Events Header

Live Events!

From time to time the HPLHS hosts live events at its global headquarters in Glendale, California. Click THIS LINK or the image above to see the current list of upcoming events.

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!

ShantyNigh

Sea Shanty Sing-Along!

  • August 25, 2019

Although Shanty Night at NecronomiCon was a little more challenging than we expected, we did have some winners of the "What do YOU do with an Innsmouth Sailor" contest!

1st prize: Make him read your small press novel, even though he'll make you grovel! (Anon.)

2nd prize: Throw him down to the darkest cesspits, lest he sink us like the whale ship Essex! (Anon.)

Runners up:
Slice him, dice him, make him sushi, get him higher than John Belushi (Anon.)
Send him south on an outbound whaler, 'cause he's a curious gill inhaler (Anon.)
Hand him a package to deliver ya, use his pub for a game of trivia (by April G)

(That last entry was especially pointed, under the circumstances!)

Photo above by Christian Matzke, whom we thank!

Birthday Donut

Happy Birthday HPL!

  • August 20, 2019

Today would have been H.P. Lovecraft's 129th birthday. To celebrate, we're giving away free downloads of our full-length radio drama Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: Herbert West—Reanimator. Just go to our store, order up the download, and "buy" it for a price of $0.00 and enjoy! Our birthday gift will remain free through Sunday, August 25th. Feel free to spread the word.

Stuart Gordon

Distinguished Visitors

  • August 19, 2019

Headquarters was graced today by a surprise visit from Lovecraftian filmmakers extraordinaire Stuart Gordon and Bryan Moore. Lovecraft fans know Stuart from his classic 1985 Re-Animator among many other things, and Bryan directed and stars in the 1999 short Cool Air which was recently remastered and re-released on DVD.

NecronomiCon Bonus Stamps

NecronomiCon!

  • August 17, 2019

Next weekend is NecronomiCon in Providence, and we are frantically making our last-minute preparations. Our stalwart Shipping Shoggoth will hit the road on Sunday for the arduous cross-country trek, and Sean and Andrew will meet him there later in the week. We're greatly looking forward to a full weekend of fun, with two live and spontaneous performances of the newest Dark Adventure Radio Theatre episodes, an Innsmouth Sea Shanty Sing-Along, and various panels and parties. It should be a blast.

Card-carrying members of the HPLHS who attend the festivities will have five new bonus stamps they can qualify for. There's one for the convention itself, as well as one for each of the DART shows and the shanty night. We are also introducing a new bonus stamp: "Pilgrimage".

This new stamp is the brainchild and the design of member Michael Speakman. To qualify for it, a member must pay a personal visit to at least five of eight locations in Providence, RI and take a tasteful selfie at each. The locations are:
10 Barnes St. (Lovecraft's home address from 1926 - 1933)
135 Benefit St. (“The Shunned House”)
The Fleur-de-Lys art studio
The Providence Athenaeum
The John Hay Library (and/or the Lovecraft plaque there)
The Van Wickle gates of Brown University
Ladd Observatory
Prospect Terrace Park

E-mail the selfies to Andrew Leman or post them in the Members-Only group on Facebook, and a member will qualify for the stamp. Please note: Swan Point cemetery is very deliberately omitted from the list. While we encourage people to pay their respects at Lovecraft's grave, doing so should be an occasion for quiet reflection and communion, and not a photo opportunity. No selfie from Swan Point will count toward any bonus stamp.

There will be walking tours of Providence available during NecronomiCon, and members could very probably see at least five of these locations on such a tour.

We hope to see members and friends of all kinds at the convention!

Featured Member

  • August 1, 2019

Our Member of the Month for August 2019 is Joan Ribera Vañó.

Joan says: "I live in Mallorca, Spain, an island in the middle of the Mediterranean. So naturally, I’ve been dragged into an excessive interest in the ocean and traveling.

I’ve always been an avid reader, and from a very young age I have been attracted to the dark and the inexplicable. I remember the fascination that produced me, more or less at 10, the reading of “Frankenstein”. From there I went through “Dracula” and practically all of Poe's narrative, until, eventually, “La narración de Arthur Gordon Pym” fell into my hands, leaving an everlasting mark on me with that combination of everything that has always fascinated me: sea, travel and mystery. The fascination for that book follows today, and I even use of Arthur's good name as my alter ego on the web.

