2024

The joey Zone

ROGER HILL, The Chillingly Weird Art of Matt Fox. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2023. 127 pp. $29.95 hc. ISBN: 9781605491202.

 This volume not only is a worthy tribute to one of the most idiosyncratic of Weird Tales illustrators, but to its compiler, Roger Hill, who passed away at the end of 2023 at the age of 75. Hill was one of those responsible in firing off the rockets of early comics fandom, specifically giving Credit Where Due to the EC (Entertaining Comics) artists of the 1950s. This reviewer adds this capstone to the career of Roger Hill to the packed shelf next to other works by that scholar highlighting the works of Frank R. Paul and Wally Wood. Unsurprisingly, next to that shelf are teetering rows of the obligatory archival collector boxes, one containing copies of that initial EC fanzine, Squa Tront, which Hill also had a hand in editing with fellow enthusiast Jerry Weist.

“Squa Tront!” “Spa Fon!” were two alien exclamations of alarum first coined in Weird Fantasy #17, in one of the many meta graphic narratives (some comical and not as apocalyptic) presented by EC. Their more infamous horror titles had a trio of hosts, The GhouLunatics, made up of The Crypt Keeper, The Vault Keeper and The Old Witch. Their sardonic commentary on EC’s exaggerated morality plays shined a light on the suburban dark as it really was.

 But about Matt Fox: Possibly the most representative of his works is a two-page spread reproduced as this collection’s title page. Originally published with Famous Fantastic Mysteries June 1944 reprint of Algernon Blackwood’s “The Wendigo”, this illustration has the Herne-horned elemental snatching the guide Défago away into the higher spaces…Cartoony some might classify its style, but like the art of Fox’s WT contemporary Lee Brown Coye, perhaps also just true. Matt Fox’s possible influence can be felt in the work of Kim Deitch or more recently the artist Skinner, who contributed original art by Fox that he owns for reproduction here.

Some of Fox’s most notable pieces in Weird Tales were for Mythos tales such as August Derleth’s “The Dweller in Darkness” (November 1944). His cover painting probably was meant to depict Nyarlathotep in the story, albeit with some blind idiot god’s daemon flautists working a side gig. Boris Dolgov’s interior title page piece hewed closer to the story’s mood. The opening illustration for Robert Bloch’s “Notebook Found in a Deserted House” (May 1951) depicts a many hooved horror that is comically far over the top of any shoggoth hinted at in the telling. Far superior to these were headers used with some of the occasional verse that ran in that publication. Matt Fox’s design for “The City” by H. P. Lovecraft in the July 1950 number, for example, is one of the finest illuminations ever affixed to Theoboldian poesy, let alone eerily showing Providence(?) architecturally as it is now, a Dream of Future Past…

Fox went from doing artwork for the pulps to horror comics when the former went out of vogue. While one of these tales, “The Hand of Glory” (Chilling Tales #13, December 1952) is reprinted here in color, one longs to see the denouements of other stories teased with reproductions of their splash pages, especially “Witch-Hunt!” (Strange Tales #18, May 1953).

I first came across Fox’s art in 1966 by way of ads in the magazine Castle of Frankenstein for glow in the dark posters. This book reveals that not one order for these was ever received! (I missed my chance…) No matter his limited success, several photos of Fox in this book show a bemused creator of grim wit, a GhouLunatic in his own write. Still working three years before he passed, Matt Fox had completed 40 illustrations for a special portfolio Beelzebub’s Book. Good news: At the time of this TwoMorrows publication there are plans to publish this.

In pace requiescat then to Matt Fox and Roger Hill. EC or Fox’s art can be rarified flavors of grue, but if you have read this far you are probably anxious to order something from the menu. Thanks to both of them, there is no end to this story within a story, to which we can only say in amazement—SQUA TRONT! SPA FON!

BRIAN STABLEFORD, 1948-2024

The joey Zone

Almost a quarter of a century ago, it was The Fin de Millénaire.

There were tales of Atlantis. Of Carnival and plague and bat-winged batrachians. Of a harpy queen experiencing ecstasy in a death that “need not end desire”. They were related in a style similar to accounts of a lost Hyperborea or prophecies of a dying earth to come and it was a pleasurable geas to illustrate them. A chapbook of saffron enwrapped these Fables and Fantasies for Necronomicon Press in 1996. Brian Stableford was their author.

On February 24^th of this past year, Brian Stableford died, age 75.

A Frenchman could look at his bibliography and pronounce it formidable. He had written more than seventy of his own novels as well as shorter fictions. But besides this much of his later career was devoted to bringing over 378 translations of French novels and stories (some dating back to the Seventeenth Century) into English, with fifteen more upcoming titles from publishers Snuggly Books and Black Coat Press.
In 1985, Stableford won The Eaton Award for Scientific Romance in Britain: 1890-1950. It was “….the only academic book I ever managed to publish….[and] only sold 157 copies”. “I became very interested in…comparisons and contrasts between [British & American fictions] and the early evolution of European traditions.”

