Category Archives: Kittee Tuesday

Valerian and a future-kittee

13 Tuesday Sep 2022

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New on Archive.org, the French b&w magazine Futurs #1 (1978), with a short interview with the artist for the Valerian BD’s (graphic novels).

Also a superb Bilal ‘future kitty’, and a couple of other illustrations for the same story.

Also suitable for your kittification, the current and ongoing Black Cat Weekly. A digital magazine from Wildside that reprints choice older stories and often has vintage interviews. Apparently it’s actually a monthly, rather than a weekly. And not all about cats, although that might make a very suitable themed issue at some point.

Creative Writing Machines and kittees

12 Tuesday Jul 2022

Posted by in Kittee Tuesday, Podcasts etc.

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The latest Stuff To Blow Your Mind podcast surveys the history and current state of attempts at making viable Creative Writing Machines…

educational technologist Mike Sharples discusses the book Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers.

Don’t be put off by the faintly huckster-ish “educational technologist” label. He was at the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University here in the UK, is “Academic Lead for online-learning service FutureLearn” (it’s a big one) and is “author of over 300 papers”.

MP3 download here. Interview starts at 2:20. Two long ad-sections.

As for the book it appears, from a long review, to be pitched mostly at the ‘history and theory of the field’ level. Rather than the level of practical $50 desktop software available now. Though that’s only the first third of the podcast, as the second and third sections are more practical. For instance, an accompanying website for the book is mentioned, titled Story Machines. This has a free public AI demo which is rather fab. I experimentally used it to expand an H.P. Lovecraft dream into a story form:

“Dream of the Black Cat City” (AI assisted demo)

Patrick base mesh, and kitty

05 Tuesday Jul 2022

Posted by in Kittee Tuesday, Lovecraftian arts

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“Patrick base mesh” is new on ArtStation, affordable and with a permissive licence. It shouldn’t take too much work in a 3D package like ZBrush or Blender to turn this into a toon H.P. Lovecraft.

Also a fabulous new contender for an Ulthar kittie, although not toon, in the form of the new Savannah Cat (requires the base Cat Mars) for the 3D software DAZ Studio. Also a contender, via a sci-fi coat re-colour, for one of the “Cats of Saturn” heard about in Dream-quest.

Desultory Notes on Cats

15 Tuesday Feb 2022

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“Desultory Notes on Cats” (1844) by Edgar Allen Poe.

… what is the reason that cats which have that within them which contains such divine melody, should make such execrable music themselves? The answer to this, perhaps, is simple. Cats are modest. They make no show of accomplishments. You never hear of a learned cat. … A cat pretends to no knowledge, not even to that of the piano and singing.

This ‘Notes on Cats’ project was, so far as I can discover, never expanded by Poe beyond being “Desultory”. Nor does it appear to have been accompanied by later essays on or around the topic. But the idea was later magnificently fluffed up to purring perfection by Lovecraft, in his own essay on cats.

Merry Christmas and a kitten New Year

21 Tuesday Dec 2021

Posted by in Housekeeping, Kittee Tuesday

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Right then, it’s time for a ten-day break from my daily posting here at Tentaclii.

And don’t worry, I’m not going to be stricken by Omicron in the meantime. Because… I’ve already had it (with all the right symptoms and counter-symptoms) and have recovered. Peak symptoms from 10th-13th December, and I’m now over it and its lingering catarrh.

Thus I’ll be back to Tentaclii and posting around 1st January 2022. Have a merry Christmas and a kitten New Year! By which I mean… you might consider making it a New Year’s Resolution to bring home a kittee from the local cat-rescue shelter.

Felis Futura

09 Tuesday Nov 2021

Posted by in Kittee Tuesday, Lovecraftian arts

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I don’t normally feature the ever-present fiction anthologies or their calls, but Felis Futura: An Anthology of Future Cats fluffed my tail when I read about it. It also seems to have Lovecraftian potential. The anthologist are seeking b&w art as well as stories…

Stories, poetry, and visual art about the future which feature cats. The interior of the book will contain B&W illustrations. Payment: $10 per accepted poem, 1c/word ($5 minimum) for accepted fiction ($15 per page for graphic narrative fiction), $20 per accepted piece of non-narrative internal visual art $100 (negotiable) for the cover illustration. Deadline: 31st December 2021.

Submit to Felis Futura, with publication mooted for Spring/Summer 2022.

Also rather amusing, Carry On, Cthulhu!. A comic as-if presenting a lost film script in the much-loved Carry On feature-film comedy series, that ran from the late-1950s into the mid-1970s. Recently crowd-funded.

New graphic-novel of Dream-Quest

21 Tuesday Sep 2021

Posted by in Kittee Tuesday, Lovecraftian arts, New books

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A new Lovecraft graphic novel of Dream-Quest, albeit currently only in Spanish. H.P. Lovecraft: Kadath is by screenwriter Florentino Florez, with Guillermo Sanna and Jacques Salomon. It’s been available for a couple of months now and several Amazon reviewers seem pleased with the large BD sized hardback, but neither Amazon or the publisher gives the page count. A little digging puts it at 210 pages.

Looks good, and good enough to get a paid-for English translation.