My mother was a professor of Spanish literature, and she has an extensive library where I have always been nurtured, so I asked her about related books ... and in this way, through my mother's recommendations, and with a book called "Los Mitos de Cthulhu" that began, of course, with “La Llamada de Cthulhu”, an interdimensional one-way portal to Lovecraft opened in front of me.

I still remember as if it was yesterday the first time I read "Tekeli li" in the pages of "At the Mountains of Madness" ...

ENnie Award Product of the Year

The Triumph of Nyarlathotep!

  • August 3, 2019

Thank you so much to all the fans who voted, to the fellow artists who contributed so much, and to the ENnie organizers and judges and to Gen Con. We are stunned to have won gold in every ENnie Award category for which we were nominated! The Masks of Nyarlathotep Gamer Prop Set was declared the Best Aid/Accessory (Non-Digital) and Product of the Year! The Dark Adventure Radio Theatre adaptation of Masks was named best RPG-related product!

Our most sincere thanks and congratulations to our friends and colleagues at Chaosium, who let us put our own spin on their amazing game. The new edition of Masks of Nyarlathotep itself won the gold ENnie for Best Adventure, and Chaosium raked in awards in every other category in which it was nominated. They took home five gold ENnies and two silver, and were named the Fans' Choice Best Publisher! We are deeply grateful to that talented team for letting us share some of their Gen Con glory, and we look forward to future adventures together.

And it was a great night for other Cthulhu Mythos creators as well! Our congratulations to Stygian Fox for winning the silver ENnie for Best Electronic Book for Fear's Sharp Little Needles, Sandy Petersen for winning the gold ENnie for Best Monster/Adversary for Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for 5E, Seth Skorkowsky for winning the gold ENnie for Best Online Content for his YouTube channel, and Golden Goblin Press for winning the silver ENnie for Best Supplement for The 7th Ed. Guide to Cthulhu Invictus. Congratulations also to Kenneth Hite and the gang at Pelgrane Press for taking home the gold ENnie for Best Setting for The Fall of DELTA GREEN.

Here's Sean Branney accepting our first ENnie award. Photo by the irreplaceable Kevin Stidham! Thanks to Mark Morrison, talented Cthulhu creator/keeper, altogether charming fellow, and long-time member of the HPLHS for hosting the ceremony and making the night extra meaningful.Sean accepts his first ENnie award

Before the Expedition

Call of Cthulhu Game Night

  • July 29, 2019

Noted and accomplished Call of Cthulhu game author and editor Mark Morrison paid a personal visit to HPLHS headquarters last night to run a session of tabletop gaming for a lucky group. The scenario was “Black as Coal”, by Mr. Morrison and John Coleman, set in Poland in 1922. It was written for Zew Cthulhu, the forthcoming Polish translation of 7th edition Call of Cthulhu by Black Monk Games, the hosts of CarcosaCon. Zew Cthulhu is the most succesful Polish crowdfunding campaign to date.

The scenario involved a hastily-assembled expedition from the Jagiellonian University of Krakow to investigate a report of a meteorite impact in the mountains near the Czecho-Slovakian border. Intimate personal role-playing, combined with a delightfully cinematic climax, made for a very fun evening. (Pictured above are the players posing for a formal portrait before heading off to meet their fate in the mountains of Poland: L to R, Andrew Leman, Carolyn Reese, Paul Hawxwell, David Robinson and Michael Feldman.) Below is the 1922 map used during the session.Poland 1922

the van loaded for Gen Con

Gen Con here we come!

  • July 28, 2019

The HPLHS is very pleased to be making a return to Gen Con this upcoming weekend in Indianapolis. We have loaded a van full of fun stuff, and the intrepid Sean Branney is even now driving it east. He and our own Kevin Stidham will be sharing some booth space with our treasured friends and colleagues from Chaosium, so please be sure to find them and say hello. Card-carrying HPLHS members can get the bonus stamp shown here! Gen Con 2019 bonus stamp

Mad Science cover mockup

Mad Science Update

  • July 24, 2019

Composer extraordinaire Reber Clark is hard at work on the musical score for our newest episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, and the inimitable Darrell Tutchton is working on the cover art. (Here's a new provisional mockup of the cover featuring one of his paintings.) Sean Branney has completed the first round of sound design, and Andrew Leman has done a first draft of all the prop documents. What could possibly go wrong?

