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Meet our poster Artist: Rodrigo Obón
The festival proper may be over but we still have a little bit of Lovecraft action going on at Serieteket. Those who have missed out have a few days left to come and see the exhibition Rodrigo on the Raw making an unsettling mark in our display cases. Those who have visited our festival know that Rodrigo has made us look good since our second offering (our first poster was the result of a great collaboration between Andrew Leman and Darrell Tutchton of HPLHS) back in the fall of 2012 and that first amazing portrait of HPL is still the header on our web pages. Now it is time for Rodrigo to weigh in on his Lovecraftian influences and answer these questions: 1. What was your first encounter with H.P. Lovecraft? 2. Which one of his stories do you like the best? Take it away Rodrigo! 1. My first encounter was through Re-Animator by Stuart Gordon. I saw the film in the late 80s and it made me curious about Lovecraft. I was a bit chocked though when I read the source material and realised how fast and loose the filmmakers had played with it. 2. My favourite is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. I’ve been toying with the idea of illustrating it for a long time. Too bad I’m so damn lazy. I for one hope we can inspire the man to get started on that project because I think the results would be nothing short of masterly. Rodrigo in the […]
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Meet our guests and contributors: Rickard Fornstedt
As part of the countdown to the festival I’ve asked our esteemed guests and contributors three quick questions: 1. What was your first encounter with H.P. Lovecraft? 2. Which one of his stories do you like the best? 3. What will you be doing at SHPLFV? You will probably find a lot of common ground reading their answers in the days to come. Our ninth contributor to be interviewed is cartoonist/illustrator Rickard Fornstedt. 1. It came pretty late in life. A teacher I had in college a couple of years ago used to mix some Lovecraft references into our tasks, but I didn’t actually read anything by H.P. Lovecraft until last year. Me and the gang used to play Cthulhu By Gaslight, and one of my friends in the group lent me a copy of At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror (with a wonderful cover illustration by Michael Whelan). 2. ”The Statement of Randolph Carter”. That last line gives me chills. 3. Me and Mohammed Omar will showcase our comic Professor Frans och Necronomicon i Upsala.
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Meet our guests and contributors: Mohammed Omar
As part of the countdown to the festival I’ve asked our esteemed guests and contributors three quick questions: 1. What was your first encounter with H.P. Lovecraft? 2. Which one of his stories do you like the best? 3. What will you be doing at SHPLFV? You will probably find a lot of common ground reading their answers in the days to come. Our contributor number eight to be interviewed is writer Mohammed Omar. 1. During the 80’s I played the roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu with a couple of class mates. The 3:rd edition from 1986. I remember liking the idea of Sanity Points, that you could go insane. Later in the 90’s I had goth friends who listened to Fields of the Nephilim. That band had some Lovecraftian influences in their songs. 2. My favourite short story is ”The Call of Cthulhu”. Not because of Cthulhu himself. I’ve never been that interested in the monsters. Tentacles are just not my thing. What I do like is the idea of the sunken city, R’lyeh somewhere on the bottom of the Pacific, like a frightening version of Atlantis. Also the concept of artists painting dreams that are not their own. I have used that idea in my poems. 3. I will be talking about a comic book that I’ve done in collaboration with the artist Rickard Fornstedt. It’s called ”Necronomicon in Upsala”. The protagonist is Frans Stenberg, an excentric egyptologist. At his side is Star Wars fanboy Henning. It turns out […]
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Meet our guests and contributors: Jonas Andersson
As part of the countdown to the festival I’ve asked our esteemed guests and contributors three quick questions: 1. What was your first encounter with H.P. Lovecraft? 2. Which one of his stories do you like the best? 3. What will you be doing at SHPLFV? You will probably find a lot of common ground reading their answers in the days to come. Our sixth contributor to be interviewed is cartoonist/illustrator Jonas Andersson. 1. My first thought was the roleplaying game (The Call of Cthulhu, ed. note), but actually it must have been ”The Music of Erich Zann” that was featured in a Hitchcock Presents short story collection. 2. My favourite would probably be ”The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. 3. Myself and Daniel Thollin have just released our latest graphic novel, 1000 Ögon: Cthulhu. A stand alone sequel to last year’s 1000 Ögon: Lovecraft. It will be availabe for purchase at the festival.
