, 1961), which introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics. Fox left or was cut loose from DC Comics in 1968 when the company shamefully declined to give health insurance and other employee benefits to its older writers and artists. He then turned to writing novels and short stories full-time, churning out tales of all genres both under his own name and under at least 15 pen names. Fox’s works included science fiction, fantasy, Westerns, historical fiction, and the sexploitation spy series Lady from L.U.S.T. (as Rod Gray) and Cherry Delight (as Glenn Chase). Among the over 100 novels that Fox would pen over the next decade and half was the first of the Kothar series, Kothar Barbarian Swordsman (Belmont Books, 1969). Kothar Barbarian Swordsman was clearly meant to cash in on Conan/swords and sorcery boom of the era, but an old pro like Fox couldn’t resist having a little fun along the way, such as with the absurdly pompous introduction by “Donald MacIvers, Ph.D” which leaned heavily on the theories of the obscure German philosopher “Albert Kremnitz”. One can’t help but think that Fox was tweaking the likes of L. Sprague de Camp and other well-educated writers who were insecure about toiling in the vineyards of fantastic fiction. Fox by contrast wears his learning lightly, throwing in a myriad of historical but obscure terms such as “hacqueton”, “athanor”, and “cotehardie” more to amuse himself and because he may have liked their sound in a sentence than as a means to place himself above the material. The Kothar stories are presented with economy, craft, and imagination, so it’s not surprising that they stood out to Gary Gygax amidst all of the other derivative swords and sorcery in print at the time. The most well-known borrowing from Kothar in Dungeons & Dragons would be the lich, a powerful sorcerer who has prolonged his life into undeath--Gygax confirmed this borrowing here. Liches made their D&D debut in the Original edition’s Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975) by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz. The lich would then appear in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (1977) and as the demi-lich in the notorious deathtrap module S1: Tomb of Horrors (1978). Gardner Fox and Gary Gygax became friends somewhere in this time period, paving the way for Fox to create the third of his swords and sorcery heroes, Niall of the Far Travels for Dragon magazine. Niall of the Far Travels premiered in issue two of The Dragon (1976) and would eventually appear in 10 stories over the next five years. Gardner F. Fox was a man of many interests and it ultimately fitting that his presence is felt in a broad swath of pop culture from comic books to fantastic fiction to roleplaying games and all the media that have derived from them.

Episode 2 - The Best of 2016 continues with comic book writer and artist interviews hand picked from the archives! In this episode Jamal Igle on the series Black for Black Mask comics & artist Kurt Brugel on Gardner F. Fox and the rebirth of Crom.

Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman by Gardner F. Fox