“The latest wave of games hinges on experiencing or even writing complex narratives. And fresh game-building tools mean even poetry is making a comeback”
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24 Saturday May 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
24 Saturday May 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
“The latest wave of games hinges on experiencing or even writing complex narratives. And fresh game-building tools mean even poetry is making a comeback”
23 Friday May 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
21 Wednesday May 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
21 Wednesday May 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Odd scratchings, Scholarly works
Need a book cover for a scholarly book? The Metropolitan Museum of Art now has nearly 400,000 images online in medium-res (72dpi, but around 3000px on the longest side), and…
“that the Museum believes to be in the public domain and free of other known restrictions; these images are now available for scholarly use in any media.”
Above: “A Fury Riding on a Monster”, by Cornelis Saftleven, mid 17th century.
20 Tuesday May 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
Notes, spring 2014…
Hallman’s “Three Poems of Jessica Hornick” and “Lovecraftian Elsewheres” are featured on the Inscape Chamber Orchestra’s debut album Spring Rhythm […] Of the album, Washington Post writer Charles Downey had this to say: […] Showing off Hallman’s sure handling of instruments even more are the Imagined Landscapes, miniatures based on the nightmarish dreamscapes of H. P. Lovecraft that exploit all sorts of unexpected sounds.”
16 Friday May 2014
Posted in Films & trailers, Lovecraftian arts
News that Lux Digital Pictures has seed-funded a planned animated adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness. On the back of this Telefilm Canada is “expected” to invest “approximately $2.5 million” Canadian dollars, along with fan-funding via a Kickstarter set to launch in June 2014.
Hopefully the movie will be faithful and an authentic period piece. Not distorted by the insertion of some tedious new ‘love interest’, or by setting it on another planet, or by adding a giant Cthulhu standing atop Kadath. Although adding an additional subtle layer of valvepunk styling to the visual design and costuming might be nice. Or even a 1931 vintage look for the illustration style, following the ‘filmed in Mythoscope’ lead of the HPL Historical Society movies and the first 30 minutes of Sky Captain.
The lead creative will be Stephen Sloan of Upon Animation Studios, and the film will be “produced entirely in Canada”, rather than being outsourced to the Far East. Judging by the ‘Saturday morning cartoon’ style that Upon Animation’s animation used for the animated inserts in Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Movie (2011), the style may be stylised toony 2D rather than Space Pirate Captain Harlock rendered 3D. The screenplay is by stage playwright Peter Colley. Casting agent Deirdre Bowen is said to be set to start “casting by the beginning of July”, if the funds are raised.
A Mountains concept poster borrowed from Walter Junior. Not the poster for the Upon Animation version.
13 Tuesday May 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
Richard Swensson’s short film “Concerning Brown Jenkin”…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81RJGtPJcmU?rel=0&w=500&h=375]
“Making of…”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYjgnf6ctWs?rel=0&w=500&h=375]
Hat-tip to StopmoNick, who appears to be currently making a stop-motion short featuring Lovecraft, Poe, and Cthulhu…
12 Monday May 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
Back in summer 2012 I noted a planned PC game called Clockwork Empires.
“Lovecraft-laden steampunk city-builder” [in which the player is a Civilisation-style] colony-builder amid the grand idealism of Victorian discovery [but] with horrors, madness, wild species, and volatile science.”
Now there’s a demo ahead of the (maybe) summer 2014 release…
“Clockwork Empires uses Victorian-era horror and science fiction as a jumping off point. As in, jumping off a cliff because you joined a cult and went mad after summoning the old gods to your weekly meetings … It’s a crazy and incredibly weird game”
Any videogame that manages to combine Lovecraftian squid monoliths and bottle-kilns can’t be all bad.
10 Saturday May 2014
Posted in Fonts, Lovecraftian arts
Lovely new Lovecraftian font, hand made by Stapleton McTavish, free, and with .ttf and source code.
It shows up in Photoshop’s font-list under ‘C’, as “Cthulhuian”.
Personal use only (with credit), but commercial uses can be negotiated with the maker.
[Update: no longer free, now sold]
09 Sunday Mar 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, NecronomiCon 2013, New books, Podcasts etc.
A three part audio recording of the panel discussion on the History of Necronomicon Press, made at NecronomiCon 2013.
Above: Rhode Island Historical Society 2013 reprint of Off the Ancient Track: a Lovecraftian Guide to New-England & adjacent New-York, 1987 Necronomicon Press. 18 page pamphlet.
08 Saturday Mar 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
The Kickstarter project Prospero’s Price has been halted by a spurious copyright claim. The copyright troll in question rather amazingly claims to own copyright on combinations of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Lovecraft. Even more amazingly, Kickstarter felt obliged to suspend guffaws of mocking laughter and actually take him at his word. Such ‘DMCA takedown requests’ (as they are known) are being widely abused like this, and WordPress.com is seeking high-level legal rulings in the USA which would allow for legal suits to be brought against those who “knowingly materially misrepresent” a case of alleged copyright infringement.
The bad typography on the above cover, however, is very clearly a criminal act (against good taste)… 🙂
05 Wednesday Mar 2014
Posted in Lovecraftian arts