ScottRadom

Dude, you don't know the HALF of it. This is from memory, maybe SuperVike can enlighten as he was involved as well.... A guy over on CMON posted a thread that was "What's the big deal with Lovecraft, I read some and didn't care for it." and I agreed with him, and stated why. Then a bunch of people came out of the woodwork and (With respect and politeness) expounded on the virtues of Lovecraft and that I must be missing something. Not even the original poster stood up and said "No I don't like Lovecraft either" after I got bombarded! Now that's just one experience, and it WAS done with politeness and respect for both sides, which is always refreshing. It's just personal opinion is all. What I like about this debate, and the one previous on CMON is nobody played the "You'd like this if you were smarter" card which I often find with Tolkien and others. It's possible to understand and comprehend something and not like it! But anyway, what i really appreciate is how differing opinion can be handled and discussed politely on painting boards. Try having one of these debates on a GW fan based board! I have, and while shouting matches are fun in real life, not near as entertaining on the internet. Wierdly, every debate about opinion on a gaming forum I have had has always devolved quickly into which person is more wealthy.... seriously!

Yeah, I could be spinning in circles a bit. I NEED to care about characters in horror fiction. It's my draw to them, and how I get hooked in. I need something I can relate to, that is my anchor and my link to something that I can't hope to understand. If the author of anything wants to use crazy old demons, magic, the rest of it, I can follow him so long as he's giving me a gorunded perspective from which to go along. That's just me. I do embrace the character focused/driven fiction nowadays. The thing about Lovecraft and his Mythos is that I didn't really care for the way he told his stories. Maybe I am just attracted to the wierd geometry and bulbous green tentacled heads. Could be, when you get right down to it. I just plain old leave a Lovecraft story (usually, I will admit exceptions) just sort of feeling "Meh." about it all. My preferred reading lately has been either non fiction, or straight up Comic books. They're some suprisingly good reads out there, and since I am a character guy how could I not love super heroes. So there it is. I may be branding my self a non intellectual there (maybe my sig didn't give it away) but I do like talking about this subject. I know there is enough there for people to appreciate Lovecraft for all the things I dislike (Similar to the way I strongly dislike NMM, while others will point at metalics and think how much better it would have been NMM) so it is what it is. I'll tell you this, it's MUCH harder to attack Lovecraft then it is to defend! That dude has supporters dug in with plenty of literary ammo across the globe! I've also been in this debate a couple of times and I don't think ANYONE has every stood up and said "Man, y'know, that Scott dude makes some excellent points and I also dislike Lovecraft." so it would appear that once again I am in the strong minority. Good talk! Anyone else out there in paint land want to express their love/hate fore Lovecraft?

And that was so ridiculous. I've never encountered anything SOOOO contrived. It had nothing to do with the story. Homeboy just wanted to share something with us I guess. How did the editor say "Y'know, this is super relevant, let's let the kid work this one out."? I don't know if he is gay or not. I think he's pretty talented, just think he's been writing in circles for his last little while. Coraline - a kids story - was pretty good but followed his same formula.

You're talkin' about the efreet aren't you? Or was it a djinn? Completely irrelevant, and I had the exact same experience. As you, not the efreet!

@Isoulle- Fair points! I like Gaiman. At least his first books that I encountered. Then every one of his I read there after followed his EXACT same formula. Also love Terry Pratchett. I stumbled upon Pratchett myself so i had no expectations and they were of course exceeded so I got lucky. I was unfortunate enough to encounter the legend of Lovecraft before getting to read his works firsthand. I certainly can see people make a cause for not loving those guys, for sure. What endings would I like? Hmm. Hard to say. I guess I just feel dissatisfied with too many of his ending because they left me feeling like a conversation where somebody just hung up on me. Or there were the endings (Cthullu vs. speedboat) that just undermined his own work. Maybe that's why he gave up on endings? Have you seen the film "Dagon"? It's by the guy... forgetting his name... but he made the comedy Re-Animator movies. I really enjoyed it, and it had a nice conclusive ending. I don't need the "ride into the sunset" style endings but I do like resolution. I really urge you to give the "Fall of Cthullu" a try. It had what I wanted from the books. The stories have endings, it's got believable characters (Harry Houdini? C'mon.....) and I think it treats the Myhtos with the proper respect. I don't have a link for you but most comics get scanned and uploaded instantly nowadays. Still glad to here from the other side of the Lovecraft fence. You asked me to name a good horror writer from the last twenty years. Good one! I thought about it but I just really can't. Not from any media source either. Maybe Guillermo del Toro does a decent job of it, and I'd really like to see him go balls out on a Lovecraft pic. I had heard rumors he was gearing up for a Lovecraft trilogy before he got nabbed for the Hobbit. Ah well. you made many excellent points! I'm always pleased by the respect shown on painting boards towards each other. Thanks!

