Guests
Featured Guests
Joe Pulver authored the novels, The Orphan Palace (Chomu Press 2010) and Nightmare’s Disciple, and he has written many short stories that have appeared in magazines and anthologies, including “Weird Fiction Review”, “Crypt of Cthulhu”, and “Lovecraft eZine”, Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year, S. T. Joshi’s Black Wings I and III, Ross Lockhart's Book of Cthulhu, and many anthologies by Robert M. Price. His highly–acclaimed collections, Blood Will Have Its Season, SIN & ashes, and Portraits of Ruin, were published by Hippocampus Press. He edited A Season in Carcosa and The Grimscribe’s Puppets (Miskatonic River Press), Ann K. Schwader’s The Worms Remember. He is working on two new collections, Stained Translations, and The Protocols of Ugliness, both edited by Jeffrey Thomas.
PETE VON SHOLLY is a writer, artist, director, and producer with a leaning toward the fantastic side of the arts (some would use less generous words like weird, insane, morbid - what do they know?!) His HP Lovecraft Illustrated vol 1 can satisfy the most demanding demon in us. CAPITOL HELL is his first venture into the political satire arena (unless you count Hollywood politics). Von Sholly's storyboards (and/or design) for over 100 feature films include including Bride of Re-Animator, The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist, Mars Attacks, Darkman, two Freddy’s, three Chuckys, one Pumpkinhead and one Hellraiser! Pete created the illustrated Lovecraft Library (9 volumes) for PS Publishing and has illustrated books by Stephen King, Joe R Lansdale, Ramsey Campbell and others. He has recently published PETE VON SHOLLY’S HISTORY OF MONSTERS which received a great review from Publisher’s Weekly. He has done satire, graphic novels and comics for IDW, Dark Horse, Kitchen Sink, BOOM! and TwoMorrows. He also has a new Lovecraft-related book out called Lovecraft These Days
Combining an LGBT-focused cabaret with a BDSM play party, Club Pangæa creates a one-of-a-kind social event while treating guests to a scandalous and spectacular stage show. Using primarily the mediums of drag and burlesque, performers explore the intersections of gender, sexuality, and self-expression.
Shadow casting for the 1970 film The Dunwich Horror, Pangæa, LA’s queer cabaret, will bring you a show unlike any other: The Dunwich Horror Picture Show
Frank H. Woodward wrote and directed Wyrd Studios’ premiere documentary LOVECRAFT: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN in 2008. This biography of author H.P. Lovecraft featured interviews with Neil Gaiman and Guillermo Del Toro. LOVECRAFT premiered at the 2008 Comic Con in San Diego where it won Best Documentary.
Frank also wrote the SyFy Original Movie BLACK FOREST. This mash-up of Grimm’s fairy tales aired in early 2012.
Frank is currently producing Wyrd’s third documentary MEN IN SUITS. The film will explore the art of creature suit acting and features interviews with many renowned suit actors including the original Godzilla, Haruo Nakajima.
Lee Joyner has been creating creatures and monsters for over 25 years, having worked on films such as Star Trek: Beyond, Mimic and the '98 Godzilla, as well as for shows such as Star Trek DS9 and Stargate:SG1. He's also worked with Alice Cooper, Slipknot, Usher, Disney and Nickelodeon, as well as appearing on Making Monsters and having trained dozens Face Off contestants. Known in the Lovecraft community for his H.P. Lovecraft bust and his Key of Cthulhu statue, Lee will be at the San Pedro H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival sculpting on another Cthulhu statue, giving demonstrations and chatting with the festival goers.
Lee is also one of the Directors of Cinema Makeup School. CMS has been in business since 1993, training some of the up and coming makeup and special makeup effects artists worldwide. Known for his New 52 Joker, Apocalypse and Thanos makeups where he has collaborated with graduates of CMS at various conventions like SD ComicCon, WonderCon and Monsterpalooza. He will be bringing a team of graduates to the HPLFF San Pedro this year to create a monster very appropriate for the venue.
