Hello all,

I have some nagging questions re TSR periodicals and would appreciate any help...

Do we know how many of the Strategic Review publications were printed?  There was a discussion of The Dragon print runs a while back - I wonder if there's any data for SRs.

Which of the later issues of Dragon/Dungeon are most desireable?  For instance, I understand the Maure Castle Dungeons 112 and 124 are sought after - any others qualify as collectible or otherwise just extra-interesting?

And finally, why are the back covers of early Dragon magazines printed upside-down?

Thanks everyone,
David

Kaskoid wrote:The only thing upside down was the return address logo. We did that for a reason. In the early issues, we did not have a protective mailing cover, but just stuck the labels on the magazines in the space provided. I flipped the return, and applied the labels accordingly, so that the mailman would grasp the spine when reading the addressee name and address. This made the covers much less likely to bet creased and torn.

Martian Metals often had their ads printed upside down on the back cover.

As a special Christmas gift, I went ahead and published the new "Print Run Estimates" page from the upcoming site update.  It has a nice block of info on Dragon magazine print runs, among others:

http://www.acaeum.com/library/printrun.html

Foul

P.S.  I promise, the site update will be coming soon.

Is that avatar the incomparable Robert E Howard?  Pardon me if I'm the only one who didn't recognize him straight away  

Much obliged for the info Mr. Kask, and thanks for the print run summary, Foul!

Cheers,
David

davidc wrote:Is that avatar the incomparable Robert E Howard?  

I think this has been discussed before - seemingly it is (though I always think of Marks's Avatar as being Al Capone )

FormCritic wrote:
I think it's Howard trying to look like Al Capone.  Seriously.

The picture is so unlike the man's biography that I wonder at the circumstances.  Howard would have been a great gamer.  He was always playing various characters.

I'm going entirely by memory here, IIRC Howard made this photo as kind of a joke, and was definitely "gangstering" it up while hamming for the camera.  So yeh Mark was right he was basically "playing" a part for the camera....he would have been much more comfortable, and more likely to be seen, in plain out ordinary clothing.

I always think it would be hilarious to find Howard's reaction to the fact "Hey, they made a movie about your love story with Novalyne Price.....and it was better than the movies based on your fiction". I actually think it would have pissed him off, being the person he was.  He definitely wouldn't have thought any part of his private life should be grist for a movie or book.  And he would have wondered with all the marvels of today's filmmaking how come they hadn't made a decent flick based on Solomon Kane or Kull (as pedestrian as the Conan movies are, he probably would have loved them).

Now, his buddy Lovecraft's reactions to any of the films based on HIS works would have probably been unprintable....  

Mike B.

FormCritic wrote:(or...it occurs to me, 3971 posts on the Acaeum).

The SO has once commented that it's a good thing Lovecraft was born too early to have access to the Internet.  He'd never have written anything, instead spending all his time posting his outrage to various forums.