Lovecraft In December #29: Out of Mind

Out of Mind is a very interesting short film.

IMDB's very short overview is as follows:

"Haunted by dark dreams of an inherited book, the Necronomicon, a young man becomes intrigued by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft."

And that's exactly what happens. Though it's a strange mix of characters becoming other characters and actors becoming new characters at the drop of a hat and time jumps and skips.

I like it a lot though. The best part being Christopher Heyerdahl's incredible portrayal of Lovecraft himself and what he might have acted/sounded like.

The other shorts include John Strysik's Music of Erich Zann from 1980, which is a fantastic adaptation.

And Aaron Vanek's The Outsider and My Necronomicon and they're alright. They don't stick with me as much as the others do.

Lovecraft In December #27: Cool Air

Volume one of the Lovecraft Collection is probably my favorite(or at least most watched).

It features the amazing short film adaption of Cool Air by Bryan Moore and when I say it’s amazing, I mean it’s up there as one of the type of films I aspire to make. 

Jack Donner’s performance as Dr. Munoz is simply incredible and emotional. 

And it’s adapted near perfectly. Which is always one of my favorite aspects of a Lovecraft adaptation. 

The other shorts include one called An Imperfect Solution(based on a chapter of Herbert West: Re-Animator) and Nyarlathotep, both by Lovecraft media alum Christian Matzke. Both of these are also excellent independent short films done very well. Definitely two of my favorites. 

The last two shorts are The Hound and The Hapless Antiquarian by Anthony Penta. The Hound adaptation is again very very good and very faithfully adapted, however one small gripe I have is that the film goes on a little too long after the final line, but that’s nothing in the grand scheme of things. 

And the Hapless Antiquarian is a fun little Lovecraft/Edward Gorey alphabet mash-up that’s a great joy to watch. 

This collection definitely features some of the best Lovecraft short films out there. 

Lovecraft In December #26: Lurker in the Lobby since 2008

And now, to finish out Lovecraft In December, I bring to you my humble Lovecraft DVD collection. 

Some of these DVDs, namely 2 of the HP Lovecraft Collections, are rentsl DVDs I bought from a store called Hastings(before they sadly went out of business). 

Hastings had a movie rental section and if a movie hadn’t been rented in over a month you had the option to buy it, and that’s how I obtained some of those. 

I discovered these DVDs almost at the same time I started reading Lovecraft and let me tell you, that was a really great time. 

Discovering these independent films was like stepping down into a tomb of unknown treasures that no one else had discovered yet. 

Since some of these DVDs have more than one film on them, I’ll be taking a closer look at them to round out the end of LiD. 

It’s been a ride!

No post tonight!

Heading to a cool festival in Kingsport.

Bunch of people are going to be there.

Sounds like a good time!

Lovecraft In December #23: Arkham Boardwalk

Another early Christmas present from my amazing and beautiful fiancée!

Just like with Cthulhu Yahtzee, I’ve been wanting this for years.

Officially licensed Lovecraft Monopoly is pretty amazing huh?

Also, this is now technically the smallest Cthulhu idol I own, which is one of the fun player pieces of the game! 

Lovecraft In December #22: Find the cultist!

Today I bring to you another game I sadly haven’t played yet but hopefully will soon!

Are You The Cultist? plays, from what I understand, much the same way as games like Mafia or Werewolf play, in that each player has a role(which includes a cultist or two) and the other players need to deduce who the cultists are before they perform some kind of unspeakable rite and doom the world.

I’m looking forward to playing it at some point!

Lovecraft In December #20: What do you do with an Innsmouth Sailor?

Tonight I give you a little card game from the fine folks at The Arkham Bazaar...Devil Reef!

Similar to Dagon's Bones, this is also a super simple and fun game with a great theme. You could totally see an Innsmouth sailor carrying this game in his pack to play with his comrades on a ship or in a bar.

My only issue with it is I wish the cards were a little more "old-looking" as far as the art goes. But that's a small gripe in an otherwise fun, great game.

Lovecraft In December #19: Gloom-y

On the 19th day of LID, this blog brings to you...

Cthulhu Gloom! Or CthulGloom if you’re so inclined. 

This game, and the base game Gloom, are so darn fun and charming. From the art style to the wonderful jokes and captions, it’s just a great time all around. 

Lovecraft In December #18: A Stygian Hoedown!

Tonight’s entry in LID is a little-known early 2000s release: The Hils Rise Wild!

It’s a super interesting concept of four different Lovecraft “clans” made up of deep ones, ghouls, cultists, and the Whateley family with one goal in common: capturing the dreaded Necronomicon for themselves and using it for their own Eldritch goals.

