The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.272: Cthulhu Hack Mini-Character Sheet

When it comes to roleplaying games, I’m a big fan of both simplification and miniaturisation; needless to say, these business card-sized Cthulhu Hack character sheets really hit the spot as far as I am concerned. Whilst one can usually pick up a couple of these from the Cthulhu Hack/All Rolled Up stall at gaming conventions as free advertising, I would dearly love to be able to purchase them in bulk. At the moment, I’m hoarding my very small and limited supply of these freebies...

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.271: Call of Cthulhu Panel at Tabletop Gaming Live

For today’s Lovecaftian Thing a Day, we went along to the Tabletop Gaming Live event at Alexandra Palace, during which we visited the All Rolled Up/Cthulhu Hack stand as is standard procedure at this sort of thing. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they had some new items on sale, including this set of dry-wipe tentacle counters. Despite the fact that I have no idea what I am going to use them for, nonetheless I had to have them, being something a magpie when it comes to neat little gaming accessories such as these. They will shortly be finding a home in the Cthulhu Hack box, which I showcased on the blog at the start of the year.

Nice.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.270: Cosmic Pessimism

Eugene Thacker’s little book Cosmic Pessimism arived on my office desk this morning, helpfully summarising my outlook for the day.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.269: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

It was never the case that I just one day simply discovered or encountered a Lovecraft tale, as much as I was at first haunted by the man and his worlds: as in a typical Lovecraft story, I first correlated the contents of an early life spent immersed in horror, sci-fi and fantasy genre, where every now and then I would discover hints and whispers concerning this Lovecraft fellow, and his strange stories about something called ‘the Cthulhu mythos’ (whatever that was) - alongside occasional mentions of stories with incredibly evocative titles such as ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ and ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’. I knew I was on to something special - and something weird beyond my childish imaginings - before I even laid eyes on my first Lovecraft tale. One traceable source of my childhood haunting by Lovecraft is The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by Peter Nicholls, which my parents bought me one weekend when we were on holiday somewhere in thevsouth of England in 1979, and which quickly became something akin to a sacred text to me; here too, was a generous entry on Lovecraft, yet still only enough to whet my appetite. This remains one of the few things I still retain from that period of my childhood, and as such is something of a treasured item - such that I have since bought a second reading copy in hardback, in order to save wear and tear on my old original paperback edition - which I spent many a long, rainy afternoon pouring over.

Good times.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.268: H.P. Lovecraft’s Collected Essays CD-Rom

A while back Hippocampus Press published a five volume collection of Lovecraft’s essays, all of which sit quietly unread on my bookshelves. Such a state of affairs in not, of course, enough to dissuade me from acquiring the same content in a different format: not only have I picked up ebook versions of all five volumes, but I recently acquired them once again in the form of this (very affordable) CD-Rom (also containing the complete run of Lovecraft’s The Conservative, which I suppose is an added incentive if you like that sort of thing). No doubt this will sit alongside my hardcopies, awaiting that distant and mythic time when I finally get around to perusing their contents.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.267: What October Brings

Now that Summer has finally passed and we have just (barely) stepped over the threshold of Autumn, it is perhaps apposite that What October Brings: A Lovecraftian Celebration of Halloween arrived on my doorstep this morning. Whilst I have not yet read it, the volume boasts some fine authors by way of Cody Goodfellow, Storm Constantine, Darrell Schweitzer, Ann K. Schwader, John Shirley, Brian Sammons, Chet Williamson, Tim Curran and others. Hopefully this will keep me occupied until the beginning of next week, when we will of course turn our attention to another Lovecraftian Hallowe’en classic...

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.266: Iot Sotot - The Eternal Edition

A while back, the folks from yog-sothoth.com released the first issue of their Call of Cthulhu rpg zine ,Iot Sotot; that first issue was designed to fit within Lovecaft-branded leather notebooks which yog-sothoth.com had produced especially for the website. The small format of the zine, it turns out, was not a viable option in the long term; as a consequence, Iot Sotot is now going to be released in a radically new format - a format also compatible with a new kind of notebook which the folks at yog-sothoth.com have just released, and which allows for a remarkable degree of customisability. Using a set of plastic or metal rings, the Iot Sotot Eternal Edition notebook enables the user to add physical content in the form of notepaper, graph paper, maps, folders, bookmarks, and other paraphenalia, in any order they please.

