Peter Cannon's well received book of Lovecraftian parodies is scheduled to make a return this August. Forever Azathoth has been out of print for years, after originally being released by Tartarus Press. Subterranean Press has taken the liberty of publishing the new edition. Cannon's sixteen story collection exemplifies well done Lovecraftian humor.
In fact, he seems to have made it a hallmark of his literary career in the Lovecraftian arena. Not long ago, Cannon published The Lovecraft Chronicles, an alternate history biography where HPL lives until the 1960s. Rather than resorting to campy pastiche, Cannon wields his extensive knowledge of Lovecraft and other writers to craft weird fiction that's thought provoking and funny.
Forever Azathoth contains several prime examples where Lovecraftian themes are successfully merged with those by other authors. Cannon's parodies are nearly as much a homage to Ramsey Campbell, T.E.D. Klein, William Faulkner, and more classic writers as they are a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. With any luck, the collection will gain renewed attention as its new signed, limited edition begins hitting readers. Cannon's work is just the literary medicine needed to help flesh out Lovecraftian humor into a lively and meaningful practice, rather than a vapid one whose jokes rely upon face value observations and word play.
The first trailer for the follow up film to John Carpenter's Lovecraftian hit, The Thing, has surfaced. In this prequel, which is also titled The Thing (the franchise could stand to learn some originality with names), a Norwegian science team discovers an extraterrestrial entity in the Antarctic. This Shoggoth like monstrosity relies upon imitating terrestrial creatures, and is later responsible for the horrifying events in Carpenter's film.
It's difficult to gauge whether or not this prequel will live up to its predecessor. Still, it's good to see a touch of the Lovecraftian back in the Antarctic, especially after Guillermo del Toro was forced to cancel his At the Mountains of Madness project earlier this year. Look for 2011's rendition of The Thing to appear in theaters this October.
Art based on H.P. Lovecraft’s fictional nightmares is very often oriented toward two dimensional works. Great paintings, charcoal sketches, and awesome graphic designs have arisen over the years to pay homage to Cthulhu and other monstrosities, giving Lovecraft’s stories an obscene illustrated life. As a result, we have books like The Art of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, and Centipede Press’ legendary tome, A Lovecraft Retrospective:Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. While stunning two dimensional products by Lovecraftian professionals is well worth the attention, it causes interesting three dimensional pieces to be overlooked.
HP Lovecraft in stained glass by Spectral Creations
The fledgling stained glass industry is one such underground beast. It’s difficult to know what ever inspired artists to freeze Cthulhu’s image in mystic glass. The occult wisdom of such a move notwithstanding, its success makes Lovecraft the only weird fiction author to date with stained glass made in his image.
A traditional Cthulhu glass design by Chantal's Stained Glass Patterns
Glass designs thus far have been extremely traditional. The saint-like iconography of everyone’s favorite Great Old One brings an eerily realistic edge to this art. Meanwhile, Lovecraft’s profile takes on a sacrosanct position. The cultural memory surrounding stained glass certainly makes these odd works seem like valuable relics.
Unsurprisingly, the more menacing and serene depictions of Cthulhu and his creator in glass are followed by the humorous. Glassworks like Santa Cthulhu as Christmas tree ornaments show the Cutethulhu phenomenon’s unwavering hold over the minds of artists. In fact, the split of seemingly serious to light hearted Lovecraftian stained glass is about 50-50. Humor, then, is as much an impetus as horror for those who choose to bring Lovecraft to this art form.
One day, it’s possible that Lovecraftiana captured in stained glass will grow into a respectable mini-niche. When that happens, it’s only a matter of time until it begins showing up in future volumes celebrating the highly talented and nearly esoteric quality of Lovecraftian art.
This automated monk from the Medieval era begs many questions, many of them right in line with the weird. Consider it a freakish construct, where Ligottian puppet nonsense collides with Lovecraftian Cosmicism, and the devout faith embodied in writers like Arthur Machen. Would an artificial monk have an artificial faith? Or is it a vicious, mocking reflection of a monastery universe?
Cthulhu Mythos and heroic adventure tales writer, Robert E. Howard, pioneered the sub-genre of the weird western. Curiously, while many have followed up on Howard's epic barbarian and Cthulhuvian stories, his westerns have been neglected. That is, until now. Edward M. Erdelac has revived the spirit of Howard's wild and unusual western heroes with the Merkabah Rider series.
