HPLHS News & Events Winter 2023

Amulet of Tsathoggua

• March 15, 2023

In order to make one of the prop documents for Dark Adventure Radio Theatre®: The Black Stone, we sculpted a primitive amulet of Tsathoggua, and printed the final testament of Selim Bahadur handwritten in genuine medieval Turkish. Now, with the help of HPLHS member Travis Hammer, we have refined the original sculpt and cast it in solid pewter plated in antiqued gold. We have paired it with the complete scroll of Selim Bahadur. In the photo you can only see one side, and only in black and white, but in this beautiful prop replica you get both sides in full color, with amazing Turkish calligraphy by the very talented Josh Berer. Together they are crucial elements from Robert E. Howard's classic Mythos story fished from the Danube (or plucked from Charlie Tower's bank vault) and come to life in your hands! GET YOURS TODAY!

Featured Member

• March 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for March, 2023 is Samuel Hemphill of Bismarck, North Dakota.

Sam says: “I grew up all over the US, for most of my life my father was a project manager for a large construction company that built interstates. So every two years we would pack up and head to the next job spot. Although I am originally from Wyoming, we also lived in a few places in Arizona, and a few places in Montana before settling down on a ranch just outside the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations. The constant moving, meeting new people, and exploring new places gave me a nomadic heart and wandering feet. Knowing that if I was going to make something out of myself without many prospects, I joined the military and never looked back. I've been to the ruins of Ur and Babylon, drunkenly explored the time haunted alleys and byways of Sarajevo, and patrolled the primordial forest of Kosovo where werewolves and worse things seem to be behind each massive tree. It has been the adventure of my lifetime, and given me opportunities I couldn't have imagined in my small Wyoming community. Now at the twilight of my career I work on a HAZMAT response team based out of North Dakota. We are designed to respond to everything from meth lab busts to WMD incidents. I'm sure there are at least one or two good Delta Green scenarios I could get out of my experience.

I got into H.P. Lovecraft in the dark days before the internet, although it was only a few years down the road. I frequented used book stores and would buy the horror short story compilations that were so common back in those days. In one I found "The Music of Erich Zann" and the editor's note before the story gave a short outline of HPL and stated that this wasn't even his best story. I fell in love with it and the author and spent most of my time and money after that tracking down more of the stories. Around 1997 I finally found the Del Rey publishing collections, with those amazingly horrific covers and was able to read the collected works. I've been a devoted member of the fandom since then.

Thanks to the HPLHS for what you do to keep the HPL fandom alive. I appreciate all the things you do from the society itself, the collected reading, and the excellent Voluminous!"

Miskatonic Monograph

• February 23, 2023

The newest entry in our ongoing series of Miskatonic University monographs has now gone to the printer and we expect to begin shipping it next week. It is a fascinating account of the discovery of fragments of Kitab Al-Azif (the Necronomicon) in the abandoned city of Harran in 1920. The monograph features some great maps of the area, photos, and a color centerfold of the ancient document itself. The text is a blend of real scholarship and total fiction, and we think it's a lot of fun. GET YOUR COPY HERE!

Call of Cthulhu Screening

• February 11, 2023

We are very happy to announce that our motion picture of The Call of Cthulhu will be screening in a triple bill of short Lovecraftian features at the Philosophical Research Center theater on March 3. The show starts at 7:00 pm, and will be followed by a Q&A session with all the filmmakers. Come see The Call of Cthulhu, The Outsider by Aaron Vanek and The Music of Erich Zann by John Strysik! It's a rare treat to see these films in a real theater, so GET TICKETS HERE!

Earthquake Raffle

• February 10, 2023

We are raffling off 8 terrific prizes and donating all the proceeds to Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, to help contribute to the relief efforts for the regions of Turkey and Syria that were devastated by the recent massive earthquake. The epicenter of that quake was not far from an archaeological site we have been focusing on in a recent project. The drawing will be on March 1st at noon PST, so buy some tickets and contribute to a very worthy cause. And card-carrying HPLHS members who buy 50 or more raffle tickets will qualify for a special bonus stamp! GET TICKETS HERE!

TikTok!

• February 1, 2023

We're now posting videos on TikTok! We're not very good at it yet, but maybe we'll get better? Go check it out @hpl_historical_society!

