Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s REH Foundation Awards!

Scholarship Awards

The Atlantean—Outstanding Achievement, Book

Requirements: Nonfiction work (print or digital), minimum 50,000 words, substantively devoted to the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Reprinted works without significant revisions are not eligible. Award goes to the author or authors.

 

Martinez, Rodolfo; La Era Hibórea de Robert E. Howard 

Tetro, Michele; Conan il barbaro – Dai racconti di Robert E. Howard al film di John Milius

The Valusian—Outstanding Achievement, Book

Requirements: Nonfiction anthology or collection of essays (print or digital), nonfiction, minimum 30,000 words, substantively devoted to the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Reprinted works without significant revisions are not eligible. Award goes to the editor or editors.

 

Blosser, Fred; Exploring the Worlds of Robert E. Howard: 2024 Supplement

Guarriello, Pietro, editor; Zothique #17

The Hyrkanian—Outstanding Achievement, Essay

Requirements: Scholarly Nonfiction essays (print or digital), no minimum word count, substantively focused on the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Short blog posts, news, interviews, reviews, trip reports, and other minor works are not considered. Award goes to the author or authors.


Calabrese, Fabio; “H. P. Lovecraft & Robert E. Howard: Letteratura fantastica e visione del mondo” by Fabio Calabrese

Holmes, Morgan; two-part series titled, “Robert E. Howard’s Prehistoric Beasts.” Castalia House blog.
Part 1, published August 25, 2024
Part 2, published September 8, 2024

Patavini, Emilio, curator; “REH & The Eyrie: Le lettere di R. E. Howard a Weird Tales”

Romeo, Gary; “Robert E. Howard’s Father, Dr. Isaac Howard”

Shanks, Jeff; “A Gunslinger in the Wild East – The Adventures of El Borak”; “Mistress of Death – The Legend of Dark Agnes”; “Conrad and Kirowan – Explorers of Eldritch Horror and Delvers into the Dark Arts”, Conan Battle of the Black Stone #1-3

 

The Venarium—Emerging Scholar

Requirements: Candidates must have recently begun making significant contributions to Howard scholarship through publications and/or presentations over the past few years.

Considerations: Previous winners are not eligible. Award goes to the individual.

 

Darlage, Vincent; various articles on www.spraguedecampfan.wordpress.com:

Akivasha: “I am the woman, who never died.”

Thoth-amon: A Review and a Character Study

The Book of Skelos

Pekov, Ondřej; Bachelor Thesis: Literary Comparison of Beowulf and R.E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian

Vaughan, Michael K; The Robert E. Howard Show, Michael K. Vaughan YouTube Channel

Yergert, Dan; THE CONAN CHRONOLOGY

Art Awards

One of the missions of the Robert E. Howard Foundation is to promote Howard’s creative legacy as well as his study. Art awards recognize achievement in creative fields related to Robert E. Howard’s life and work.

The Black Lotus—Outstanding Achievement, Web-based

Requirements: Web-based content (i.e. digital magazine, journals, websites, blogs, podcasts, audiovisual/multimedia presentations, internet sites, etc.), substantively focused on the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, new content must have been published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Non-static social media like Facebook and Twitter would not be eligible. Award goes to site owner/administrator.

 

Curley, Shawn; Official Conan the Barbarian  Podcast

Gismervik, Stale;  The World of Robert E. Howard

Romeo, Gary; Spraguedecampfan, blog.

Thom, Bill; www.HowardWorks.com

Todd, Evan; Stygian Dogs YouTube Channel

Vaughan, Michael K.;  The Robert E Howard Show, Michael K. Vaughan YouTube Channel

The Costigan—Literary achievement

Awarded for original creative writing that carries on the spirit and tradition of Robert E. Howard, to better recognize and celebrate his influence on future generations of writers.

Requirements: Fiction (i.e. short fiction, novels, poetry, etc.), in the spirit and tradition of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year. No comic books or graphic novels are allowed.

Considerations: Work must be substantial and original in content; translations and adaptations will not be considered. Award goes to the individual writer or writing team.

