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Post by Knygathin on Aug 21, 2023 16:55:07 GMT
There is an ethereal quality to Utpatel's work (Over the Edge). His cover for The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936) (although not Arkham House) is fantastic in its non pedantic exploding expressionism. Lovecraft Remembered is a nice Arkham House volume, with cover by the great New England local Jacon C. Eckhardt. A very enjoyable and wonderful book, full of interesting memoirs of Lovecraft.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 21, 2023 8:09:27 GMT
... I am no big fan of the James Allison stories, even if they maybe are Howard at his most human whishful thinking. ... I happen to like the James Allison stories. ... I wish there was a book that neatly collects all of the James Allison and Turlogh O'Brian stories together, along with "Valley of the Lost" (don't remember why I bunched this particular one with those). And perhaps "Skull-Face" as well, which I don't have elsewhere. But there isn't, so I will have to xerox and glue together my own book.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 20, 2023 20:44:21 GMT
I had the Tor book for over a year before I noticed the skull!!!! It was pretty embarrassing to my self-esteem.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 20, 2023 20:31:30 GMT
I made a fire with a few sticks, tossed some herbs and combustible minerals on it, and then cast a spell, raising my hands and demanding Neanderthalman to return and clarify what is going on with his real world identity. But of course, I wouldn't want him running around here in circles, shouting like a schizofrenic. I want to spare him that.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 19, 2023 8:18:29 GMT
Richard L. Tierney died in 2022. Cromagnonman was at a meet up with dem bones this year according to a post I remember, but can't be bothered to check so I might be wrong. He doesn't post on here anymore as he discovered fire a couple of years ago and spends all his spare time playing with it; I also think he has been having trouble with dinosaurs and keeping other cavemen from his new wife who resembles Raquel Welch, who isn't quite as beautiful as me, but nearly is. I hope this helps. It does. If the avatar is anything to go by, the vision is sure to melt a man beast, and ... inevitably stiffen. Raquel is no difficult competition there. Thanks Princess Tuvstarr and helrunar for clarifying the mystery, although I am not sure it is completely solved. It was the following exchange that got me wondering. Andy said: "One of the contributers is our own Cromagnonman. Congratulations!" Cromagnonman said: "Thanks Andy." vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/7240/robert-price-ed-azathoth-cycleAs for Standing Stones, the weird beauty of the ones in Avebury felled me.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 15, 2023 7:08:50 GMT
I had a dream last night - an eager editor had accumulated bits and pieces by Stephen King. It was called Stray Writings by Stephen King, a stapled pamphlet of over 3600 pages, printed by Necronomicon Press.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 14, 2023 23:01:12 GMT
Ah, you beat me to a couple of those CB. But I'll add; "The Black Stone" by Robert E Howard "The Curse of the Monolith" by Lin Carter & L.Sprague de Camp THE SERPENT AND THE BUTTERFLY by Sue Mallinson and, if man-made columns qualify, "The Pillars of Melkarth" by Richard L Tierney Was Vault's cromagnonman and Richard L. Tierney of Iowa one and the same person? I had the impression cromagnonman spent his time in UK.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 14, 2023 21:10:50 GMT
I began collecting Arkham House books in 1966 and have a modest collection. In those days I ordered them from G. Ken Chapman, a dealer in antiquarian books who was the UK agent for AH titles. My first book was The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces, by H.P. Lovecraft & Diverse Hands. It had a Frank Utpatel cover, but not one of his best. ... www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/6/68/THDRKBRTHR1966.jpgYea well, its components look segregated, and the colour kinda dull - but I still think it's got class! A fine effort. Utpatel made another portrait of Lovecraft, on Frank Belknap Long's Dreamer on the Night Side - I never could work up enthusiasm for that dustjacket. And found the book dull reading, so I sold it. I was pretty young then. Perhaps I should have kept it. ... ?? Back in 1966 I bet you could make very fine finds! But I understand that the earliest AH publications were already expensive.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 10, 2023 20:03:37 GMT
Van Vogt can be creepy and nightmarish, if you are able to project your imagination into impossibly distant futures and mind boggling circumstances.
Speaking of Sci Fi, I inquire for a thread (new or old) that lists the best science fiction horror stories. The most famous perhaps being "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell. ... Take it from there.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 10, 2023 0:20:27 GMT
L. P. Hartley's The Travelling Grave and Other Stories (1948) is another beauty, with cover art by Frank Utpatel depicting "A Visitor from Down Under". This book was shortly afterwards released in UK, but then with a cover illustration showing "The Travelling Grave".
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 9, 2023 23:59:16 GMT
The Lovecraft volumes above came 1963, 1964, and 1965, in the order the pictures stand.
Jamesdoig, pity about the Hodgson volume. It should have been handled with respect.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 9, 2023 12:14:31 GMT
They are indeed done with restraint. I like them, but it is kind of difficult to take them serious. The orc killing Moby Dick on the cover of Dagon is hilarious. On the other hand they were a child of their times, I guess. Do you have the book by Joshi about Arkam House, Sixty Years of Arkham House? I don't have Sixty Years of Arkham House. Indeed, it is hilarious. But I loved all three volumes. (I sold them, when later updating to the 'corrected editions', which I deeply regret today.) Yes, "a child of their times". Realism wasn't so important back then, I think, ... it was more about atmosphere, and feeling. The cover artist Lee Brown Coye brought about a sense of the dark and old, and grubby, completely free from commercial obsequiousness. But I believe, that even back then Virgil Finlay had a much higher status, with his refined drawings. Concerning Robert E. Howard, I think the real deal was Gnome Press. But I was too late to the game. And I prefer now to have corrected texts, as in the Wandering Star/ Del Rey editions.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 8, 2023 22:24:03 GMT
I don't really collect them, but have a few. When I discovered Lovecraft in my teens (by reading about him, and seeing some irresistibly lurid artwork on a gamebox*), I figured, to do this right I must have his work in Arkham House, because that publisher seemed synonomous with him. I never started with a paperback, to get my feet wet, but immediately ordered the three volumes of his collected stories from Sauk City, US. And receiving them, I was not disappointed - complete magic. These were followed by Selected Letters. And then most of the works by Clark Ashton Smith, all the way back to the first publication long past out of print. The most attractive Arkham House books - besides the very first 1939 publication with the fantastic Virgil Finlay art - are possibly the ones with lush Hannes Bok illustrations: The House on the Borderland and Skull-Face and Others. At the same time those dust jackets are almost too beautiful, and look kind of cute, like children's books. The Howard volume doesn't really relate to, or evoke anything, from his tales. What do you think? * The back of the CALL Of CTHULHU gamebox
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 8, 2023 14:21:44 GMT
TORTURE GARDEN (1967). Jack Pallance, extraordinary actor. He actually outdoes Peter Cushing here, in the Poe episode. I would think, that acting with such passionate conviction, there'd be a risk of psychosis.
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Post by Knygathin on Aug 6, 2023 21:16:55 GMT
He had no idea it was a small animated model. What an idiot! KING KONG really was (or nearly) 'The 8th Wonder of the World' at that time. Few in the audience could fathom how it was made. Lovecraft did not have a high opinion of the cinema. He thought for example that FRANKENSTEIN was pathetic, without genuine supernatural horror elements. But he had a favorite film: the dreamy BERKELEY SQUARE with Leslie Howard.
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