ANT San Diego Solstice

A US Coast Guard Christmas!

  • December 11, 2019

Shipping Shoggoth Emeritus and Dreams in the Witch House impresario Mike Dalager (pictured third from left) is a member of the US Coast Guard and works with the Aids to Navigation Team (ANT) in San Diego, CA. He and his crew boat-hooked a startling collection of solstice tentacles and Mike was kind enough to send us this photo. He says this is how they ward off Deep Ones in southern California. All in a day's work for the USCG! We are proud of Mike and grateful to his mates.

Pictured, left to right: EM3 Johnson, MK3 Tso, MK2 Dalager, MK1 Bravo, BM2 Thigpen, Chief Beaudoin

Featured Member

  • December 5, 2019

Our Member of the Month is Christopher Rightmyer of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Christopher says: "I was first introduced to HP Lovecraft in 1988 by a close friend and his brother who had recommended The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. I have always enjoyed the classic horror stories and dark tales, however, when I stepped into the cosmic horrors of the Lovecraft universe there was no turning back. The repugnance of such stories as, "The Dunwich Horror" or the consternation of "At The Mountains of Madness" set my redoubtable desire for the outlandish cosmophobia. Reading the designs of his mind in books, however, was not enough, I wanted to be a part of his stories, investigating the paranormal, face the folk of Insmouth and attend classes at Miskatonic University. The game Call of Cthulhu was introduced to me in the late '80s as well, and I have been immersed in the caliginous world ever since."

Very Scary Solstice

Ogham Waite Carols!

  • November 28, 2019

Ogham Waite is famous for being the only known Deep One Hybrid lounge singer, as those who have heard his album "Live at the Gilman House" can attest. We recently discovered an additional recording from the Gilman House Lounge, in which Ogham and his Amphibian Jazz Band cover a beloved Solstice Carol. We are happy to make it available for listening for free to brighten your holidays. We are also very proud to announce that the entire Solstice Carol page of this website is now full of fun stuff, including this song. Go check it out for other carols, samples, videos, and sheet music! Click the red link above, or select it from the Productions/Music pull-down menu above!

Voluminous

Our New Podcast!

  • October 31, 2019

At last it can be told. We are releasing the very first HPLHS podcast, Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft. Each week Sean and Andrew will be reading one of Lovecraft's many thousands of fascinating letters, and then discussing it. If all goes as planned, you should be able to find it wherever you get your podcasts. You can also go check it out here!

Face Casting

  • October 25, 2019

Halloween is right around the corner, and effects makeup artist extraordinaire Dave Snyder was at HQ today making a cast of the face of Time Winters, one of our beloved Dark Adventure Radio Theatre actors. We're not at liberty to disclose the ultimate purpose of this face cast, but we were happy to have them here doing it. Dave did the effects makeup for our movie of The Whisperer in Darkness, including the face and hands of Henry Akeley. It was not Time's first experience with face casting either, since he has played a number of Star Trek aliens in his day!

Dave first applied a coat of green silicone rubber directly to Time's skin. This coat is a little goopy to catch all the fine detail. Once that sets up, he applied a coat of more viscous blue silicone to strengthen the first. The final step is a layer of plaster bandages to form a rigid shell, so that when modeling material is poured into the mold it will retain its shape!

We posted the picture with the green silicone on Twitter, and someone very cleverly replied: "Never challenge a Shoggoth to a pie fight!"

Cody and Andrew

Visiting Dignitaries

  • October 18, 2019

Headquarters was graced today by another visit from distinguished guests. Cody Goodfellow (pictured right) is an acclaimed author of horror fiction and the frequent officiant at Cthulhu Prayer Breakfasts at the H.P.Lovecraft Film Festival and NecronomiCon. You should check out his work here and here. He brought along his friend Andrew Kasch, who directs and edits projects at Warner Brothers.

Mike and Carlos

Visiting Dignitaries

  • October 14, 2019

Speaking of Mike Dalager, he dropped by headquarters today and brought along the talented Peruvian artist Carlos Garcia Rivera, a.k.a. Mohloco, who did the cover art for Dreams in the Witch House and lots of concept art as well. Great to see them both!