 

Castro, V.; “Bêlit: Shipwrecked”

Hocking, John C.; Conan and the Living Plague, published in Conan: City of the Dead

John, Matthew; “Madness on the Mound,” Savage Sword of Conan #6

Jones, Howard Andrew; Shadow of the Smoking Mountain

Lanier, Thomas; In the Valley of Katari

Lovegrove, James; Conan: Cult of the Obsidian Moon, and “El Borak; The Siege of Lamakan”

Shrewsbury, Steven L.; “Bran Mak Morn: Red Waves of Slaughter”

Stackpole, Michael A.; “Belit: Bone Whispers”

Tanzer, Molly; “Jirel and the Mirror of Truth”, New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine

Waltz, Jason M (ed); Neither Beg, Nor Yield

Lovegrove, James; Conan: Cult of the Obsidian Moon, and “El Borak; The Siege of Lamakan”

 

The Rankin—Artistic achievement

Requirements: Visual media (painting, comic books, graphic novels, film, audio adaptations, etc.), directly related to the depiction of Robert E. Howard’s life, stories and poetry, characters, or fictional worlds; published in the last calendar year. Comic media must be nominated for a specific issue or self-contained story arc, not as a series or collection.

Considerations: Work must be substantial and original in content. Award goes to the individual artist for solo projects. For Comic Books and Graphic Novels, the award goes to the entire team involved.

 

Baerald, Francesca; Thurian Age Map, Conan the Barbarian Comic #9, Titan

Cavalier, Bill; 2024 Howard Days poster art; Cover art for The Collected Letters of Novalyne Price Pt.1, cover art for for “The People of the Dark” booklet from the REH Foundation Press.

HorrorBabble (Ian Gordon) for its Youtube recitals of “King of the Forgotten People” by Robert E. Howard and “”The Dwellers Under the Tombs” by Robert E. Howard

Marz, Ron,  Mike Perkins, Richard Starkings & Tyler Smith ; “Black Oasis”, The Savage Sword of Conan #4, Titan Comics

Wheatley, Mark; REH Press Book Covers

Zircher, Patrick; ‘Master of the Hunt, Parts 1 to 3′ (The Savage Sword of Conan, Issues #1-3)

Jim Zub, Jonas Scharf and Joao Canola for the ‘Battle of the Black Stone’ series (issues 1-4)

Jim Zub and Richard Pace for ‘Conan: Leaving the Garden’ (The Savage Sword of Conan, Issue #2)

Jim Zub, Doug Braithwaite and Diego Rodriguez for ‘Frozen Faith’, (‘Conan the Barbarian’ Issue #14-17).

The Black River—Special Achievement

The Black River—Special Achievement

Requirements: Candidates will have produced or contributed something special that doesn’t fit into any other category, e.g. scholarly presentations, biographical discoveries, etc. 

Jones, Howard Andrew; For his career promoting and writing and editing Sword and Sorcery

Louinet, Patrice, and Oliver, Will; for finding new REH letters

The Black Circle—Special Achievement

The Black Circle Award – Special Election
 
The REH Foundation Board revamped the voting rules and categories for the REH Awards a few years ago. For the Black Circle Award, the Board allows nominations to be made by anyone, whether a member or not of the Foundation, and the Board. However, the Board reserved the right to be the only voting body for the Black Circle Award. This year, we have 4 nominees, two of whom are currently on the Board of Directors. So, in order to be transparent and avoid the appearance of impropriety and nepotism, we have decided to allow the membership at large to again vote on membership in the Black Circle for this election because of this situation.  Under the rules, a nominee must receive a threshold of 60% of the votes cast to win. If there is no person that gets this in the first round, the top two vote getters will go into a run-off election with the person getting the simple majority winning.
Here are the requirements for eligibility for the Black Circle along with the slate of nominees and their accomplishments for consideration of your vote. After reviewing their contributions, please vote for the person you feel deserves to be given this honor.
 
The Black Circle Award – Lifetime Achievement
Requirements: Individuals who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to REH scholarship, publishing, or the promotion of Howard’s life and works. Eligible candidates must have been publicly involved in Howard-related activities for a minimum of two decades. Sixty percent of the vote is required for induction into the Black Circle.
 