My copy of the journal arrived yesterday, with sheaths of plain and lined notepaper with a rather nice Lovecraft silhouette motif on the corner, along with reproduction maps of London from the 1920s and 30s, a gazatteer of strange places in 1930s Britain, a Cthulhu bookmark, play aids for the Call of Cthulhu rpg, and a plethora of other stuff (including the Fungi from Yuggoth sonnet cycle), all of which can be inserted into the journal according to my specifc organisational needs; later issues of Iot Sotot will also be produced as similar inserts. I have to say that this is the most excited I have been about stationary since acquiring my Midori notebook!

The Iot Sotot Eternal Edition notebook can be purchased here.

This is not just nice. This is Very Nice.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.265: Mandy

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Mandy is by no means an explicitly ‘Lovecaftian’ movie, but it is one in which - at least in this viewer’s eyes - both a quiet cosmicism and an implication of strange worlds and weird realms impinging upon our own are evident (in addition to which, weird fantasy literature - of a sort - is explicitly referenced in the film): in an early scene, an intimate conversation concerning the main characters’ favourite planets leads to a disquisition on how the ‘eye’ of Jupiter could swallow the world; after which the camera lingers on the vast cosmic vista of the Milky Way hanging above the cabin which forms Mandy and Red’s (played by Andrea Riseborough and Nicolas Cage respectively) secluded habitation; in another scene a strange, nebulous mist seems to swirl out of those very same cosmic depths; later in the film, Red is (I think) described as a ‘Jovian warrior’ who is ‘filled with cosmic darkness’. That said, Mandy’s cosmcism is of a subdued and melancholic kind - the sense that Red and Mandy are damaged souls who have found in one another a quiet respite from the meaningless maelstrom of life.

On an unrelated point, reviews of the film indicate that, in its final act, Cage subjects the audience to the full-on histrionics for which he has, in recent years, becime infamous; in Cage’s defence, I would contest this view: except for one scene, Cage throughout remains controlled and subdued, portraying in the latter half of the movie grim determination rather than typically Cage-ian out-and-out melodramatic derangement: think Stallone in First Blood rather than Cage in Wild at Heart or Mom and Dad; in this respect, Cage’s performance is not only outstanding, but extremely well-attuned to the overall mood and themes of Mandy.

This is also touted as a movie with supernatural elements - particularly in regard to a seemingly demonic biker gang (whose aesthetic is probably best described as a kind of grimdustrial hellraiser) - which I also think is questionable (this is, after all, a movie about an out-there hippy drug cult). Whilst the ‘demonic’ biker gang appear to be summoned by a mystic horn, there is an unresolved ambiguity in Mandy as to whether genuine supernatural elements are actually involved - whilst one of the bikers continues to fight-on after being shot through the throat with an arrow, there is a strong implication that the antagonist’s seemingly-supernatual abilities are, in fact, artificially- rather than supernaturally-produced; indeed, many of the film’s visionary and supernatural elements (including an instance of telepathic communication) seem to occur when the percipients are in the throes of drug-induced hallucingenic states.