I have not played this game yet but I’m definitely interesting in doing so. As well, I own a completely in tact, unused copy of it.

Not to brag or anything.

Lovecraft In December #17: The Games We Play

And with this week of Lovecraft In December, we spotlight games!

This is a recent Kickstarter game I kickstarted, called Dagon’s Bones. A super fun dice game played with three dice and 25 coins. The coins are divided up between players and you take turns rolling the dice for different results. 

These types of games are some of my favorites. A fantastic theme and execution(this seems like a game Innsmouth sailors would play in a bar), super portable and easy to play, and a lot of fun too. 

Really glad I kickstarted it.

No new LID post tonight

But enjoy this Cthulhu cookie I made with my fiancée tonight!

New Lovecraft In December posts resume tomorrow!

Lovecraft In December #13 & 14: Plus a bonus!

I missed yesterday's posting because I was buying hermit crabs with my fiancee, no I'm not kidding.

This idol comes from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society(or the HPLHS) and is/was one of my holy grail Cthulhu idols.

Cast from a prop featured in the HPLHS's independent silent film The Call of Cthulhu, meant to be a carved walrus tusk amidst a "degenerate eskimeaux tribe" worshipping Cthulhu, I'd coveted it for so long. And one day the stars became right and now I own it.

I love that it came wrapped tightly in faux fur, just adds that extra touch of perfect that comes with everything the HPLHS offers.

This idol is one of the few mass produced I own. Though it's very interesting in and of itself!

You can buy this on Amazon as The Ancient One Tribute Box for about 18 dollars and it comes with a small booklet with a basic write-up of Cthulhu's place in the Mythos.

My copy of the idol(standing at around 4 inches) sadly fell off my computer desk a couple years ago, and the wing tips snapped off. Well, instead of throwing it away, I thought I'd alter it a bit.

So I decided I'd paint it gold and its backstory would be it was a small golden Cthulhu idol found among the personal items of Barnabas Marsh in the G-Man Raid of Innsmouth in the 1920s.

That's pretty cool, right? Right?

And as a bonus this idol, so far, is my only handmade Cthulhu idol.

I based it in a little homage to one of my favorite artists, Jason McKittrick of Cryptocurium.

It's meant to be a little idol carved from stone in the paleolithic era. It's made from a package of Instamorph plastic beads.

Gouged out the eyes and tentacles and appendages with a dremel, painted it completely with acrylic black, then dry brushed it with a stone gray and just a very very light dry brushing of white in some spots.

I'm pretty proud of the stone effect I was able to achieve here!

And that is it for Idolatry Week! Tomorrow will be something different though I have no idea what!

Stay tuned!

Lovecraft In December #12: Yahtzee!

Today I bring you an early Christmas present from my wonderful fiancée, something I’ve wanted to own for a long time...

Cthulhu Yahtzee! And technically it is also a Cthulhu idol so it fits this week’s theme!

I have never played Yahtzee nor do I know how, but now I have this excellent opportunity to learn!

Lovecraft In December #11: Tiny Abominations

On this our 11th day of LiD, I bring us...small.

This idol, from insanely talented artist CopperCentipede, is only about 1.5 inches tall.

I'm not usually one for small idols(though I have a few, including this one), but CC's art style is so great and simplistically evocative I just needed one.

Though I will say, I wouldn't balk if this idol was 7.5 inches tall instead of 1.5.

That'd be pretty cool.

Lovecraft In December #10: Bayou Cultin'

Day 10 of LiD and we have an amazing piece of art from MonstersDomesticated, again from Etsy.

Seriously, lotta great idols on Etsy, if you're so inclined.

This is one of my favorite idols out there, the look and design of it is just so simple and eerie and unnerving.

I'll also be featuring this idol in a short film I'll be shooting(hopefully soon),

Lovecraft In December #9: Far East Cthulhu

Today's idol comes to us from the 3D printing etsy store muckychris, painted by me.

I've always liked the idea of Cthulhu cults borrowing(infiltrating) the aesthetics of the cultures they're in.

Hence why I own a Cthulhu buddha.

Lovecraft In December #8: Idolatry

With a new week we bring a new theme of LiD! Cthulhu Idols!

This is one of my favorites in my collection. It's my most recent one and it is, of course, based on Lovecraft's sketch of the Cthulhu idol from The Call of Cthulhu.

Sculpted by the insanely talented and creative Joe Broers, this idol looks like it comes right out of a 1920s-30s movie, ala The Maltese Falcone.

