Category Archives: Lovecraftian arts

The Art of Mike Ploog

22 Saturday Sep 2018

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The Art of Ploog (2015), a comprehensive 9″ x 12″ retrospective of the career of a very fine comics artist, who mostly did weird and horror work with an very polished and recognisable style. Still in print, for now. Many will remember Mike Ploog best for drawing The Planet of the Apes, Man-Thing, and his own Weirdworld in the 1970s for Marvel. Also for strips in Heavy Metal and Epic in the 1980s. He was also a storyboarder for the likes of Carpenter’s The Thing and The Dark Crystal.

Original art from Marvel’s Weirdworld.

Was there a Lovecraft?

19 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts

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A curious reader enquires of Amazing Stories, “Was there a Lovecraft?”

His letter was published in the October 1951 issue.

On transcribing the letter for publication, “H. P.” becomes “F. P.”, so we have to assume that the office-boy who typed up the hand-written letter was also unfamiliar with the “H. P. Lovecraft” name. Despite working at a leading science-fiction magazine. And that his error was not caught by the Editor before printing.

OPERATIVA Lovecraft

15 Saturday Sep 2018

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“Our entire Rome gallery has been transformed into the surreal living room of Mr. H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), and is imbued with his dreamy and disquieting atmospheres. The walls of Operativa have also become animated pages “torn” from painting and sculpture related to the master’s dreamlike narratives and fantastical horrors, intended to evoke the indifferent and indecipherable cosmos for the wandering being called man. An unprecedented, courageous, and fascinating exhibition project … a selection of works by Joanne Burke, Ennio Calabria, Duilio Cambellotti, Giuseppe Capitano, Fabrizio Clerici, Giovanni Copelli, Michela de Mattei, Cleo Fariselli, Luca Grimaldi, Emiliano Maggi, Marta Mancini, Salvatore Meli, Matteo Nasini, Sergio Ragalzi, Vincenzo Simon.” (Rough translation from the Italian).

At the OPERATIVA in Rome, Italy, September 14th to October 15th 2018.

The website doesn’t have details of the show, not having been updated since July. So here’s a picture on the rather pleasing and somewhat cosmic “MONOLITH / catching spaces” by Edoardo Dionea Cicconi, which was in the Operativa in May 2018.

Gregory Amenoff

11 Tuesday Sep 2018

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The Rhode Island School of Design (RSID) Museum Collection catalogue is now online. A blank search shows they currently have 12,903 item records online which also have images on them. No results for “Lovecraft”, and almost no local photography or scenes. Not a single “cat” either, which is surprising in so large a collection. Some “Roman” and “Egyptian” items, which we can probably assume Lovecraft once saw, but nothing that seems of interest in relation to his work.

But I did stumble on their record for Gregory Amenoff‘s wonderful “The Starry Floor” (1994).

They only have the one picture by him, but looking at images of his other work from the 1990s and 2000s, I’d say he’s definitely worth a look if you collect Lovecraftian art.

Some Notes on a Non-entity: The Life of H. P. Lovecraft

11 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts, New books, Scholarly works

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I’m pleased to see that Jason Eckhardt’s graphic novel of Lovecraft’s life was published last summer (2017), with what is said to be a well-researched script by Sam Gafford. Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H. P. Lovecraft eventually weighed in at 118 pages of art. It covers the entirety of Lovecraft’s life, using the clever framework of a stage-play directed by HPL himself.

Amazingly, according to the writer…

“Much to my surprise, the project has been passed on by every publisher and agent I’ve contacted. I’m truly gobsmacked at this as I thought it would be an easy sell especially considering the quality of Jason’s artwork.”

The book is still only in hardcover, at present, and at an eye-watering price of £40 here in the UK via Amazon. The UK-based publisher PS Publishing currently has it listed at a more reasonable £25 plus shipping. It looks great and I’d imagine it would do rather well selling as a $6 Kindle ebook for 10″ digital tablets, once the print-run is eventually sold out at PS.

It doesn’t appear that PS has sent out review-copies yet, as there are no real reviews online at present, other than few comments from buyers at Amazon and a brief promo-blurb at Publishers’ Weekly.

The Three Cities of Lovecraft – full recording

10 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts, Podcasts etc.

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A few nights ago a new orchestral work by Guillaume Connesson premiered in Germany, “The Cities of Lovecraft” (aka “Les Cités de Lovecraft”, aka “Les Trois Cités de Lovecraft”). The National German Radio service (NDR) now has a complete audio recording of the 25 minute performance online and this is accessible from outside Germany.

Update: Seems to have been taken down. The Lovecraft work opened the recording I linked to, but a few days later NDR broke the link totally and sent the traffic to their homepage. I guess their online “listen again” service only lasts for a week? But there’s an Archive.org community audio backup available here.

Here’s my approximate translation of the key descriptive section in the venue’s German programme notes brochure, with some descriptive additions of my own which reflect my hearing of the work:

Celephais: In the opening movement, Randolph Carter goes to meet his old friend Kuranes in the shining port city of Celephais. Brass fanfares describe the bronze gate through which he enters the dream-city, before a melody of violins evokes the weaving and bustling dream-life of the city’s streets. In the section “The Temple of Turquoise” colourful trumpets express Carter’s encountering of pagan celebrations, followed by a quiet chorale titled the “Rose and Crystal Palace of the Seventy Delicacies” as he enters ascends to more refined parts of the city. The “Seven Processions of the Orchid Crowned Priests” are then encountered, and given a great crescendo to end the first movement.

Kadath: In contrast to the radiant first movement, the scene then shifts to “Kadath”, the gloomy outpost of ancient gods located in an icy region of Antarctica named “The Plateau of Leng”. Lamenting violas emerge from the noise of the wind machine, then twelve-tone passages disseminate culminating chords (so-called “clusters”). Nyarlathotep, the eerie envoy of the ancient gods, approaches a throne room… He is given voice in a solo viola that sings and ripples in half and a quarter tones above kettle-drums and mad titterings.

The Golden Dream-City: Without a pause, a third short movement follows: Mr. Lovecraft begins to drift up from his nightmare slumber and the scene of his dream begins to change into his familiar dream-vision of a distant mighty city in the golden sunset. This is briefly evoked in the form of an intoxicating short dance, but some orgiastic overtones emerge in it at the very end.