Overall, Mandy is shot-through with a bizarrerie and weirdness which will appeal to readers of contemporary weird fiction (I’m not sure why, but the film reminds me of Nathan Carson’s Starr Creek) - a strangeness enhanced through the effective cinematographic application of an Argento-esque colour palette. A very strong recommend - and a film which may warrant inclusion in my top five favourite modern horror films.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.264: Legion From The Shadows

As I’ve noted previously, Karl Edward Wagner remains a woefully unappreciated and unrecognised writer of weird fiction; whilst most of his horror fiction was composed in the short form, his novels tended toward horror-inflected savage sword and sorcery (Wagner’s series concerning ‘Kane, the mystic swordsman’ being a case in point). Another such offering was Legion From The Shadows: a tribute to Robert E. Howard, and a sequel to Howard’s Bran Mak Morn tale, The Worms of the Earth. Set in Roman-occupied Britain, The Legion From The Shadows is not only a  rousingly pulpy ‘historical’ sword and sorcery read, but it references classic weird fiction authors such as Machen, Lovecraft and, of course, Howard. Whilst it has been a few years since I last read The Legion From The Shadows, my recollection is that there is enough connective tissue to Lovecraft’s fictive cosmology to also consider it, nominally, a novel of the Cthulhu mythos. Cracking stuff.

The Lovecraftan Thing a Day (2018) No.263: The Black Seal

The Black Seal was a short-lived - but excellent semi-professional fanzine, published by Brichester University Press, and dedicated to Delta Green and modern roleplaying in Lovecraftian Universes. Whilst The Black Seal lasted inly three issues, the UK-produced zine showcased a wide range of British rpg-writing talent. A particular favourite issue of mine was issue two (shown above), which also included a gazeteer of Cthulhu mythos sites in and around Ramsey Campbell’s Brichester.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.262: A Crooked, Ceaking Town in a Crooked, Creaking Universe

I’m currently in Tallinn, Estonia, where I discovered this image by a local artist. It is a piece very reminiscent of the work of weird artist Jason Van Hollander - especially his illustrations of Ligotti’s work; in particular, the above reminds me of the nightmarish, crooked, creaking urban conurbations which populate the more oneiric of Ligotti’s fictions such as Vastarien, Doctor Voke and Mister Veech, Doctor Locrian’s Aslylum, The Mystics of Muelenberg, The Strange Design of Master Rignolo, and In a Foreigh Towm, In a Foreign Land, to name but a few.

A timely reminder that, whoever we mistakenly think we are (especially if we think we are someone), and no matter where we think we are or live, all we can ever aspire to is the knowledge that we all - every one of us - inhabit the some variant of the same decrepit, cooked, creaking town beneath the bruised black skies of the same crooked, creaking universe.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.261: Quill - Shadow and Ink

Quill: Shadow and Ink promises a’cosmic horror campaign’ to fit the original Quill: a solitaire rpg of letter writing. Whilst I’m not sure that Quill: Shadow and Ink can quite live up to this claim, it adds a nice Lovecraftian dimension to an already engaging and experimental ruleset, and probably could be combined with De Profundis - the other Lovecraftian letter-writing rpg out there - quite effectively. Whilst this style of narrative, solitary play may not suit all gamers, it presents an interesting premise nonetheless, insofar as the Quill engine nicely replicates the epistolary character of some of Lovecaft’s key tales.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.260: Ontological Graffiti

Michael Bertiaux’s Ontological Graffiti, sporting on its front cover one of Bertiaux’s own visionary paintings, which first appeared in a volume (I don’t recall which) of Kenneth Grant’s Typhonian Trilogies - since which time, said image has come to be known - at least in some British esoteric circle -  as ‘Zippy, the Deep One’.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.259: The Voudon Gnostic Workbook

It is very late, and we are very tired; tomorrow we are off to Estonia for what will undoubtedly be strange and esoteric adventures; so, for now, we leave you with an image of that curious tome which promises access to the Couleuvre Noir, Zothyrian Physics, and TransYuggothian power zones.

