John Coulthart has posted a full scan of his cover-art for His Own Most Fantastic Creation, in the post “Double weird”.
It’s a wrap
17 Tuesday Mar 2020
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, New books
Author Archives: asdjfdlkf
Back Issue! #121: Conan special
16 Monday Mar 2020
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
Back Issue! #121 (due in two months, 10th June 2020) is in Previews, and will be a special issue on Conan and similar in the comics. Includes among other items…
* the 50th anniversary of Roy Thomas’s Conan #1,
* the Bronze Age barbarian boom,
* top 50 Marvel Conan stories,
* Marvel’s not-quite Conans (from Kull to Skull),
* Joining Roy Thomas are Kurt Busiek, Ernie Colon, Chuck Dixon, Mike Grell, Ron Randall, Dann Thomas, Timothy Truman, Marv Wolfman, and many more.
“I’ll feel amply empowered to shoot you a free copy.”
15 Sunday Mar 2020
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Podcasts etc.
That strange scurrying noise? It’s a horde of Lovecraftians burrowing into a HPLHS dropdown-menu, to get at the free .MP3 of the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Rats in the Walls radio drama…
On moving into 66 College St. Lovecraft had discovered a… “narrow and hideously nighted space in the attic under the eaves — reached from the attic proper by low doors, and having no windows whatever. … I am wholly alone in the house now, with my aunt at the hospital and the downstairs neighbour on the high seas bound for Germany — but what was that creaking above me last night? Part of that black space [in the attic] is directly over my desk. Perhaps it was only the rats…” — H.P. Lovecraft, to CAS, June 1933.
“Tomorrow I may be swamped with a burden of portentious mail…”
15 Sunday Mar 2020
Posted in Odd scratchings
Just taken in a consignment of copies your new book or magazine, printed in somewhere like China or Italy? Or had curious Lovecraftian packages in the mail? Then you’ll be needing Less Wrong’s new “Comprehensive COVID-19 Disinfection Protocol for Packages and Envelopes”.
Or, rather more simply, you could just leave them in a hallway or spare room for 15 days, after which time any virus traces should theoretically be kaput — even at chilly temperatures. But it seems a freezing garage is probably not the best place to store the consignment, as such virii can go into cold storage and persist for longer. So if that’s all you have, add a low level of electric trickle-heat.
Also, some may be considering sending glossy cards/postcards to elderly and ill folk in isolation until perhaps the end of May 2020. There are such programmes starting up but they seem like a very bad idea, given the type of surfaces and the hand-contact and envelope-licking involved. Something virtual like Skype or a phone message would be better.
American Writers on Lovecraft’s 18th century
15 Sunday Mar 2020
Posted in Historical context, Podcasts etc.
A new American Writers podcast looks at Lovecraft’s “A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson”, and his love of the 18th century wits and satirists.
From the time-travel movie Berkeley Square (1933), one of Lovecraft’s favourite movies and set in the 18th century.
One of the best free public readings is “A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson” by H. P. Lovecraft by HorrorBabble.
On the Eddy collaborations
14 Saturday Mar 2020
Posted in Odd scratchings
MPorcius surveys Lovecraft’s Eddy collaborations…
“The Loved Dead” is a masterpiece of horror: economical, perfectly paced, internally consistent and novel
And now in the public-domain, for those looking for an as-yet untouched Lovecraft source for an adaptation.
Lovecraft in Greek
13 Friday Mar 2020
Posted in New books, Podcasts etc., Scholarly works
S.T. Joshi’s blog has updated. Among other items mentioned, a 15-volume Greek edition of Lovecraft is underway, with the third volume having been issued in 2019; there is a possibility that the Lovecraft biography I Am Providence could begin a Czech translation; and a set of ‘Providence Pals’ interviews (i.e. pioneer Lovecraft scholars, researchers and editors) is forthcoming in podcast format.
Unreleased Film Scripts
13 Friday Mar 2020
Posted in Odd scratchings
New on Archive.org, Unreleased Film Scripts, all unreleased and effectively unmade as movies. There’s Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad; del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness; a Conan first draft (2008, presumably an early try for the 2011 movie); and a 2005 script for Ender’s Game (presumably an early try for the 2013 movie).
Friday the 13th: plague in Providence
12 Thursday Mar 2020
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
Friday the 13th approaches. Here in the UK, the 13th is a key virus infection-point. According to the UK’s Chief Medical officer the start of the peak in symptoms should then begin here on 19th-23rd March, rising thereafter and possibly continuing high for three or four weeks. (Update: he’s now saying “the peak” might last 10-14 weeks).
Thus, tomorrow we face a very scary Friday the 13th. There’s also a full moon in the night sky, possibly giving hysterical toilet-roll chewers an added dose of lunacy.
What better reading then, for this moment, than my account of H.P. Lovecraft and the deadly influenza epidemic? Accordingly here is a free chapter from my book Lovecraft in Historical Context #3, “A Real Horror: on the 1918 flu epidemic in Providence”. The chapter has been slightly revised, and there’s a new picture of one of the armed guards on the gates of Brown University.
Download: real_horror_1918_flu_in_providence.pdf
Lovecraft Annual on JSTOR
12 Thursday Mar 2020
Posted in Scholarly works
The Lovecraft Annual is now on JSTOR, as the full run. Reviews are fully separated and itemised by book title, as are the Briefly Noted paragraphs. JSTOR is a sort of ‘all you can eat buffet’ of a list of selected journals, which most academic libraries give their students and full-time staff free access to. Inclusion is a mark of high quality, and should help boost citations for those for whom such things matter. Those who have been quietly scourged in the book reviews may not be quite so happy.
As for me, I’m only two issues away from having a complete set in paper, needing only 2008 and 2010.
Update: I just remembered that JSTOR do offer limited access to off-site independent researchers. It seems this scheme is still in operation, though when last heard of it was limited to selected journal titles only.
Good news for books and journals in the UK
12 Thursday Mar 2020
Posted in Odd scratchings
Good news for authors and publishers in the UK’s Spring budget speech in Parliament…
From 1st December 2020 [UK] ebooks, newspapers, magazines or academic journals will have no VAT to pay.”
VAT is the UK’s main UK sales tax, and printed publications are already exempt from the tax. At present it’s uncertain if digital audiobooks will also be exempt.
New book: Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture
11 Wednesday Mar 2020
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
Theofantastique notices a new book-length survey from an academic, Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture…
a comprehensive tour of monsters on film and television, from the much-loved creations of Ray Harryhausen in Clash of the Titans to the monster of the week in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before looking in detail at the afterlives of the Medusa and the Minotaur.
Also, the latest French open-access journal Leaves No. 9 is a special themed issue on the afterlife of Shelley’s Frankenstein in comics and sci-fi, etc. All in French, but since it’s open-access a translator-bot is only a click away.