 
These were the nominees:
 
 
Marcelo Anciano
Marcelo Anciano may be the person most responsible for leading the resurgence in getting Robert E. Howard’s works in their original text back out in the world after the Howard Boom of the 1960’s to 1970’s. In 1998, he shepherded The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane into publication with Wandering Star, that is currently published by Del Rey. He led the charge to get the three Conan books done, as well as the Bran Mak Morn, Kull, and the two “Best of” volumes. He put together a crack team (Rusty Burke, Stuart Williams, Patrice Louinet, Jim & Ruth Keegan, Steve Tompkins, and others) to bring out the books in Howard’s original text. Rusty Burke credits Marcelo as the “genius” who inspired them all in working on those books.
 
 
Mark Finn
Mark Finn is a writer and editor, who has been an outspoken champion of Howard’s works for many years. He is the author of Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, widely considered to be the definitive biography of the Texas author and a work which was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2007. Mark joined REHUPA in 2002 and shortly began contributing to both The Cimmerian and The Dark Man, as well as writing many of the introductions for the Wildside Press editions of Howard’s works. This work led to his winning the inaugural Venarium Award in 2005. His articles, essays, and introductions about Robert E. Howard and his works have appeared in publications for the REH Foundation, Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Comics, REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, The Howard Review, and he has presented papers on REH at the PCA/ACA National conference, and contributed chapters to multiple scholarly essay collections. In 2012, he organized a massive multi- panel tribute to Robert E. Howard at the World Science Fiction Convention. That same year saw the release of the massively-expanded revised edition of Blood and Thunder which further cemented the work as the go-to biography on Howard. In 2013-15 he co-edited the four volume Fists of Iron, the complete boxing stories of Robert E. Howard along with Chris Gruber and Patrice Louinet. He has published two collections of his Howard essays, and is the winner of two Atlantean Awards.
 
 
Chris Gruber
Chris Gruber became formally involved in Robert E. Howard fandom in 2002 when he joined REHUPA. From the beginning Chris was a relentless champion of Howard’s long-neglected boxing stories. He was a frequent contributor to The Cimmerian and The Dark Man journals, as well as The Cimmerian and REH: Two-Gun Raconteur blogs. He has contributed multiple chapters to scholarly essay collections, given presentations at the PCA/ACA conference and academic institutions, and edited Howard’s Boxing Stories (2005) from the University of Nebraska Press, the last resulting in a Black River Award. Along with Mark Finn and Patrice Louinet, he co-edited the monumental four volume set of Howard’s complete boxing stories, Fists of Iron (2013-15). He served as a consultant and contributor to the Kull sourcebook from Modiphius games. In 2018 he co-edited A Robert E. Howard Sampler with Bobby Derie.
 
 
Fred Malmberg
Fredrik Malmberg is CEO of Heroic Signatures, which holds the rights to Robert E. Howard’s work. Fredrik has protected the legacy of Howard’s characters for more than two decades and has helped maintain their prominence in popular culture by overseeing their licensing in film, comics, video games, RPGs, books, merchandising, and other media. His first professional venture into the world of Robert E. Howard was in the early 1980s, publishing the Swedish language editions of the Conan stories. In the early 2000s, Fredrik’s company Paradox purchased the rights to Conan and the other Howard characters and his initial efforts contributed to what has become known as the Second Howard Boom, with the publication of the authoritative REH texts in trade paperback form, the launch of the successful Age of Conan MMO video game, and the highly acclaimed comic series from Dark Horse. In 2006, he helped initiate the creation of the REH Foundation to help protect Robert E Howard’s literary legacy. In the years since, Fredrik has overseen the launch of multiple successful games in various platforms and films of both Conan and Solomon Kane. Under his watch, Heroic Signatures has recently launched a successful new publishing venture with Titan Books producing both comics and prose with Howard’s characters.

The Crom Award

Only the Board of Directors will decide on making any nominations for the Crom Award.

Ståle Gismervik was awarded for his work on the REHF website and getting the REHF Press publishing under a new distributor/publisher up and running.

The Winners were announced on Howard Days 2025 in Cross Plains, Texas