Trailer of the Week: Die, Monster, Die!

Proof that an ailing Boris Karloff and a Edgar Allan Poe-ized adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Color Out of Space" do not make for a very watchable combination.

Comic Book Image of the Week

Alan Moore's salute to Father's Day.

Book of the Week

As you all might have guessed by now, I have a bit of a soft spot for the literary work of Matt Ruff. However, with this latest novel of his, it seems like others are liking his work as well. In fact, I just read that it has been chosen to become the inspiration for an upcoming HBO TV series.

Even if you aren't into HBO, the book makes for an interesting read. After all, critics have been justly dissing H. P. Lovecraft for his racism for years but Matt Ruff seemed to be one of the few writers who have dared to make literary lemonade from Lovecraft's sour prejudices. And he tells a good story too -- so good I dare not tell you too much for fear of spoilers.

Fantasy Quote of the Week

"Enough talk of nakedness," said Lovecraft. "We have far more important matters upon which to concentrate our attentions."
--David Barbour and Richard Raleigh, Shadows Bend: A Novel of the Fantastic and Unspeakable

Book(s) of the Week

I must confess I don't normally think of Spaniards when I think of H. P. Lovecraft and given some of the less than flattering opinions of non-English ethnic groups that Lovecraft had expressed in both his fiction and in real life, it is probably just as well. Lovecraft's work is interesting for a lot of reasons but I tend to read his work despite his prejudices, not because of them.

Anyway, I was quite surprised to find three volumes of the Young Lovecraft comic strip collection at my local library because while a lot of people over the years have tried to get humor out of Lovecraft -- including yours truly -- not all of them have been as successful as Young Lovecraft's creators.

Spanish cartoonists Bartolo Torres and José Oliver, the creators of the comic strip Young Lovecraft, take a surprisingly simple approach to their subject: suppose all the fictional monsters that Lovecraft wrote about were real. What would happen next? It does not hurt that Torres and Oliver's version of Lovecraft bears little if any resemblance to its historical counterpart. Even if it did, I highly doubt that the real Lovecraft had a gal pal named Siouxsie, much less one who looks like the Siouxsie character in Young Lovecraft.

Not that matters. Torres and Oliver are not interested in creating the definitive version of Lovecraft's life. They are merely using it as a starting point for their own fiction. And much of it is quite funny.

Would the real Lovecraft have approved of it? Not likely.

But then I doubt Torres and Oliver worry very much about that.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, H. P. Lovecraft!

Born August 20, 1890. Died March 15, 1937.

He was the most archetypical horror story writer since Poe. Nuff said.

Lovecraftian Slang in Spanish

1. Antiguo -- Elder Thing.
2. Ciclo de las Civilizaciones Perdidas -- The Lost Civilizations Cycle.
3. Ciclo del Sueño -- Dream Cycle.
4. ciclópeo -- Cyclopean.
5. Círculo de Lovecraft -- Lovecraft Circle.
6. cosmicismo - cosmicism.
7. horror cósmico -- cosmic horror.
8. Los Dioses Exteriores -- The Outer Gods.
9. Los Primigenios -- The Great Old Ones.
10. Los Profundos -- The Deep Ones.
11. lovecraftiano -- Lovecraftian.
12. mitos -- myths; mythos.
13. Mitos de Cthulhu -- Cthulhu Mythos.
14. Necronomicón -- Necronomicon.
15. reanimador -- reanimator.
16. Universidad de Miskatonic -- Miskatonic University.

Fantasy Quote of the Week

It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind.
--H. P. Lovecraft, "The Festival"

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, H. P. Lovecraft!

Born August 20, 1890. Died March 15, 1937.

He was the most archetypical horror story writer since Poe. Nuff said.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Night Gallery: “Pickman's Model”

Well, you know how it is. You think you're going to have a nice quiet evening at home and then company drops by unexpectedly. Not just any company but that crazy girl you met in art class who seemed to be flirting with you earlier in the day. No sooner than you realize this but you get a second shock. It turns out that some of your no-account kinfolk have taken it upon themselves to drop by as well and you just know that if they ever meet your lady visitor, things will turn out badly for everyone. For you in particular.