ENNIES

ENNIE NOMINATIONS

  • July 5, 2019

We are very excited to announce that HPLHS was nominated for three ENnie Awards. The Masks of Nyarlathotep Gamer Prop Set was nominated for "Best Aid/Accessory — Non-Digital" and "Product of the Year". The Dark Adventure Radio Theatre episode of Masks of Nyarlathotep was nominated for "Best RPG Related Product". We are new to Gen Con and to the ENnies, so our heads are spinning. We're thrilled to be on the same list as our friends and colleagues at Chaosium, who received seven nominations, fellow-licensees Stygian Fox, Pelgrane Press, Seth Skorkowsky, Golden Goblin Press and Petersen Games, and our old friends at Campaign Coins.

To quote Mike Mason from Chaosium: "It's awesome that Call of Cthulhu-related products from Chaosium, HPLHS, and other licensees and partners have received a swag of nominations. Voting commences on July 10, and the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on August 2nd at Gen Con."

You can learn more about the awards and see all the nominees here.

Featured Member

  • July 1, 2019

Our Member of the Month for July 2019 is Patrick Ferguson of Kimobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan.

Patrick says: "Long long ago, back in high school, I was taking two courses at the same time: geometry and religion. Correlating their contents led me to flee the placid island of the religion with which I was raised. After crossing the black seas of infinity I washed up on the shores of R’lyeh where I embraced Cthulhu.

“I love all the works of the HPLHS, especially DART. I also listen to the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast, and “In the Mouth of Madness” is one of my favorite movies. I would even say that my favorite anime (Evangelion) has some very Lovecraftian elements. The idea that simply knowing or seeing something could drive you mad is incredibly fascinating to me.”

HPLHS Members can read a bit more about David and see an additional image in the Member Sanctum....

Mad Science

Mad Science

  • June 28, 2019

The next episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre is in production. It will be our second anthology episode, featuring four shorter tales by HPL and a couple of his collaborators/clients. The dialogue has been recorded and we're now working on sound design and props. Reber Clark will be composing the score. We're aiming to release it on or about Lovecraft's birthday, August 20th. Now available for pre-order.

ATMOM envelope

A Fascinating Document

  • June 27, 2019

The Brown Digital Repository at the Library of Brown University maintains a truly amazing collection of scans of Lovecraft's original papers. One of the many fascinating items on view there comprises the original notes and sketches he made when he was just beginning to write At the Mountains of Madness. Lovecraft was extremely economical, and never let a scrap of usable paper go to waste. He often wrote short pieces on the backs of envelopes, and he started sketching an outline for ATMOM on an envelope he had received from the Century Company, publishers of The Century Magazine. When he had filled up all the available space on one side of the envelope, he flipped it over and kept going on the back. When that was filled up, he tore the envelope open down the sides and continuing writing and drawing sketches on what used to be the inside. He even peeled off the stamp (presumably to use again since there's no trace of a postmark). The original document is a fascinating glimpse into his thought process and looks like a case study in mad genius. With the kind cooperation of the John Hay Library, we have produced a detailed replica of the document. Like the original, it is printed on the front and back of a disassembled envelope, with a special commemorative "postage" stamp applied where the original was.

We are making it available in two versions. The standard is the document itself, shipped in a protective envelope. The deluxe version comes in a double-sided "float" frame with an engraved museum-style plaque. The double-sided frame lets you see both sides of the document, or easily flip it to your own preferred side. Check out more details and images in the store!

The Lurking Fear

The Lurking Fear is Complete!

  • June 26, 2019

We are very pleased to announce that the audio of the newest episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre is now complete and downloads are available! People who pre-ordered the show will be receiving automated emails with links to the audio files. The bonus props are all back from the printer, and the CDs are now being replicated. We will begin shipping the physical product as soon as possible, hopefully within the next 7 to 10 days. For complete details about the show and bonus info, check out the show page.

