Karl Edward Wagner

Karl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 14 October 1994) was an American writer, poet, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He wrote numerous dark fantasy and horror stories. As an editor, he created a three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction restored to its original form as written, and edited the long-running and genre-defining The Year's Best Horror Stories series for DAW Books. His Carcosa publishing company issued four volumes of the best stories by some of the major authors of the so-called Golden Age pulp magazines. He is possibly best known for his creation of a series of stories featuring the character Kane, the Mystic Swordsman.

His disillusionment with the medical profession can be detected in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into Whose Hands". He described his personal philosophy as nihilistic, anarchistic and absurdist, and claimed, not entirely seriously, to be related to "an opera composer named "Richard". Wagner also admired the cinema of Sam Peckinpah, stating "I worship the film The Wild Bunch".

Wagner was the fourth and youngest child of Aubrey J. Wagner and Dorothea Huber. His father was an official of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Wagner earned a history degree from Kenyon College in 1967, and a psychiatry degree from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. As noted above, he disliked the medical profession, which he abandoned upon establishing himself as a writer.

Wagner was productive as both a writer and editor/anthologist; see below. His friends included the writer Manly Wade Wellman, two of whose collections he published with the Carcosa publishing imprint.

Wagner died in his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on October 14, 1994, essentially of the consequences of longterm alcoholism. It was reported in a late 1994 issue of the Newsletter of the Horror Writers of America that Wagner's causes of death were heart failure and liver failure.

Exorcisms and Ecstasies,a posthumous volume of uncollected stories, miscellany and tributes was published by small press publisher Fedogan & Bremer during 1997. Night Shade Books has published the complete Kane stories (novels and shorts) in two hardcover volumes.

Some of Wagner's work is set in Robert E. Howard's universe (featuring Conan the Barbarian and Bran Mak Morn); he also edited three volumes of Howard's original Conan tales, important to purists for being the first to restore the texts to their originally published form. His three volumes of Echoes of Valor also featured restored versions of pulp-era fantasy stories by authors such as Fritz Leiber, C. L. Moore, Henry Kuttner, and Nictzin Dyalhis. Wagner wrote an unpublished Bran Mak Morn novel, Queen of the Night, which was originally scheduled to be published by Zebra books during 1978 and Ace Books during 1980.[Refer to David Drake's Newsletter #105 in which he states 'Queen of the Night' was never written.]

Kane, the Mystic Swordsman

Wagner created his own mystical and immortal pre-historical anti-hero, Kane, whose name and background are based on traditional conceptions of the biblical Cain. A powerful, left-handed warrior-sorcerer with red hair and blue eyes, the character was described by Wagner as one "who could master any situation intellectually, or rip heads off if push came to shove". Kane is an immortal, somewhat like the Wandering Jew (or more specifically, Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer, a novel which Wagner cites as a major influence in his essay "The Once and Future Kane"). Kane's character also includes elements of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane. He is an immortal, cursed to wander the earth until he is destroyed by the violence that he himself has created. He sells his loyalty as a fighter to the highest bidder. He is a well-read and intelligent man who has traveled his world for centuries and is able to discuss music, poetry, politics, and many other subjects. He is also amoral and a born killer. The Kane stories are often classified as tales of sword and sorcery (although Wagner disliked the term), which some critics have compared favourably to those of Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock. In his story "The Gothic Touch", Kane actually encounters Moorcock's albino anti-hero Elric.The character Kane is considered one of the most memorable and original anti-heroes of heroic fantasy.

Inspired by the sword and sorcery adventures of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and Robert E. Howard's mighty-thewed barbarian Conan the Cimmerian, Wagner set about creating his own fantasy character while still attending medical school. The result was initially published as a paperback original during 1970 by West Coast pornography publisher Powell Publications, with a lurid cover. The text of the novel was altered by an unknown copyeditor to conform with the cover art.

After publishing a pseudonymous pornographic novel with a small New York company, Wagner relinquished his chance to become a doctor and instead decided to write full-time. During 1973, Warner Paperback library publishedDeath Angel's Shadow, which collected the three original Kane novellas. He also began selling his stories and poems regularly to the growing small press magazine market. Several of his tales were published in Gary Hoppenstand's Midnight Sunn, a magazine initially devoted to Kane and the new school of epic fantasy writers. This was followed by publication of the first Kane novel, Bloodstone, during 1975. Warner Books commissioned a cover painting by Frank Frazetta (who had helped revive the Conan franchise, and who would paint a number of future covers for the series) and Wagner's writing career improved.

After a novel featuring Howard's Pictish hero Bran Mak Morn, Wagner's next Kane book was Dark Crusade (1976). A Kane story published elsewhere, "Two Suns Setting", won the 1977 British Fantasy Award and was also a World Fantasy Award nominee. Wagner published other Kane stories in magazines such as Chacal, Whispers and Escape! during 1977. Gerald W. Page, then editor of DAW Books Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Stories began to reprint Kane tales in the anthology series. Night Winds, a collection of six previously published Kane tales followed (Warner Books, 1978). The publisher also reissued all previous Kane books including a new edition of Darkness Weaves which reinstated the author's preferred text.

The Book of Kane was the last published volume of Kane material (1985) until Night Shade Books' omnibus editions of novels and tales.

A proposed fourth Kane novel, In the Wake of the Night, was never completed, although an excerpt was published as part of a World Fantasy Convention souvenir book of 1981; this also appears in the collection Midnight Sun (2003).

