In Spaces Between from The Great Old Ones (1999).
Some noteworthy pieces of news as the month draws to a rain-sodden and dismal conclusion.
• Frank Woodward was in touch this week to let me know that his excellent HP Lovecraft documentary, Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown, will at last be appearing on DVD in October. This is a feature-length appraisal of Lovecraft’s life, work and influence, and includes contributions from Neil Gaiman, John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro, Caitlin R Kiernan, Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell and Lovecraft scholar ST Joshi. A number of my artworks are included throughout and they’ll probably also be featured in a gallery section on the disc. The film was shot in HD so it’s being released on Blu-ray as well as regular DVD.
• Also Lovecraft-related, and also due out shortly, is DM Mitchell’s follow-up to the landmark Starry Wisdom anthology of Lovecraft-inspired texts and graphics. That volume was acclaimed in some quarters and condemned in others; I don’t doubt that this new work, Songs of the Black Wurm Gism, will manage the same. Contributors include David Britton, Grant Morrison and yours truly. The cover is Alan Moore’s splendid portrait of Asmodeus.
• Last but not least, Paul Schütze was also in touch this week with news that two more audio works have been added to his online catalogue. Soundworks 01 is his atmospherics created with with Andrew Hulme from the recent TV drama series Red Riding, while Tokyo/Osaka Live is two pieces of improvisation with Simon Hopkins. Both releases are available through iTunes.
The list of contributions for that documentary is spectacular. I ‘ll write about it on the Crows ‘n’ Bones blog and link to the site, to spread the word.
The Starry Wisdom anthology was brilliant. I was a Lovecraft- obsessed student when it came out and I remember enjoying it immensely. I didn’t like all the pieces, but you can’ t go wrong with an anthology featuring Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, William Burroughs, Ballard AND your artwork. I don’ t see how a Lovecraft fan could have disliked it- unless they objected to the meta- fictional elements (eg. Morrison’s story), or the sex in some stories. Personally, I think it covered a lot of ground and I ‘m looking forward to the second one.
That Asmodeus image really freaks me out by the way.
That Starry Wisdom anthology was something special, I’ll be surprised if this new one matches it. The controversy was the usual complaints from the bewilderingly staid fans of what is the least staid genre–horror–who seem to expect anything inspired by Lovecraft to be fashioned solely as a limp pastiche. People can find plenty of that elsewhere but The Starry Wisdom was intended to look at how Lovecraft’s influence might develop in the future, taking in the examples of Burroughs and Ballard along the way. The new book continues that project which is why I anticipate a similar response from some quarters.