Skull-Face

=Skull-Face= From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia {| cellspacing="3" class="infobox" style="border-color:rgb(170,170,170);color:black;margin-top:0.5em;margin-right:0px;line-height:1.5em;border-spacing:3px;width:22em;" ! colspan="2" style="vertical-align:top;text-align:center;font-size:14px;"|"Skull-Face" ! scope="row" style="vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap;"|Author ! scope="row" style="vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap;"|Country ! scope="row" style="vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap;"|Language ! scope="row" style="vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap;"|Genre(s) ! scope="row" style="vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap;"|Published in ! scope="row" style="vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap;"|Publication type ! scope="row" style="vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap;"|Publication date Skull-Face is a story written by Robert E. Howard, which appeared as a serial in Weird Tales magazine, beginning in October 1929, and ending in December, 1929.[1]  The story stars a character called Steve Costigan but this is not Howard's recurring character, Sailor Steve Costigan. While not of  Chinese  descent, "Egyptian" arch-villain " Kathulos " (then revealed to be a survived  Atlantean ) of  Robert E. Howard 's  Skull-Face  novella is inspired by Fu Manchu.Many of REH'S villians,also inpart are inspired by Fu Manchu. [5] [6] [7]  "Comrade Li" in  Peter George 's  Commander-1  (1965) is essentially the same type of villain—despite his name having only a thin veneer of Communism or  Marxism, being rather a suave philosopher steeped in ancient Chinese learning—whose cold-blooded machinations bring about a  nuclear holocaust  in which nearly all humanity perishes (including China, which he sought to make great) and who eventually meets a suitable gruesome and ignominious end.
 * style="vertical-align:top;"|Robert E. Howard
 * style="vertical-align:top;"|United States
 * style="vertical-align:top;"|English
 * style="vertical-align:top;"|Adventure
 * style="vertical-align:top;"|Weird Tales
 * style="vertical-align:top;"|Pulp magazine
 * style="vertical-align:top;"|Oct-Dec 1929
 * }



Contents
[hide]  *1 Plot  ==Plot[edit] == The story begins with Steve Costigan drearily waking in Yu Shantu's Temple of Dreams, a hashish den in the city of London, England. He has been re-occurring dreams of something he calls "Skull Face", and is puzzled about their meanings. He is broke, and in need of more hashish, the drug he is addicted to. When confronted by the doorman, Hassim, Costigan informs him of his lack of funds. Hassim promptly throws him out through the front door to the den. Bruised and bleeding, Costigan is helped to his feet by a young woman, Zulieka. ==Creation[edit] == Sax Rohmer was a major influence upon Robert E.Howard [2]. Rohmer was one of the most successful writers of "weird adventure" during the early 20th century [3] ). His most famous creation, and the primary influence upon Skull-Face, is the Insidious Doctor Fu Manchu ( http://www.njedge.ne...pp/FuFrames.htm ). Rohmer wrote three initial Fu Manchu novels, the last, The Hand of Fu Manchu, being published in 1917. By the time that REH wrote Skull-Face, the time for a "new Fu Manchu" was ripe. However, it appears that Howard had been reading other works by the prolific Rohmer before he created his "weird menace" masterpiece. One of the most likely is Brood of the Witch-Queen (my favorite Rohmer novel, BTW). The antagonist, Antony Ferrara, is a resurrected Egyptian who makes his advent in Khartoum (by way of the Sahara), rumours of his coming whispering before him as he advances on Cairo. He is closely associated with "scorpions" and "the scorpion wind". He possesses a "reptilian glance", just as his literary descendant, Kathulos. Ferrara's adversaries are two "primitive Celtic" Scotsmen by the name of "Cairn". Another influential Rohmer villain appears to be Fo-Hi, the Golden Scorpion. A satellite of Fu Manchu, the Golden Scorpion appeared in two of Rohmer's "Gaston Max" novels: The Yellow Claw and The Golden Scorpion [4]. Howard's Skull-Face/Kathulos was a resurrected "mummy", connected with Egypt, who possessed a miraculous "elixir". When Rohmer revived his Fu Manchu series in the 1930's, he hinted that the "Devil Doctor" bore a curious resemblance to an Egyptian mummy and had Fu concoct his own "elixir". Very likely, Rohmer simply took the same ideas from HIS OWN NOVELS (that REH used earlier) to embroider the "new, improved Fu Manchu", with Rohmer's "inspiration" springing from the same source as Howard's: the earlier novels (and concepts) of Sax Rohmer. Still, one has to wonder...
 * 2 Creation
 * 3 References
 * 4 External links

Before he created Skull-Face/Kathulos, Howard had never really managed to depict a truly compelling, epic villain, IMO. Louinet has pointed out the very likely possibility that REH "cannibalized" the characters of Thulsa Doom and Kuthulos from the Kull yarn, The Cat and the Skull/"Delcardes' Cat" to create Kathulos of Atlantis. IMO, Thulsa Doom (about whom REH only wrote ONE unpublished-in-his-lifetime yarn) is basically "Skeletor on 'Roids", if that. Kathulos of Atlantis, OTOH, is a powerful enough creation to impress everyone from HPL to Karl Edward Wagner. A great villain is essential to many S&S tales. REH nailed down the crafting of THAT particular ingredient in Skull-Face. From there, Howard would go on to threaten the world with the likes of Natohk/Thugra Khotan and Xaltotun, both lineal descendants of the "Rohmeresque villain". The influence of Rohmer was all over the 20th century's pulp/pop-culture. Ian Fleming freely admitted to being a Rohmer fan from childhood. Dr. No is also a "son of Fu Manchu", just as Xaltotun and Kathulos. If a hero is defined by his adversaries, one could say that Rohmer was one of the "grandfathers" of both Conan and James Bond. ==References[edit] == ==External links<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] ==
 * 1) <span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px1px1px1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute!important;height:1px!important;width:1px!important;">Jump up ^ The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, pages 194-320. Cosmos Books, July 2007
 * 2) <span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px1px1px1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute!important;height:1px!important;width:1px!important;">Jump up ^ (see: http://www.rehupa.com/bookshelf_r.htm ; click on "Rohmer")
 * 3) <span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px1px1px1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute!important;height:1px!important;width:1px!important;">Jump up ^ (see: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rohmer.htm
 * 4) <span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px1px1px1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute!important;height:1px!important;width:1px!important;">Jump up ^ ( http://www.njedge.net/~knapp/Max.htm )