HPLHS News & Events Summer 2022

NecronomiCon

• August 16, 2022

Our crew is now on the way to Providence, R.I. to attend NecronomiCon! We can't wait to be back in the city, seeing old friends and old sights. We will be selling our wares at a table in the vendors hall, and participating in a number of panels. We're also doing LIVE Dark Adventure Radio Theatre performances each night of the convention, including a sneak preview of the massive episode we've been working on for quite some time. We hope you'll join us!

Card-carrying HPLHS members can pick up four different bonus stamps over the course of the weekend. There's one just for being at NecronomiCon, which you can collect at our table in the vendor hall any time it's open. Then there will be one for each of the three Dark Adventure performances. Come see Andrew after each show to collect yours.

ENNIES!

• August 6, 2022

We are extremely pleased and humbled to announce that our Call of Cthulhu Classic Prop Set was awarded three ENNIE Awards at GenCon in Indianopolis. The set won Golden ENNIES for Best Aid/Accessory—Non-Digital and Best Production Values. It won the Silver ENNIE for Product of the Year!

Congratulation to our friends at Chaosium for their other ENNIE wins, including Mike Mason and Chris Lackey for winning the Gold for Best Supplement for Cults of Cthulhu, and Alan Carey at Type40 for the Silver win for Best Aid/Accessory—Digital for Masks of Nyarlathotep Virtual Props.

Our sincere congratulations to all the other winners and all the nominees. The ceremony was great fun and it was an honor to be in a room full of such talented, dedicated, enthusiastic people! And thanks to Chaosium's Andrew Bean for taking the photograph above!

GenCon

• August 1, 2022

Sean Branney is now driving the HPLHS cargo van from headquarters in Glendale, CA to Indianapolis for GenCon! It is loaded with Gamer Prop Sets, Classic Prop Sets, Dark Adventure Radio Theatre shows, and all kinds of other great stuff. The rest of HQ staff will fly out to meet him in Indy midweek, and we look forward to seeing many old friends!

Featured Member

• August 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for August, 2022 is John Newman of Rosamond, California.

John says: "My first exposure to Lovecraft was in in the summer between 6th and 7th grades. My cousin lent me the the Scholastic “The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror” with the picture of Barnabas Marsh in a Tuxedo on the cover. The first story was “The Colour out of Space”. The story scared and horrified me. By the time I had finished the cover story I was hooked. Our public library had several Lovecraft collections, and I recall reading "The Lurking Fear" that winter. Now I am a bit of a wimp with an overactive imagination, so I had to stop reading as soon as it got dark. I lived in the Northern Montana at the time, so there was not a lot of daylight in the evenings.

My real life isn’t as exciting. I work in Aerospace as a materials tester. Basically, I break things and get paid to do it. I have my Cthulhu idol and I am contemplating creating a shrine for it. I also have a small yule tree I put up during the holidays.

I discovered HPLHS quite by accident with a random search and am extremely glad that I did. My first exposure was At the Mountains of Madness (with the requisite Antarctic expedition Hoodie). I started slowly, but my addiction has grown to where I am impatiently waiting for the society to create my next fix. I have also been trying to evangelize to friends and family who have a similar interest.

I have attached a picture of myself before I had the antlers removed as well as a picture of my daughter’s cat, Tom, making his first Horcrux (wrong mythos, I know...)

Ennie Awards!

• July 8, 2022

We were honored and humbled to see that our Call of Cthulhu Classic Prop Set got three nominations in the Ennie Awards list announced today. It's up for Best Aid/Accessory — Non-Digital, Best Production Values, and Product of the Year! Voting starts on July 15th!

We were also thrilled to see our friends and colleagues Type40 and Chris Lackey got nominated for their awesome products. Type40 was nominated for Best Aid/Accessory — Digital for their Masks of Nyarlathotep 3D Prop Set, and Chris Lackey and Mike Mason were nominated for Best Supplement for Cults of Cthulhu.

Congratulations to all the nominees, and we greatly look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at GenCon in a month!

Featured Member

• July 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for July, 2022 is Antonio Herrera Martin currently of Toronto, Ontario.

Antonio says: "I was born and raised in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico, but currently I am living in Toronto, Canada.

I have been living in several places around the world from Glasgow in the UK, to Christchurch in New Zealand before arriving in Canada.

I discovered Lovecraft by pure chance. I enjoyed books, but during a book sale I found "The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories". This was the moment I became a cultist. The same day I bought the book I finished it. And from that moment I haven't stopped. I have enjoyed Lovecraft stories in two languages and I have several copies of the collections. I enjoy movies and video games with Lovecraftian themes. I have even enjoyed some of Andrew Leman's narrations from HPpodcraft.

I have been a fan of horror since young, but there was a big difference between movies and books. I could not find for a long time a book that could actually inspire a sense of dread or tension like a movie. The only exception was Frankenstein from Mary Shelly, but when I found the writings of Lovecraft everything changed and found the type of horror I enjoy the most. He became one of my two favourite authors next to Lewis Carroll. I would have enjoyed a collaboration from both of them.

My favourite stories are "Nyarlathotep", "The Haunter of the Dark" and At the Mountains of Madness. What I found most interesting and trapped me from Lovecraft was the ambient. I found it simple and captivating how it narrated these indescribable horrors, which is more fascinating than more simple subjects, and keep lingering in the imagination and wondering what it is far away from our grasp of reality.

I have embraced the mystery professionally, as I did a PhD in Physics and Astronomy in the University of Glasgow, some day in Occult Studies from Miskatonic, researching Dark Matter in the Universe, and currently I work in the University of Toronto researching unknowns of the universe in astrophysics in concepts like Planet Hunting and Fast Radio Bursts. This is my webprofile for the brave of heart. And this is the link to visit another planet.

Given my constant moving (countries) I don't have a big collection, but try to keep it curated. I also like to wear costumes for halloween, to change from my plain attire that I wear the rest of the year."

Miskatonic Missives

• July 1, 2022

It took us a little longer to edit the three books in our exciting Miskatonic Missives series than we expected, but we have finally completed the job and they are now at the printer! Due to worldwide paper shortages, ongoing global supply chain issues and other factors beyond our control we can't say exactly when they'll be done, but we have hopes it will be before the end of the year. We'll keep everyone updated.

Meanwhile, we just have a little more work to do to finalize preparations for all the bonus stuff that will be included with the books, and then they will go to the printer as well.

The Return of Live Gaming!

• June 22, 2022

We were very happy to be able to begin our summer with the return of live Call of Cthulhu® gaming at headquarters! Our own Stephanie More was the Keeper for a session of "Blackwater Creek". We cooked up a few custom props for their adventure, and although the stalwart investigators played late into the night they did not reach the conclusion and are planning to schedule a new session for next week to finish the adventure. Stay tuned for more gaming opportunities!

Pictured above are Cody, Desiree, Adam and Stephanie.

HAPPY SOLSTICE

• June 21, 2022

Wishing a very happy solstice to all our friends. May those in the northern hemisphere enjoy a pleasant summer, and may those south of the equator have a beautiful winter!

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!