These tales place the Rider, a Jewish mystic and gunslinger, into an alternate American Southwest. Demons and other blasphemies reminiscent of the Cthulhu Mythos show up along the way. Not content to stand on Robert E. Howard alone, Erdelac introduces H.P. Lovecraft's familiar entity, Shub-Niggurath as a major plot device. Magic and inter-dimensional horrors surface along the way, balancing adventure and the supernatural with excellence.
Better yet, it's set to comprise an ongoing series. There have been two books released to date. The story begins in Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter, and continues in the latest installment, Merkabah Rider: The Mensch With No Name. Erdelac has wisely made his titles available in both paperback and Kindle format, making it easy for fans of Howard's work and the strange to access these new bizarre chronicles.
There are some books that are legally forbidden to bibliophiles, but that still doesn't stop some from trying. The recent theft of the Codex Calixtinus from a Spanish Cathedral is a fine example. Unlike one of Lovecraft's book thieving villains, who is after occult knowledge, profit is a more likely motive behind this crime. However, the disappearance of this archaic travel guide is still reminiscent of weird fiction's most chilling storylines involving captured books.
This weekend begins the annual rites of a secret society that has attracted much speculation in recent years: the famous Bohemian Club in California. Since the society began in the late 19th century, its high powered members have descended to a wooded area outside Monte Rio, and engaged in curious revelry that looks nefarious to some and childish to others. Whatever the case, no one can deny that the Bohemian Grove is strange, and exudes a surreal atmosphere closely related to weird art and literature.
What Happens at the Grove
The annual meeting of the Bohemian Club generally lasts about two weeks through mid July. During this time, household names from government, business, and media kick back in the woods. Whatever else it is, the event seems designed to take these overstressed individuals out of their every day responsibilities. Many observers contend that the Bohemians end up drinking too much, which causes their exclusive festivities to degenerate into a drunken tirade reminiscent of frat house parties.
Meanwhile, fearful observers from across the political spectrum believe far more nefarious undertakings are occurring in Bohemian Grove. Allegations of orgies, illegal drugs, prostitution, and even sacrificial murder have surfaced in recent years. While left wing conspiracy believers rage against policy decisions they believe are being set by arms of a military-industrial complex, right wing dissidents accuse the Bohemian members of Satanism. Books like Mike Hanson's Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy round up the most nightmarish aspects of the meeting. No hard proof has ever emerged of the worst claims going on at the Grove, but something strange is taking place.
The big question that distinguishes whether the Bohemian Club is an elaborate joy ride or a closed door policy session is whether deals are being cut under the table. For decades, the summer site has been a gathering point for Presidents, countless bureaucrats, and titans of industry. Scientific, military, and artistic personalities show up as well. It's believed that the Manhattan Project's major components, leading to the Atomic bomb, were partly conceived during a Bohemian Club meeting in 1942. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Although Grove attendees seem intent on engaging in pleasure seeking, it's difficult to imagine that so many rich and powerful individuals gathered in one place never knock around ideas or make deals off the record.
Ritualistic Horror: The Cremation of Care
The most bizarre moment in the Bohemian Club's annual gathering usually occurs on Saturday, when members gather before a gigantic stone owl and perform a play entitled The Cremation of Care. During this event, a mock sacrifice occurs. A gangly human effigy is sacrificed and burned. Ostensibly, this occurrence symbolizes the destruction of the earthly ties that normally bind Grove members, also implied in their slogan, "Weaving spiders come not here."
Unsurprisingly, this faux cremation is the source of many unsettling legends. It's easy to believe the power elite are devils, when they are howling along to occult rituals. There's certainly a wild and immature element to the whoops and hollers captured in scenes from the Cremation of Care, recorded when a notable conspiracy theorist named Alex Jones infiltrated the group in 2000. The full elusive taping was later made into the film Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove, but the Cremation of Care ceremony is undeniably the creepiest part.
Conspiracy or not, we have the makings of a weirdly Lovecraftian performance occurring in the real world. The cultists, rather than being inbred goons from the Louisiana Bayou, are global leaders. It's one thing to listen to drunken nobodies gibbering as though they were at Great Cthulhu's talons, rather than a giant owl's, but hearing it come from society's supposed cream-of-the-crop is exceptionally eerie.
Bohemian Grove and the Weird
The Cremation of Care ceremony isn't the only Bohemian Club aspect related to supernatural literature. The entire event glows with an uncanny atmosphere best received in the pages of Lovecraft, Poe, or Machen. It's ultimately the Grove's lingering mysteriousness that causes it to look and feel so strange. Secrecy also breeds monsters, even very human ones, and perceptions of malevolence.
