Author Archives: asdjfdlkf

New Book: Tolkien e Lovecraft

03 Sunday Dec 2023

Posted by in New books, Scholarly works

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My ideal book, and… it’s in Italian and I can’t read Italian. Urg. Tolkien e Lovecraft: Alle origini del fantastico is newly published in the Historica Edizioni series.

J.R..R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft: the gods of fantastic writing, co-founders of a genre that is both deeply ancestral and very modern. The conventional view would place them at opposite ends of the fantastic ecosystem: light and shadow, black and white, Tolkien synonymous with airy fantasy and Lovecraft with deep horror. Yet in the epic of Tolkien’s Middle-earth there is no shortage of flashes of darkness and terror, just as in the dark Lovecraftian cosmos, populated by unspeakable entities, fairy-tale horizons of enchantment and wonder are also found. By analysing their masterpieces, and the reading that inspired both men, this book aims to read the two great architects of the imagination from a more flexible perspective, one which attempts to frame and understand them within their authentic complexity.

Soon to be available via Amazon Italy, which has a 28th November 2023 publication date though the book is not currently listed as shipping. Amazon UK “knows ‘a nurthing” about the book.

Tomas Jr.’s Innsmouth

02 Saturday Dec 2023

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, New books

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Due in November and seemingly shipping now, an illustrated “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” by Spanish artist Tomas Jr.…

Tomas Jr. is a renowned illustrator and a great admirer of the work of H.P. Lovecraft. He has illustrated J.R.R. Tolkien and has collaborated with Guillermo del Toro and the Jim Henson Company.

Tomas Hijo is, in my estimation, one of the great modern engravers” — Guillermo del Toro.

Published by Ediciones Minotauro. I can’t immediately find a Minotauro website, and there’s nothing on the UK or Spanish Amazon sites. I guess a Spanish bookseller might get it for you.

The release prompts Spanish pop purveyors Dawn to note that Dawn also…

published this summer the youth adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, written by Adri Ortiz and illustrated by Maria Garcia.

At Tomas Jr.’s website, I see there’s also a print of Lovecraft available.

And, nicely timed for a post on Spain, S.T. Joshi’s blog offers a lengthy new “A trip to Spain: the photo essay”.

A folksy map of Providence

01 Friday Dec 2023

Posted by in Maps, Picture postals

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This week on ‘Picture Postals’, a folksy hand-draw map postcard which names, and also sometimes sketches, many of the city locations mentioned by Lovecraft in his letters. Possibly 1920s, judging by the design of the back and the existence of the Shepley Library as a possible destination.

As you can see, it can be turned three ways according to whatever direction the holder is walking. As Lovecraft once said…

everything cannot be carry’d in memory; so that it is well always to have a map in one’s pocket.

More new LORAs

30 Thursday Nov 2023

Posted by in AI, Lovecraftian arts

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More new additions to Stable Diffusion 1.5 LORAs, used for text-to-image AI image generation. Pulp / sci-fi ones such as these, of possible interest to Tentaclii readers, are swamped by the zillions of LORAs being produced daily for each-and-every Japanese anime character. But they do appear quite frequently, for those willing to hunt for and find them among all the new fluff.

Art Deco Architecture – v1.0. Of obvious use for 1930s and 40 sci-fi backdrops. Seemingly trained on wide-scale deco concept art produced by architectural illustrators of the period.

Sumerian Architecture – v1.0.

One can combine LORAs for generating the same image, so the combinatorial possibilities should be obvious for science-fantasy illustration. Possibly these two may combine in interesting ways with the also-new Multiversal Vistas – v1.0, said to be trained on “strange futuristic vistas, forgotten technology and monumental artifacts”.

Also of possible interest, though this time to the retro crowd, is the 1950s style but highly polished Romance Comics – v1.0. (Warning: can also do nudity). Seemingly trained on slick cleaned reprints, rather than scans of the original yellowing comics. SD 1.5 knows what Lovecraft looked like, so I guess one might be able to have this produce a comic featuring Lovecraft. With the era-correct suit, shirt, shoes. But I’ve yet to try that.

