Exploring the World of Robert E. Howard
“There are so many underrated characters or stories that people ought to read.”
Webmaster Ståle Gismervik on how the author’s writing offered so much more than Swords and Sorcery.
This time, we’re talking with Ståle Gismervik about his website The World of Robert E. Howard—The Father of Sword & Sorcery. (Including how REH wrote so much more than just that one genre.)
Gismervik also talks to us about his helping out with the REH Foundation website and the REHF Press website. This is an ongoing project where he’s now webmaster. And now he helps make eBooks for REH Foundation books.
Getting to know REH
This article is the latest in our series exploring the surprising range of fiction from the creator of Conan the Barbarian. So far, we’ve shared:
Remembering Robert E. Howard: Creator of Sword & Sorcery and Conan the Barbarian
So much more than Conan: How the Robert E. Howard Foundation celebrates his work
Q&A: Why Heroic Signatures makes “the best damn Conan comics” and more
Hold the Ring: Fighting REH’s Sailor Steve Costigan, Hellboy, The Hulk, The Munsters, more
About Robert E. Howard
Credited with inventing the whole story category now known as “Sword & Sorcery,” Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) also wrote fantasy, horror, boxing stories, cowboy stories, action and adventure, comedy, and more.
In his brief author career, REH typed out more than a hundred stories for pulp magazines. In addition to creating Conan the Barbarian, Howard’s characters also include sailor and boxer Steve Costigan (whose stories are hilarious), supernatural detectives Conrad & Kirowan, Texas gunfighter El Borak, short-tempered sword woman Dark Agnes, somber Puritan Solomon Kane, the philosophical warrior Kull of Atlantis, police detective Steve Harrison, Pict king Bran Mak Morn, and more.
And, of course, you can find out more about Robert E. Howard at this website. (Which, you know, is what this whole page is also talking about.)
About the website World of Robert E. Howard
A huge online resource, website World of Robert E. Howard offers a work-in-progress list of every kind of REH-related material. There are pages devoted to his characters, his stories, some of his correspondence, and more.
The searchable database of REH-related pulps allows you to choose from “All pulps” or “Weird Tales only.” There’s also the REH Foundations Press bibliography, plus info about various relevant titles from other publishers. There’s also an index of Robert E. Howard Foundation newsletters.
“If you click the search symbol,” Gismervik says, “a window pops up where you can search ‘on the fly’ and get an instant result. Don’t click enter—just wait for the results to appear, and you can fine-tune your search. Scroll through the results, and you hopefully find what you are looking for.”
The other thing he’s worked very hard on is to create the most comprehensive list of stories and titles for Howard’s writing.
“On each title, you’ll find some information about the story,” Gismervik says. “But also where it has been published, a link to the various publications, and information about that.”
Getting started with Robert E. Howard
Like many fans of REH’s writing, Gismervik’s introduction to Robert E. Howard was also his character of Conan—through the comic books first, then the pastiches. Once hooked on the stories, Gismervik became involved in helping promote REH’s work online.
(There’s actually a lot of on-and-off-and-on stuff that happened. Gismervik shares his history as a fan and promoting REH on the site’s About page.)
The current World of Robert E. Howard website launched around Christmas 2020. The site turned out to be quite popular—even winning some awards from the REH Foundation.
Becoming part of the REH team
Eventually, Gismervik was asked to help out with the REH Foundation website and the REH Foundation Press website. Finding the sites to be a mess, he started the long process of cleaning them up.
In 2021, Gismervik started helping out with the REH Foundation website and the REHF Press website. This is an ongoing project where he’s now webmaster. Then in 2024, he started helping make eBooks for REH Foundation books.
A couple of times, he and his family had also visited Cross Plains, Texas a couple of times for Howard Days—an annual event where readers, scholars, collectors, and fans celebrate the life and legacy of Robert E. Howard.
Helping with the books
Around that time, Gismervik, had been playing around with making eBooks. So, during one of those visits, Mark Finn asked him whether he’d make an eBook version of his REH biography, Blood & Thunder.
“I was thrilled,” Gismervik says. “So, of course, when we got home, I started on that.”
By then, Gismervik had also started collecting the REH Foundation Press books. But there came a point where the release of REH Foundation Press books started to dwindle.
Fed up waiting for new books to arrive, he asked the folks at REH Foundation if he could help out with the regular books.
“I didn't have a clue about where to start,” he says. “But after spending a couple of weeks on YouTube learning how to actually create a book, I had Spicy Adventures and Pirate Adventures ready. And shortly after followed more.”
Gismervik found that he needs to be part of all this.
“Building these books is great fun,” he says. “It’s like a puzzle. Getting all the pieces to fit to have a complete product out there.”
More than just Sword & Sorcery
While Sword & Sorcery fiction pulls a lot of readers into the author’s stories, the World of Robert E. Howard site helps them learn that REH wrote so much more than that.
“There are so many underrated characters or stories that people ought to read,” Gismervik says. “I’ve got a soft spot for some of those. Like the detective, Steve Harrison. And the mountain man, Breckinridge Elkins.”
Gismervik also loves REH’s Spicy stories. Which, he admits, aren’t exactly “spicy” these days.
“One thing I also love about doing all this is that we go back to the typescripts—the way Howard wrote it,” Gismervik says. “No censoring.”
Things might be offensive today, he admits, but that was how it was and how it was written.
“I love that the REH Foundation Press is preserving these stories.”
Joining the team. (Well, even more so.)
Of course, Gismervik is helping them to preserve these stories, too. In April 2025, while waiting for some cover art for the Ultimate Editions, he suggested that he make a book—preserving all the existing drafts of the Breckinridge Elkins stories. Written by REH in the 1930s, these are over-the-top Western adventures.
Gismervik says someone on staff gave him fair warning. You know, maybe he should start with something smaller.
“But did I listen? Turned out it was a huge project. Filled four volumes. Not one.”
The size of the task got him also into experimenting. Like including collectible details to the books. Or adding bonus information—like behind-the-scenes versions of Howard’s original text—for the extra hard Howard nerds.
“Those who don’t mind reading six variations of one story and how it turned into the one that finally got printed,” he says. “Or it might not even have been published when Howard lived.”
Before he even finished the Breckinridge project, Gismervik started the next project—collecting all the drafts of REH’s detective stories.
“I’m sort of done,” he says. “But I want a Howard scholar to write an essay about the detective yarns. He and four others wrote essays for the Breckinridge project. Makes it extra fun to be able to do these projects.”
Over the past few years, there’s been a growing boom as more fans are being pulled into the world of Robert E. Howard. This includes comic books and games and more.
And Gismervik is glad to be part of it.
“I hope the work I do contributes to getting more people to read the original Howard stories,” he says. “I’m proud to be a part of that and want to [REH Foundation] for letting me be a part of this.”
Find more about Robert E. Howard online
Penguin Random House (Del Rey)
Bookshop.org (which supports your local bookstore)
Libro.fm (audiobooks which support your local bookstore)
The Robert E. Howard Show (Michael K. Vaughan @ YouTube)
Remembering Robert E. Howard: Creator of Sword & Sorcery (Monster Complex)
Hold the Ring: Fighting REH’s Sailor Steve Costigan, Hellboy, The Munsters, Hulk, more (Monster Complex)
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Webmaster Ståle Gismervik on his website The World of Robert E. Howard—The Father of Sword & Sorcery. (Including how REH wrote so much more than just that one genre.)