Dreams in the Witch House

"Dreams in the Witch House" Download and Interviews

  • June 10, 2019

The unstoppable Mike Dalager continues to make awesome new songs for his magnum rock opera opus Dreams in the Witch House, and you can check out some video interviews and a music download HERE. (Fair Warning: There will probably be some pop-up ads...)

Bryan Moore and Paul Komoda

Visiting Dignitaries

  • June 7, 2019

Headquarters was graced by a visit from a pair of master sculptors, Bryan Moore and Paul Komoda. Bryan is of course famous for his bust of HPL at the Providence Athenaeum, and the art deco version of Cthulhu which appears in our movie version of "The Call of Cthulhu" among other things. Paul is an insanely talented illustrator and sculptor who has worked on numerous film projects, games, model kits and other stuff. You can check out his online gallery HERE.

Featured Member

  • June 3, 2019

Our Member of the Month for June 2019 is David Laughton of Arlington, VA.

David says: "At the age of four I first heard the 5th Organ Symphony of Charles-Marie Widor. It instantly became one of my favorite pieces of music and remains so more than 60 years later. What does this have to do with Lovecraft? If you ask this, you obviously haven’t heard the symphony, but more to the point, this event was the first of many that would mark me as the Odd One among my peers.

Even before I began elementary school I was a prodigious reader, and fantasy was my preferred genre. I eagerly absorbed the works of Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and other popular writers of the 1950s-60s. It wasn’t long before I happened upon a collection of Lovecraft, and fortunately the first story I read was "The Call of Cthulhu". This happened long before S. T. Joshi’s research brought Lovecraft out of the cardboard box at the back of the closet and onto the bookshelf where he belongs, but the edition I found at the local library was reasonably faithful to the source material (I always suspect that fantasy fans who don’t like Lovecraft – and I’ve met a few – either started with a late story full of incomprehensible references or encountered one of the many incompetently edited texts).

Fast-forwarding past my school years and into my career, I worked for many years in the IT field for various US government and international agencies. While my focus was highly technical, my interest in literature never faded, and I never missed a chance to leaven dense manuals and memos with quotes from and references to my favorite books. Much of my employment was pre-internet, so my office bookshelf was my primary resource; it was filled not only with books on systems analysis, information security, and related topics but also volumes of Lovecraft and other fantasy authors. In the days of constant and turbulent technological change, a red-leather-bound gilt-edged At The Mountains of Madness sometimes seemed more relevant to my work than any soon-to-be-obsolete technical manual.

Currently I spend much of my time as an organizer for two local clubs: the Alexandria-Arlington Regional Gaming Group (AARGGH) and Oddball Cinema, both based in northern Virginia. Games based on Lovecraft’s works are popular with the former, with A Study in Emerald appearing quite frequently. It’s one of my favorites, based on a story by Neil Gaiman that combines the worlds of H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle, but the designer’s use of the mythos irks me at times (there’s a way for a player to kill Azathoth – what was he thinking?)."

David also runs some interesting contests that are free and open to the public. You can even win prizes! Check them out!

HPLHS Members can read a bit more about David and see some additional art in the Member Sanctum....

Ryan Collection

  • May 30, 2019

HPLHS Member Joseph Ryan and his wife Maria dropped by global headquarters to share some new items from his impressive collection. The slide show above shows a few views.

First were some copies of original pulp magazines in which Lovecraft stories were published. He has the complete run of Astounding Stories from February, March and April of 1936, in which At the Mountains of Madness was published in serialized form. (HPL's name appeared only on the cover of the February issue.) He also has a few issues of Weird Tales, including the August 1931 number that includes "The Whisperer in Darkness", and the September 1927 issue of Amazing Stories that includes "The Colour Out of Space". He also showed us the February 1936 issue of Causerie, an amateur journal edited by E. A. Edkins in which prominently appears Lovecraft's poem "Continuity". (His copy has a little handwritten notation on the back cover that looks a lot like Lovecraft's own handwriting....) Joe is also an avid art collector, and showed us a signed print of mercreatures by noted comic artist Bernie Wrightson.

Our most sincere thanks to Joe and Maria for sharing these treasures.