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Meet our guests and contributors: Joakim Hanner
As part of the countdown to the festival I’ve asked our esteemed guests and contributors three quick questions: 1. What was your first encounter with H.P. Lovecraft? 2. Which one of his stories do you like the best? 3. What will you be doing at SHPLFV? You will probably find a lot of common ground reading their answers in the days to come. Our fifth contributor to be interviewed is cartoonist/illustrator Joakim Hanner: 1. My first encounter came through the record cover for the Iron Maiden album. A quote from ”The Nameless City” was carved on the tomb stone pictured there: “That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.” 2. ”The Colour out of Space” and ”Pickman’s Model” are high on my list. But it’s really hard to pick a favourite. 3. I will be drawing to live music. In front of an audience. A first one for me, so it’s gonna be sweet!
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Meet our guests and contributors: Sean Branney
As part of the countdown to the festival I’ve asked our esteemed guests and contributors three quick questions: 1. What was your first encounter with H.P. Lovecraft? 2. Which one of his stories do you like the best? 3. What will you be doing at SHPLFV? You will probably find a lot of common ground reading their answers in the days to come. Our fourth contributor to be interviewed is one of the founding members of the HPLHS, Sean Branney: 1. I first encountered H.P. Lovecraft when I was about fourteen years old. My weirdest friend, Darrell Tutchton (still the illustrator for the HPLHS), handed me an anthology of horror stories and said, “You have to read this one, it’s really weird.” The story was Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls”. I read it and loved it. 2. If I had to pick just one, I think I’d pick ”The Call of Cthulhu”. I love its many-layered structure and its global scale. I also like how the horror is vague and abstract but then becomes increasingly tangible and specific as the story moves forward. I think it’s a great embodiment of what HPL was trying to accomplish with the concept of cosmic horror. 3. I have a very full schedule at the SHPLFV. On Thursday we’ll be screening the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s film of The Call of Cthulhu and I’ll be on hand to do a Q&A after. On Friday I’ll be reading the entire story of “The Whisperer in Darkness”. On […]
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Meet our guests and contributors: Henrik Möller
As part of the countdown to the festival I’ve asked our esteemed guests and contributors three quick questions: 1. What was your first encounter with H.P. Lovecraft? 2. Which one of his stories do you like the best? 3. What will you be doing at SHPLFV? You will probably find a lot of common ground reading their answers in the days to come. Our third contributor to be interviewed is filmmaker Henrik Möller: 1. I first met him in 1991 through the roleplaying game The Call of Cthulhu and that got me interested in his stories. I’ve been obsessed with Lovecraft for many years now and have read several biographies about him. I’m also planning to do a film down the road presenting a fictionalised biography 2. Maybe The Call of Cthulhu. But it’s hard to pick a favourite. I’d need to do a top five at least. 3. I’m really looking forward to meeting all the amazing people who share my interest in Lovecraft. Like Sean Branney and Mohammed Omar for instance.
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Meet our guests and contributors: Einar Baldvin
As part of the countdown to the festival I’ve asked our esteemed guests and contributors three quick questions: 1. What was your first encounter with H.P. Lovecraft? 2. Which one of his stories do you like the best? 3. What will you be doing at SHPLFV? You will probably find a lot of common ground reading their answers in the days to come. Our second contributor to be interviewed is filmmaker Einar Baldvin: 1. My friend Sölvi, introduced me to him when I was around 8 in Iceland. He was reading all the books and wanted us to play the roleplaying game The Call of Cthulhu. I read a lot of the stories around that time, even though my English was not great it was good enough to get hooked on his wonderful way pulling one into his stories. 2. It’s hard to say, I do love ”Facts Concerning The Late Arthur Jermyn” enough that I am turning it into my next animated film but ”The Shadow over Innsmouth” and ”The Rats in The Walls” are some of my favorites. 3. Unfortunately I cannot attend but my film ’The Pride of Strathmoor’ which was influenced by Lovecraft will be screening there.