HPLHS News & Events Spring 2022

Perfect Organisms

• June 12, 2022

Headquarters was graced with a visit from members Christian Matzke and Ryan Creasey, along with their friend Jaime Prater, one of the hosts of the Perfect Organism podcast. Christian is now in the thick of preparing his epic Necronomicon back home in Maine, but was in town to record a special podcast episode at the Petersen Automotive Museum, where some props from the film series were on display. Ryan is a longtime member who works in the videogame industry and makes some pretty great props himself. We were delighted they could all drop by!

Ethan's Visit

• June 1, 2022

The newest member of the HPLHS family, Ethan van der Pol Stidham, paid a visit to headquarters today and was immediately drawn to the bookshelves. As the son of Shipping Shoggoth Kevin Stidham and DART actor Sarah van der Pol, he has a good head start on Lovecraftian material!

Featured Member

• June 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for June, 2022 is Jason Ewert of Bemidji, Minnesota.

Jason says: "Born and raised in the rural north woods of Minnesota, I was indoctrinated into a religious stew of nondenominational charismatics, traditional Anishinaabe practices and my Grandmother’s Filipino ghost stories. Fast-forward many awkward years later, you’ll find me as a graphic designer and filmmaker, telling weird stories through a variety of mediums.

Lovecraft has popped up throughout my life but it was through his people, in more recent years, where I found a connection. It was at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, through a short film submission, where I discovered like minded folk who were just as passionate for weird stories and unspeakable horrors. I was evangelized on the spot and saw the light! Cue the HPLHS! My consumption of all things Lovecraft was awakened and hasn’t stopped. It was a connection that felt like home and having a family that I can share my stories with is fuel for creative fulfillment. I’m grateful, humbled, and honored to be counted among this society of dreamers, thanks for letting me hang with the cool kids!"

You can see some of Jason's films on his YouTube Channel!

Masters of the Genre

• May 6, 2022

We have been graciously invited by Cardinal Sin to join him for a couple of hours of conversation on Masters of the Genre. We'll be talking about our films, props, games, audio dramas, podcast, and who knows what else. The show runs from 7-9 PM Central, Monday, May 9! Join us, and spread the word! Watch here!

Member Sanctum Password Breach

• May 6, 2022

We have been notified by Google that the password to the Member Sanctum is no longer as secure as we would like, and we have gotten worried emails from some members who fear their personal information has been exposed. Please do not be concerned. All it means is that people who are not technically card-carrying members of the HPLHS could see bonus content intended only for members.

For the time being, we have decided that changing the password for everyone would cause more trouble than letting non-members see what is meant to be exclusive bonus content. We will continue to monitor the situation and let members know if something changes. We apologize to our beloved members for any inconvenience they might experience if Google keeps sending out unnecessarily alarming messages.

And hey, if you're not a card-carrying member of the HPLHS and you want to see what's on that page, then maybe consider joining!

Featured Member

• May 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for May, 2022 is Sean McLaughlin, of Sacramento, California.

Sean says: "I honestly couldn’t say when I was first exposed to Lovecraft. I have a lot of interests, and I tend to jump back and forth between them. Some things I become intensely involved in for only a couple of weeks, while others I work on for a while, put them on the back burner for a time, and then return to later on. Lovecraft and cosmic horror are things to which I find myself coming back time and time again. I’ve always felt a draw to the unusual and strange, especially when it lies just under the surface of our comfortable little reality or just outside our field of vision. So naturally, it was just a matter of time before I fell until the endless spiral of the mythos – stories, books, games, movies, artifacts, all of it.

I’ve also been a fan of tabletop games since I was a kid. Fortunately, there is no shortage of Lovecraft-inspired material in that realm. Like many other members, I’ve developed something of a disorder when it comes to collecting Call of Cthulhu books, other games, and more than a couple of props. I feel it is my responsibility to note that my time as a member of the HPLHS has done nothing to help me overcome this affliction.

I often find myself musing on the nature of the mythos and the madness it causes – I don’t think I’ve been caught muttering to myself, but would I even know. The idea that insanity could be synonymous with a greater understanding of reality is fascinating to me. Either as a development of these interests or another problematic symptom, I’ve spent a not insignificant amount of time channeling my love of Lovecraft and cosmic horror into games and related creative works. I’ve been slowly dabbling in the creation of a tabletop game – one that could make use of the dozens of scenarios I have for other systems – as well as making props and display pieces for what I have affectionately taken to calling my “Shelf of Madness”. Not content to dwell in my burgeoning insanity alone, I have recently begun considering opening an online shop to sell some props and artifacts. After all, why should I alone suffer when so many of us enjoy exploring the depths of the dark truths Lovecraft revealed and inspired?