Of course, a lot more than this happens in the Night Gallery episode entitled “Pickman's Model” and yet that above paragraph sums up the whole episode better than anything else I can think of. It certainly can't be summed up by the H. P. Lovecraft short story of the same name. As much as I would like to bla -- er -- give credit to the late Mr. Lovecraft for this episode, it owes a lot more to screenwriter Alvin Sapinsley's invention than to Lovecraft's work. And perhaps that's a good thing. Rest assured that Lovecraft had no room for romances in his version of the Pickman story -- he barely had room for plot and character. And yet this episode managed to be memorable despite all that.

Of course, the first time I saw this episode, I was still in grade school -- and thus easily impressed by tales of ghosts, ghouls and monsters. Despite what Rod Serling once said in an interview, I did not tune into Night Gallery expecting Mannix in a shroud -- or even Peyton Place in a crypt. In fact, it was my late father who originally introduced me to the show -- and what he saw in it, I'll never know. Then again, he was a big fan of the original Twilight Zone and it was his influence, no doubt, that got me hooked on the work of Rod Serling to begin with. And through Rod Serling, I eventually got introduced to the work of other writers such as Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Manley Wade Wellman and eventually... H. P. Lovecraft.

In any event, when I first discovered Night Gallery, I was still into late night creature features so I tended to like the scary episodes (which were rarely written by Mr. Serling) far more than the intellectual think-pieces (which were more often than not Mr. Serling's work) -- and of course, “Pickman's Model” was one of my favorites. It didn't hurt that when I first saw this episode, it seemed a lot more scary to me than it does today. I was not yet burnt out on umpteen hundred horror movies and horror shows. Nor was I was so blase that I automatically looked for the zipper on the back of the poor monster's suit. The revelation concerning actor Bradford Dillman's Richard Upton Pickman character--an eccentric artist prone to painting weird and morbid subjects -- seemed a lot more surprising to my young eyes than it probably would be to today's pre-teen viewers. And of course, the twist ending seemed a lot more ominous to my young self -- ominous enough to make for quite a few sleepless nights.

And yet even today I still continue to be fascinated by those aspects of the Pickman story which the screenwriter did not explain. Why exactly did an unmarried artist like Pickman live in a big old house by himself? What did the poor guy do on Mother's Day? For that matter, what did he do on Father's Day? If he hated human company so much, why was he hanging around them so much? Why didn't he just give up his residence and move in with his relatives?

Alas, none of these questions will ever be answered and I wonder if I might not be the only viewer of this episode who really cares. I am especially appalled that screenwriter Alvin Sapinsley chose to end the episode with hints about Pickman's mysterious disappearance because it would have been more interesting if the episode had had a less conventional ending.

Perhaps Miss Goldsmith (Pickman's would-be love interest) could have persuaded Pickman to paint more commercial subjects like, say, soup cans. True, her family and his might have had a few conflicts when she and Pickman became a couple, but on the other hand, true love has survived more daunting obstacles. Besides, Louise Sorel -- the actress who played Miss Goldsmith -- was so sweet that she probably could have charmed the dead right out of their graves. And surely Pickman's kinfolk would have had no problem with that.

TV Quote of the Week

Did you not hear me when I said I have no need of human company? And could you not understand why?
--Bradford Dillman, Night Gallery, “Pickman’s Model”

Hey, I Remember This Show: Night Gallery

The last TV series on which the late Rod Serling worked and unfortunately, the one which gave him the most trouble. It says something about his dedication that it actually produced some good stories -- for example, the Emmy-winning “They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar.” Unfortunately, it also produced a lot of stories which were best not remembered.

I still have a fondness for most of the better stories -- if nothing else, the series introduced me to both author H.P. Lovecraft and actress Joanna Pettet -- but I wish for Mr. Serling's sake that the ratio of good stories to bad had been a lot more favorable. Then again some of those stories still haunt my dreams so they obviously had some effect even if it was not one Mr. Serling would have preferred.

Pop Song of the Week: “Jeopardy”

Marriage as a Lovecraftian experience: Discuss.

Lines H.P. Lovecraft Never Meant to Write

Searchers after whores haunt strange, far places.

