The Black Book of Evil

Rev. Marx engages in a little tomecrafting to create The Black Book of Evil. His rundown of it's creation has some useful advice for anyone crafting a prop tome.

Necronomicon Tableau

From "Skeptical Beowulf" comes this very nice Necronomicon tableau. The dread book itself is surrounded by a collection of reference works and translation aids. No good can come of this.

118

This isn't directly prop related, other than a vague plan I have for coming up with a lead jug based on the description, but this passage from Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" has been swirling in my head for a few days:

But what was this cold wind which had sprung into life at the very outset of the chant? The lamps were sputtering woefully, and the gloom grew so dense that the letters on the wall nearly faded from sight. There was smoke, too, and an acrid odour which quite drowned out the stench from the far-away wells; an odour like that he had smelt before, yet infinitely stronger and more pungent. He turned from the inscriptions to face the room with its bizarre contents, and saw that the kylix on the floor, in which the ominous efflorescent powder had lain, was giving forth a cloud of thick, greenish-black vapour of surprising volume and opacity. That powder - Great God! it had come from the shelf of "Materia" - what was it doing now, and what had started it? The formula he had been chanting - the first of the pair - Dragon's Head, ascending node - Blessed Saviour, could it be ...

The doctor reeled, and through his head raced wildly disjointed scraps from all he had seen, heard, and read of the frightful case of Joseph Curwen and Charles Dexter Ward. "I say to you againe, doe not call up Any that you can not put downe ... Have ye Wordes for laying at all times readie, and stopp not to be sure when there is any Doubte of Whom you have ... 3 Talkes with What was therein inhum'd ..." Mercy of Heaven, what is that shape behind the parting smoke?

Speculating about who subject #118 was is a popular pastime for fans of the story, but as far as I know his identity, and his fate after the destruction of the two other members of the Curwen cabal, remains unknown. That's despite the seemingly endless sequelization of Lovecraft's work by a plethora of authors of varying talent levels. Brian Lumley has written about the further adventures of Baron Ferenczy as part of his "Necroscope" series, but 118 doesn't make an appearance.

Does he still walk the earth, or did he opt to take his final rest? Did his vengeance against the cabal mark the end of his fight, or was it just a chapter? If he is still alive, or at least still undead, is he continuing his fight against dark wizardry directly? Or has he chosen to work from the shadows, assisting others with a tidbit of information or a conveniently timed donation when it would help most?

The fact that I'm still asking those questions days after I finished the story is a credit to Lovecraft's writing and, perhaps, my over-active imagination.

Elder Thing Sculpt

Artist Jiangzu has been working on an amazingly detailed sculpt of an Elder Thing.



Click through on the link and you'll find a build log detailing it's creation, from initial armature to final detailing. There are some minor details I might quibble about, but on the whole it has to be one of the best three-dimensional depictions I've seen.

The Hazards Of A Miskatonic Education

From the immensely talented Leonardo Dias comes this "Zombie Walk" mask, a Miskatonic student that was caught in an unfortunate educational mishap.

Machine Infernale, Part Deux

Back in September I ran across this amazing device from a French LARP.



It's creator, ToNToN CoPT, posted a comment to that original story that gives some more background to the machine's creation. Here's what he had to say (with some minor formatting and spelling changes):

"For the front of the prop, it was built from many recovery stuff...A headboard for the "art nouveau" shape, an old cupboard, lamps, a beetle horn, old metallic switches, and, of course, metal, resin, wood, etc...In the backstage, there's a computer that control light and sound and even a coffee and smoke machine for the steam ;o)

It was made for two LARP games. One in the 20's (It was used as a revolutionary mad's machine, that can produce earthquakes ! It was prepared with pyrotechnical effects that can create the illusion that the machine explode, electric sparkles, stream's jet, etc...).

The second one was a Steampunk larp's game, this machine take place in a complete decor that act has an hexagonal mechanical and steam library... 3 wall was full of of books, 2 walls had lots of little brass riveted doors, and one wall with the machine itself... Players can used the machine to ask for a particular document, and after using it, the document was "blown out" by a random brass door..."

Even better, there's a video of the device in action. This is from one of the LARP events he mentioned. You'll find the machine at around four minutes in, but the rest of the video is equally entertaining.

The Curwen Journal

I've been re-reading "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" this week. One of the thoughts that crossed my mind while working my way through the story was how friendly the plot was to a film adaptation. Dr. Willett's investigation into the mystery of Ward's madness is a handy framing device, and there are a number of scenes, including the raid(s) on Curwen's farm and the final confrontation, that lend themselves to action sequences.

I'm not the first person to think this, of course, and last night I finally had a chance to see "The Resurrected", the 1992 film based on Lovecraft's story. I wasn't expecting much, so it was a pleasant surprise that the movie was suprisingly good. Well, one third of it was. The first two thirds of the film have some god-awful exposition and terrible acting, to the point that I almost gave up, but by the time the final third rolls around it's as if the cast and crew suddenly kicked up their game. I'd speculate that there were some "issues" with the location shooting, since the best parts of the film are all interiors that were presumably shot in a studio.

One of the things that caught my eye during the film was the depiction of Curwen's journal. It's an important plot device, and it looks like the creator put a lot of work into producing a quality piece of work. Here are the screencaps of the interior pages that I rounded up:








If anyone has information about who created it I'd love to hear about it.