When I joined the HPLHS I found many kindred spirits. Thanks to all of you I’ve learned and been exposed to more about Lovecraft, his works, and all the works that followed. I’m proud to be a lifetime member and honored to have been smiled upon by the dark forces of randomness."

Classic Props Now Shipping!

• April 19, 2022

Our Call of Cthulhu Classic Prop Set is now shipping! Thanks to all who pre-ordered! We are loading up folders and working our way through the backlog as quickly as possible. We are very happy with how it all came out and hope you'll be delighted when you get yours!

Featured Member

• April 4, 2022

Our Member of the Month for April, 2022 is Lauren Austin, of Glasgow.

Lauren says: "Hello fellow HPLHS members, my name is Lauren Austin. I live in Glasgow, Scotland with my parents and my two children.

I distinctly remember the first night I discovered Lovecraft. It was 2 days before Christmas and I had just been admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain. After making my way through A & E I was admitted to a ward. I found myself, unusually for the NHS, in a private room overlooking the Necropolis. For those not familiar with Glasgow, the Necropolis is a Victorian era cemetery behind the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Suitably gothic, particularly on a dark winter evening, I looked out my window and wondered what I could do to pass the time. I decided to try audiobooks as I needed something to drown out the incessant drone of the hospital.

Scrolling through Audible I had no idea what to listen to at first. Inspired by my gothic and slightly eerie neighbour I decided to try a horror. Off I headed to browse Audible's horror selection and I soon came across a book called 'Necronomicon, by someone called H P Lovecraft. I was intrigued by the name, and even more so by the unusual name of the author. Reading the brief bio it was apparently a mix of horror, science fiction and cosmic terror. It sounded interesting, and it was long which I needed as I had a long night ahead full if nurse checks and pain relief. So, I clicked purchase and started to listen.

That was my introduction to Lovecraft, and it was a revelation! It was bizarre, unique, and utterly compelling. I listened to that audiobook on repeat for about 6 months until I found the HPLHS Complete fiction of H P Lovecraft and fell even more into the strange and cosmic world of Lovecraft. I've listened to that book every night for years now. No wonder I have such strange dreams really...

It was this book that brought me to the HPLHS and my joining as a member. Lovecraft's work had meant a lot to me over a difficult period in my life. My husband died almost exactly 2 years ago. I was left to pick up the pieces of my life and that of 2 young children. Lovecraft provided me with the escapism, and weirdly the comfort, so needed. His work is so visceral and powerful it blows me away. I think I take comfort from the fact that there was someone who had an even stranger imagination than me! I have since bought and read for myself his work, as well as Providence by Alan Moore.

Outside of Lovecraft I am a civil servant, horse owner and avid gamer. I live to colour in but that is the extent of my creative talents unfortunately. One day I hope to have the guts to write, about what I'm not sure. For now, I’m concentrating on getting life back on track and staying relatively sane. Ironically, Lovecraft, and the HPLHS, helps me to do that!"

Principal Recording Complete!

• March 30, 2022

We are very happy to announce that after numerous sessions, the principal vocals for the next big episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre have now all been recorded. Our talented cast worked from their homes, from various professional recording studios, and from HPLHS headquarters. Above is DART veteran Kacey Camp, and below is Hollie Hunt, who has previously appeared in The White Tree, Masks of Nyarlathotep and others.

We are now working on the sound effects, and our beloved composer Reber Clark has started work on the musical score. We don't have a firm release date yet — it's a more complicated episode than usual — but we'll release more details as soon as we can.

More props for gamers!

• March 9, 2022

For several months now we have been working hard on a new set of super realistic props to go with Chaosium's 40th Anniversary re-release of some classic Call of Cthulhu scenarios. We are very happy to say that all those props are now on their way to the printer! The collection will include a 16-page broadsheet newspaper that you can dismantle into over 40 individual clippings, some as big as an entire half page. There are large format maps, including a new map of Arkham itself and a nautical chart showing the location of R'lyeh. There are numerous pages torn from books, and even a couple of entire books! There are scads of handwritten letters, diaries, journals, and notebook pages, plus photos, legal and police paperwork, and more! There's even an 8-page contract for paranormal investigation and elimination services. It's insane.