Atmosphere aside, the Bohemian Club's exclusive products share a similarity with weird fiction books too. Anyone acquainted with the literary horror genre knows how pricey and scarce certain story collections and novels can be. Likewise for limited edition plays, yearbooks, and other publications issued by the Club to its members. Don't be surprised to see rare copies of these items floating around E-bay and booksellers for thousands of dollars.
What really happens at the Bohemian Grove every July is only known to the attendees, and very few of them are talking. The annual gathering is a blessing and a curse for seekers after real world weirdness. The rituals and the covert shadows prove that highly unusual and creepy happenings arrive in this world. However, their unknown nature drives fear and closet admiration for lovers of the strange aesthetic.
Boom! Studios has decided to release the first definitive collection of their Lovecraftian comics in September, 2011. Fans of seeing Lovecraft in graphic novel format will rejoice when Cthulhu Tales Omnibus: Delirium appears. This 224 page monstrosity is one of the largest graphic collections ever released in the Cthulhu Mythos. It compiles the bizarre plot lines and impressive artwork from the first three volumes of Cthulhu Tales, all pioneered by Boom's many illustrators who have worked on the project over the years.
The stories on display in Cthulhu Tales Omnibus: Delirium are heavily responsible for the Lovecraftian renaissance in comics. Although Lovecraftian art has never been weak or uninspired, its history in comic territory was spotty until the early 2000s. Since then, H.P. Lovecraft's horrors seem here to stay in illustrated storytelling, and it may not have happened without Cthulhu Tales.
Mammoth anthologies that collect the most outstanding tales from Lovecraftian fiction over the past several decades are becoming rather. Fortunately, The Book of Cthulhu is changing this trend. This four hundred page trade paperback is due to be published by Night Shade Books in the fall of 2011.
The anthology collects many of the best samples by authors who can do Lovecraft justice, without being boring or pastiche. Editor Ross E. Lockhart has pieced together works by the illuminati of modern Lovecraftiana: Ramsey Campbell, T.E.D. Kline, Thomas Ligotti, Laird Barron, and many more familiar names. Volumes like The Book of Cthulhu are useful not just as enjoyable reading, but as literary snapshots of what weird fiction readers and authorities consider modern triumphs in the Cthulhu Mythos. If you found yourself stranded on a desolate island with just a small library of books by the contributors to this anthology, you might be able to keep your sanity.
The impressive lineup for the anthology is as follows:
Caitlin R. Kiernan - Andromeda among the Stones
Ramsey Campbell - The Tugging
Charles Stross - A Colder War
Bruce Sterling - The Unthinkable
Silvia Moreno-Garcia - Flash Frame
W. H. Pugmire - Some Buried Memory
Molly Tanzer - The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins
Michael Shea - Fat Face
Elizabeth Bear - Shoggoths in Bloom
T. E. D. Klein - Black Man With A Horn
David Drake - Than Curse the Darkness
Charles R. Saunders - Jeroboam Henley's Debt
Thomas Ligotti - Nethescurial
Kage Baker - Calamari Curls
Edward Morris - Jihad over Innsmouth
Cherie Priest - Bad Sushi
John Hornor Jacobs - The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife
Brian McNaughton - The Doom that Came to Innsmouth
Ann K. Schwader - Lost Stars
Steve Duffy - The Oram County Whoosit
Joe R. Lansdale - The Crawling Sky
Brian Lumley - The Fairground Horror
Tim Pratt - Cinderlands
Gene Wolfe - Lord of the Land
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. - To Live and Die in Arkham
John Langan - The Shallows
Laird Barron - The Men from Porlock
With far less pomp than it deserves, Centipede Press' new edition of The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Tales went up for pre-order last week. Until now, this book of unusual vignettes, sequels, and horror tributes to famous horror icons by Thomas Ligotti was his rarest title on the second hand market, and certainly one of the most expensive. Fortunately, the Centipede reprint revives the book's greatest wonders and unleashes some new ones.
Just like his other definitive collections currently being published by Subterranean Press, Ligotti has revised The Agonizing Resurrection, aiming to make the stories more like they were always intended to be. Longtime fans will notice that Harry O. Morris has provided the illustrations for the volume's own not-so-agonized resurrection. Many will rejoice, since Morris played a crucial role throughout Ligotti's career, as publisher and illustrator of Nyctalops, as well as the first edition of Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and several other works.