Mike Dubisch has been bringing a Lovecraftian twist to his fantasy art, illustration and comics for a quarter century, beginning in his mid teens. The versatile artist has created Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons toys, animated DVD covers for the World Wrestling Federation, designs for animated movies, and characters for MTV. His work is held in the permanent collection of The Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art. His Lovecraftian Graphic Novel WEIRDLING was published in 2007 to critical acclaim. Current projects include Zombies VS Robots:Diplomacy and Godzilla comics sketch variant covers, both for IDW, creature designs for film, including "Transcendent" for the 2013 Portland festival. See more at http://mikedubischart.webs.com/
Paul Komoda is a sculptor, illustrator, and designer inspired by a lifelong obsession with monsters, dreams and nightmares, medical anomalies, and the weirder side of the zoological spectrum. Over the years he's delved into jewelry, action figures, album artwork, erotic/grotesque illustration, and anatomically inspired body art. In the early 2000s he worked for H.R. Giger, on several jewelry and sculpture projects. More recently, he's done work for Sideshow Collectibles, Darkhorse Comics, Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated, and had sculpted the miniatures for the H.P. Lovecraft inspired game, The Doom That Came to Atlantic City. He's also found himself putting his distinctive mark on some vinyl Kaiju figures for the company Dunk-Japan. Ongoing endeavors include furthere explorations into the realms of fine art and comics, as well as the publication of his sketchbook which has oft been described as a contemporary Necronomicon. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Sean Patrick O’Reilly is an energetic, passionate, visionary transmedia writer and producer. As a lifelong fan of comic books, Sean's dream was to become a comic book creator. In 2004, Sean realized that dream by creating and writing Kade, a comic book series that has now gone on to see eight, published graphic novels, His original creations include Ezra, The Gwaii, Clockwork Girl, The Hope Virus, and Mighty Mighty Monsters to name a few.He is also producing Continuum, based on his graphic novel, with Relativity as well as Amnesia with Sony Entertainment. In addition to writing, Sean has directed and produced the entire thirteen episode season for the animated TV series Kagagi. Most recently Sean wrote, directed, produced and starred in the animated feature film based on his graphic novel, Pixies. Sean’s next goals continue seeing him write, direct and produce the animated feature films Howard Lovecraft & The Frozen Kingdom as well as The Steam Engines of Oz and Avner.
Guests
Cody Goodfellow has written ten novels and five collections of short stories, and has won three Wonderland Book Awards. His comics work has been featured in Mystery Meat, Creepy, Slow Death Zero and Skin Crawl. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos by Anthrax and Beck, and a Days Inn commercial. He wrote, co-produced and scored the Lovecraftian hygiene films "Baby Got Bass" and "Stay At Home Dad," which can be viewed on YouTube.
Leeman Kessler is a Nigerian-born actor living in Gambier, OH with his wife Rachel and daughter Amanda. Since 2010, he has been performing as HP Lovecraft on stage as well as online with his web-series Ask Lovecraft. He has performed at NecronomiCon-Providence and at Cthulhucon. You can hear him and his wife on their podcast Geekually Yoked.
S.P. Miskowski's Knock Knock and first novella Delphine Dodd were finalists for Shirley Jackson Awards. She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a Swarthout Award. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published in Black Static, Supernatural Tales, Identity Theory, Other Voices, and Nightmare Magazine. She has stories in the anthologies October Dreams 2, Cassilda's Song, The Hyde Hotel, Leaves of a Necronomicon, Detritus, and Little Visible Delight. Miskowski's award-nominated series the Skillute Cycle is published by Omnium Gatherum. Her novelette Muscadines is part of the Dunhams Manor Press 2016 limited edition hardcover series, illustrated by Dave Felton. Her chapbook Stag in Flight, illustrated by Nick Gucker and published by Dim Shores, will be released at HPLFF-SP. Author and artist will be on hand to sign copies of the book on May 1st.
Aaron Vanek’s student film The Outsider was the first movie to play at the first H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival®. Subsequent movies screening at the HPLFF include My Necronomicon, Return to Innsmouth, The Yellow Sign, and Call of Tutu. He was awarded the “Howie” in 2001 for contributions to Lovecraft Cinema, and he founded and co-hosted the HPLFF in San Pedro (Los Angeles) from 2010-2016. Upcoming projects include contributions to the Dreamlands RPG by Jason Bradley Thompson, and a crowdfund to remaster and re-release a compilation of his weird tale movies. See also: AaronVanek.com and SpectacularDisasterFactory.com
Adam Bolivar is a formal poet of folkloric fantasy, a weird fiction writer and a playwright for marionettes with a particular interest in alliterative verse, balladry and Jack tales. He is the author of THE LAY OF OLD HEX (Hippocampus Press, 2017), THE ETTINFELL OF BEACON HILL (Jackanapes Press, 2021), BALLADS FOR THE WITCHING HOUR (Hippocampus Press 2022) and A WHEEL OF RAVENS (Jackanapes Press, 2023). Discover more at https://adambolivar.com
Andrew Kasch first directed the award-winning short Thirsty (2008), starring fellow filmmaker Joe Lynch, and co-created the massive Never Sleep Again (2010), a documentary about the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. Working with frequent collaborator John Skipp, he's codirected the shorts Stay At Home Dad (2012) and Clowntown: An Honest Mis-Stake (2015), as well as "This Means War," a segment in Tales Of Halloween (2015). He also edits for television, with credits including the new Beavis & Butthead, The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow.