Nice.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.258: Shoggoth

This resin shoggoth is one of the larger miniatures I own, coming in at around 8 inches in length; it remains unpainted simply because I am unsure as to what I mght use it for in terms of my current gaming interests. I can’t quite remember who produces these - or, indeed, if they are currently available - but it is a very fine representation of a classic beast from Lovecraft’s work.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.258: Alone Against the Tide

Alone Against the Tide is an entry into Chaosium’s recently-created Miskatonic Repository: a means by which creators for the Call of Cthulhu rpg can freely upload sourcebooks, scenarios and the like, using the official CoC IP; whilst this can sometimes result in work of questionable quality (at least as far as the writing is concerned - users of the Miskatonic Repository are required to utilise Chaosium-approved production templates), it also means that little solitaire gems like this are freely available - a boon to a Call of Cthulhu soloist like myself.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.257: Macabre Tales

A good five years before Pelgrane Press released Cthulhu Confidential (a one player/one GM variant of their narrative/storytelling rpg Trail of Cthulhu),  Spectrum Games had already done something similar with Macabre Tales - a game which initially sought to address (both narratively, and in a simulationist sense), the fact that games of Call of Cthulhu are, traditionally, dependent on the standard D&D gaming trope of ‘the party’ - a trope which is not often evident in Lovecraft’s fiction (involving, as it often does, the first-person perspective upon events as they unfold in the eyes of a single narrator). This is why I think that Lovecraftian gaming - at least from a simulationist perspective - best reflects the themes f Lovecraft’s worlds when played solitaire. Whilst Macabre Tales doesn’t quite scratch that itch, it nonetheless tries to address some of the more purist Lovecraftian concerns when it comes to grazing within the meadows of Lovecraft’s fictive universe.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.256: The Taking of Deborah Logan

At first glance The Taking of Deborah Logan appears to follow the fairly standard possession narratives which constitute something of a mainstay of found footage films these days; on closer inspection, however, the film diverges from the typically uninspired trope of demonic possession framed in the context of an exclusively Christian cosmology, to posit something more primordial and, potentially, Lovecraftian.

Also of note is the fact that the focal point of The Taking of Deborah Logan is an elderly woman suffering from a form of Alzheimer’s disease, such that the film makes some attempt to use possession as a metaphor for the erasure or displacement of self and memory which such terrible, neurolgically-degenerative diseases bring in their wake - an issue which one could, perhaps read as being Lovecaftian in and of itself. There is also a marvellously-horrifying moment towards the end of the film which affirms powerfully the monstrousand inhuman nature of whatever terrible fate is overtaking Deborah Logan - a spoiler of which can be seen below:

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.255: Hunt for the Skinwalker

Hunt for the Skinwalker is a 2018 paranormal documentary which I’m categorising as ‘Lovecraftian’ in a very narrow way: primarily as an artefact which is the manifestation of a particular - but ongoing - cultural event which I refer to as the contemporary ‘Lovecrafting’ of the paranormal.

Based on an earlier book by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp, Hunt for the Skinwalker outlines ongoing ‘scientific’ investigations (or at least investigations involving physicists, chemists and biologists) - funded by billionaire Robert Bigelow - into a range seemingly bizarre and paranormal events, including: poltergeist activity; Bigfoot sightings; UFOS; the appearance of a giant, phantom prehistoric wolf; sightings of aliens (including squid-like entities); the manifestation of interdimensional portals, and the presence of the skinwalker of Native American mythology - all clustering around a ranch in Utah. This is all immediately ‘Lovecraftian’ in that it sounds like the set-up for a Delta Green scenario; however, Hunt for the Skinwalker is also ‘Lovecraftian’ in another, more specific (and aforementioned) sense - a sense which also marks the epistemological and ontological shift in how the category of the ‘paranormal’ has come to be conceptualised by a number of its advocates and proponents.

In this respect, Hunt for the Skinwalker is one of those works which (to paraphrase some of Phil Hine’s comments on associated matters) engages in the decompartmentalisation of phenomena previously treated as discreet and separate in paranormal circles. Thus during one interview,
Colm Kelleher notes that the early days of the investigation into Skinwalker Ranch were guided by the assumption that what was being dealt with was extraterrestrial in nature - an assumption guided by the once dominant and supposedly-robust narrative that UFOs constitute nuts-and-bolts craft, built by physical albeit-extraterrestrial beings, and utilising technologies which would one day be revealed as  comprehensible to a human understanding of the physical properties of the universe. The realisation that this model of the collective phenomena was deeply flawed - given the apparent scope and ‘high strangeness’ of the activity being monitored - thus put something of a ‘fly in the ointment’ (to use Kelleher’s words) in terms of what (if anything) was actually occuring in and around the ranch.