According to reports, orders are rapidly pouring into Centipede's database. Fans, dealers, and cynical investors are wasting no time with this title, and for good reason. The handsome looking hardcover is limited to five hundred copies. In a move that mirrors the exceedingly rare red leather edition of its predecessor, Centipede is producing fifteen deluxe copies for $1750 each. While only a few lucky collectors will seize this edition, there's still a chance to move on the far more affordable trade hardcover. Get your order in now.
The Agonizing Resurrection is the third book by Thomas Ligotti released in 2011, and almost certainly the finest. It's due to ship out by late September. Until then, look for Subterranean Press' revised edition of Grimscribe: His Lives and Works, and the new paperback edition of The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
-Grim Blogger
The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein by Thomas Ligotti on Pre-Order
Since William Hope Hodgson's strange novel, The House on the Borderland, first appeared, artists have sought to capture the demented, liminal spirit of the hellish house. Here, it's worth collecting a few of these efforts for comparison. Hodgson's otherworldly house was a product of pure imagination, which earned it praise from weird fiction contemporaries like H.P. Lovecraft.
Depictions of the eponymous house veer toward the decrepit profile given in the novel. Recently, illustrator Richard Corben translated Hodgson's work to the visual medium in his House on the Borderland graphic novel. Corben's house follows the book pretty literally, but also takes the liberty of making the house look exceptionally crooked. Corben's artwork zeroes in on an essential feature of illustrating Hodgson: the house, as a reality spanning nightmare, must reflect its warped realm more than the cliff it seems to occupy.
It's the house and its surroundings, after all, where the supernatural events of the novel unfold. Although visual artists have sought to capture far stranger aspects of Hodgson's story than its house, many images hinge on effectively generating the eeriness and surrealism in the house. The house is ultimately the lever for artistic weirdism that's worthy of the novel, and these are just a few images that come close to that level of justice.
-Grim Blogger
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson in Art
Imagery that accurately reflects the grim and surreal vision offered by Thomas Ligotti is difficult to find. However, Youtube user aluminiumface recently posted a video that combines a lengthy excerpt from "I Have a Special Plan for this World" with scenes from Jan Svankmajer's short film, The Ossuary. With little modification, the dark audio collaboration by Ligotti and Current 93's David Tibet really comes alive.
These scenes, produced by the Czech Republic's "militant surrealist," lend sight to dark incantations that could previously only manifest inside our minds. Although many will doubtlessly continue to prefer the natural route, this short production effectively shows the flexibility of Ligotti's hallucinatory words in the visual medium.
-Grim Blogger
Current 93, Thomas Ligotti, and Jan Svankmajer Combined
The United Kingdom has always been at the forefront of supernatural horror in literature and beyond. A uniquely British dedication to the strange is manifesting itself once again in the recent debate over the fate of Wymering Manor. Reportedly, without major repairs, this "most haunted" locale is structurally endangered.
This is why advocacy groups are beginning a push to save the manor with a combination of contributions from charities and local governments. The nearly thousand year old building is one of the few spectral places in the world that continues to have a fighting chance at immortality. Perhaps there are more than human actors at work. In a land of modern ghostly traditions begun by M.R. James with Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, and continued by powerhouses of otherworldly horror like Reggie Oliver, the haunted may reign forever.
When you step inside Michael Cisco’s world, don’t just expect the unexpected. Rather, brace yourself. Cisco’s themes, ideas, and imagery are so thoroughly exotic that they verge on posing an existential danger. Nowhere is this clearer than in his most recent release, The Great Lover, a lengthy novel published by the enterprising Chomu Press. Wedged between an atmosphere of rich dereliction and an uncanny style is a treatise on the modern, the vampiric, death, and the élan vital. Uncovering these nuggets of pure thought requires effort, but the psychic mining is worthwhile.
In previous novels like The Tyrant, Michael Cisco’s ideological and stylistic ancestry reflects Franz Kafka, as well as masters of strangeness such as Thomas Ligotti, H.P. Lovecraft, and David Lynch. This aesthetic heritage is even more evident in his short story collection, Secret Hours. However, the new work is a different organism altogether. It seems that Cisco’s Great Lover is more than a deranged anti-hero. He is a representation of the author’s own progression, breaking free from the orbit of the greats, and soaring off into truly original territory.