Featured Member

• February 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for February, 2023 is Dalton Pittman-Cahill of Westland, Michigan.

Dalton says: “Growing up I was the kid who would rent VHS tapes constantly of all of the old Universal and Horror classics from the local library. I guess that would be my proper introduction to the world of horror, however, it would be many years until I would be introduced to the world of Weird Fiction and Lovecraft.

A Maine native, I was raised in a small coastal town surrounded by foggy fishing villages, mysterious coves and caves, and ripe with classic New England character. I guess I already was experiencing Lovecraft before even I knew it! My first proper introduction was at a convention in Portland, Maine. One of the guests that year was an author of "Yog-Sothothery" (The late C.J. Henderson) and on a whim, I picked up his "Tales Of Inspector Legrasse" which starts with Lovecraft's original "The Call Of Cthulhu". It was a snowball from there.

I went on to study film and have worked in and out of the industry for years doing freelance prop/set design work. In 2013 I produced a Lovecraftian found-footage Youtube series entitled TheWestRecords which went on to achieve some mild success! That series never did officially finish, however, it was "put to bed" just recently this year. After moving to Westland, Michigan in 2014, I started integrating myself into the local art scene around Detroit and Ann Arbor.

Currently, I have started a multi-media project that incorporates short radio plays, RPG elements, and collectible props to display called The Eldritch Antiquarian. This project is currently in its beginning phases, but the story has already started! The world of TEA is dark and filled with mysteries, secret societies, and forces unknown to our world... Find out more HERE!

In addition to being behind the scenes on a lot of projects, I am also a working performer, actor, and musician. Mostly I perform musical theater or my own performance art pieces. My favorite is performing in non-traditional venues and creating an immersive experience for my audience. You can find even more additional info about me and my other artistic endeavors over on my PORTFOLIO!"

Redbubble

• January 17, 2023

Our dear friends at Chaosium sell t-shirts and other merch through the international print-on-demand service Redbubble, and we've been inspired to experiment with it ourselves. For many years we have produced all of our t-shirt designs in-house, using an old-school silkscreen press we inherited from our old friend and neighbor Pat Roberts. We have had to stock blank shirts and numerous screens and inks and supplies, which has limited the number of designs and sizes and colors we could offer. Traditional silk-screening is a laborious manual process, hot and messy and tiring. Shirt designs had to be limited to usually just one color, and couldn't really include shades or gradients. By using Redbubble, which uses digital direct-to-garment printing, we now have the ability to make designs more complex, and offer a much wider range of sizes, styles and colors of shirts. It allows us to bring back designs we had to discontinue due to limited space. And on top of that, we can offer designs on other kinds of garments, and on other kinds of products like stickers, magnets, posters, mugs, bags, pillows, clocks, notebooks, etc. Some (though not all) of these products can be produced locally, which means that international customers might have their orders shipped from within their own country, and thereby avoid import duties and the extremes of overseas shipping charges. (Some products are made only in the USA, and so we can't make specific promises in that regard.)

Redbubble prints art on garments of various kinds, but it does not actually manufacture any garments itself. It buys garments (and other products) ready-made from a variety of suppliers all over the world, and in some cases the garments they use are exactly the same ones that the HPLHS has been printing on for years. We ordered a variety of their garments to check the quality and found them to be quite comparable, if not identical, to the ones we would use ourselves. They do use different printing technology than we do in-house, but we believe it is just as stable as the plastisol silk screen ink we use. Different garments produced in different places may have a different feel to them.

There are some garments that Redbubble cannot produce, like the Miskatonic Varsity hoodies, the Tibetan hoodies, the Antarctic Expedition fleece hoodies, and others, including any garment with printing on both the front and back. We plan to continue producing those garments as we have been doing, and they will continue to be available through our regular online store. If our experiment goes well, however, we will probably eventually phase out the in-house production of standard t-shirts. This will give us more room here at HQ to come up with new projects and products, while still keeping shirts available to those who wish to buy them. We have been quite satisfied with the test products we have sampled for ourselves (although we have not directly tested every single thing you can order from Redbubble). We think this experiment will be of benefit to everyone involved.

