In the first part of this article, a few paragraphs from the Foreword of Philip José Farmer’s novel A Feast Unknown were presented, describing how the narrator, Lord Grandrith, was certain that his biological father was Jack the Ripper. That father would also go on to sire James “Doc” Caliban, Farmer’s pastiche of Doc Savage.Continue reading “Clark Savage, Sr. and the Victorian World of A Feast Unknown – Part 3”
Tag Archives: A Feast Unknown
Clark Savage Sr., Idealist or Monster? – Victorian Roots to 20th Century Pulps, Part 2
Doc Savage’s father is mentioned in many of the pulp novels, but only in the context of his strange obsession to turn his son into a superman, trained and equipped to fight the evils of the world. Why would he do such a thing? The concept is intensely extreme…and yet what drove the elder SavageContinue reading “Clark Savage Sr., Idealist or Monster? – Victorian Roots to 20th Century Pulps, Part 2”
A Feast Unknown Sketchbook
In this month’s earlier blog post, Painting Into Books: The Creation of Readable Art, there are dynamic visual samples of Iason Ragnar Bellerophon’s method of painting directly onto the pages of books. That technique did not begin with the painted books of the Talos Saga. Years before undertaking that epic project, Iason was drawing ontoContinue reading “A Feast Unknown Sketchbook”
A Feast Unknown: 52 years later – climax and aftermath
Nobody moved. They could not accept what they had seen. And when their senses thawed, they began to realize what they faced. That line from A Feast Unknown could well summarize the experience of reading the novel. It was, in essence, one hammer-blow after another, leaving the reader stunned. This was not just because ofContinue reading “A Feast Unknown: 52 years later – climax and aftermath”
A Feast Unknown: 52 years later – Part 2 of 3
The French title for A Feast Unknown is La Jungle Nue, “The Naked Jungle”…in Italy it is Festa di Morte, “The Feast of Dead Men”. But it seemed they missed the subtlety in Farmer’s title. Not all editions have it, but most show this stanza from the poem Evolution before the story begins. The poet,Continue reading “A Feast Unknown: 52 years later – Part 2 of 3”
A Feast Unknown: 52 years later – Part 1 of 3
The Philip José Farmer novel A Feast Unknown debuted in 1969, published by Essex House. I’ve told the story before of how I encountered it four years later, in 1973 at age fifteen. At that time I was living in the beach town of Ocean City, Maryland. Strictly speaking, my family was actually homeless, squattingContinue reading “A Feast Unknown: 52 years later – Part 1 of 3”
Two Holy Mountains: Philip José Farmer and Alejandro Jodorowsky
Turning back the calendar fifty years, it was an exciting time in society for pushing the boundaries of creativity. It’s hard sometimes to see a clear pathway to who influenced whom, particularly when many concepts are being channeled through a period of cultural extremes. Two strong iconoclastic voices of that period were author Philip JoséContinue reading “Two Holy Mountains: Philip José Farmer and Alejandro Jodorowsky”
A Feast Unknown cover art through the decades
There have been a lot of editions of Philip José Farmer’s A Feast Unknown novel through the years since it was first published over fifty years ago. Because of the intensely visceral quality of the story, it offers a wide range of approaches for publishers to take in presenting it, from restrained to lurid. PriorContinue reading “A Feast Unknown cover art through the decades”
Richard Corben, A Feast Unknown artist, 1940-2020
The previous claimant to the phrase “The Ultimate Forbidden Doc Savage” when it comes to the combination of writing and art, would certainly be the 1975 Fokker D-LXIX Press (A Subsidiary of Acme Zeppelin Co.) edition of A Feast Unknown, with illustrations by Richard Corben. I encountered the art of Richard Corben in my teens,Continue reading “Richard Corben, A Feast Unknown artist, 1940-2020”
A Feast Unknown On Stage
The article below, written by Jason Robert Bell (AKA Iason Ragnar Bellerophon) appeared in issue #2 of the Philip José Farmer fanzine Farmerphile, back in 2005. Ten years later R. Paul Sardanas acquired a copy of it, and it became the catalyst for the author and artist to join forces in the creation of DocContinue reading “A Feast Unknown On Stage”
Doc Talos 