Anthony Parker graduated from Cinema Makeup School with honors and received the privilege of the protege program working at Spectral Motion the Effects, the company that brought you Hellboy, X-men: First Class, Hansel and Gretel and many more. He has worked on commercial and independent movies specializing in horror and sci-fi as a sculptor and painter. He is a long time Lovecraft and comic book enthusiast.
Ashley Dioses is a poet of dark fantasy and horror from southern California. She is currently working on her first book of dark traditional poetry to be out from Hippocampus Press, hopefully this year. Her poetry has appeared in Weird Fiction Review, Spectral Realms, Weirdbook Magazine, Omnium Gatherum Media, Eye to the Telescope, Xnoybis, Necronomicum, Gothic Blue Book, and elsewhere. Her poem, “Carathis”, published inSpectral Realms No. 1, is mentioned in Ellen Datlow's full recommended Best Horror of the Year Volume Seven list. She blogs at fiendlover.blogspot.com.
Cassadine is Erin Jane Laroue (Jamais Jamais, Lost Cities) Amanda Machina (House of Badger, King Black Acid, Metal Noam), and Nathan Carson (Witch Mountain, etc).--“The invitation to provide a live score to one of my horror/camp film favorites has mutated Cassadine’s birth from a studio recording project to a live entity that takes after its father and both its mothers. Erin, Amanda, and I plan some highly orchestrated irreverence for your bemusement and horror.” - Nathan Carson
"Exploring Lovecraft’s story, the film and its original score by Les Baxter (one of the composers who I cherish most) has made The Dunwich Horror part of my very fabric now.” - Erin Jane Laroue
Graham is an actor, writer, and director living in Los Angeles, CA! He is best known for originating the role of Herbert West in Re-Animator the Musical (directed by Stuart Gordon), as well as starring as Seth in Almost Human (IFC Midnight, TIFF Midnight Madness 2013). Graham most recently stars in The Mind's Eye
A native southern Californian, K. A. Opperman is a poet of horror and fantasy writing in the Weird tradition of H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. His work has appeared in such notable publications as Spectral Realms, Weird Fiction Review, Weirdbook, Skelos, Gothic Blue Book, the Horror Writers Association's Horror Poetry Showcase, and many other magazines. His debut book-length verse collection The Crimson Tome was released by Hippocampus Press in August 2015, and he has a second collection well underway. Against the fashion of the times, he writes solely in careful rhyme and meter, whether it be for a magazine, or for a wine label for Lovecraft Wines.
Creator, Entrepreneur, Proud Honey Badger
After, spending some time pursuing a career as an Indiana Jones-Archaeologist, Kat began her publishing career as a collaborating artist on such projects as UTOPIATES, a CATWOMAN story for BATMAN 80pg GIANT for DC Comics and TITANIUM RAIN. She produced numerous concept designs for Spartan Games has had work featured in Interzone magazine. As well, she began her comic series entitled LD30: The Adventures of a Swinging Robot, and started her column The F Word which debuted on ComicRelated.com. After five years in the comic book industry, in 2011 Kat founded 01Publishing with the goal of producing the best in science fiction, fantasy, and horror of both prose and graphic story telling. 01Publishing’s catalog of books have received acclaim from the Huffington Post, SF Signal, Kirkus Reviews, Innsmouth Free Press, and The Examiner.
**Unable to attend due to an emergency**
Mike Davis is the founder and editor of The Lovecraft eZine, an online magazine which is published monthly and is a prime internet source for original Lovecraftian fiction and information about Lovecraftian films and audios, memorabilia, books, art, and happenings within the Lovecraftian community. Mike conducts weekly video chats and interviews on Sundays. Many notable Lovecraftians have been interviewed in the weekly video chats. Information regarding the weekly Lovecraft eZine video chats can be found online at: www.lovecraftzine.com/chat. Mike lives in Texas with his wife and son, 3 cats, and 1 dog.
Michael Griffin has released a novel, Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone (Journalstone, 2017), and a short fiction collection, The Lure of Devouring Light (Word Horde, 2016), and the novella "An Ideal Retreat" (Dim Shores, 2016). His short stories have appeared in magazines like Apex, Black Static, Lovecraft eZine and Strange Aeons, and the anthologies The Madness of Dr. Caligari, Autumn Cthulhu, the Shirley Jackson Award winner The Grimscribe's Puppets, The Children of Old Leech and Eternal Frankenstein. He's an ambient musician and founder of Hypnos Recordings, an ambient record label he operates with his wife in Portland, Oregon. Michael blogs at griffinwords.com. On Twitter, he posts as @mgsoundvisions.
