1970s TV star David McCallum has passed away.

A formative but almost-forgotten part of my youth. I remember him in the TV show Sapphire and Steel (time-travelling super-agents, ‘gothic horror meets TV sci-fi’) and in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. spy-thriller movies as shown on TV.

Sapphire and Steel is a British sci-fi show which I (and most others) had forgotten, but I vaguely recall enjoying it a lot… and I may well revisit it now.

Anyway, David McCallum also recorded vinyl L.P. records of Lovecraft tales, for the Caedmon label. As you might expect, these are now on Archive.org…

“The Rats in the Walls”
“The Dunwich Horror”
“The Haunter of the Dark”

Regular readers of Tentaclii will know I’ve been reading through the 22 trade paperback collection of the acclaimed series Fables. I was pleased to spot a clear Lovecraft reference, late on. Young Splinter is exploring her new home for the first time, a giant castle magically concealed in the midst of New York City. The exiled fables are moving in too, and so is the Library. There Splinter is drawn to a copy of the Necronomicon…

It’s in a short 20-page side-story which fronts the final three volumes, and the art is not by the regular artist. It also introduces ‘the rats in the walls’ (possibly another Lovecraftian nod?) who are then never encountered again. Looks to me like this ‘short’ is setting up a whole other story-arc, beyond the final volumes. And possibly one with Lovecraftian monsters? Well, now Fables has been sent into the public domain I guess that story can be written… if anyone cares to do it…

The German Lovecraftians have posted their club’s monthly update. Items of note:

* Their annual Lovecrafter double-issue magazine is bagged, stacked and ready to mail.

* Notes what sounds like a survey / overview article elsewhere, on…

Lovecraft in film [which] appeared in the German issue #15 of the film magazine Art of Horror. The feature looks at Lovecraft’s own attitude towards the medium, which was still young at the time, the direct film adaptations of his work, and productions that are indirectly influenced by his ideas on cosmic horror.

* The best of Weird Tales has been published in German as a 100th anniversary slipcase edition containing five hardcover books… “This anniversary edition, limited to 999 copies, contains 111 creepy and bizarre stories from the magazine’s first phase (1923 to 1954). Most of them appear for the first time in German.”

* There’s also a panning review (spoilers) of Alan Moore’s Providence comics series / graphic novel. Spoiler-free quote…

But rarely does it [the ‘inspired by Lovecraft’ thing] happen as clumsily and — in my opinion — disrespectfully as here. [The tale becomes] completely disrespectful after the great first volumes. What a story ‘Providence’ could have told if Moore had limited himself to telling a Lovecraftian story. In the ‘Neonomicon’ he succeeded [but] it’s a real shame that at the end of ‘Providence’] Moore resorts to the cheapest of twists to bring this great series to an utterly undignified end. […] Do yourself a favour and skip the ending [of ‘Providence’]. It’s a fiasco.

Assembled from the best pictures on various listings, here’s a closer look at the fine detail and penmanship of the pleasing Frank Utpatel cover for the Arkham Press edition of Lovecraft’s Collected Poems (1963).

In Photoshop I’ve repaired a couple of bits of edge-wear and de-saturated some tobacco staining.

The scene must evoke Lovecraft on his favourite bluff above York Pond in Providence, overlooking the real River Seekonk. Though here the view of opposite bank of the wide river is more akin to Ulthar than to the humdrum East Providence.

And here’s a look at the full dustjacket, in which we see the full curve of the tree…

Of course, today you can obtain a fine edition of the complete poetry in its second edition, for which I recently made a free back-of-the-book index. It’s missing only one newly-discovered early poem from 1912, which was recently printed in the Lovecraft Annual and is on the Brown Repository here if you want to print it out and slip it in the back of the book.

