Actually I like the design of the Arkham Lovecraft Selected Letters volumes a lot. With pictures of the actual letters, and Virgil Finlay's perfect illustration on the back (especially the purple version). Maybe not advanced and fine aesthetic cover design, but they have something sensible about them.

Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I also hope they spend more effort on the cover
> design, to make it representative and worthy of
> the contents.
>
> The very plain lettering on the front of A MEANS
> TO FREEDOM I find painfully ugly. How could they
> leave it at that?!

I couldn't agree more! The cover design of all Hippocampus Press' releases that I've seen in the flesh or otherwise is hideous (and not in a 'life is a hideous thing' kind of way). The colours, the fonts and in many cases the illustrations look amateurish - embarrassingly so. Certainly they are the worst looking of all the current crop of small presses that I can think of. They're soooo bad, they give desktop publishing a bad name. Now Tartarus, there's a press you can trust for design.

The English Assassin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Knygatin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I also hope they spend more effort on the cover
> > design, to make it representative and worthy of
> > the contents.
> >
> > The very plain lettering on the front of A
> MEANS
> > TO FREEDOM I find painfully ugly. How could
> they
> > leave it at that?!
>
> I couldn't agree more! The cover design of all
> Hippocampus Press' releases that I've seen in the
> flesh or otherwise is hideous (and not in a 'life
> is a hideous thing' kind of way). The colours, the
> fonts and in many cases the illustrations look
> amateurish - embarrassingly so. Certainly they are
> the worst looking of all the current crop of small
> presses that I can think of. They're soooo bad,
> they give desktop publishing a bad name.

I don't agree.

A telling example of Hippocampus Press's sloppiness in cover design, is for Blackwood's Incredible Adventures. Here they re-used the old illustration for Blackwood's The Centaur. You take it off the shelf, and muse, "Ah, The Centaur. Mountain slopes with roaming centaurs.... Eh! No! Incredible Adventures!". I had to put my own wrapper over that book, to not get distracted.

In all fairness, I think the cover for ESSENTIAL SOLITUDE looks much better than A MEANS TO FREEDOM, both in color and font. Clearly more effort and concern went into it. I like it, and would have bought that book if I had been more interested in that particular correspondence.

And I grew to like the look and feel of The Metal Monster, in spite of its roaring kitschy look. It must also be said that their paperbacks are very sturdy! Credit to Hippocampus Press for that!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 18 Aug 11 | 09:01AM by Knygatin.

Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had to put my own
> wrapper over that book, to not get distracted.

Must be awful, being that easily distracted. ;)

Mike Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi all,
>
> In the spirit of celebrating _The Collected
> Letters of CAS_, I'm transcribing the one letter I
> own written by HPL to CAS, on April 4, 1932. Only
> the final paragraph of this lengthy letter
> (although short by HPL's standards!) was included
> in the Arkham edition of his letters. HPL's
> handwriting is at times hard to make out, so I may
> inadvertently have introduced typos, but on the
> whole it's a fairly clear hand; all the really
> ambiguous words I've indicated with [?]. As far as
> I know, this is the first full publication of this
> letter. I hope I am not violating any copyright
> restrictions; I'm transcribing the letter in the
> spirit of shared research that this website
> represents. From my perspective, the most
> interesting passage is HPL's discussion of
> Gernsback -- not the unfortunate antisemitic
> remark, which is not unexpected from HPL, but the
> positive valuation he gives to Gernsback and his
> publications.
>
> Best,
> Mike
> ***
>
> Yoth-Tlagggon -- At the Crimson Spring. Hour of
> the Amorphous Reflection.
>
> Dear Klarkash-Ton: -
> No -- the snowy blizzard happily escaped us,
> although March was on the whole a very inclement
> month. Yesterday was almost summer-like, but I am
> too worn out with a siege of dentistry to
> appreciate anything in the way of climate. I don't
> know how many more appointments I'll have to
> endure -- but fear there will be enought to spoil
> all my usual travelling plans both chronologically
> and financially.
>
> By this time I presume you have my letter
> expressing enthusiastic admiration for "The Double
> Shadow." Truly, it is a great piece of work -- &
> Wright's rejection of it fills me with disgust &
> discouragement. Obviously, his standards are
> getting worse & worse -- as witness the current
> issue, in which only two stories, your's and
> Howard's, are really worh reading. I hope
> Bates-Clayton will take the "Shadow" -- though I
> fear the prospects are not very promising. Long is
> getting worried about his two submitted Clayton
> tales -- one of which has been held 11 weeks & the
> other 7 weeks. He intends to make an inquiry,
> though I told him that the delay is a favourable
> sign. Hope your will take with King Pharnaces [?]
> in its ammended form.
>
> I didn't know your Immortals of Mercury was going
> to be a separate booklet. Congratulations! I
> surely hope to see a copy. Glad the Invisible City
> is due in the near future, & that Gernsback has
> some appreciation of what he is offering. It's
> odd, but in spite of that damn'd kike's financial
> remissness & sharp dealings, I really think he
> offers a better & more vital range of
> scientifiction than either of his two competitors.
> He is not quite so rigid, in his demand for the
> commonplace & the stereotyped. I'll await the
> Plutonian Drug with the keenest interest -- as
> will others on the circulation list. As soon as I
> get the nerve to type the Witch House you shall
> see it. There's another story I want to write, but
> I don't believe I can till this tooth businbess is
> over.
>
> Your Easter expedition to the canon dug by
> pre-human in search of the lost -metal must
> surely have been picturesque and memorable. I envy
> you the spectacle -- petrified tree, subterrane
> river, fall. Did I tell you that I saw the outlet
> of an underground river in Florida? It was
> somewhat north of Dunedin [?], & an unlighted
> aqueas crypt stretched sightlessly down & away
> from the visible basin where froth disported. I
> had to keep watching it in fascination --
> wondering the while whether some bloated, eyeless,
> albino _thing_ would float loasthsomely &
> unexpected up from the nether abysses.
>
> Yes -- that could have come from nowhere save
> archaic & immemorial Which would be inferred by
> collating that Thing with the existing passages of
> the Book of Eibon.
>
> Maybe -- since it was probably doomed from the
> start -- it is just as well that the Swanson
> venture perished when it did. By the way -- have
> you heard of a new magazine called _Weird
> Whispers_, published by the W. & Thompson Co of
> N.Y.? Someone has just told me about it, although
> I never heard of it before. Probably it doesn't
> amount to much, but it might be worth
> investigating.
>
>

I'm paying off a few new Lovecraftian items to my collection. The first is two Lovecraft letters to C.M. Eddy. The second is a book from Lovecraft's own library entitled "A Mirror For Witches". The third is a card which HPL used to record his expenses during his Florida trip to visit Barlow and the last is a collection of cards HPL gave to Clark. On the top it says "To Klark-ash-Ton from Ech-Pi El". I can't wait to receive these items and attain bragging rights once again.