This Redbubble experiment has nothing to do with the production of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre props or lapel pins or any of the other products we offer. It is primarily a way for us to bring back t-shirt designs we had to discontinue, and add to the range of options available. It is an effort to augment our offerings, not replace them.

We hope you will check out our Redbubble store and pick out something you will enjoy, and we look forward to hearing what you think. There's lots to choose from, so be sure to explore all the options! Since Redbubble will be making and shipping products directly to you, they will be responsible for any customer service issues that might arise, and we won't be able to help directly with refunds or returns on Redbubble items. But Redbubble has been in business for quite some time now, and they have an encouraging track record. We think you'll like what you get. We have, so far.

Construction Woes

• January 13, 2023

The building that houses HPLHS global headquarters was purchased well over a year ago by a law firm that planned to remodel it for their own use. They kicked out our former neighbors, a very nice glass company, and that side of the building sat neglected for months and has been in the process of renovation for months after that. It became very difficult for us to do any audio recording here for months as they ran jackhammers all day and the like, and our parking are was taken over by huge dumpsters and sharp metal debris. Several weeks ago they took out the water heater without warning, and there has been no hot water here ever since. Today they reinstalled it, but they broke it in the process (perhaps because they left it outside in the rain for weeks). Suffice it to say the guy wearing the NASA jacket is not an actual rocket scientist. They also tore up the sidewalk in front of the building without warning or explanation, and we have no idea when that will get fixed either. We are always glad to welcome visitors here at HQ, but don't be discouraged by the fact the whole building looks like a disaster area! Here's hoping they finally get it all fixed up before the summer....

Bonus Stamps

• January 10, 2023

We're trying to do a little tidying and reorganization here at HQ, and one of our (admittedly minor) improvements is getting this little filing cabinet for all the many bonus stamps that Society members can earn. It's already packed and we will soon have to get another one!

Featured Member

• January 4, 2023

Our Member of the Month for January, 2023 is Michaela Waltz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Michaela says: “I first became aware of H.P. Lovecraft in the early 1980s. I don’t remember how, but maybe through the Cthulhu Mythos in the original D&D Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes book. I heard about the Arkham House Books around the same time and proceeded to acquire copies, through a local bookstore. My first Lovecraft books were illustrated by Lee Brown Coye which I loved. I now have a small collection of his original art work.

In the mid 1980s I connected to other local Lovecraft fans in the Twin Cities, including Philip Rahman, who founded the publishing house of Fedogan & Bremer around that time. We would get together formally once a month at one of our houses, and less formally weekly at a local Mexican restaurant called Montanita's that had 2-for-1 margaritas and a free taco bar.

One day Philip asked me if I would like to design a dust jacket for one of Fedogan & Bremer's upcoming books. This was an opportunity I could not pass up and that led to designing quite a number of books and CDs for them over the next couple of decades. This included books by Donald Wandrei, Brian Lumley, John Palen, Scott Nicolay, and collections edited by Joseph Pulver, S. T. Joshi, and others.

Since 1997, I have also been the book designer for the Sidecar Preservation Society, a small press which published many genre related books by the likes of Karl Edward Wagner, Donald Wandrei, David Drake, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, William F. Nolan, Ramsey Campbell, Hugh Cave, and Lee Brown Coye. Our last book to date, "Three Tales of Madness" by Robert James Collas Lowry, came out in 2018.

I have been a frequent attendee of World Fantasy Con, World Horror Con and NecronomiCon.

In 2002, when World Fantasy Con was in Minneapolis for the second time, I was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for my work with the Sidecar Preservation Society. The organizers wanted to do something special for the nominees that year. They wanted to design a pin that was a miniature version of the then current award statue, a bust of H.P. Lovecraft designed by Gahan Wilson. I had the honor of sculpting that pin and getting to collaborate with Gahan on making it just right. Those pins were subsequently given to everyone that had previously been nominated for the award and to future nominees until the award design changed in 2016.

After many years of living in the Twin Cities, I now live in Pittsburgh, PA with my partner and continue my eternal love and fascination with all things Lovecraftian.”

Miskatonic Missives

• December 29, 2022

We have received sample copies of the actual books for Miskatonic Missives! They look terrific and we're sure the Kickstarter backers will be very happy with them. The printers are making an adjustment to the way the foil on the front cover is positioned for the production copies, and is still working to produce some of the bonus items that go with the set, but everything is proceeding well.

