15 Sunday Dec 2019
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Odd scratchings
In the pantomime spirit of the season, “HPL’l get-cha…” A unique ‘printable’ made for my Patreon Patrons, suitable for t-shirts etc. Find it as a 300dpi and 4,200-pixel .PNG file with transparent background, over at my Patreon posts.
13 Friday Dec 2019
Posted in New books, Odd scratchings
It’s Friday the 13th so… a post on science and cats. Because, what could possibly go wrong with such a combination?
The book Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics is finally published, from Yale University Press. A history of the cat’s role in scientific revelation. Specifically the study of “cat-turning, the cat flip, and the cat twist”, as cats fall to land on their feet.
02 Monday Dec 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings
When looking for copies of Lovecraft’s Selected Letters, beware con-artists and their enablers on eBay, Amazon and elsewhere, selling a $40 paperback purporting to be a Selected Letters volume. The key tell-tale is that it’s a paperback, and the Selected Letters have never been in paperback. I assume these so-called ‘books’ must be robo-assembled compilations of Wikipedia articles, printed on-demand in large-print.
02 Monday Dec 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings
A glimpse inside the Library of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), possibly the 1940s. So far as I’m aware Lovecraft never used it, but the picture may be of use to those making videogames, tabletop RPGs, or new stories set in Providence.
29 Friday Nov 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings, Scholarly works
“One Squid to Rule Them All”, Journal of Geek Studies Vol. 5 No. 1, 2018. A biology-heavy survey of the tentacular ones in Tolkien.
28 Thursday Nov 2019
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Odd scratchings
The Alchemist, a 1941 fanzine, new on Archive.org. It opens with a sweet Gestetner-duplicated ad from Derleth for Lovecraft…
Also Forrest J. Ackerman on Weird Tales cover artist Margaret Bundage, and a humourous squit from Ray Bradbury on why he’s not Robert Bloch. On the back is a Hannes Bok design, which would probably make someone a fine tattoo these days.
27 Wednesday Nov 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings, Podcasts etc., REH
I’ve updated the links on my 2014 post on R.E. Howard audio books. That post put Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories in story-world chronological order, and linked to free audio which had reasonably good narrators.
Currently missing:
“Black Colossus”.
“The Pool Of The Black One”.
“The Black Stranger”, aka “Treasure of Tranicos” after de Camp’s reworking.
23 Saturday Nov 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings
The Heart of the Hollow World, a complete 2017 graphic novel adventure in the Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Edgar Rice Burroughs / pulp adventure style, with a learned protagonist from Rhode Island. It’s free online.
Originally a showcase for Doug Lefler‘s Scrollon comics reading app for iPhones and iPad, and now also available via a Web browser in a player. It uses a gutter-less format, akin to a scroll-painting.
His new Story Attic looks like an interesting outlet for those who can tell old-school adventure stories in this new visual form. The storytelling is top-notch.
23 Saturday Nov 2019
Posted in Historical context, Odd scratchings
Currently for sale at $100 via AbeBooks, Science-Fantasy Correspondent #2 (1937). Containing Bloch’s story “A Visit with H. P. Lovecraft”.
Joshi’s bibliography lists it as “fictional reminiscence” re: its reprint in the book Lovecraft At Last, and comments elsewhere reveal it to be a “hilarious” bit of humorous writing. A little further digging reveals it to have been reprinted more recently in the appendix of H.P. Lovecraft: Letters to Robert Bloch and Others.
An earlier and fuller sales listing for the original zine has found its way to the Amazon description, and this notes…
In the story, Lovecraft is depicted as eating the writer of the story. Lovecraft comments separately “…I seldom eat people alive except for Sunday dinner. As a general thing, I prefer human flesh cooked; and I generally avoid authors as a diet, since they tend to be lean and tasteless.”
Regrettably the story/zine is not scanned and on Archive.org or in the Hevelin online collection. I imagine a crowd-funder for a comics adaptation of it might do rather well.
21 Thursday Nov 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings
Useful advice on caring for rare hardback books, by an expert book conservator, found in the latest edition of the UK’s Country Life magazine…
Lovecraftian writers in search of correct description of the physicality of ancient library work should also look at “Fingers, Lips and Parchment: How Medieval Users Handled their Manuscripts”.
20 Wednesday Nov 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings
I’m pleased to see that Starblazer has returned, if only as a best-of reprint title. Each volume is an oversized double-issue reprint…
Collating two classic issues from DC Thomson’s archives and blowing them up to full graphic novel size.
Starblazer was the science-fiction sister-title to the UK’s venerable Commando, and ran from 1979-1991.
19 Tuesday Nov 2019
Posted in Odd scratchings
At La Maison d’Ailleurs, Europe’s leading museum of imaginative science-fiction, a “Cthulhu-Con” in March 2020…
To be paired with a visit to their “Mondes (im)parfaits” exhibition, which appears to be a partial retrospective of the original art of the graphic novels Les Cites obscures, albeit framed by the work of other artists.