Also, newly listed on Honest Abe’s site is an apparently “scholarly” Lovecraft ‘zine from the 1970s…

As we approach October, some Lovecraftian arts announcements…

* “The Shadow Over AFRU” – a show of Lovecraftian & cosmic horror in Portland. A gallery exhibition at the AFRU gallery. Timed to coincide with the Lovecraft Film Festival, then continuing to 29th October 2023. There’s still time to get 2D and sculpture into the show…

Bring out your visions of incomprehensible entities from unknown realms! Forbidden and dangerous knowledge! Irreversible madness from glimpsing creatures beyond the stars! Scientific curiosity decayed into existential dread! And, let us not forget – the catastrophic results of exploring the frozen, lightless corners of the world!

Submission deadline: 22nd September 2023.

* The Lovecraft Sextet’s The Horror Cosmic 12″ LP, due for release 27th October 2023. It’s a move forward for the group’s ambitions, being the…

first soundtrack to a yet-to-be-created movie. ‘The Horror Cosmic’ is a Lovecraftian cosmic horror short story which dives into the existential dread of the infinite nothingness. The album was composed as a soundtrack to accompany the illustrated short story and is an expanded step in the multidisciplinary aspect of the Lovecraft Sextet project. Therefore this release should be listened to as a soundtrack with compositions working to accentuate a specific mood to the specific chapters of the story. ‘The Horror Cosmic’ will also be release as a very limited custom hardcover illustrated short-story book with a special vinyl color LP.

* And don’t forget the Innsmouth Literary Festival in the town of Bedford, UK, on 30th September 2023. A rare Mythos writers event in the UK.

* In RPG games, the planned release of a Trail of Cthulhu 2nd Edition, revised in various ways.

* Lots of videogames too, which can’t be covered here. But I note that the latest trade magazine Edge (November 2023) has an article on the annual tidal surge of such games, “The Call of the Weird” and confirms that…

The videogame influence of H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos is only growing.

Still no dedicated ‘zine for them though, which is perhaps something of a missed opportunity?

Quite a rarity, new on Honest Abe’s site…

Science-Fiction aux Etats-Unis. – Quatre artistes contemporains (8 février – 17 mars 1979) – Suivi de : Hommage à H.P. Lovecraft Published by Centre In-8° broché, Culturel Américain, Paris, 1979

A 24-page booklet issued for what might have been a four-man exhibition at the American Cultural centre in Paris in 1979, of Lovecraft inspired SF art. I must say three of the small images don’t look especially inspiring, but some readers may be interested. Especially if they know that one of the artists became more well-known than the others.

New to me, Cthulhu Cantata on the HPLHS Store…

It’s weird, it’s classical. HPL would probably have loved it. We think you will too. Composer Richard Thomas Hill (b. 1969) fuses a baroque sacred music form with 21st century musical language using prose and poetry of H.P. Lovecraft as well as original lyrics by the composer and Charles Moore, Jr. The result is a piece of ritual music worthy of the cult, featuring stunning vocal performances from professional singers well versed in baroque and classical music as well as modern techniques.

Performed by “The Arkham Virtual Chamber Orchestra” and singers, and Bandcamp has it as being released there 31st October 2022. HPLHS has the CD.

Meanwhile, in Manchester UK in November 2023, a stage adaptation of The Colour Out of Space at The Edge Theatre…

MAYT Theatre, in association with The Edge presents The Colour Out of Space. A collaboratively devised adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmically thrilling short story.

Baranger’s illustrated The Dunwich Horror is now available for pre-order on Amazon UK, with a publisher shipping date of 3rd October 2023, though they expect delivery perhaps 23rd October 2023. For some reason it doesn’t show up in a search for Baranger Lovecraft. But it’s there. This is the English edition. The French edition appeared as L’abomination de Dunwich illustre in October 2022.

Those who know his “The Call of Cthulhu” (2019) or “At the Mountains of Madness” (2 volumes, 2021) will know what to expect. Fully illustrated with big lavish cinematic illustrations. Created by hand, I should add in this new age of AI.

A 50 pence ebook edition is listed from the page, which was interesting. Although it turns out to be Amazon mis-selling an unrelated shovelware edition of the story.