The Black Stone

• December 29, 2022

The new episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, "The Black Stone", is now shipping! All preorders are now on their way! We're very happy with the episode and hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do!

Featured Member

• December 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for December, 2022 is Alfredo Gómez Mansilla of San Sebastián de los Reyes, Spain.

Alfredo says: “Since I was a kid I have been a lover of science fiction, especially Star Wars, the Marvel Universe (both comics and cinematographic) and many TV shows from my childhood that I continue following today: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Mighty Max, Biker Mice from Mars, Street Sharks, etc., as most children who grew up in the '90s. When I think about it in hindsight I realise that each one of these series had elements with reminiscences from the Mythos, some characters or villains, which I was not aware of back then.

It was around 2011 (when I was 21 years old) when the first edition of the Mansions of Madness board game was released. Until then I heard little about Lovecraft's work and the little I knew was thanks to the Call of Cthulhu® roleplaying game. But I was mind blown when I acquired Mansions of Madness and started playing it. I wanted to investigate more and more and learn about the works of the author from whom all those ideas came. That’s when I fully discovered H. P. Lovecraft. I started by reading a compilation of stories that I got as a present and that was the beginning of the madness. I remember long nights reading and enjoying stories where the endings weren't as happy as I was used to, playing video games that were clearly inspired by the mythos, and playing more and more board games, which was the original reason why I got introduced to this.

Then 5 years later, all this became an absolute obsession when I started playing what for me nowadays is one of the best existing board games out there, which is no other than Arkham Horror: The Card Game, an immersive cooperative game that transports you to Mythos as when playing a role-playing game. This is an amazing solo experience, but becomes even better when playing with friends which I did, and led to meeting plenty of other fans. And it is thanks to this game that I became part of "Los Archivos de Arkham", a weekly podcast in Spanish about this and other Lovecraftian games and products. In our episodes we often talk about news related to the Mythos, review books and much more. And thanks to all this I started buying more books, reading much more, going further and further, and this is something I continue to enjoy every day. We also organise events regularly and have created an amazing community around our channel.

One of my best experiences in life occurred in August this year, when two good friends of mine (David Avilés and Egoitz Uribeetxebarria, also life members of HPLHS) and podcast colleagues at Los Archivos de Arkham, and myself organized a trip in which we toured New England. Our trip took us from Newburyport to Salem through the coastal road, ending in Providence where we had the chance to spend a couple of days visiting our beloved Lovecraft’s hometown. This is was a trip of our lives, enjoyed every single moment in the region and we all highly recommend to anyone who might like to experience it. Then the cherry on top, we travelled to Indianapolis for GenCon 2022, the largest board game convention in the US, where we visited the HPLHS booth to acquire forbidden tomes and artifacts, and we had the chance to meet the fantastic crew that form this association. And we were carrying our membership passports—of course!—so they could receive the appropriate stamps.

But after all written so far, I must say that I still consider this the beginning of the road. This fantastic universe is growing every minute thanks to all the people who collaborate creating content in one way or another, whether it is by designing board games with great original stories based on the works of Lovecraft or by writing books and stories that have the essence of Mythos, or building communities like The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society (thank you!). And there I will continue, as a content creator now, trying to help expand this universe more and more, for as long as I have any sanity left.”

Miskatonic Literary Society

• November 25, 2022

We are enormously pleased to announce the Miskatonic Literary Society, a new joint venture with our friends at Helios House Press. Helios House has produced a limited run of some wonderful editions of classic weird tales, and we are offering them on a quarterly subscription basis. Soon there will be a new page on this website with more information and bonus content.

New Lapel Pins

• November 25, 2022

We recently added nine new designs to our collection of lapel pins, bringing the total to 26! We have also reorganized the entire collection, featuring the Miskatonic Varsity pins, Call of Cthulhu® gaming pins, and Arkham Country pin designs. The new Investigator pin, shown above, features a magnetic attachment which allows you to display your current sanity status as needed. But be careful, if you lose that little blue magnetic shield your temporary insanity may become permanent! The new Keeper pin features a spinning wheel that can serve as a pair of D10, allowing you to use the pin itself to generate percentile rolls. You can find all the lapel pin designs HERE