Category Archives: Lovecraftian arts

Journal: Fantasy Art and Studies

14 Friday Feb 2020

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, Scholarly works

≈ Leave a comment

New to me, a regular scholarly journal on Fantasy Art and Studies, which has already reached seven issues. Mostly in French, but the editors appear to try to have at least one English article in each issue. It looks robust and sound, for instance with an R.E. Howard translation in the Spring 2019 ‘Pop Norse’ issue. The latest issue is on Arthurian works.

They have a current Call for texts and illustrations for an issue on Animaux Fabuleux / Fabulous Animals / Amazing Beasts. Which might perhaps lend itself to an illustrated study of the creatures of Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, and perhaps also the tightly integrated extension of such in The House of the Worm (1975).

The House of the Worm in ebook

13 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, New books

≈ 14 Comments

Have you been looking for the well-regarded book of Dreamlands tales The House of the Worm (1975)? S.T. Joshi has referred to it as (I paraphrase from memory) ‘an exercise in how closely one can write like Lovecraft’. Which, to me, is a kind of recommendation. Thus I was pleased to discover that the book is now a Kindle ebook titled The Country of the Worm: Excursions Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2013). In early 2020 this ebook edition is currently on a heavy discount, at a somewhat affordable £7.60.

The Country of the Worm is Myers’s long-awaited follow-up to The House of the Worm. It contains that first book in a corrected edition, together with all the stories in the same fantastic vein that Myers has written in the forty-three years since.

“Corrected” because the Arkham edition of 1975, though said to be nicely printed and collectable, was also reportedly riddled with typos.

Note also that recent issues of Crypt of Cthulhu (#111 and #122) appear to have had short Dreamlands fiction by Myers, which I’m guessing from their titles may be new or newly-published post-2013 tales? These issues are also available in ebook format.

In 2012 the Miskatonic Debating Club & Literary Society blog usefully reviewed the original Arkham The House of the Worm, adding some detail on how… “Chaosium has milked it dry for inspiration for their own compilations”, re: commercial RPG game books for the Dreamlands setting.

In Norwegian, there’s also the blog review “Gennem den dybe slummers porte”, which shows some of the interior illustrations from the 1975 edition.

Sharp Corners of the Earth

12 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

≈ 1 Comment

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a classic videogame from 2006, and despite its age and glitches one would expect to find it in any ‘top 20 Lovecraft games’ list. I’m pleased to see that a 5.5Gb HD textures mod has just landed for it.

All textures are original, so the atmosphere is preserved, upscaled to 4x resolution with neural networks. All game textures are upscaled.

Also, Hyperborea Live (Italian sword & sorcery) has just posted a long appreciation of the game, “I Miti del Tubo di Ilario Gobbi – Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth”. In Italian, but a translator-bot is only a click away.

Gallery of Screams 2020

09 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

≈ Leave a comment

Seemingly on tour in the UK in 2020, “H. P. Lovecraft – A Gallery of Screams 2020”. Including Harrogate Theatres on 6th June 2020…

Adapted and Performed by R. M. Lloyd Parry … who has spent the last 13 years enacting the M. R. James Project, a series of one-man shows based on classic English ghost stories. Here he crosses the Atlantic to pay tribute to James’s exact contemporary — a stranger, sadder man but one with an arguably even greater talent for bringing nightmares to life.

Also to be found in Cheltenham in April, so I’m guessing a ‘early spring to midsummer’ tour of the UK’s theatrical hotspots? The same actor also did the acclaimed The Time Machine a few years ago.

DeviantArt survey

05 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

≈ Leave a comment

Another survey of some of the best new Lovecraft art on DeviantArt, since my last look.

The Call of Cthulhu: Tale of Inspector Legrasse by DieNCry.

The Terrible Old Man by tomimt.

Pickman’s Model by nightserpent.

Cthulhu creatures, concept sketch by PRED-ALEX.

Boatman by Gobln.

Hastur, the King in Yellow by hubertspala.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft by Tipthehat.

Howard P. Lovecraft by KipiMichaelis.

And one I missed in the summer, C’mon, Howie -let’s wrassle! by Loneanimator. Imagining what might have happened had Lovecraft and R.E. Howard met in Texas.

Another view of No. 66.

04 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts

≈ Leave a comment

Willis Conover Jr.’s Science-Fantasy Correspondent: One, 1975, with a cover illustration showing the entrance to Lovecraft’s final home at 66 College Street. 100 copies, and no No.2. The substantial ‘zine contained Kenneth Sterling’s “Caverns Measureless to Man” memoir-tribute to Lovecraft, among others.

The pictures above are the best I could find, and are larger than other online copies of the cover. One can thus better discern what appears to be the ‘impression of a ghostly figure’ passing across the hallway. A larger and crisper scan would be more useful here, but the ‘zine is not yet available on Archive.org or the online fanzine archives.

Game for a laff…

04 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

≈ Leave a comment

A very quick glance at the titles for the usual annual tidal-wave of Lovecraftian videogames, these being those set for the first half of 2020…

* The Innsmouth Case. Hard boiled detectives in Innsmouth, interactive story-based and apparently with “comedy” elements. Cue the “Hmmm, something smells fishy here” jokes.

* World of Horror is a retro text Lovecraft adventure game with b&w manga-style pictures.

* Moons of Madness, Lovecraft in outer spaaacce! A big game delayed from 2019, but promised for 2020.

* Dead Static Drive. A Lovecraftian car-racing game.

* Transient, apparently Lovecraftian cyberpunk. Get ready to strap on your “cosmic radio” headsets.

* It seems the acclaimed The Sinking City is also getting some return-luv as new PC players get past the hate-reviews to find it, and as previous players revisit it with the new gaming PC / graphics-card they got in the January sales. There are also new items for the game such as the long-awaited October 2019 PC patch, free DLC character outfits, and the November 2019 noir reshade mod.

I probably missed a few, but in the absence of a blog-a-list of such things from a hardcore gamer who knows the territory, this’ll have to do.

Also noted in the quick search were tabletop games, such as Fate of Cthulhu, and it seems that the boardgame The Gate of R’lyeh (2019) is gaining ever-more positive reviews.

The Wright stuff

03 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

≈ Leave a comment

Bobby Derie surveys “Farnsworth Wright’s Favorite Weird Tales”. Lovecraft’s own list is included is the essay, for comparison. The master had trawled his personal file of Weird Tales back-issues, most likely over Christmas 1929/30, and sent the ‘top six’ to Wright in Jan? 1930…

“Beyond the Door” — Paul Suter.
“The Floor Above” — M. Humphreys.
“The Night Wire” — H. F. Arnold.
“The Canal” — Everil Worrell.
“Bells of Oceana” — Arthur J. Burks.

He also remarks “I’d include [Frank Belknap Long’s] “Black Druid” if it were published.”