What the documentary thus reveals is an uncertainty concerning the ontological status of the Skinwalker phenomena which resonates deeply with that inherent in the opening lines of Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu re: the inability of the human mind to corellate its contents, especially in the light of terrifying new vistas of reality being revealed by modern science. For the Skinwalker researchers, the old narratives and certainties have been abandon, it seems, in the face of the realisation that, if the phenomena being investigated are genuine, they may fall entirely outside of a comprehensible, human franework of meaning, perhaps being tied to the fabric of reality in a way humans, given our cognitive constraints, may never fully be able to fathom. In true Lovecaftian fashion, the documentary effectively ends on the point that there may be no answers - and that reality may be far stranger than we might like to imagine.

For my part, I am highly skeptical that there is anything genuinely ‘paranormal’  to the tale of Skinwalker Ranch; most likely what we are dealing with are misidentifications and poor (if not heavily-biased) research methodologies, framed in terms extant cultural mythologies which are being remade and, crucially in relation to the above, being re-enchanted for a modern audience - but an audience which, in recent decades, has been primed by the rationalist anti-rationalism of Lovecraft’s great literary achievements - where science and the light of reason ultimately illuminate the unknowable - especially as they have made themself known in popular culture.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.254: My Work Is Not Yet Done

Ligotti’s My Work Is Not Yet Done blends antinatalist cosmicism with the crippling anxiety that is increasingly the consequence of unfettered neoliberal corporatism - and of the crisis capitalism which seeks to make extreme uncertainty and blinkered self-interest the new psychological norm.

One of Ligotti’s best ‘recent’ works - although given that it was actually written in 2002, also a chilling prognostication of (to use Ligotti’s term) the swinish antihumanism of accelerating corporate modernity - one that is not liable to lead to a new Prometheanism (as some accelerationists predict), but to environmental collapse and, inevitably, our extinction. Thinking abut how I can work this as a textbook into my anthropology foundation programme - which perhaps tells you just about everythng you need to know about my anthropological views on ‘human nature’...

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.253: The Art of Ian Miller

There are probably very few British fantasy/sci-fi/horror fans (especially those who have passed middle-age) who have not encountered Ian Miller’s artwork - indeed, his illustrations have been a mainstay of the UK genre scene since the 1970s: his work has appared on the cover of early issues of White Dwarf, and in the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks; in addition to which, his grotesqueries played an important role in defining the Boschian aesthetics of the various Warhammer universes; his art has graced the covers of the work of Tolkien and Bradbury, as well as that of New Wave literati such as M. John Harrison. As per the images below, he has also provided covers for the UK Panther editions of Lovecraft’s work, including what I consider to be one of the greatest illustrations of Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness- all of which can be found in the retrospective of his work, The Art if Ian Miller.

The Lovecaftian Thing a Day (2018) No.252: Tesla and Lovecaft Issues 1-3

Lovecraft in the comics: reprints of Lovecraft and Tesla, issues 1-3, which I received as part of the stretch goals for the Herald: Lovecraft and Tesla roleplaying game using the Savage Worlds system (a personal favourite of mine). Whilst Lovecaft and Tesla never met, as an historical figure Tesla is, in his own right, somewhat Lovecaftan (as are many of the conspiracy theories surrounding him). I like to think that, had Lovecaft and Tesla actually been acquaintances, these comics might be an accurate reflection of some of their escapades.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.251: The Tattered King

I discovered this (suitably tattered) flyer - displaying what one assumes is the Yellow Sign - for a performance of The Tattered King at the Providence Biltmore during NecronomiCon 2017. As I recall, my intention had been to attend the performance; however, not only did it clash with another event, but I also came down with a rather unusual stomach complaint - one which left me confined to my hotel room for the next two hours (curiously, my indisposition was cured - surprisingly swiftly  - via the consumption of a rather large dose of gin, the restorative powers of which were later supplemented by another four cocktails). Perhaps this was all for the best, given the rumours of the horrendous fate which supposedly overcomes those unfortunate enough to have witnessed a performance of the disreputable play.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.250: Cthulhu Dreaming of a Mad Artist By Dave Carson