Unhappy is she to whom the memories of maidenhood bring only fear and sadness.

But by God, Eliot, it was a phonograph from life.

Lust is a hideous thing, and from the background behind which we know of peer demonical hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousand fold more hideous.

Cuento de Mi Id

“Really Cool Air”

(A story I wrote several Octobers ago)

The AC was up high, just like he expected. Very high. In a place like this, cold temperatures didn’t surprise him, but he did wish the management had made allowances for the occasional human visitor. As it was, he almost expected to see his breath every time he exhaled.

All the windows in the place were covered with tinted glass and every other corner was covered in shadow. The bartender gave him one of those odd looks as if he was the type of ghoulish tourist who would deliberately seek out a place like this.

He kept telling himself he had a legitimate reason to be here. Then he saw her.

“About time you showed up,” she said. She was dressed in black, of course. And seated at the bar. Even in this dim light, she seemed pale. But oddly enough, she wasn’t shivering even though her arms were bare and her silk blouse and leather skirt way too revealing.

“How about the two of us get a booth at the back?” she said.

“How about we not?”

“So it’s going to be like that.”

“Our parents want you home, Karen.”

“Of course they do. And the moon is made of green cheese.”

“No, seriously,” he said. “They told me to come get you. All is forgiven, they said. You can come home any time you want.”

She smiled. “Suppose I don’t want?”

“What do you mean?”

“I like it here. The temperature’s just right, the sun is not always shining in my face. I can virtually live here if I wanted. In a manner of speaking.”

He frowned. “The accident wasn’t your fault. They know that now.”

“Now,” she giggled. “They know that now. Of course it doesn’t help much that they know it now.”

She smiled and sipped at her drink. “Antifreeze,” she said, pointing at the clear liquid in her glass.

“Just come home, please, Karen,” he said. “I already said they forgive you. You know how rarely Mom and Dad do that.”

“Well, maybe they forgive me but I don’t necessarily forgive them.” She took another sip.

“You can’t stay away forever, you know.”

“I don’t have to,” she said. “Mom and Dad are getting old. In a couple of decades, they’ll be gone. I can wait till then. And then I’ll come home.”

“That’s pretty cold.”

“Hey, watch the puns.”

“No, seriously. It’s not just Mom and Dad who need you. I need you, too. You’re my sister. You belong at home.”

“I belong somewhere else, you mean,” she said. “Besides, I’m not your sister. You said so yourself. I look like your sister. I talk like your sister. I even think like your sister. But I’m not your sister. Not really. Not since the accident.”

“For the last time—“

She interrupted. “Your sister died in that accident. And she was glad to be dead. She hated living at home. Never having any friends. Never having any love. She had one chance at freedom and she took it. And of course, your parents had to screw even that much up.”

“But they saved you.”

“No, they did not save me. They saved something that looked like me. The me I used to be died in that accident. I’m no longer here anymore. You just think I am.”

“Please come home.”

“Someday,” she said. “When I think I’m ready.”

He could grab her, he thought. He could grab her and force her to come with him.

But then she really would hate him—-far more than she did now. And he couldn’t live with that.

Besides, he thought, as he walked away from the bar, it’s not really her. Just something that looked like her. She said so herself.

As he started toward the door, a woman came in. She was still reeling from her time in the sun and it was obvious that she craved the cold and the shadows. She smelled of the stuff he had remembered smelling at grandma’s funeral. She looked darn good and it was all he could do to look away.

He walked out into the harsh sunlight and told himself he would never come back to this place. And he wouldn’t, he promised himself.

At least, not while he was alive.

Literary Quote I Like

Yet who shall declare the dark theme a positive handicap? Radiant with beauty, the Cup of the Ptolemies was carven of onyx.
--H. P. Lovecraft, “Supernatural Horror in Literature”

Literary Quote I Don't Like

Wherever the mystic Northern blood was strongest, the atmosphere of the popular tales became most intense; for in the Latin races there is a touch of basic rationality which denies to even their strangest superstitions many of the overtones of glamour so characteristic of our own forest-born and ice-fostered whisperings.
--H.P. Lovecraft, “Supernatural Horror in Literature”