New journal on science fiction

08 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by in Historical context, Scholarly works

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A new Spanish-language journal of science-fiction, Sci-Fdi : Revista de ciencia ficcion. Three issues so far, and the articles include one on Ray Bradbury’s stint with EC’s horror comics, 1951-1954, during which time 27 of Bradbury’s stories were closely adapted by Al (Albert B.) Feldstein. Initially pirated, but Bradbury was a comics fan and so he eventually found out and asked for a fee. He got it, to EC’s credit.

Colby Quarterly

30 Sunday Jan 2011

Posted by in Historical context, Scholarly works

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The Colby Quarterly may be of interest to those seeking to place Lovecraft in the wider context of New England writers. The full-text of the journal is now online for free, 1943-2003. The journal…

“solicited [articles] on Maine authors and Maine history, including books and authors that had influenced Maine life and letters [and as the journal expanded to cover a wider range of English literature] The special interest in Maine and regional history and literature was maintained, now including the neighboring provinces of Canada”

I Am (in) New York

04 Tuesday Jan 2011

Posted by in New books, Scholarly works

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Sigh. It seems my copy of S.T. Joshi’s magnum opus Lovecraft biography I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft is still in the USA. I had a shipping notification on 28th October 2010, and had hoped it might be in my hands in the UK by Christmas. But I just checked the despatch number, and the system says it’s only just been accepted in the New York depot. Possibly in a crypt in the Red Hook district.

Incidentally, the book is now listed on Amazon USA ($100.00 from Amazon with free shipping). Perhaps it might have been quicker to wait for the Amazon listing, and then (assuming there are copies in their warehouse) rely on Amazon’s generally quite speedy service for the transatlantic shipping.

News from Toro’s Mountains

16 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

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The LA Times reports that del Toro is one step closer to a real green light for At The Mountains of Madness. He and Cameron (Avatar) have had a summit meeting with the suits at Universal, showing them concepts, monster models, and a revised script…

“He [Cameron] pointed out one thing that was big. I’ve been thinking about this for 35 years, and he pointed out something I’d never seen [in the script].”

Toro also said he was “rewriting and rewriting” and was considering “unexpected” casting choices if the big-name stars backed out or proved too expensive for the Universal suits. If the movie and its huge budget is green-lighted — presumably after Christmas, then Toro could start shooting as early as June 2011.


And a special tie-in graphic novel featuring Tintin! (Er, no… actually it’s a spoof by UK artist Murray Groat).

The mystery of “J.N.”

02 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by in Historical context

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Ichabod Wiswall. Apparently the first man known to have given a funeral service in North America, at Massachusetts in 1697 (that was five years after the Witch Trials of 1692). Why did a Christian minister have his gravestone flanked by two Cthulhu-like sea creatures?

The gravestone is one of three known made by a carver who signed himself “J.N.” (and of whom nothing more is known — see the 1966 book: Graven images: New England stonecarving and its symbols, 1650-1815, by Allan I. Ludwig, p. 296). Nine other gravestones done in the same manner and style are known locally. J.N.’s workmanship was far in advance of the local carvers. Ludwig writes of…

“the enigmatic Dagons or Tritons which ornament his most representative stones. The use of Dagons on Puritan gravestones is puzzling in the light of the fact that they were associated with paganism and the evil doings of Thomas Morton and his merrymen. … Yet pagan Dagons remained to grace the stones of many a proper Boston family in the late 17th century. … It is not clear what pagan water deities were doing on Puritan gravestones.” — Graven images, Ludwig.

The roots of Dagon in New England have, of course, been investigated already by Lovecraftian scholars. See Will Murray’s “Dagon in Puritan Massachusetts,” Lovecraft Studies, No. 11 (Fall 1985), pages 66-70.

Harriette Merrifield Forbes’ The Gravestones of early New England and the men who made them: 1653-1800 (1927) tells us that Wiswall was also an astrologer…

“In Duxbury we discover another stone [i.e.: the one seen above], quite different from the other two and signed ‘JN’ in script below the left-hand border. It is that of the Reverend Ichabod Wiswall, a man ‘famous as an astrologer.'”

“famous as an astrologer” — interesting. No-one else with net-accessible information on him mentions that fact. Forbes’ source appears to be the 1854 book A history of the early settlement of Newton, county of Middlesex by Francis Jackson, which adds that he predicted the death of his child…

Hi-res images of the gravestone on Flickr and another here.

[ Hat-tip: io9 ]