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Ollie vitamins and supplements. These statements

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have not been evaluated by the Food and

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Drug Administration. This product is not intended to

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diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The

0:38

Beast in the

0:40

Cave by H.P. Lovecraft

0:55

The horrible conclusion, which had

0:57

been gradually obtruding itself upon

0:59

my confused and reluctant mind,

1:02

was now an awful

1:04

certainty. I

1:06

was lost, completely, hopelessly

1:08

lost, in the vast

1:10

and labyrinthine recesses of the Mammoth

1:12

Cave. Turn as

1:14

I might in no direction could

1:16

my straining vision seize on any

1:19

object capable of serving as a

1:21

guidepost to set me on the

1:23

outward path. But never

1:25

more should I behold the blessed light of day,

1:28

or scan the pleasant hills and dales

1:30

of the beautiful world outside. My

1:32

reason could no longer entertain the

1:34

slightest unbelief. Hope had

1:37

departed. Yet indoctrinated as

1:39

I was by a life of

1:41

philosophical study, I derived

1:43

no small measure of satisfaction

1:45

from my unimpassioned demeanor. For,

1:49

although I had frequently read

1:51

of the wild frenzies into

1:53

which were thrown the victims

1:55

of similar situations, I experienced

1:58

none of these but st— stood

2:00

quiet as soon as I clearly

2:02

realized the loss of my bearings.

