Line #12 Creator/KarlEdwardWagner


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2	Karl Edward Wagner (4 December 1945 – 13 October 1994) was a American writer of {{Horror}}, ScienceFiction, {{Fantasy}}, and {{Poetry}} as well as a publisher and editor. A fan of Creator/RobertEHoward, he edited a three-volume set of the ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' stories that restored them to Howard's form as written; he also did a number of {{pastiche}}s featuring Conan and Literature/BranMakMorn. Other editing work included fourteen volumes of the long-running anthology series ''The Year's Best Horror Stories'' and several collections of the work of Creator/ManlyWadeWellman. His most popular works are the long-running stories of Kane, the Mystic Swordsman, and his often-anthologized short story "Sticks".
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4	!! Works by Karl Edward Wagner that have their own trope pages:
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6	* The ''Literature/KaneSeries'' of dark HeroicFantasy stories.
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8	!!Other works by Karl Edward Wagner provide examples of:
9	* AlienKudzu: "Where The Summer Ends" has a supernatural example [[spoiler:that also happens to be actual Kudzu]].
10	* AncientConspiracy: "The Fourth Seal"
11	* AuthorAvatar: Cody Lennox in "At First Just Ghostly". He's an American writer invited to a London s-f/fantasy convention. He is also burnt out, drinks much too much and cannot come to grips with the loss of his wife - just like Wagner in real life.
12	* BarbieDollAnatomy: Invoked {{squick}}ily in "Brushed Away".
13	* BedlamHouse:
14	** The asylum in the short story "Into Whose Hands". Wagner had trained as a [[WriteWhatYouKnow psychiatrist]], lending the piece some very nasty implications.
15	** "The Final Cut" gives a regular medical hospital a treatment something like this.
16	* BondageIsBad: Sometimes. Sometimes it's just a kink.
17	* BrownNote: "Little Lessons In Gardening."
18	* CelebrityIsOverrated: The short story "Neither Brute nor Human," which suggests a vampiric/parasitic relationship between creator and fandom. A more touching/tragic riff shows up in "Did They Get You to Trade?"
19	* CosmicHorrorStory: Several of Wagner's short stories have Lovecraftian elements, particularly "Sticks" and "The River of Night's Dreaming."
20	* DepravedHomosexual: ''Creator/OscarWilde'', of all people, in "The Picture of Jonathan Collins".
21	* DisposableVagrant: "Where The Summer Ends" has several homeless people fall victims to the creatures [[spoiler:maintaining the kudzu]].
22	* {{Homage}}: "Plan 10 From Inner Space", which sends up Creator/EdWood but also a lot of 50s BMovie tropes.
23	* HowIWroteThisArticleArticle: "The Slug" is about how creative blockage tends to become TheThingThatWouldNotLeave.
24	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: "In The Pines"
25	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: In "The River of Night's Dreaming" [[spoiler:when Cassilda is raped by her captors it is repeatedly mentioned how cold their flesh is, and after one such encounter one of them is specifically stated to have fangs dripping with blood. However they do not seem to have any typical vampire weaknesses or traits, and are seemingly subject to harm from normal implements. Given that the story is told [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness through the eyes of madness]], however, it's possible that none of what Cassilda experiences is accurate.]]
26	* PenName: Wagner wrote a novel under the name Kent Allard-- who is also a character in "Sticks".
27	* [[PsychoLesbian Psycho Lesbians]]: "The River of Night's Dreaming."
28	* PsychoPsychologist: [[spoiler: Dr. Marlowe]] in "Into Whose Hands" turns out to be this. [[spoiler: And by his own account, also TheDevil]].
29	* RealitySubtext: "Sticks" was loosely based on the experience of Wagner's friend, illustrator [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Brown_Coye Lee Brown Coye]], who discovered mysterious stick lattices in an abandoned farmhouse in 1938 and started incorporating them into his illustrations. [[spoiler: Happily for Coye, ''his'' sticks didn't turn out to be three-dimensional runes for summoning an EldritchAbomination.]]
30	* SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny: "Locked Away"
31	* ShoutOut: the novella "The River of Night's Dreaming" and the short story "Beyond Any Measure". Only the latter explicitly references ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''; the former is something of an homage to ''Literature/TheKingInYellow''.
32	* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: "The Slug". Also about [[HowIWroteThisArticleArticle creative blockage.]]
33	* VoodooDoll: With a twist in "More Sinned Against". [[spoiler: The victim is an actor and his abused and exploited girlfriend works at a toy manufacturing company. Just think of all those action figures and what kids typically do to them...]]
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Context Creator / KarlEdwardWagner