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This was my third guest appearance with the Rogues and as before, I had a blast. Co-hosts Matt John and Deane Geiken are great dudes, very easy to work with, and always run a good program. The show is up and you can listen here.
Even though we ran an hour and 38 minutes it was not enough time to cover all of the many childhood and adolescent influences that fueled my love of S&S. So, what follows is a more comprehensive list. I’m quite sure I’m missing a few, either forgotten to time or buried deep in my subconscious, driving urges I can no longer articulate. But this must suffice, for now.
These are the notes I was working off for the show so I’m leaving them as notes.
Toys including plastic medieval knights, little green army men, etc. Later Star Wars toys, D&D action figures, etc.
Saturday morning and after school cartoons particularly Thundarr the Barbarian and The Herculoids. Also Transformers, GI Joe, and of all things, the Gummi Bears (this became a running joke on the show).
Kids/adolescent books including The Hobbit, Fire-Hunter by Jim Kjelgaard, Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Monsters by Crestwood House, Monster Tales: Vampires, Werewolves and Things. The Chronicles of Prydain/Lloyd Alexander, Dragonlance, Susan Cooper’s Over Sea and Under Stone, the Narnia books, illustrated Crusades stories, etc. In hindsight I can see how I was being inevitably steered toward sword-and-sorcery by consuming its various components; historical elements, grit and danger, monsters, tough and resourceful heroes, horror, and the weird.
Land of the Lost TV show.
Comics: Savage Sword of Conan, and other direct S&S titles (color CtB, Arak Son of Thunder, occasional issue of Heavy Metal). Also John Carter of Mars, Weird War, and Tarzan.
The comics led me to the Conan Saga Lancer paperbacks with their Frazetta covers.
Time Life Enchanted World series.
Adolescent films including Rankin-Bass Hobbit, Clash of the Titans, Dragonslayer, Krull, The Dark Crystal. Even something like Goonies, for the spirit of adventure and treasure-seeking it evoked in me.
These films inevitably led to more adult movies: Conan the Barbarian (1982), Heavy Metal animated, Excalibur, LadyHawke, The Terminator, Blade Runner.
Tabletop gaming: Tom Moldvay basic D&D (D&D in general, but this edition specifically). White Dwarf magazine, which had fiction, entertaining articles, and great artwork. Artwork in general was to be prized, prior to the internet. It sparked ideas for gaming, and my imagination in general. I later migrated to other RPGs including Runequest, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, etc. And Wargaming (Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Axis and Allies, etc.)
Computer games: Atari, which led to the early CRPGs (Bard’s Tale, Wizardry, Wizard’s Crown)
Heavy metal and its associated imagery (Iron Maiden, Manowar, Judas Priest)
Halloween—I dressed up as a viking one year, a knight another. My favorite holiday, still is.
Stephen King, including the likes of The Stand, Cycle of the Werewolf, the Long Walk, Salem’s Lot, Eyes of the Dragon, etc.
* I also recommend the likes of The Appendix N Podcast, So I'm Writing a Novel, The Cromcast, and the Dark Crusade for their coverage of sword-and-sorcery material.
Downloaded to listen soon.
ReplyDeleteRevisited Clash of the Titans ~2 weeks ago. Held up better than expected, especially the legitimately tense Medusa scene.
Halfway through Chronicles of Prydain re-read after *mumble mumble* decades to see how they hold up. More adolescent than I recall (surely because of how old I was last time I read them).
Not ashamed to have 3 gummi bear funkos in a carefully curated set of about 10.
We may not have played D&D right, but we had a blast doing it!
Hope you enjoy the show man! I didn't mention you by name, but of course you were part of my origin story, too. Many fun hours of D&D, Headbangers Ball, and Gummi Bears :)
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