At ConFuse (19)91 he had the following to say about an early foray into a Trans-Channel anthology, The Dedalus Book of Decadence: Moral Ruins, published in 1990: “[The publishers said] We have put this book in our catalogue and now it is four weeks to go” When asked to make deadline, Stableford ”said “Well, yes, I will do my best.”…I had to do it myself which was difficult [as translations were needed] because I don’t speak French. But now I read French tolerably well. There are dictionaries, you know.” Brian gifted me a copy—not for review but because I evinced a shared comfort found in this literary milieu en général. This kindness gave introductions to the work of Jean Lorrain (A votive candle now tended under the beringed fierceness of Gandara’s portrait in my aesthetic pantheon); supernaturally-tinged erotica penned by Remy de Gourmont, who hid from sight due to Lupus; and Catulle Mendès, whose novel Mephistophela (1890), boasts passages of great hallucinatory diabolism.

Also sent gratis was the follow-up to this collection, The Second Dedalus Book of Decadence: The Black Feast (1992). It is blessed with one of the most gorgeous covers ever assigned to a paperback publication, with matte gold surrounded title and a reproduction of Gustave Moreau’s The Apparition (1874/1876). In this volume I first read the work of Marcel Schwob (Key collection by him being The King in The Golden Mask(1892)) and Anatole France, with an excerpt from The Well of St. Clare (1895), “Saint Satyr”. This and a handful of other works by France were superbly illustrated by Frank C. Papé for The Bodley Head in the 1920s.

The same year I received these (1999), Stableford won The Pilgrim Award, given by The Science Fiction Research Association for a lifetime achievement in Science Fiction criticism. As to research, he labelled himself ”a confirmed antiquarian, fascinated by the thankless task of tracing…ideas through literary history.”

“It is easy to get obsessive about the historical and bibliographical things. When you find, in some sort of forgotten corner…a fact that nobody else knew or…find a book nobody else have ever heard of, this comes to seem like a great discovery…I do take terrible delight in discovering authors that nobody else have ever heard of and writing critical articles about them. I know that the definite critical articles only get read by three people but even so there is a sense in that once they are on the record they are there” Written akin to some Dead Reckonings contributor…

In the November 2011 issue of Locus Stableford vowed to “ try to [translate more works] as thoroughly as I can before blindness sets in or the grim reaper comes knocking.” Seven years after that, the collection Decadence and Symbolism: A Showcase Anthology, published by Snuggly Books continued this promise. A wider aesthetic was previewed by the cover reproduction of Paul Signac’s pointillist Portrait of Félix Fénéon (1890), anarchist and feuillettoniste. Two new introductions were made to me: Jane de la Vaudère, apparently frequenting the same ensanguined jardins as Octave Mirbeau yet not living as long and Henri de Régnier, whose translated collection of dark Fae, A Surfeit of Mirrors, was proffered by Black Coat Press in 2012.

A standout selection was Jean Lorrain’s “The Toad (Le Crapaud)” (1895), the title’s subject an embodiment of the decadent’s revulsion to Nature, both in general and in oneself: “It was, moreover, a monstrously large toad, whose like I have never seen since: a magician toad, at least a hundred years old, half-gnome, half-beast of the Sabbat; one of those gold-crowned toads that one hears of in folktales, set to watch over hidden treasures in ruined cities with a deadly nightshade flower beneath its left foot, nourishing itself on human blood.”

Stableford was then not merely a translator of, but for the material, serving to set the imagery as brilliantly as possible, craftsmanship only found in the rarest bijoux superlatifs. There remain so many writers whose work curated by him this reviewer needs discover! The Vermilion Book of Occult Fiction (2022) and The Alabaster Book of Occult Fiction (2023—both published by Snuggly Books), for example, are two dark mirror images of Andrew Lang’s rainbow-hued collections of fairy tales from the late Nineteenth Century.

It is in this resurrection of imaginations beyond his own that Brian Stableford has kept whole decades alive. “Once they are on the record they are there.” The stardust left in the tail of his comet will remain visible to discerning eyes for years to come–What is remembered, lives.

 

Sources:

Spotlight on: Brian Stableford, Translator and Author

https://www.blackgate.com/2024/02/28/brian-stableford-july-25-1948-february-24-2024/
https://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/intbs06.htm
https://www.lysator.liu.se/lsff/mb-nr25/Interview_with_Brian_Stableford.html

 

 

Sicut describit per j. Zone

ARS NECRONOMICA 2024. A Portal into Bleakness and Wonder. Providence, RI: Providence Arcade. August 10-30, 2024.