(Limbo) Liminal Space Style – v1.0. In the influential ‘spooky silhouette’ style of the ground-breaking Limbo videogame.

And Dictionnaire Infernal (updated today).

“18th century Antarctica with heavy Lovecraftian elements”

29 Wednesday Nov 2023

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

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Two wranglers of the fiendish 3D software Blender require a visuals impresario…

We’re making a cRPG set in late-18th century Antarctica with heavy Lovecraftian elements [and] we’re looking for someone to help out in terms of aesthetics & visuals

Probably must be familiar with the look that’s possible in videogames with only a three-man team. No modding of a retail game is talked of, so I assume they’re building from scratch with the aid of the rich ecosystem of add-ons and Blender’s new off-the-shelf modules.

What my AI suggests…

Whispers about Whisperer

26 Sunday Nov 2023

Posted by in Podcasts etc.

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Liverpool Sound and Vision has a positive review of a production of a radically re-worked adaptation of Lovecraft’s “The Whisperer in Darkness”. No link, but a forum comment I found fully explains what it is. It’s a…

2019 audio drama, adapted in eight parts by Julian Simpson from the story by H P. Lovecraft. Henry Akeley has vanished from his home near Rendlesham Forest, and the podcasters investigate. Updated to the modern day, transplanted to England, and converted to an audio drama, but essentially rewritten from scratch

It doesn’t appear to be online, but Miskatonic University Podcast interviewed the maker.

Lovely LORAs

25 Saturday Nov 2023

Posted by in AI, Lovecraftian arts

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New free SD 1.5 LORAs of possible interest to pulpsters, RPG-ers, self publishers, and others. These have appeared this week on CivitAI, and are for use with free desktop AI image generation software such as InvokeAI.

Cross-section Underground

Style of Roy G. Krenkel (Golden Age comics artist and illustrator)

Style of Jean-Pierre Gibrat – v2.0 (lesser-known French BD artist)

TangoOne – Gil Elvgren (retro U.S. pin-up style). Specifically for use as an add-on to the M4RV3LS & DUNGEONS model.

Eric Powell Style (comic artist, looks suitable for depicting Lovecraft’s Innsmouth).

The old Court House on Benefit Street

24 Friday Nov 2023

Posted by in Picture postals

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I’ve never seen this card pop up on eBay before, which makes me think it might be scarce. The old Court House on Benefit Street, later a school. Lovecraft knew it and (if I have the correct Court House) described it as “great” in bulk…

“In colonial times College St. was known successively as Presbyterian Lane (from the meeting-house at Benefit St., where the great Court House now stands), Rosemary Lane, & Hanover St.”

But is it of more significance in his life and work? There’s a Court House in Dexter Ward (perhaps not this one?) in which records are searched for. I can find nothing more on it in the time available for a quick search, but others may know differently.

It seems that this is not why Lovecraft knew the giant College Street courthouse as the new Court House…

[The view from his windows] “In the southwest the lofty Georgian belfry of the new Court House loomed up darkly save for the lighted clock-face, the floodlights not having been turned on.”

Since this “new” description was of the 1928 structure…

“the very fine neo-Georgian court house, built in 1928–33, at the corner of College and North Main Streets”

At Inferno 2024: ‘H.P. Doomcraft’

23 Thursday Nov 2023

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

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Set for the Inferno metal festival in Norway, in March 2024, the live event “H.P. Doomcraft”. Being a…

collaboration between storyteller/visual artist Kim Diaz Holm and musician Costin Chioreanu, translating four works by the father of cosmic horror, into an unique and transcendental audio-visual experience. “Nyarlathotep”, “What the Moon Brings”, “Memory”, and “Ex-Oblivione” were all directly inspired by Lovecraft’s powerful dreams, and haunting narration and art combined with Chioreanu’s otherworldly music will bring it to nightmarish new life.

Looks like both men know Lovecraft well, and are experts at what they do. I’d hope for something on YouTube later in 2024. Though I guess the live event is the real experience, with the full speaker-stacks and a mass of nodding Nordic noggins. Booking now.