Prosthetic Libido, Prosthetic Characters, and Prosthetic Styles
Whatever criticism or praise may be leveled about The Great Lover, everyone must recognize its abundant originality. Cisco’s diverse characters strike a fantastic chord from the beginning. We are introduced to the Great Lover, the novel’s titular character, who is a strange entity never before seen in any horror fiction or outside of it. He is one part sewer dwelling tramp, and the other part intellectual invader. The Great Lover dwells in the mind, in the coffin, and in the other people’s dreams. Does he breach boundaries between worlds, or serve as proof that disparate realities are actually the same? Cisco doesn’t provide a definitive answer, but the awesome mystery posed by the Great Lover’s existence is just one of the book’s mighty offerings.
Curiously, Michael Cisco takes a turn toward Frankenstein and science fiction with the Prosthetic Libido. This strange and lustful being is an android designed to quarantine a work obsessed scientist’s lust, on the surface. However, throughout the narrative, the Prosthetic Libido seems like so much more. After human lust is introduced into a dead, blank human facsimile, Cisco presents the ultimate dichotomy. The Prosthetic Libido is an effective walking philosophical quandary, eradicating the boundaries between inanimate deadness and the chief driving force behind most organic beings.
Staying caged within stylistic traditions doesn’t appeal to Michael Cisco very much either. The Great Lover is his literary escape pod. He disregards traditional narrative structures with courage and recklessness, and the results are mixed. At times, Cisco’s weaving between tenses, points of view, and first and third person is disorienting. Yet, many readers will adjust due to the novel’s length, as Cisco temporarily rewires our brains to perceive his story as he does. It’s as though we are all prosthetic puppets artfully crafted to adapt to Cisco’s experimental style, serving as vessels for his alien scripture. Like all little puppets, some will cooperate happily, while others will resist the author’s extra-literary influence.
Cisco’s Horrors of the Mind
Somewhere, deep in a landscape dotted with art museums and literary laboratories, the real purpose of The Great Lover takes shape. Cisco’s book explores bizarre, often opposed themes fearlessly. Like a barely charted jungle, well defined paths and crumbling shrines within the novel are too numerous and hidden to define with precision. Instead, Cisco’s novel leaves a distinct aftertaste of lush contrasts.
Defying life and death, epitomized by the Great Lover, the Prosthetic Libido, and a host of other offbeat characters, stands out most clearly. Perhaps, in a tradition coursing through weird fiction and found in academic philosophy’s gutters, Michael Cisco wishes to tear off our neat glasses and shatter them on the ground. By wrecking the distinctions between living and dead beings, macabre vermin ridden sewers and subway cults, the Prosthetic and the natural, we see the nature of reality as it actually is, however blurry. Though this novel could fit neatly in a course on Modernism and Post-Modernism as required reading, walking away with bland numbness rather than existential, uncanny chills isn’t possible.
Book by book, tale by tale, Michael Cisco is quickly becoming an intellectual godfather of weird fiction. He isn’t H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, or Franz Kafka. Just like the supernatural cloud cover and heady ideas overflowing from The Great Lover, it’s impossible to neatly describe Cisco’s literary career. However, he shows no sign of slowing as he advances toward his unknown destination, and by gaining Cyclopean mass, his wake may pull all of us into the ether with him.
Despite a renaissance in weird fiction and ongoing experimental cinema niches with disturbing sights, events that capture a truly uncanny atmosphere remain rare. However, Brighton, England is set to host an event by The Outer Church later this month which follows in the haunting footsteps of Lovecraft and other weird fiction artists. Here's what The Outer Church's curator has to say:
For its July 2011 edition, The Outer Church explores the derelict spaces of urban folklore with the first UK screening of contemporary uncanny masterpiece Marble Hornets (Season One). The most accomplished and acclaimed product of the Slender Man mythos, this immersive DIY phenomenon has spawned several imitations and attracted praise from revered film critic, Roger Ebert. The musical segment of the event promises to be equally compelling. As Sinneslöschen, Astrud Steehouder aka Paper Dollhouse (newly signed to Bird/Finders Keepers) and Bound Toy of Old Apparatus (DEEP MEDi) present a live collaboration taking in dryad psychedelia, desolate drone and electromagnetic interference, conjuring nightmares from thin air.
Venue:
Komedia Brighton
Date/time:
14th July 2011, 7.30pm
UK residents in range shouldn't miss this opportunity to enjoy these weird screenings. For more details, check out The Outer Church's blog, or visit Komedia for ticket information.