I am sick of the old conventions,
… And critics who will not praise,
So sing ho for the open spaces,
… And aesthetes with kindly ways.

In between the partially cobbled streets of Westminster and Weybosset in downtown Providence stands a noble example of Greek Revival architecture birthed in 1828. The two flanks of this edifice facing those thoroughfares boasts six cyclopean Ionic columns measuring 45 feet high. These were quarried, then brought from eight miles away in Johnston, Rhode Island, over dirt roads by teams of oxen. The Providence, or Westminster Arcade, has been the home of Lovecraft Arts & Sciences since 2015, and this year it hosted the 2024 edition of Ars Necronomica.

The last time this reviewer was there, the inside of The Arcade was fairly empty besides the LA&S store and one other business. It was extremely heartening to see that was no longer the case, with new commercial ventures Hey Neighboring the Hub of RI Weird. There was no Artist Guest of Honor this year (Gou Tanabe had preemptively been profiled in the Con’s program book). And although a “fuller” exhibition than 2022 was promised initially, The Lovecraft Arts & Science Council had only invited a smaller group of 25 artists with just 40 pieces among them. In previous iterations of ARS, it had been the curators’ practice to reveal the originals of fine work done to promote the event. If done this year, that would have been originals by RI muralist Michael Ezzell and NJ’s finest Kurt Komoda, but those were not to be seen. And yet the show seemed stronger. The content of about half of the pieces was Lovecraftian, but the high quality of the work was more responsible for elevating the whole presentation to a level better than the previous.

Regulars contributing consisted of Nick Gucker who summoned “The Dweller Beyond The Threshold”, oozing forth midst an ichor of bejeweled acrylic; Liv Rainey-Smith (Without Whom It Wouldn’t Be ARS…) with her latest woodcut depicting “Humanity Uplifted”—by Mi-Go (as you do); Jason McKittrick resinating with “The Seal of Cthulhu”; Josh Yelle (Attendees were chuffed to see Thee Pencilmancer in full force after his early departure due to Covid in 2022) accompanied by “Biddy” in all her mixed media finery; and Mike Knives curating Cultist Couture with his window dressing of “Vvvfurrkgk, The Esteemed Vice-Regent Orator of The Nameless One”. Former Artist Guest of Honor Santiago Caruso returned with three works and provided a highpoint for me and others with his take on Clark Ashton Smith’s “Tale of Satampra Zeiros”. Other submissions included that by Matthew Jaffe (“The Death of Pan”, a gorgeous sepia composition illustrating the Lord Dunsany tale); the Expressionist stylings of Victoria Dalpe; and Gris-gris gathered by one of this year’s GoHs, Billy Martin.

In addition, were notable pieces by Ryan Lesser (“The Gate”, more resin) and Paul Barton (“Priest of Leng”, more ichor). The dark charcoal command of the aptly surnamed Brett Gray has been a mainstay of the horror scene for years and this year we were graced by his “Child of Cthulhu”. Jennifer Hrabota Lesser unleashed “The Acolyte”, a feral flipped version of the cultist that organizers were blessed to have represent the 2017 NecronomiCon campaign. Bob Eggleton, a true Son of Providence—who also is THE Kaiju Master—took sail in a sea of sumptuous oils ‘round a shard of R’lyeh in “Titanus Cthulhu”, an example proving that True Art by him and others like Caruso leaves even the concept of A.I. generated work unworthy for drydock. The artistry of Kelly Kotulak of Hibernacula Studios returned to the convention after she last submitted artwork to the 2015 Program Guide, with an “Alchemical Orchid” bringing a resplendent eldritch flash in its filigree. As a crowning touch, Gage Prentiss of The Rumtucket Trading Company had acquired the “Newman Cemetery Skull” in an East Providence estate sale and graciously loaned it to serve as a literal cornerstone to this year’s show. This relic alone attests to the continued aesthetic influence of Richard Upton Pickman’s oeuvre over the entire Commonwealth, down through the Rhode Island plantations…

While this edition of Ars Necronomica was not in either of the polished halls of The Providence Art Club or the Woods-Gerry, the “pop-up” gallery adjacent to Lovecraft Arts & Sciences no doubt reinforced commercial as well as convivial interests more easily in its café-like atmosphere. One could list, for example, a personal recommendation by Washington Post luminary and bookman Michael Dirda for a novel by Walter de la Mare. Or the banter with a former co-curator and artist over deshabille in convention deportment—the debate sweetened by baklava. This years’ Experience in The Divine City was comprised of many discussions, many conversations. Talk may have been cheap, but oh so priceless.

Here every bard is a genius,
… And artists are Raphaels,
And above the roofs of Patchin Place
… The Muse of Talent dwells.

—H. P. Lovecraft, Summer of 1935