We are now taking pre-orders for the set, and people who get in early will get three extra large format maps: Scotland, Austria, and the Belgian Congo. Once everything comes back from the printer we have a big job of organizing and filling boxes to do, but we expect to be shipping by April 15!

Shipping Shoggoth Promoted

• March 8, 2022

Mike Dalager, longtime HPLHS collaborator, producer of The Dreams in the Witch House rock opera, and former Shipping Shoggoth, is also an active member of the US Coast Guard reserve, and was recently meritoriously promoted to First Class Petty Officer. Only five Enlisted are Meritoriously Advanced each year, and rarely a member of the USCG Reserve. We are enormously proud of Mike and hope you'll join us in congratulating him.

Featured Member

• March 5, 2022

Our Member of the Month for March, 2022 is Noah Van Buhren of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Noah says: "Growing up in a frigid, shunned northern valley in the shadow of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, I have always been a seeker of strange things and strange places. My first early encounters with the Cthulhu Mythos came from furtive glimpses into the horror graphic novels in the local occult bookstore. Those grotesque images of blood drenched pulpy tentacles and of men going insane at the mere glimpse of the colossal ancient gods waiting to bring about the world’s destruction, were permanently seared into my childhood imagination. Since then my fate was sealed, and I have spent my life as a horror Artist, Animator and Filmmaker trying to recreate that same feeling of creeping cosmic dread in my work.

My literary appreciation for Lovecraft’s work grew even deeper when I moved to storm shadowed Vancouver, to study Animation and Film. While looking for dark creative inspiration for my animated student film, I procured for myself a copy and read ravenously through the complete fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. When I read “From Beyond”, with the mad scientist Tillinghast discovering deadly Interdimensional alien life forms, I had struck upon the story that would become my first film The Jovian Project (2017). I started out making a direct adaptation of the original set in the 1920s, but after watching a documentary on the creation of the Manhattan project I decided to set my film in the Atomic Era. Whereas the original Tillingast was only one desperate inventor experimenting alone, I imagined that it would be even more frightening if Tillinghast’s grandson had taken his grandfather’s early discoveries and now had the full resources of the military industrial complex behind him to conduct his ruthless experiments. But just like the Atomic scientists, they unleash a cosmic power that they can not hope to control.

While animating my film, I began searching for and collecting all of the best adaptations of Lovecraft’s work that I could find. That is when I first became acquainted with the works of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, watching their adaptations of The Call of Cthulhu (2005), and The Whisperer in Darkness (2011). The German Expressionist visuals and classic Pulp style of these films were very influential for me. Then when I premiered The Jovian Project at the 2017 Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, I had the great pleasure of meeting and talking with Sean Branney and Andrew Leman over that weekend. That’s when I decided that I wanted to join the HPLHS. For myself this was akin to how I can imagine a young Robert Bloch or Frank Belknap Long felt when first joining the Lovecraft Circle. As an artist, going from working mostly on my own to being part of a group that is also incredibly passionate about Weird Fiction has made a huge difference for me and been an endless source of inspiration for my darkly creative endeavors. In this society I have found the support and camaraderie of fellow scholars and seekers of strange horrors in literature and in life, and true lovers of the Grotesque and Macabre!

It was during that same weekend at the Festival that I decided to begin work on my next film project The Old Gods. I wanted to create something in the same silent film style of the HPLHS Cthulhu film, and I wanted to animate the same blood drenched tentacles I saw in those comic books all those years ago. It has been a great artistic challenge, and by collaborating with stop motion animators I’ve been learning how to recreate the look of old stop motion in my 3D animation. The film is almost complete, with just a few more shots left to finish animating. I hope to have it ready to premiere at this year’s Lovecraft Film Festival. It has been a long project, but knowing that I could one day share it with my fellow HPLHS members and Cthulhu cultists around the world was a huge motivation. Here’s a link to the film as it looks so far. Password: TheOldGodsAwaken

I now work in Vancouver as a full time Creature VFX Artist. And whenever the HPLHS is next undertaking another cinematic venture, I would certainly love to be involved with helping to bring more of Lovecraft’s eldritch monstrosities to life.

Stay weird my friends, and keep making strange things!