In 2004, it was reported that movie producer Lauren Moews had "acquired Death Angel's Shadow, and will produce a film based upon "Reflections for the Winter of My Soul," which is the first of three short stories comprising Death Angel's Shadow. The other two short stories, "Cold Light" and "Mirage," are waiting in the wings to be developed into a possible KANE franchise for Tonic Films".[1] As of 2017 the movie has not entered production.

Other writings

Besides the Kane books, Wagner wrote contemporary horror stories (some of which, like "At First Just Ghostly", also feature Kane). These were collected in the books In a Lonely Place (1983), Why Not You and I? (1987) and the posthumous Exorcisms and Ecstasies (1997). They range from the very literate and allusive (such as "The River of Night's Dreaming", which refers to Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show and the myth of Carcosa used in the work of Ambrose Bierce and Robert W. Chambers), to the pulpy and parodic (such as "Plan Ten from Inner Space", a crazed homage to Ed Wood's magnum opus Plan 9 from Outer Space). His later stories, such as "But You'll Never Follow Me" and "Silted In", were described by Ramsey Campbell as tormented and deeply personal; some deal explicitly with drug addiction (e.g. "More Sinned Against") and sexual subjects, including psychological repression (e.g. "Brushed Away") and transsexualism (e.g. "Lacunae").

During 1983 Wagner won the World Fantasy Award for his horror novella "Beyond Any Measure" and the British Fantasy Award during 1984 for "Neither Brute Nor Human".

With his friends Jim Groce and David Drake, who were concerned that Arkham House would cease publication after the death of its founder, August Derleth, Wagner formed the Carcosa publishing house in North Carolina during 1973 to preserve the work of their favorite pulp magazine horror writers in hard covers. Carcosa Press published four substantial volumes of horror tales: Murgunstrumm and Others by Hugh B. Cave, Far Lands, Other Days by E. Hoffmann Price, Worse Things Waiting and Lonely Vigils, both by Manly Wade Wellman. All books were edited by Wagner and illustrated profusely. A fifth collection was planned, Death Stalks the Night, by Hugh B. Cave; Lee Brown Coye was working on illustrating it when he died, causing Carcosa to abandon the project. The book was eventually published by Fedogan & Bremer.Wagner later acted as the literary agent for Manly Wade Wellman's estate.

Wagner collaborated with Drake on Killer, a science fiction horror novel set during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian.

The illustrator of Murgunstrumm and Worse Things Waiting was the noted Weird Tales artist Lee Brown Coye. Coye's macabre designs, incorporating mysterious lattices of twigs, were the inspiration for Wagner's British Fantasy Award-winning story "Sticks".

A connoisseur of rare horror stories, Wagner perspicaciously edited many horror and fantasy anthologies; perhaps his greatest achievement of this topic was the annual anthology series The Year's Best Horror Stories (DAW Books), which he edited for fourteen years from volume VIII (1980) until volume XXII (1994). The series was canceled after Wagner's death. However, while the original editions were paperback originals, Underwood-Miller preserved the series in a set of three limited edition hardcovers.

Wagner was a frequent visitor to London to attend fantasy and horror conventions. Though he continued to edit, producing three volumes of the heroic fantasy anthology Echoes of Valor for Tor Books during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and published a steady sequence of short stories (most of which were apparently written some years earlier), his most productive time was finished. In the story "The Gothic Touch", Kane teams up with the albino warrior-sorcerer Elric in a tribute anthology honouring the fiction of Michael Moorcock (Tales of the White Wolf).

Wagner wrote several unproduced screenplays and treatments including a movie script for Conan III for movie producer Dino De Laurentiis and a TV script based on Robert E. Howards "The Horror on the Mound" (for Tales from the Darkside).

Wagner provided the Foreword to "Fat Face", a Cthulhu Mythos tale by Michael Shea published as a standalone book by Axolotl Press, 1987.

Audio, television and comics adaptations

Audio

Several Wagner works were adapted for audio cassette readings, including:

• "Sticks" Adapted by Meatball Fulton, as part of the radio series The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz. Directed by Bill Raymond. Fort Edward, NY: ZBS Foundation, 1984. (A dramatic reading of Wagner's story plus two stories by Craig Strete). This recording was re-issued by ZBZ Foundation on audio CD in 1998, combined with a story by Meatball Fulton and Tom Lopez.
• "Sticks"Unabridged reading by Patrick Macnee on Dove Audo four-cassette anthology The Greatest Horror of the 20th Century, ed. Martin Greenberg. LA: New Star Publishing, 1998.
• Night Winds. A Kane audio collection containing three stories on two cassettes; narrated by Roger Zelazny. Santa Fe, NM: Sunset Productions, 1993.
• Raven's Eyrie. A Kane story on two audio cassettes; narrated by Roger Zelazny. Santa Fe, NM: Sunset Productions, 1993.

Television

"The River of Night's Dreaming" was adapted for the TV series The Hunger during 1998.

Sticks provided the inspiration for the lattice type structures used in the television series True Detective.

Graphic novels

Wagner was involved with several comics ventures. His Kane story "In the Lair of Yslsl" (which was later incorporated into the Kane novel Dark Crusade) was adapted by Bill Whitcomb and Steve Vance, and illustratedby Vance, Wes Smith and Bill Black for the graphic medium in Dark Phantasms 1, Summer 1976. During 1993 Wagner co-wrote the graphic novel Tell Me Dark with John Ney Reiber and Kent Williams, contributing original characters and situations. It was published by DC Comics in both hardcover and trade paperback.

At the time of his death, he had just finished compiling Exorcisms and Ecstasies, and had started working on two novels - The Fourth Seal and Tell Me, Dark, the latter based on the graphic novel he disowned.