Yes, I got a bite! Well we had a bit of a debate some time ago over on CMoN but I will try to sum it up best I can. I dislike almost everything about his horror writing. I mean it. Things I think he does well... -Very descriptive and articulate on his settings. He can describe a moonlit graveyard and make me smell the decay and the freshly turned earth. I've never walked along a gloomy street in old New England (That's an oxymoron, right?) and I feel like I have. He does that incredibly well -His mythology is incredible. I totally dig on his mythos. After that... well.... to sum up how I feel I would have to use a word so old and anciently wierd that to use it hear would require a hardware upgrade, and would leave you quite insane. Lovecraft delivers what I would call a roller coaster ride. Without any dips. Or climbs. No loop-de-loop for sure. I've never cared about his characters. At all. In order for me to get into his horror I have to care about the character being subjected to the horror. I'm always more curious about his demons, or other antagonist, then his characters. That might be said of a lot of classis horror but I think he's just the worst at that. And then there's the shortcuts. If I turned in a short story to my 5th grade teacher that had "I would have put a really interesting ending here, but you're incapable if processing it without going insane" wouldn't have cut it. I won't take it from my literature either. I've often asked people what makes Lovecraft work for them. The answers are usually similar. They enjoy his use of language, which I find horrible. They appreciate his isolationist tones, which don't tick for me. They usually have an appreciation for his "timing" in that he wrote these stories very early on in the days of horror (I think, that's what I'm told anyway). I just think that rather then read stuff that was good "Back in the day" I'd rather search for stuff that speaks to me now. So with all that said I appreciate that he's been an inspiration to others. I'm often a bigger fan of the author who was inspired by the work then the original work, and I'd love to read anything of yours if you're so inclined. I think I've also read every published Lovecraft work, so it's not a case of simply being exposed to a small cross section of his stuff. Now, that's my opinion. I am not a slasher horror style reader, and I really enjoy Matheson's stuff (I am legend is awesome), but in general I find the horror genre lacking. Slasher movies do nothing for me. I am a butcher who spent a couple years in a slaughterhouse so to say I am de-sensitized to TV and film violence would be a gross (!?!?) understatement. I went into Lovecraft loving what I knew of it (Mostly from game product and such) and wanting to fall in love with the orginator of the mythos. I got to reading and I tried, lord how I tried, but I just think he should've been an idea man, telling his stuff to someone else for them to write. But I will say again, give the BOOM! Comic's a shot. It's got all the tone of the books with better characters that have conceivable roles and great use of Lovecrafts world. Thanks for the talkin'. I LOVE thus subject!

I LOVE this topic. I am a profound hater of Lovecrafts actual writing. I love, love, love, his imagination and the mythology that he laid out in his better stories. His "at the mountains of madness" (??) is excellent but I really, really, really dislike his writing style. I just think it's the worst. Now having said that the web comic is great, and I go out and read as much Cthullu mythos stuff as possible that's not written by the guy and I have fallen in love with the series "Fall of Cthullu" by BOOM! studios. It's available in TPB format and I think they're set for the fourht volume to be released and I think it's excellent. It's in a modern setting, and I might've preferred it in a turn of the century style format but I think the Lovecraft Mythos works very well in a modern setting. In an era where so much that was unknown has been solved and humanity has done so many technological wonders the impact of meeting with the information that even now our wonders are insignificant and meaningless vs. the will of the old ones is pretty awesome. Anyway, I challenge those who like the Cthullu stuff to look into the "Fall of Cthullu" stuff. It's everything I was hoping for (and didn't get) from the original works of Lovecraft. And before there's any hate thrown my way, I just want to remind you guys that Lovecraft had the good guys get away from mighty Cthullu by driving a speed boat through his head. That's some poor saturday morning cartoon scooby-doo style stuff right there. I LOVE this topic!

My fav from the movie is still after Kirk goads him, as he leans back and closes his eyes "...full impulse power." I know he had a disease. Something pretty bad. I know he actually needed the cane fro Fantasy Island and the wheelchair for Spy Kids was no joke either. I remember reading something in a StarLog magazine (Christ I feel like I am getting old....) about how they didn't think he could do Khan for a movie, and he went out and packed on all the muscle for the movie. He just wanted to do it pretty badly! And.... "He's not really gone if we stil remember him."

He sure had a good run. RIP Khan Noonian Singh! Best villain ever. Even Vader pussied out in the end! And remember Khan died before he saw the enterprise hit warp speed, so he went satisfied.... I hope Mr. Montalban had an equally (yet different) satisfying end. Truly a masterful representation for us to remember him by.

A dude over on CMON shared the link to the site for the bill in a thread. Way too lazy to dig it up. And I promise I won't chase Liz around about this bill anymore......

Heyo, that english Helldorado link just craps out on me. Is the book for sale? I'm more than happy to order it and give it a shot.

TY Amigo! I don't think I can even spell your handle with the "cut and paste" feature, so I'll just say Thanks M!

Is there an english ruleset for this game? I got some of the figs (WOW!) and I was gonna just base them and use them for another mainstream fantasy game... that rhymes with.... uhm... warhammer. But I'd like to see the rules for the game, and myabe this is a good time to take up mini game #194! Why not? My kids can start raising themselves.

Ah man, you just cost me a lot of money with that link.... ands thanks

Man! How do I rip off your sig? How did you customize it? I need it for smack talk purposes! And thanks for the welcome, but MAN! What a sig! I actually won a radio contest in town not that long ago when the local rock station had a poll asking if there were any acceptable movies for dudes to cry when they watch, I called in and said "Wrath of Khan, when Spock dies for me. Every time". They laughed, but then the grass roots nerd movement caught up and my pic won the day with 80% or something of the vote! "Of all the souls I have ever met.... his was the most........ human." Get's a lump in my throat even now. Please share your tech!

Hi There, My Name is Scott, I live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I post quite a bit over on CMON and I am a member of the newer WAMP boards as well. I saw the Iron Painter post and thought I'd like to give it a try. Not the strongest painter, and certainly no threat to the competition for the contest but I like painting comp's and the timeline for entries suites my crappy quick-quick style. So hello....