“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn . . .
In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
If you’re at PulpFest 2015 on August 13th, you’ll probably be in our programming area, enjoying our showing of OUT OF MIND: THE STORIES OF H. P. LOVECRAFT. It will be followed by PICKMAN’S MODEL, a short film made for ROD SERLING’S NIGHT GALLERY and based on the Lovecraft work of the same title. It originally aired in 1971.
On Friday, August 14th, the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the birth of H. P. Lovecraft begins in earnest at PulpFest 2015.
Our Lovecraftian festivities begin in the afternoon with a pair of readings from today’s fictioneers — the scribes and word-slingers who are creating the new pulp fiction. Join us at 1 PM for “Swords Against Cthulhu,” featuring the horror fiction of Jason Scott Aiken. It will be followed at 2 PM by “Hardboiled Horrors,” with new fiction from John Hegenberger.
Shortly before 8 PM, author Chet Williamson, the convention’s guest of honor, will explain how “the old gentleman” of Providence influenced him in his writing as well as the writing of his peers in the world of modern horror fiction. Next, Jon Arfstrom, perhaps the last living artist who contributed covers to the original run of WEIRD TALES — the magazine that published most of Lovecraft’s original fiction — will talk about his career with pulp art historian, David Saunders.
Our programming continues at 9:10 PM with a FarmerCon panel presentation examining “The Weird Tales of Philip José Farmer.” It will be followed immediately by PulpFest‘s main panel of the evening, “The Call of Cthulhu: The Development of Lovecraft’s Mythos,” featuring a panel of Lovecraftian and pulp scholars, discussing Lovecraft’s best-known contribution to the fields of science fiction and fantasy — the cycle of stories centered around Cthulhu and other cosmic entities.
Closing out the evening at 11:30 PM, will be an authorized showing of THE CALL OF CTHULHU, a film produced by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. It will be paired with COOL AIR, an episode from ROD SERLING’S NIGHT GALLERY that originally aired in 1971.
And don’t forget PulpFest now has a gaming track. This year, it will be centered around CALL OF CTHULHU and other games inspired by the work of H. P. Lovecraft.
There’s still time to join the celebration! There may even be some rooms available at nearby hotels. Please visit pulpcon.org/2015/06/16872/ and you’ll find a link to a list of hotels to choose from. The Hyatt Regency where the convention is taking place is totally booked. So what are you waiting for? Book a room for three nights and register now for “Summer’s Great Pulp Con.”
(The quotation that begins our post is from “The Call of Cthulhu,” written by H. P. Lovecraft. It was first published in WEIRD TALES in its February 1928 issue.
Published in 2006 by Fantasy Flight Games, THE ART OF H. P. LOVECRAFT’S CTHULHU MYTHOS collects the best art from Fantasy Flight’s acclaimed CALL OF CTHULHU collectible card game, as well as from 25 years of Chaosium’s legendary line of CALL OF CTHULHU role-playing game. Michael Komarck created the dust jacket for the collection. Please click the red “schedule” button on our home page to learn more about PulpFest’s new gaming track.)
