02 Thursday Feb 2023
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
In the latest Linn’s Stamp News, “The story behind author August Derleth’s ‘cinderella’ stamp”.
Wombo made me rather nice HPL stamp as-if from Carpathia in 1953…
Ooh, now I’m imagining a Lovecraftian sequel to the 1970s Philately board-game.
24 Tuesday Jan 2023
Posted in Kittee Tuesday, Lovecraftian arts
Chaosium has an interesting new interview video which looks at how Call of Cthulhu and other RPG books are put together, both in the past and today. The blurb uses “TTRPG” which is just industry-speak for = Tabletop Role-playing Game.
Elsewhere, Dave Higgins has a new player-review of Call of Catthulhu RPG. I think I may have spotted this back when it was a Kickstarter, but it’s expanded a bit since then…
the entire game is based in genuine cat behaviour seen through the lens of affection, creating a pervasive sense of whimsy, the rules based around play-acting veer even more strongly into the humorous.
For real-cats, ‘Strange Maps’ has the latest on the fast-changing picture of the great European house-cat migration in pre-history. Domesticated felines were in Poland in 6,000 B.C.
15 Sunday Jan 2023
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
A nice paired look at Bruce Pennington’s Lovecraftian painting, as it graced two 1970s Panther paperbacks here in the UK.
14 Saturday Jan 2023
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
A peep at what Lovecraft looked like to the Spanish in 1967. Their translation of Dreams in the Witch House and other stories. Apparently ideal weekend reading for your motor-car jaunt, according to the sticker.
09 Monday Jan 2023
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
07 Saturday Jan 2023
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Odd scratchings
The Starblazer Special Edition published in 2019, became newly available as a Kindle download on Amazon from 28th December 2022. It reprinted two classics from the early 1980s, to test the waters for interest in a Starblazer title re-start alongside the long-running Commando title. You’ll recall that Starblazer was the 1980s science-fiction sister title of the successful and enjoyable British Commando war-stories comic.
The Special Edition also had a history of the Starblazer series, which like Commando published self-contained 68-page comics in a digest format. Kind of like the French BDs in page-count, which is unusual for the British market, but in a pocket-size format and with ‘pocket-money priced’ pulpy paper and printing.
If collectors want paper then the title is also on Amazon UK in print as “Starblazer: Space Fiction Adventures in Pictures”. The return of a regular Starblazer, alongside Commando, is something all SF pulp readers should be supporting.
Commando also had the occasional soldiers + sci-fi story. Or I should say has, as the title is still going strong today with four issues a month. The new Commando Presents: The Sci-Fi Files Volume 1 collects four of the best and gives you a quality sampler of those. Also released 28th December 2022, as a Kindle ebook.
Also in comics, the new Lovecraft: Unknown Kadath comic-book series has a conclusion date. Four are now available, and three are still to come in early 2023. The seventh and final comic installment will be released 29th March 2023. Presumably to be followed by collected completed-story as a trade paperback, though there’s no sign of that yet in the listings. It seems we should be getting the tale in around 220 pages in total.
15 Thursday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, New books
The sumptuous fine letterpress production Dark Dreamlands III, announced early in 2021, is now available. You can also currently pick up all three beautifully illustrated and typeset books in a discounted bundle. Might make someone a nice Christmas present?
14 Wednesday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
New on Archive.org to borrow, poet Brett Rutherford’s Night Gaunts : an entertainment based on the life and writings of H.P. Lovecraft, with additional poetica Lovecraftiana.
I see it can also be officially had free on the Poet Press website in HTML.
I further see that his Tales of Terror: The Supernatural Poem Since 1800 – Supplement 1, appeared in 2021 and is available on Amazon UK. Currently Amazon UK’s useless search only finds Volume 1 for a title-search for “The Supernatural Poem Since 1800”, but Volume 2 on is also available there. Click on the author’s name-link.
11 Sunday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
“The surf at Watch Hill, Rhode Island”, Providence. Possibly Watch Hill Beach, Westerly.
Cleaned a bit and with text label removed for added existential appeal. Probably the best vintage Rhode Island surf picture I’ve seen, in many years of perusing the cards. It’s now of an age to be public domain, please use it how you like.
10 Saturday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Scholarly works
From Archive.org, their Public Domain Day 2023 Remix Contest… create and upload a short film of 2–3 minutes” using the newly-released public domain “Internet Archive collections from 1927”. Deadline: 6th January 2023.
Quite a bit of scope there for a 1920s-flavoured Lovecraft short, I’d say. Especially one accompanied by the… “snappy musical composition ‘You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream'”. Which is set to slip deliciously into the public domain.
09 Friday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Podcasts etc.
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre’s “The Black Stone” has its cover artwork, and gives every impression that it’s available for download (if not quite yet a shipping CD). Including two 8th December reviews.
Presented with their usual 1930s-style radio drama approach and panache, it’s Howard’s loving-crafted 1931 homage to Lovecraft.
05 Monday Dec 2022
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
More Lovecrafty 3D pose-able figures for free, suitable for 1930s-40s RPGs and more. I featured one back in July. Now comes a new set from the same creator, Agent Civil 1940-50, low poly II, with accessories, skins and more. You need a copy of Poser 11 ($52) plus the old Michael 3 base figure aka “M3”. You’ll also want some extra head character morphs (many are free), to get Michael 3 away from the default “showroom dummy head” look.
“Low-poly” mean they don’t put much demand in your PC, and so you can have many of theme in one crowd or office scene. They’re intended for background use in a large scene, not close-ups.
Once installed, found in the Poser Library under: Figures | !DieselPunkUniverse | Character Male | Agent. There are zillions of M3 poses available, once you go looking. M3 will also take standard .BVH motion-capture files. Poser also has b&w line-art and Sketch capabilities, so you’re not stuck with normal 3D rendering. Poser now incorporates the same renderer as Blender, so if you want photoreal then you’re also not stuck with the “1990s videogame look” seen here.
