Lovecraft's Grave

I don't normally focus on static Halloween displays, but this particular example is a lesson in how to craft a fantastic prop using simple materials and a whole lot of talent. Not to mention the fact that it's about as Lovecraftian as one can get. Hector Turner is the artist behind it's creation.

My latest endeavour is a H.P.Lovecraft tombstone for my Halloween display. Not true-to-life of course but what I envisioned it could be. The back-story is that someone, using pages from the Necronomicon, tried to raise H.P.Lovecraft from the dead. Instead they called up something unspeakable from beyond that broke out of the tomb to gain access to our world. Really I just wanted to do a cool tombstone with tentacles!

It was built as part of a contest for HauntForum and I could only spend a maximum of $20 on it. I had to get fairly creative in my use of materials to come in under the limit. This included using Froot Loops as suckers on the tentacles! For extra detail I even included a page torn from the Necronomicon. I scanned an illustration I did for the tome I'm working on and added some text & textures in Photoshop, then aged and burnt. Here are a few images of the prop under construction and finally finished. If anyone is a member of HauntForum the voting is on until Saturday, May 8th.

Here's what the finished project looks like, along with some interesting construction photos:







The finished project in daylight:



A detail shot of the Elder Sign finial:



The misused page from the Necronomicon responsible for this horror:



One of the hell-spawned tentacles:



A closeup of the engraving on the tombstone:



A construction shot demonstrating the prop's humble origins:



The tentacles, made from newspaper, masking tape, and ping pong balls:



The tentacle suckers, in cherry, lime, grape, and lemon flavors:



You'll find a full materials list and build log over at the HauntForum discussion of the project. Jump up one level in the forum and you can see the other entries in the group's $20 prop competition.

Aging Photographs

Caleb Kimbrough has posted some high resolution grungy film textures at the "Lost and Taken" site. Once imported into GIMP or Photoshop these are ideal for recreating the look of an old photograph or tintype that's been mouldering away in an attic for years.



You can download the textures individually, or in one collected zip file.

Elder Sign Amulet

From artist Lacy Jae comes this cast Elder Sign amulet. I quite like the primitive look of it.

Miskatonic Abroad

Jason Heath has been busy promoting his upcoming film The Cthulhu Key , but found time to send over this picture of his wife with horror film staple Sid Haig at a recent convention.



This means I, or at least my Miskatonic T-shirt, now have only three degrees of separation from James Cameron- myself to Jason and his wife, them to Sid Haig via their appearance at the con, and Sid Haig to James Cameron via the infamous Roger Corman opus "Galaxy of Terror". Mr. Haig played the role of Quuhod in the film while Mr. Cameron served as production designer.

I'm not sure if pointing that out is a credit to my memory for film minutia or a demonstration of my questionable vanity. Heh.

The Hazards of Internet Dating

Following up on the vintage encyclopedia discussion, Nick Storm encountered a potential problem for anyone looking at classic era sets- inaccurate dating.

Sellers on Ebay or Amazon may list a collection based on the initial publication year inside the front cover without noticing the edition year. That means encyclopedias dated from the classic era in a sales listing could actually be from a much later edition. In Nick's case the set of books he purchased were advertised as being from 1919 when, in reality, they were printed in 1939.

The best way to avoid any potentially expensive problems is to politely ask the seller to verify the edition date before buying. Most vendors will be happy to refund the purchase price if there is a problem, but they're unlikely to swallow the shipping cost of a return. Given the size and weight of a set of encyclopedias that can be a significant sum, even with the media mail discount.

The Whole Wide World

Four hours.

That's how much time I spent browsing the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection right after Kurt Hockenbury sent over a link to it. The site is filled with thousands of vintage maps dating from the very beginning of cartography to the early decades of the 20th century. In many cases you can find maps of the same locations over a span of centuries and see the ebb and flow of history over time. Names change, political borders shift around, cities swell and shrink, harbors are developed and silt up...it's fascinating to watch.

From a specifically Lovecraftian standpoint the collection is a treasure trove, featuring vintage maps of Mythos locations around the globe...



...and gems from the classic era like this railroad map of New York City from the 1930's.



Best of all, the export function allows you to download insanely high-resolution scans suitable for printing at full size. The vast majority of the collection is usable as is, but if you're willing to put in a little time adding some appropriate Mythos touches you can create some fantastic prop maps.

The Bringer of Wonders

And it was then that Nyarlathotep came out of Egypt. Who he was, none could tell, but he was of the old native blood and looked like a Pharaoh. The fellahin knelt when they saw him, yet could not say why. He said he had risen up out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries, and that he had heard messages from places not on this planet. Into the lands of civilisation came Nyarlathotep, swarthy, slender, and sinister, always buying strange instruments of glass and metal and combining them into instruments yet stranger. He spoke much of the sciences - of electricity and psychology - and gave exhibitions of power which sent his spectators away speechless, yet which swelled his fame to exceeding magnitude. Men advised one another to see Nyarlathotep, and shuddered. And where Nyarlathotep went, rest vanished; for the small hours were rent with the screams of a nightmare.

—H. P. Lovecraft, Nyarlathotep

The latest work from artist Joe Broers is a commemorative statue from Nyarlathotep's infamous tour of the United States in the 1920's, complete with associated paperwork. The entire set is a wonderful recreation of the "sinister showman" aspect of the dread god, based partially on his depiction in the talented Christian Matzke's eponymous film.







"Nyarlathotep" and other Mythos artworks can be found at Mr. Broers' DeviantArt page.