Author Archives: asdjfdlkf

UFO Connection

23 Tuesday Apr 2024

Posted by in Odd scratchings

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New on Archive.org, the first scan of UFO Connection (1977). One of those oversized comic-a-zines of the later 1970s, which were able to present themes which sidestepped the U.S. Comics Code censorship. Here the readable (but not great) scan is of an Australian reprint of the U.S. Marvel Preview #13. It has a self-contained b&w 37-page strip riffing on various UFO themes of the period, with art by Herb Trimpe but nicely inked in a somewhat Neal Adams-alike manner. I’m not sure who did the cover, but it looks like Jim Starlin to me.

If you had this, you probably also had the similar ‘ancient aliens visited earth’ Marvel Preview #1 Man-Gods from Beyond the Stars (1975) somewhere alongside it. All good fun at the time, or when you found them in comic shops in the early 80s, and of course now debunked as total hokum. But still enjoyable as nostalgic science-fiction.

Lovecraft Annual 2024

21 Sunday Apr 2024

Posted by in Scholarly works

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I’m pleased to say that S.T. Joshi has accepted my long article for the next Lovecraft Annual, and that I’ll be in the 2024 issue. No news of the rest of the 2024 contents as yet.

By the way, if you’re having trouble accessing the Hippocampus Press site, publisher of the Lovecraft Annual, I find the problem is the Web browser’s “DNS-over-HTTPS provider”. The default Cloudflare DNS “knows a’ nurthing” about Hippocampus, while switching it to use Google Public DNS gets you there.

Ground-level marketplace panorama

19 Friday Apr 2024

Posted by in Picture postals

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This week on ‘Picture Postals’, I stay with Lovecraft’s city of Providence, anticipating the city’s coming NecronomiCon / Armitage Symposium later this year. Here I’ve found a rare wide ground-level view of the Marketplace at the centre of the city. Most such views are elevated.

Marketplace looking toward State Capitol

The date is perhaps 1900, Lovecraft then aged 10 and forming an ever-widening picture of his city based around central hubs such as this. The river is below and on the left, and we can see a bit of the bridge across it. In the distance is the State Capitol building. On the far right, the Board of Trade building, seen below ‘head on’ and with College Hill behind it.

Board of Trade looking toward College Hill

The area where the panorama cameraman is standing was the weekly marketplace. Off-camera to the right would have been the ‘Old Brick Row’ (which Lovecraft later tried to save from being swept away) and behind that College Hill.

The Old Brick Row

See my earlier marketplace post for pictures which contextualise the new one seen above.

This 1906 view is also a panorama which looks in the same direction, and it shows the above panorama location in the distance (just left of the chimney top). The docks area (below and out-of-sight of the spot from which this balloon-photo was made) was a place that Lovecraft would later explore with Eddy in the 1920s.

1906 view over the industrial side of the Providence docks

Latest LORAs

17 Wednesday Apr 2024

Posted by in AI

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A few more recent Lovecraft-adjacent new free LORA add-ons, for use with a local install of Stable Diffusion 1.5.

Meteor Shower v1.0. Artistic meteor showers. It can also do just one or two. The same maker also has the earlier similar Fireflies from last Halloween.

Meteor Shower

Fireflies

Dark Core Style. It “creates comic-book-like inked illustrations, dark, gloomy and simplistic with lots of sharp angles”.

And Death and Decay, looking very suitable for generating the basis of a heavy metal album cover. The same maker also has a new Celtic / Gaul Warrior today.

Lovecraft in DOOM II

17 Wednesday Apr 2024

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

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You wouldn’t know it from the description, but Compound Fracture, a mod for the original DOOM II videogame is claimed to be…

my 10-map episode based on Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth. The final boss is supposed to be Yog-Sothoth.

I learned this from finding a new forum thread, which jogged my memory about the game. Greatly enjoyed by me at the time, along with the fantasy variant Hexen. The forum thread also suggested the mod Rylayeh for DOOM II.

Via search, I found five more mods (aka wads) that are substantial and have good reviews…

Shrine 1.2 for DOOM II. A “Lovecraftian Total Conversion mod!”

Void for DOOM II. “Lovecraft meets Lewis Carroll”. Uses ZDoom.

Strange Aeons v5.7 for DOOM II. Huge Lovecraftian total conversion. Uses ZDoom.

Beyond Kadath for DOOM II. “A story-driven WAD roughly in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.”

Maskim Xul for DOOM II. “One of the winners of the 2018 Cacowards.”

The game itself can be had on CD via eBay for around £15. It’s obviously become collectable, despite the vast quantities it sold, and the days of getting a jewel-case for £1.99 inc. shipping seem over. More affordable is the download at GOG.com for £4 including “the enhanced re-release” of 2019. Then you download ZDoom / GZDoom and run it through that, giving the old game enhanced powers. You may also need a Flashlight++ mod.

Dredge

16 Tuesday Apr 2024

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

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The maker of the hit videogame Dredge is in the very early stages of a live-action movie adaptation. Basically Dredge is a Lovecraftian ‘small trawler’ fishing game, with its possible-movie officially described my the developers as… “a grounded atmospheric cosmic-horror blend of H.P. Lovecraft and Ernest Hemingway.” Sounds good. The Sonic the Hedgehog producer is apparently on board, so I guess there is actually a chance of co-funding for at least a modest indie movie. Casting suggestions for a fisherman pulled into the net of cosmic horror are now invited.

If you can’t wait for this dose of damp cosmic horror, this week the ‘Fairies of New England’ blog appears to have visited H.P. Lovecraft’s “Dark Swamp” and has pictures.

A Joshi update on the letters

14 Sunday Apr 2024

Posted by in Scholarly works

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S.T. Joshi’s blog has updated, and he notes the title of the forthcoming Long letters, A Sense of Proportion: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Frank Belknap Long, in one volume due later in 2024. He and Schultz are also considering a Letters to H.P. Lovecraft volume, which I would assume would be ‘selected’ rather than everything known? Since the Price letters would take up a volume on their own, and the whole lot might have to be two volumes?

Joshi also notes “I continue to work (with David E. Schultz) on Letters to R. H. Barlow“. Which I guess will then replace O Fortunate Floridian? (Update: No it won’t: it’s letters to Barlow from people other than Lovecraft).

Joshi anticipates that the Lovecraft Annual and a number of books of Lovecraft scholarship will appear toward the time of the NecronomiCon / Armitage Symposium in Providence, later in 2024. See his full 12th April 2024 blog post for the details.