So today we have reached the 250th post benchmark of the blog this year. A little Lovecraft art in celebration, I think: another exceptional piece of sculptural excellence from Dave Carson, entitled ‘Cthulhu Dreaming of a Mad Artist’:

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.249: Folklore - The Affliction

Folklore: The Affliction was a Kickstarter I backed about 10 months ago, and which was finally delivered today. Whilst this is a tabletop adventure boardgame with its roots (unsurprisingly) in the traditional horrors of European folklore, I was nicely surprised to read, on the first page of the rulebook, the fact that the game allows players to ‘Harness the power of artifacts long forgotten and find rituals from the pages of the Necronomicon’. Yes please!

Lovecraft, it seems, is rarely far away when it comes to tabletop gaming. The kckstarter comes chock full of miniatures, including the following one of ‘the Book of Dark Dimensions’ - presumably the aforementioned Necronomicon itself:

Nice.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.248: Elder Sign Sew-On Patch

Probably one of the last items from NecronomiCon 2013 to appear on the Lovecraftian Thing a Day - and hence probably the last self-indulgence reminiscence of that glorious first event: my Elder Sign sew-on patch, which has hitherto lain unloved, gathering dust on one of my shelves. So sad!

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.247: USEME - An Eldritch Horror

Another gaming oddity: USEME - An Eldritch Horror is a set of rules for skirmsh wargaming in Lovecraft’s world of the Cthulhu mythos, primarily intended for use with 15mm miniatures. The book itself is also tiny, measuring about 3 inches in height. I can’t remember exactly where I picked this up from, but I bought it on the strength of the ruleset being capable of supporting solitaire play. Surprisingly, there are a good few Cthulhu mythos miniatures in 15mm scale out there - in fact, I’m thinking of picking up a small set of cultists, Deep Ones, investigators and a few monsters to play a scaled down version of Strange Aeons, or possibly even USEME (an acronym for Ultra Simple Engine for Miniature Engagements). Contrary to what one mght assume, 15mm minis are generally much easier to paint (due to the lack of detail) than their more popular 28mm scale cousins. Which just goes to show that I can be informative as well as entertaining.

The Lovecaftian Thing a Day (2018) No.246: The Quatermass Collection

Whilst I’m not aware of Nigel Kneale having ever made open reference to Lovecaft as an influence, so much of his work in the field of sci-fi film and television resonates with themes commensurate with those found in Lovecraft’s tales. This is perhaps nowhere more apparent in the four Quatermass scripts which Kneale penned: whilst the British stiff upper-lip still retains the upper hand against ancient aliens and nameless, amorphous forces lurking in the depths of space in these tales (the first three of which, in their original BBC adaptations, are available as part of the above DVD collection), nonetheless such threats act as a reminder of humanity’s precarious position in a vast and incomprehensibly strange universe.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.245: Nameless Cults:

I kickstarted Modiphius’ new i rpg a year or so ago, since which time pdfs of the various rulebooks and supplements have been appearing in my inbox thick and fast. One of the more recent arrivals is Nameless Cults, which of course takes its title from Howard’s 1931 addition to the tomes of the Cthulhu mythos, von Juntz’s Unaussprechlichen Kulten (I have become so familiar with this - possibly my most favourite of mythos grimoires - that I no longer need to double-check the spelling).

In any case, Nameless Cults provides setting and rules for incorporating elements of the Cthulhu mythos into your games of the Conan rpg. Nice.

The Lovecraftian Thing a Day (2018) No.244: NecronomiCon 2013 T-Shirt

My NecronomiCon 2013 t-shirt - I’m not sure I dare try it on again to see if it still fits...