DitWH Penitentiary

Dreams in the Witch House: Penitentiary

  • October 10, 2019

Our very own Mike Dalager and his insanely talented crew have cooked up a special Halloween present for all of you. The newest version of one of the songs from Dreams in the Witch House: The Rock Opera is now FREE to download through Halloween! Check it out at CD BABY.

There is also a fun behind-the-scenes video of the song edited by none other than HPLHS Cinematographer Extraordinaire David Robertson!

And a write-up of the project at Blabbermouth!

The Hollywood Theatre

Portland!

  • October 9, 2019

We recently returned from another delightful trip to the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon. It was great to connect with the friends and fans who live in the region and who make the trek from distant points to catch the movies. There was a lot of excitement this year for Richard Stanley's new adaptation of "The Colour Out of Space". Although none of the HPLHS crew had a chance to catch any of the screenings, we certainly heard Nic Cage screaming through the doors of the auditorium, and we spoke to a lot of people who thought it was excellent. We look forward to a viewing of our own sometime!

We did a live performance of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: "The Lurking Fear" on Saturday afternoon in the main theater. Our thanks to the technical staff at the Hollywood Theater for helping with a smooth technical performance, and to the audience for playing along with us to do some of the sound effects. Thanks also to HPLHS member Chris Huning for joining us on stage to be the god of thunder.

TLF live PDX 2019

Featured Member

  • October 4, 2019

Our Member of the Month is Cameron Seago of Wimberley, Texas.

Cameron says: "I actually got into Lovecraft through D&D. I was at a game shop, saw the rule book for Call of Cthulhu, and started leafing through it. The concepts of investigation and survival where so different from the games I had been playing. Investigating strange occurrences, and cults devoted to interdimensional terrors while trying to maintain your sanity had me hooked. After that I started to read his stories and books from authors that expanded the universe along with the people who wrote the game modules. It’s interesting that our monsters, or demons could just be beings from another dimension or place in our universe. That magic is just their science or natural ability. The psychological aspect of the stories and games modules are very interesting to me as well. Regular people coming face to face with these creatures, or some other bizarre event and forever being changed by the encounter. All in all it just has everything I enjoy sci-fi, horror, suspense, and strange cults.

I’m including a few pictures. One of me, some of my stuff, and a portrait of me that my mother had painted. She was a fantastic painter, and the one who got me started on suspense and weird tales....

Portland Stamps

HPL Film Festival Portland

  • October 2, 2019

We are busy loading up the van with stuff to take to Portland for the 2019 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival! We're greatly looking forward to our annual return to one of our favorite places, hosting one of our favorite events, with some of our favorite people. We'll be presenting a LIVE performance of one of our newest episodes of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, "The Lurking Fear". It's going to be a special three-man cast, and we're counting on the audience to help out with some of the sound effects. And be sure to bring your Decoder Badges! We hope to see you there!

Featured Member

  • September 15, 2019

Our Member of the Month is César Zamudio.

César says: "I live in Virginia, just blocks away from the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, in the very old, very full of history city of Richmond.

I have a sweet spot for horror stories and movies since very young. I distinctly recall being horrified with the IT miniseries, or the Nightmare on Elm Street movies when I was a kid (while some thought it was a questionable parenting choice, I can’t thank my mom enough for letting me be exposed to horror when I was just a kid!). Given this interest it was only a matter of time before I became familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft. I remember very fondly when, one day, the “forces of randomness” pulled me towards the local bookstore, where I asked for some recommendations on what to read. It truly was a day to remember as there I bought my first Tolkien book (The Hobbit) and my first H.P. Lovecraft book (a collection of short stories)!

As of today I still re-read (or re-listen to) Lovecraft’s work frequently and with the same passion as with the first. There’s something about his writing — as pulpy, abstruse and sometimes unnecessarily complicated as it is, it is unquestionably beautiful, unique and delightful to read. Picking up a Lovecraft book one more time will always be a fresh new adventure for me — whether transported back to Innsmouth, Arkham, Miskatonic University, the swamps of New Orleans or the Alert ship, I can’t wait to go back there!”

Members can read a bit more from César in the Member Sanctum!