During the course of my life as a fan and my career as a writer/editor/publisher of comics, books, and other stuff, I’ve been to a great many conventions and fannish events of all sorts. I’ve never tried to count them all, and am sure now that I couldn’t, but it might be a hundred or so. In that time, I’ve often (usually, once I became a pro) been a guest, sometimes even a “special guest.” But I’ve never been a Guest of Honor.
The news about this event, however, seems to be working its way into the public, so I guess it’s safe to talk about it (and mentioning it won’t somehow magically undo it).
There are lots of cool aspects to this.
First and foremost, I grew up a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, or ERB–first via Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies on TV, then through the NBC-TV series that launched in 1966, that greatest of all years for television. I even had the Mattel Thingmaker, with a mold you poured liquid “Plasti-Goop” in to make rubber figures of Tarzan, his knife, a chimp, and some other accessories (which I then painted to beautifully resemble Ron Ely and company).
Not long after that, I discovered the novels. Not just Tarzan, but John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, etc. It didn’t hurt that a lot of them had Frank Frazetta covers (and my discovery of ERB novels came around the same time as my discovery of Conan and other sword-and-sorcery heroes, so I had lots of available reading matter to catch up on).
Fast forward to my writing career, in which I got to write three Age of Conan novels, tying into the just-launched Age of Conan massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Having thus put my sandal prints into the sands of Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age, I sought new old worlds to conquer.
Eventually, fandom took me to Willcox, Arizona, up the road from where I had once lived, north of the border town of Douglas and at the southern end of the Sulphur Springs Valley (Willcox is toward the northern end), when I accompanied my friend, True West Magazine executive editor, writer, and artist Bob Boze Bell to the 2019 Dum-Dum. A dum-dum, in ERB’s works, is a ritual of the great apes of Africa. In the world of ERB fandom, it’s a gathering, with guest speakers and merchandise for sale and–primarily–an opportunity for fans to get together and share their love for the works of one of America’s most popular writers. (I could also mention here that Burroughs was a HUGE influence on my late friend Ray Bradbury, who famously said “Edgar Rice Burroughs was, and is, the most influential writer, bar none, of our century.”) The significance of Willcox is that it’s the only town of any size near the site of Fort Grant, where ERB was stationed in the waning days of the Apache Wars, an experience that doubtless played into his imaginative stories. It’s also in the vicinity of the cave through which John Carter was somehow teleported to Mars, so it’s important in the life of ERB and of his second-greatest creation.
At that Dum-Dum, not only did I meet some genuinely wonderful Burroughs fans like Frank Puncer, who organized it, and Jess Terrell and Bill Hillman–Burroughs scholars and fans who together have done wonders at keeping ERB’s works and life alive for the fan community–but I also met the crew from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., the company ERB founded to publish his own books the way he thought they should be published.
That, ultimately, led to me being able to write a Tarzan novella–Tarzan and the Forest of Stone. Writing it was a sheer joy, and having it published by the man’s own company–in which Burroughs family members remain involved and active–was an honor never to be forgotten. If you haven’t read it, it’s not too late!
And that book, and the friendships I made at the Dum-Dum, will, this September, bring me back to Willcox, as a Guest of Honor for the first time. This event is an Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) gathering, not a Dum-Dum, but it will once again bring Burroughs fans, scholars, and at least one Burroughs family member together to celebrate the life and work of the great man. The ECOFs are sponsored by the Burroughs Bibliophiles, one of the nation’s oldest organizations devoted to the work of a single author.
In addition to all that, the Burroughs Bibliophiles, the Burroughs family, the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society, and the city of Willcox will be placing a plaque commemorating ERB’s service with the 7th Cavalry at Fort Grant. If you’d like to attend–and I hope you will–here’s the registration form.
I have, incidentally, written about Willcox in two novels (and maybe more). In my novel DC Universe: Trail of Time, I call it Willson, and it’s the place where Superman meets Jonah Hex and some other DC Comics Western heroes. In my Cody Cavanaugh novel The McKittrick Ransom (temporarily out of print, but coming back soon!), it’s called Maley, which was its real name before it became Willcox (which is when the book is based, so Maley is authentic to the period). Willcox is, among other things, the hometown of cowboy singing star Rex Allen (who also narrated all those Disney nature movies you’ve seen if you’re anywhere near my age), and the location of the Willcox Commercial Company, which is the oldest continuously operating store in Arizona. Apache leader Geronimo shopped there, and you can, too.
So this has been a long post, but it’s kind of a big deal to me. If you can make it to Willcox in late September, do it!
#Tags: Dum-Dum, ECOF, Edgar Rice BUrroughs, ERB, John Carter, Sulphur Springs Valley, Tarzan, Willcox
