H.P. Lovecraft
Nice image of CTHULHU by Richard Pace. Illustration found via Hey Oscar Wilde on Tumblr
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Jean Giraud – Moebius, the celebrated French comic artist passed away this year on 10th March 2012, aged 73. He created truly iconic work, such as Blueberry, Arzach (see image*), L’incal (The Incal), Le Garage Hermetique (The Airtight Garage), Silver Surfer (for Marvel Comics). He influenced all of pop culture; books, film anime. He will be greatly missed.
Whilst looking back over what little of Moebius’ work I own, I was once again staggered by the immensity of his work, its timelessness, its scope and its grandeur. One short story I came across links in with Lovecraft, of whom Moebius was ‘impressed’. It is to be found in Moebius 2. The Collected Fantasies of Jean Giraud. Arzach & Other Fantasy Stories** was Ktulu, a story including H.P. Lovecraft. The story was influenced by the report of a certain Giscard D’Estaing who went out to Africa hunting wild game using privilege of office (Moebius was shocked at this). The resultant comic is amazing, in true Moebius style.
If you can track it down, it is well worth the effort and cost (start with Wikipedia and work back to first principles…)
* Interior artwork from an unspecified issue of Métal Hurlant published by Les Humanoïdes Associés. Art by Jean Giraud.
** Published by Titan Books, November 1989
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HP Lovecraft at the BBC? What madness is this?
Marking the 75th anniversary of HP’s death, the BBC New Magazine article by Ramsey Campbell; a British horror writer of Lovecraftian tales.
A good article, giving a historical perspective and tracing the influences felt today throughout popular culture – Metallica, Sabbath & The Fall get a mention!
The Related Internet Links section at the bottom of the BBC’s page are useful ones.
Article here
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I’ve just finished reading Halting State by Charles Stross which I bought on a whim some time ago. I knew it would be good, it had a great cover (I always judge a book by it). The jacket ‘blurb’ also included praise from William Gibson so it couldn’t be anything but especially good!
It’s a thriller set in the near future and involves theft and murder in a virtual game world but the reason I mention it here is that there is more than a passing reference to Lovecraft. Pages 335-336 talk of the ‘mountains of madness’ in ‘Lovecraftland’ which is Stross’ gameworld in the story.
Well worth a read, I recommend it highly.
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Self Made Hero are an independent Graphic Novel publisher and they have several H.P. Lovecraft-based tomes including At The Mountains of Madness in their Sci-Fi & Horror section. It’s like Tintin with the lights off!
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What an amazing project! Found this via i09 (as ever), DrFaustusAU is creating a H.P. Lovecraft/Dr. Seuss crossover so children can learn about Cthulhu!
Great idea, great artwork, Great One!
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The film H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham Sanitarium moves inexorably nearer to its release date like an unfortunate inmate, I hope…
I’d heard about this film a while back and forgotten all about it. I like its look and feel and I think it it will be a fitting tribute to Lovecraft’s work. I’ve been trying to find out if the release date of October 2011 is still go as, it’s nearly October 2011!
Here’s a round-up of links I found
- Images from the film posted at Twitch (May 2011)
- There’s a clip from Survivor Films here from their
- A script review at TEMPLE OF GHOUL
- It’s all here at Survivor Films
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HP Lovecraft
Links: The HP Lovecraft Archive | Wikipedia | Arkham House | Chaosium | List of Lovecraft’s fiction | Wierd Tales | The Unspeakable Oath |
Notes: Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Born 1890. Died 1937. American author of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction. His work is classed in the sub-genre of Wierd Fiction and was published in the magazine Wierd Tales, in the 1920′s onwards. His works dealt with sanity in respect of cosmic horror; a character discovers/is pulled into the world of pre-existing beings, that populated earth, so terrible and horrific, that to glimpse of them risks insanity. The author himself lived in relative obscurity during his life but has risen to near reverence in popular culture today. He is not without controversy. Due to living in a time of racial segregation and antisemitism, along with other negative aspects of life, the reflection of these aspects are expressed in his writing. These negative expressions in some of his work cannot and should not be forgiven, they have to be taken in context of the place and time he was living in.
I first encountered HP Lovecraft by his influence and without knowing it was him. I bought Infocom‘s The Lurking Horror computer game for the Atari ST. It was a text adventure written by Dave Lebling (he co-authored the Zork text adventure) and released in 1987. I remember the vividly described locations, the Freshman Guide to the university and the G.U.E Tech student identification card. This was all in the theme of Lovecraft’s work but at the time I didn’t know it.
My next encounter was via Imagine magazine issue 13, April 1984 published by TSR UK Ltd (I bought it a lot later). It was a special thirteenth edition and celebrated the works of HP Lovecraft. There was a biography of HP Lovecraft by Paul Cockburn, it had a review of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game and associated scenarios. It had a poem entitled The Mirror of Nitocris and story called Queen Nitocris’ Mirror, both by Brian Lumley, with full page artwork. This set me on the path to discovering Lovecraft’s works. [Wikipedia - Imagine magazine]
I managed to purchase a few copies of The Unspeakable Oath whilst they were still available in UK shops. It is still going strong on issue #16/17. It is a good example of a tabletop roleplaying resource based upon Cthulhu and thus Lovecraft’s work.
I went on to read each of his stories, in various formats and it was Lovecraft’s work that inspired me to write The Rising Tentacle. Collectable Card Games provide a visual interpretation of his work and the The Art of H.P. Lovecraft’s the Cthulhu Mythos book from Fantasy Flight Games (Cover by Michael Komarck) is a great coffee table head-turner! There will always be some of his work in the horror section of local and virtual bookshops.
Today, there are many published versions of Lovecraft’s work including; free online ones (e.g. Manybooks.net). There are authors who are ‘inspired by’ him, there are many games based upon his works, there are thousands of images based upon his work (just google hplovecraft), bands and their songs are influenced by him, he literally pervades popular culture. August Derleth first published Lovecraft’s work and the Lovecraftian legacy is protected/looked after by Arkham House, a publishing company set up by Derleth and Donald Wandrei.
So what makes him so good?
- Unique approach – he was the first, others have followed. The idea of ancient beings, once treading the earth, now banished but just waiting to gain a foothold and no lack of cultists wanting to help them – genius!
- Doom – his work is doom-laden and we all like a bit of doom don’t we?
- Titles – every title is brilliant; At The Mountains of Madness, Dreams in the Witch House, The Rats in the Walls…
- The Dreamlands Cycle – another series of stories exploring a different story setting of dream
- His cross-media resonance – there isn’t an area of popular culture that hasn’t been influenced by Lovecraft’s work
- His descriptions are what keep bringing me back to his work
YOU MUST READ
- The Festival – Christmas horror story, my personal favourite
- The Call of Cthulhu – the big one!
- The Cats of Ulthar – Cats! I love the cats!
More Links
Chaosium: Mythos CCG |
Fantasy Flight Games: Call of Cthulhu LCG |
Atari: Atari | Atari.org | Atari Museum | Atari Legend |
Infocom: Infocom | Wikipedia | Infocom Homage Site | Infocom Documentation Project |
TSR Inc.: TSR History | TSR Inc Wikia | Wikipedia | TSR Products Catalog |
Bethesda Softworks LLC: Call of Cthulhu – Dark Corners of the Earth |
Focus Home Interactive: | The Adventure Games of Sherlock Holmes | Suite 101 |
AKLO: Listen to Lovecraft |
Just go to the horror section in any bookshop or punch in buy HP Lovecraft in any search engine you care to mention and read HP Lovecraft. Just don’t do it in the dark, alone.
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