Occult Box

Artist Fernando Bonilla has created a wonderfully creepy miniature occult box. I don't know if it was intentional, but it has a bit of a Hellraiser-ish vibe to me. I suspect that's just my brain noting random similarities to the puzzlebox and Pillar of Souls from the series.

The Book of Secrets, Revealed

The merits of the "National Treasure" series of films (2004's "National Treasure" and 2007's "National Treasure: Book of Secrets") are certainly debatable, but the creativity and artistry that went into creating the "Book of Secrets" prop isn't. It's a stunning piece of work, all the more amazing because 95% of it's incredibly detailed contents are never seen on screen. It's creator, Ross MacDonald, has been kind enough to show some of that material at his website and he even offers a an exacting replica of the screen-used prop for sale.

For well over a year there has also been a fan-run project to recreate the book that I was peripherally involved with. That project has now come to a close, but here are some pictures of the numerous documents, pictures, and examples of ephemera included.





Along with the expected material involving the Kennedy assassination and the Roswell UFO crash there are several smaller sections covering secrets drawn from various literary sources. In the upper right corner of the above picture you can see part of my contribution, one of the Elder Thing sketches based on "At the Mountains of Madness" I commissioned from artist Danny Cruz. That's right, the "Book of Secrets" includes a section describing exactly what was discovered during the Miskatonic University expedition to the Antarctic. It includes photographs and sketches drawn from the materials collected by Prof. William Dyer and details the US government's official intelligence involving the matter and their response.

My section is just a small part of the book, dwarfed by the hard work of dozens of contributors that helped make the fan project possible, but it's an amusing Easter Egg for anyone familiar with Lovecraft's story.

Cthulhu Mask

Leather artist Bob Basset has a new Cthulhu Mask on display. This isn't the first time he's produced this particular pattern of mask, but I haven't seen it in black before. I think it looks much better in this color than natural leather.

"Beyond the Mountains of Madness" Prop Madness

Cephalopod Productions has posted an absolutely amazing collection of props based on Chaosium's "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" . This is just awesome stuff.



Be sure to browse around the main page for more great material, including an excellent tutorial on crafting one of the infamous Pemmican cakes (complete with printable label).

This Looks So Fake

I've mentioned before that when it comes to creating prop versions of government documents it's a good idea to make them look believable without actually trying to duplicate them. That's particularly important when you're trying to reproduce the look of currently circulating documents like government ID's. Now, thanks to the rather comical release of a Transportation Safety Administration manual we have some interesting examples of what official identification actually looks like. Here's a set of authentic Central Intelligence Agency credentials taken from the PDF of the manual:



My first thought upon seeing it was "Sweet Jebus, that looks fake." It's just so...uninspired. After years of seeing cool CIA ID cards on television and in movies I expected something a lot cooler. Sadly, that plain vanilla approach applies to almost every single example of identification given in the manual. The only ones that have the appearance of a high-tech, anti-counterfeiting design are the technicolor monstrosities issued to Senators and Congressional Representatives. In those cases I can see the recipients demanding something befitting their lofty station, or at least their conception of how important they are. The grunts with the guns and actual law enforcement powers? They get ID that looks like it came from the copy center at Office Depot.

On the bright side, having examples of the real thing to work from makes it a lot easier to make prop versions. Not because it's easier to copy them, but for exactly the opposite reason. If you avoid using the design cues of actual identification you'll not only avoid any chance of forgery, but your prop ID will look a hundred times better. Seriously, wouldn't you assume CIA agents carried identification with lots of bright, scarlet red detailing? Who in their right mind would have thought burnt orange was their official color?

From The Mountains Of Madness

From Sci-Fi Laura comes this gallery of Miskatonic University specimens. My own pictures of the exact same specimens aren't nearly as beautiful.



Why must I be cursed with a total inability to take decent pictures?

It's Twitteriffic!

If you look over there to the right you'll see that I've added a Twitter feed. I'll be using it to plug material here on the blog and for things I find interesting outside the world of Lovecraftiana and props.

Rest assured, the focus of Propnomicon will remain where it is. I absolutely hate when a blog or website suddenly tries to "broaden it's audience" beyond what attracted me to it in the first place. That, most assuredly, will not happen here. I like my little niche and plan on occupying it for a long time to come, but I occasionally come across things I think are cool and want to share. Those items will be limited to Twitter.