Lovecraft Gets Hammered
Hammer Films released several classic horror and science fiction films in the 50s through the 70s, and while they're known for gothic horror films like The Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula, a number of their films also tread in familiar Lovecraftian territory, such as Nigel Kneal's Quatermass series. Join this panel for a look at the Hammer Films any Lovecraft fan will enjoy.
Derek is the Monster Kid Hall of Famer creator of the Supernatural Solutions: The Marc Temple Casefiles series, as well as the upcoming 6-Week Rotation series of superhero novels. If you can't find him at his website/YouTube channel Monster Kid Writer, you can find him at his award-winning Monster Kid Radio podcast, the weekly podcast celebrating the classic, and sometimes not-so-classic, genre cinema of yesteryear.
Kenneth Hite has designed, written, or co-authored 100+ roleplaying works, including Trail of Cthulhu, Bookhounds of London, The Dracula Dossier, the Delta Green RPG, Night’s Black Agents, The Fall of Delta Green, and Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition. His other works include the two-volume Tour de Lovecraft, Cthulhu 101, The Cthulhu Wars for Osprey, the “Lost in Lovecraft” column for Weird Tales, an annotated edition of Chambers’ The King in Yellow, and four Lovecraftian children’s books. Half of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and an Artistic Associate at Chicago’s WildClaw Theatre, he lives in Chicago with two Lovecraftian cats and his non-Lovecraftian wife, Sheila.
In 1998 Scott Glancy left a perfectly functional career as an attorney to join up with the role-playing game publisher Pagan Publishing, the nerd equivalent of running away to join the Foreign Legion. Today Scott is the man in charge of Pagan Publishing (much in the same sense that the last surviving legionnaire can be said to be in command of Fort Zinderhoff). Pagan’s most recent project is “Horrors of War,” an anthology of scenarios set during the Great War for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Scott is a contributing author on the award-winning Delta Green series of Call of Cthulhu rpg supplements and has had Lovecraftian fiction published in several short story collections including the recent "Book of Cthulhu II," "Shotguns v. Cthulhu," and the upcoming “Swords v. Cthulhu.” You can hear his recorded games sessions on Role-Playing Public Radio, and listen to him bloviate on the Unspeakable Podcast and Podcast at Ground Zero.
A professional creature effects artist, cinematographer, model maker, and puppeteer, Kevin McTurk has been working in the effects industry for over 20 years. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Production, Kevin moved to Los Angeles in 1992 and began his career in special make-up effects at Stan Winston Studios, working on Batman Returns, Interview with a Vampire, and the Jurassic Park films. He has worked for many effects companies over the years, including the Jim Henson Creature Shop, Amalgamated Dynamics, and Spectral Motion. Kevin also worked at New Deal Studios, where he was involved on the miniature effects shots for the Martin Scorcese films The Aviator, Shutter Island, and Hugo.
In 2004, Kevin was contacted by Weta Workshop in New Zealand and moved to Wellington to work on the films King Kong,The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the gory comedy Black Sheep (in which he also played the Weresheep creature).
In 2011, Kevin received a Project Grant from The Jim Henson Foundation and a Filmmaker's Grant from the Handmade Puppet Dreams (a short film series curated by Heather Henson, Jim Henson's youngest daughter) to make his first puppet short film "The Narrative of Victor Karloch." The film was a great success, playing in over twenty international festivals, and winning the 2012 BEST ANIMATED FILM at the DragonCon Film Festival.
Robin D. Laws designed the GUMSHOE rules for Pelgrane Press’ Trail of Cthulhu roleplaying game, and such beloved supplements for it as The Armitage Files, Dreamhounds of Paris, and The Book of Ants. He is the author of the short story anthology New Tales of the Yellow Sign and the editor of Shotguns v. Cthulhu. Other fiction of interest to Cthulhucon PDX attendees includes short story contributions to Letters to Lovecraft and Madness on the Orient Express. Ghouls, byakhee and Nyarlathotep get frequent namechecks on "Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff," the weekly podcast of gaming, culture, and weirdness he co-hosts with fellow writer and game designer Kenneth Hite.