Does George Lucas Owe Royalties to Fritz Leiber?

That was my question upon reading the 1975 Ballantine paperback printing of Fritz Leiber’s Gather Darkness!, concerning a world run by a techno-religion.

Gather, Darkness! was originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, serialized in the May-June-July, 1943 issues.

On page 185, two characters, Cousin Deth and the Black Man, face off in a duel to the death, with their Rods of Wrath.

Is Cousin Death related to Cousin Darth?  Check out the mutually impenetrable “wrath rods,” which are “two endless blades of violent incandescence.”

Hmmm.  Those bells you hear might be cash registers in the imaginations of the lawyers representing Leiber’s heirs.

See you on Monday for the beginning of our Musical Month of May!