10 Wednesday Aug 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
Christian Salomonsen captures the cosmic, in the form of the Northern Lights (charged particles streaming into the Earth’s atmosphere from space, and which hit the north pole more than the south)…
All pictures © Christian Salomonsen. More at his website.
‘… an unearthly cast which made him feel like an intruder on an alien planet. […] he knew of the northern lights, and had even seen them once or twice.’ — H.P. Lovecraft, “The Mound”.
10 Wednesday Aug 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
A penguin made by Jeremy Mayer from an old antique mechanical typewriter. Those who know At The Mountains of Madness will get the joke…
that nighted, penguin-fringed abyss, whence even now a sinister curling mist had begun to belch pallidly
08 Monday Aug 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, New books
Alan Moore’s Neonomicon is now on pre-order as a graphic novel from Titan/Avatar Press, set for release in Oct/Nov 2011. Presumably it’ll be fronted by The Courtyard, then will run through the four issues of Neonomicon to make up a 140-page graphic novel. The hardback, currently listed for pre-order on Amazon, states “176 pages”, so presumably there’ll be a couple of new text-only introductions and maybe even a new Moore essay on Lovecraft. The ending of Neonomicon sets up a sequel, so it would great to think that Moore is going to spring a Lovecraftian novelette on us as a concluding part. The story starts in a modern-day Red Hook in New York, and is sexually very graphic. So much so that I wonder if it’ll even be banned or released only in censored form in the UK.
Cover for Neonomicon #3.
07 Sunday Aug 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
Bruce Pennington (1944-), there’s a name that’s a blast from the past. He did a great many British paperback covers in the 1970s, which I collected from the second-hand book stores as a youngster in the 1980s, although no non-Derleth Lovecraft as far as I can see. He has an exhibition on now in London (ends 27th Aug 2011). There are originals and also A3-sized digital prints at just £25 each.
He published the book collections Eschatus (Paper Tiger, 1976) and Ultraterranium (Paper Tiger, 1991).
06 Saturday Aug 2011
Posted in Films & trailers, Lovecraftian arts
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Johnny Depp had bought the film rights to The Vault…
the underwater sci-fi story centers on a group of divers who, off the coast of Nova Scotia, uncover a sarcophagus with unusual remains and inadvertently unleash an ancient evil.
Said evil apparently has links to the Great Pyramid, Stonehenge, and the Easter Island statues, etc. Nostrodamus gets a name check, rather than the Necronomicon. But in general it sounds fab and rather Lovecraftian and reminds me of Lovecraft’s story “The Temple” (1920). Apparently it’s out now as an ongoing comic-book series…
A great looking and believable [comic] series, it creates a real sense of danger and is the kind of adventure we rarely see in today’s spandex-epic driven market. — Broken Frontier.
The concluding third comic-book installment is due in October 2011 (don’t read the promo blurb for #3, if you don’t want a huge plot spoiler landed on you by the marketing idiots). Let’s hope the Hollywood machine doesn’t twist a movie version into just another forgetable Alien vs. Predator, or some dumb non-cosmic “it’s the Devil!” stuff.
04 Thursday Aug 2011
Posted in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts
Night in New York, pictures by Martin Lewis from The Smithsonian — which has more by Lewis.
“The Great Shadow”, 1925.
“Tree, Manhattan”, undated.
“Arch, Midnight”, 1930.
“Glow of the City”, 1929.
“H’anted”, 1932.
“Spring Night, Greenwich Village”, 1930.
04 Thursday Aug 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
Edward Hopper, “Night Shadows” (1921). New York.
01 Monday Aug 2011
Posted in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts, Maps
Frank Jacobs surveys the cartographic land octopus…
I suspect it’s those tentacles that explain why the octopus became cartography’s favourite land monster. They turn the CLO into a perfect emblem of evil spreading across a map: its ugly head is the centre of a malevolent intelligence, which is manipulating its obscene appendages to bring death and destruction to its surroundings. This is perfect for demonstrating the geographic reach of an enemy state’s destructive potential. […] The migration of the Kraken to land, somewhere around 1870, can be seen as an escalation, symbolising the hardening of international attitudes.
25 Monday Jul 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Lovecraftian places
Three Lovecraftian underground scenes that really exist…
‘World’s Largest Cave’ at Phong Nha-Ke Bang, Vietnam:
Giant crystals in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico:
Majlis Al Jinn Cave, Salma Plateau:
23 Saturday Jul 2011
Posted in Films & trailers, Lovecraftian arts
Dejan Ognjanovic interviews the director of Arkham Sanitarium (an anthology film of: The Thing on the Doorstep, The Shunned House, The Haunter of the Dark), at the close of filming…
“we’re also faithfully recreating a number of Lovecraftian locations including The Shunned House, The Church of the Starry Wisdom, The Crowninshield Place, and Arkham Sanitarium itself (based largely on Danvers).”
23 Saturday Jul 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
So what would liven up Lovecraft? Show tunes! …
“a musical performance of horror writer H.P.Lovecraft’s 1920s short story “The Outsider” […] through live music, dance, and singing, calling upon Stu Watson to narrate, gymnast Jasmine Daly, choreographer Michelle Moya, Venezuelan folk punk musician Yva Las Vegass, Mason’s band Little Band of Sailors, and more to weave the story together. Performers wearing cat masks played guitar and even performed a yoga dance …”
They had me running away screaming at “Venezuelan folk punk”.
19 Tuesday Jul 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Summer School
There is still time to sign up for the Lovecraft Summer School 2011 — Wednesday the 20th is the sign-up deadline. Today’s assignment comes in the form of advance notice of the Final Project, which involves participants reading Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book of story ideas…
“Your final project can be any form of creative output: a story, a painting, a poem, a song, a work of collage, or a very short video — whatever appeals to you. Simply choose a concept from Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book and find a way to make it your own.”
Here’s my choice, if I were possibly to make some CG/Photoshop illustrations…
21. A very ancient colossus in a very ancient desert. Face gone — no man hath seen it.
61. A terrible pilgrimage to seek the nighted throne of the far daemon-sultan Azathoth.
110. Antediluvian—Cyclopean ruins on lonely Pacific island.
114. Death lights dancing over a salt marsh.
129. Marble Faun — strange and prehistorick Italian city of stone.
172. Pre-human idol found in desert.
178. A very ancient tomb in the deep woods …
189. Ancient necropolis — bronze door in hillside which opens as the moonlight strikes it — focussed by ancient lens in pylon opposite?
213. Ancient winter woods — moss — great boles — twisted branches —dark—ribbed roots — always dripping….
214. Talking rock of Africa — immemorially ancient oracle in desolate jungle ruins that speaks with a voice out of the aeons.
… although I think I’m inclining toward a story or poetry.