Lovecraft In December #7: Once Upon A Cthulhu!

The seventh day of LiD brings us a gift for one who is not yet.

My fiancee's sister's baby! Who will be born soon!

I found this, a collection of fairy tales with a Lovecraftian spin, perusing a list of Lovecraft gift items and downloaded a preview of it.

The few I read were fun so I bought it and this will be my tribute to the One Soon To Be Born.

Lovecraft In December #6: Life After Cthulhu

And now for something that's just okay!

For the 6th day in Lovecraft in December, I bring to you another anthology book that has a couple good stories, a few okay stories, and some very bad and stupid stories that I did not like at all, thank you very much.

The tales in this paperbacked tome are all about people's lives after the stars become right and R'lyeh and Cthulhu rise to end the world. Some immediately after the rise and some years or even decades after.

It's frustrating because I LOVE that concept. We don't see it often, only ever the human's attempts at fighting the mythos and cultist's efforts to help Cthulhu rise, but never the aftermath.

But some of these stories are just so...not good. I won't go into details for anybody who wants to seek this out themselves but...yeah. Buyer beware.

Lovecraft In December #4 and #5: A Mythos History and Gou Tanabe!

Missed posting yesterday, so here's a double feature!

Speaking of Kenneth Hite, the author of the children's Mythos books in a previous post, this book also comes from Mr. Hite. A fantastic little read about a "secret history" of the United States' war against the monsters and gods of the Cthulhu Mythos.

It incorporates real world history with a corresponding timeline of Mythos events in Lovecraft's stories with fantastic art by Kennon Bauman.

It's a fun and interesting read into a "What If...?" scenario...or perhaps a more than truthful account presented as fiction??!

Probably not!

And here we have another series of comic adaptations of some of Lovecraft's stories, this time coming in the manga format from incredibly talented artist Gou Tanabe.

I admit that I am not one to partake in manga or anime(save for some exceptions in the form of Pokemon in my childhood and Rurouni Kenshin in my teens), but when I learned about Tanabe's adaptations, looked up his beautiful art, and found an english-translated anthology published by Dark Horse? I had to have it.

They are great adaptations as well, which is my most important aspect to adaptations of Lovecraft's work. The art being gorgeous helps, too.

And as I write this post, I believe Dark Horse is currently working on english translations of Gou's At the Mountains of Madness and several other tales that I am very much looking forward to!

Lovecraft In December #3: Startin’ them early!

Day three of Lovecraft in December! And today I bring you childhood joy! Sort of!

Pictured is a small collection of fun, novel Lovecraftian versions of beloved children’s books! Three of which were written by Kenneth Hite, author of Tour de Lovecraft and the tabletop RPG Trail of Cthulhu. And the Call of Cthulhu(for beginning readers) by R.J. Ivankovic.

Like many of you I also read The Polar Express, Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Moon, and these Lovecraftian versions are charming and evoke not only that same childhood feeling you got when reading them, but also tickle that unique “Lovecraft-ness” one might share with an unsuspecting child. 

Never too early to learn about man’s insignificance in an uncaring at best and malignant at worst cosmos!

Lovecraft In December #2: 1970s Anthology Paperbacks

Welcome to the second day of Lovecraft In December!

Lovecraft enjoyed a resurgence in the 1970s which produced these anthology paperbacks of several  of his stories, the known and unknown alike.

This is my very small but growing collection thus far of such book.

The Tomb and Other Tales I found on a Half-Priced Books outing with my lovely ghoulfriend and the other two I bought on evilBay.

I really don't know what it is about them, I just think they're cool.

Lovecraft In December #1: I.N.J. Culbard Collection

Welcome to the first post of Lovecraft In December!

With the first of the month comes my finally completed collection of I.N.J. Culbard Lovecraft TPB adaptations(and The King In Yellow, which I just recently got).

I'm a big fan of adaptations of Lovecraft's work(especially good adaptations...) and Culbard's works are up there with the best, comic book or otherwise.

His art is very reminiscent of the Ligne Claire art style(popularized by Hergé of TinTin fame) in the best way. It evokes the period of Lovecraft's works perfectly while still allowing for a bit of pulp whimsy to creep in. It's fantastic.

Of course this post comes around the time of a collection of Mountains of Madness, Charles Dexter Ward, Shadow Out of Time, and Dream-Quest in a beautiful hardcover for an insanely reasonable price.

If you're at all interested in reading these adaptations I'd seriously suggest grabbing that hardcover because these TPBs are getting harder and harder to come by.