Leader of the Horrible Imaginigs Film Festival. Co conspirator for HPLFF San Pedro. It has been his mission to celebrate horror and its various sub-genres by showcasing new and independent artists, as well as reviving classic horror films. In San Diego, HIFF features psychological thrillers to supernatural horror to slashers and even to related genres like noir. Horror's power lies in its inherent ability to take our fears and exploit them--helping us either to face them, or just to appease our dark sides.
When not occupied whispering to insects and cataloging esoteric ephemera, Nick Gucker is typically perched at his art table conjuring up nightmare visions and freakish delights out of ink, charcoal and acrylic media. His art has frequently appeared in the pages of Strange Aeons Magazine, The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, Dark Discoveries and online publications including theLovecraft eZine. His illustrations embellished the innards of works by authors Cody Goodfellow, David Conyers and a few projects with Spectral Press in the UK. His paintings have been used for covers of books from Blysster Press, Sinister Grin, and others. Nick was the winner of the 2012 Pickman’s Apprentice Iron Artist challenge at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland and had the honor of creating the artwork for the 2013 HP Lovecraft Film Festival posters and T-shirts. Nick has also designed images for Skurvy Ink T-Shirts, honoring the works of various genre authors. Nick was featured in a gallery group show in Ketchikan, AK in Oct. of 2012 and his Lovecraftian pieces were on display in the Providence, RI Art Club in conjunction with NecronomiCon 2013. Recent gallery appearances include group shows at Krab Jab Studio and Cloud Gallery in Seattle curated by Yvette Endrijautzki. In addition to his published work, Nick’s unique, one-of-a-kind custom commission pieces grace the walls and limbs of various and sundry patrons of the arts from near and far.
Peepshow Menagerie is a collection of rare and varied "animals" held for exhibition - only our particular "animals" show a little more...
Peepshow Menagerie is a themed Burlesque and Variety Show cavorting in a reckless romp into the depths of pop culture and fandom, as navigated by producers Chris Beyond and Scarlett Letter.
Rick Kitagawa is an award-winning visual artist, storyteller, and arts educator based in the foggy hills of San Francisco. Rick is a multidisciplinary artist that weaves together digital with traditional media, text and imagery, abstract and figurative subjects, and painting and printmaking. What results is a visual journey into a dark world of his own that pays homage to the horror genre, identity politics, and pop culture all while examining the human condition and the darkness within us all. Heavily inspired by the themes of H.P. Lovecraft, Rick creates both cosmic horrors as well as a dark collection of alluring yet dangerous women who are often more than meets the eye.
ROSS E. LOCKHART is an author, anthologist, editor, and publisher. A lifelong fan of supernatural, fantastic, speculative, and weird fiction, Lockhart is a veteran of small-press publishing, having edited scores of well-regarded novels of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. He edited the anthologies The Book of Cthulhu I and II, Tales of Jack the Ripper, The Children of Old Leech (with Justin Steele), Giallo Fantastique, Cthulhu Fhtagn!, Eternal Frankenstein, and the forthcoming Tales from a Talking Board (October 2017). He is the author of Chick Bassist. Lockhart lives in Petaluma, California, with his wife Jennifer, hundreds of books, and Elinor Phantom, a Shih Tzu moonlighting as his editorial assistant.
Toren Atkinson is the lead singer for the H.P. Lovecraft inspired band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, as played on the video game Rock Band 2. Toren also co-designed and illustrated the award winning tabletop roleplaying game Spaceship Zero, and provided on-screen and voice acting talent to such properties as Stargate: Atlantis, Sword of the Stars (VG), Fort Zombie (VG), and Penny Arcade’s Cardboard Tube Samurai. He is one of the creators and co-hosts of the Caustic Soda podcast. Toren is an accomplished illustrator, with credits in tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu, design work for video games like [PROTOTYPE] by Radical. In his current position as storyboard artist he has worked on Marvel's Avengers Assemble and Rocket Monkeys.
Ian Welke's short fiction has appeared in Big Pulp, the American Nightmare anthology, 18 Wheels of Horror, and the upcoming Redneck Eldritch. His novels, The Whisperer in Dissonance (2014) and the Bram Stoker Award Nominated End Times at Ridgemont High (2015) were both published by Omnium Gatherum Media.