2:05

Nor did the thought that I had

2:08

probably wandered beyond the utmost limits of

2:10

an ordinary search cause me to abandon

2:12

my composure, even for a moment. If

2:15

I must die, I reflected, then

2:18

was this terrible yet majestic

2:21

cavern as welcome a sepulcher

2:24

as that which any churchyard might afford,

2:26

a conception which carried with it more

2:28

of tranquility than of despair. Starving

2:32

would prove my ultimate fate, of this

2:34

I was certain. Some

2:37

I knew had gone mad under circumstances

2:39

such as these, but I

2:41

felt that this end would not be mine. My

2:44

disaster was a result of no fault save

2:46

my own. Since unbeknown to

2:48

the guide, I had separated myself

2:50

from the regular party of sightseers,

2:53

and wandering for over an hour

2:55

in forbidden avenues of the cave,

2:57

had found myself unable to retrace

2:59

the devious windings which I had

3:01

pursued since forsaking my companions. Already

3:05

my torch had begun to expire. Soon

3:08

I would be enveloped by the

3:10

total and almost palpable blackness of

3:13

the bowels of the earth. As

3:15

I stood in the waning unsteady light,

3:18

I idly wondered over the exact

3:20

circumstances of my coming end. I

3:23

remembered the accounts which I had

3:25

heard of the colony of consumptives

3:27

who, taking their residence in this

3:29

gigantic grotto to find health from

3:32

the apparently salubrious air of the

3:34

underground world, with its steady uniform

3:36

temperature, pure air and

3:39

peaceful quiet, had found,

3:41

instead, death in

3:44

strange and ghastly form. I

3:47

had seen the sad remains of their ill-made

3:49

cottages as I passed them by with the

3:51

party, and had wondered what

3:53

unnatural influence a long sojourn in

3:56

this immense and silent cavern would

3:58

exert upon one as healthful. and

4:00

as vigorous as I. Now,

4:03

I grimly told myself, my

4:06

opportunity for settling this point

4:08

had arrived, provided that

4:10

want of food should not bring me too

4:12

speedy a departure from this life. As

4:16

the last fitful rays of

4:18

my torch faded into obscurity,

4:20

I resolved to leave no stone

4:23

unturned, and no possible means of

4:25

escape neglected. So, summoning

4:27

all the powers possessed by my lungs,

4:29

I set up a series of loud

4:31

shoutings in the vain hoop of attracting

4:34

the attention of the guide by my

4:36

clamor. Yet, as

4:38

I called, I believed

4:40

in my heart that my cries were

4:43

to no purpose, and that my voice,

4:45

magnified and reflected by the numberless ramparts

4:47

of the black maze about me, fell

4:50

upon no ears, save

4:52

my own. All at

4:54

once, however, my attention was fixed with a

4:56

start, as I fancied that I heard the

4:58

sound of soft approaching steps on the rocky

5:01

floor of the cavern. Was

5:03

my deliverance about to be accomplished so

5:05

soon? Had then all my

5:07

horrible apprehensions been for naught? And

5:10

was the guide having marked my

5:12

unwarranted absence from the party, following

5:14

my course, and seeking me out

5:16

in this limestone labyrinth? Whilst

5:19

these joyful queries arose in my brain,

5:21

I was on the point

5:23

of renewing my cries in order that my

5:26

discovery might come the sooner, when, in

5:28

an instant, my delight was turned to

5:30

horror as I listened. For

5:33

my ever-acute ear, now sharpened in

5:35

even greater degree by the complete

5:37

silence of the cave, bore

5:40

to my benumbed understanding the

5:43

unexpected and dreadful

5:45

knowledge that these footfalls were

5:48

not like those of

5:51

any mortal man. In

5:54

the unearthly stillness of this subterranean region,

5:56

the tread of the booted guide would

5:58

have sounded like a series of sharp

6:00

and incisive blows. These

6:03

impacts were soft and stealthy,

6:07

as of the padded paws of some

6:09

feline. Besides, at times, when I listened

6:11

carefully, I seemed to trace the falls

6:13

of four, instead of

6:16

two feet. I was

6:18

now convinced that I had by my

6:20

cries aroused and attracted some wild beast,

6:22

perhaps a mountain lion which had accidentally

6:24

strayed within the cave. Perhaps

6:27

I considered the Almighty had chosen me

6:29

for a swifter and more merciful death

6:31

than that of hunger. Yet

6:33

the instinct of self-preservation, never

6:36

wholly dormant, was stirred in

6:38

my breast, and though

6:40

escape from the oncoming peril might but spare

6:42

me for a sterner and more lingering end,

6:45

I determined nevertheless to

6:47

part with my life at as high a price

6:49

as I could command. Strange

6:52

as it may seem, my mind conceived

6:54

of no intent on the part of

6:56

the visitor save of that of hostility.

6:59

Accordingly, I became very

7:01

quiet in the hope that the

7:03

unknown beast would, in the absence

7:05

of a guiding sound, lose its

7:07

direction as had I, and

7:09

thus pass me by. But

7:12

this hope was not

7:14

destined for realization, for the

7:16

strange footfalls steadily advanced, the

7:19

animal evidently having obtained my scent,

7:21

which in an atmosphere so absolutely

7:23

free from all distracting influences as

7:25

is that of the cave could

7:27

doubtless be followed at great distance.

7:31

Seeing, therefore, that I must be armed

7:33

for defense against an uncanny and unseen

7:35

attack in the dark, I

7:37

grouped about me the largest of the fragments

7:39

of rock which was strown upon all parts

7:41

of the floor of the cavern in the

7:44

vicinity, and grasping one

7:46

in each hand for immediate use,

7:48

awaited with resignation, the

7:50

inevitable result. Meanwhile,

7:52

the hideous patterning of the paws drew

7:55

near. Certainly, the conduct of

7:57

the creature was exceedingly strange. Most

8:00

of the time the tread seemed to

8:02

be that of a quadruped, walking with

8:04

a singular lack of unison between tined

8:06

and four feet. Yet at brief and

8:08

infrequent intervals I fancied that the

8:11

two feet were engaged in the process

8:13

of locomotion. I wondered

8:15

what species of animal was to confront me.

8:17

It must, I thought, be some

8:19

unfortunate beast who had paid for

8:21

its curiosity to investigate one of

8:23

the entrances of the Fivul Grotto,

8:26

with a lifelong confinement in its

8:28

interminable recesses. It doubtless

8:30

obtained us food the eyeless fish, bats,

8:32

and rats of the cave, as well

8:34

as some of the ordinary fish that

8:36

are wafted in at every freshet of

8:38

green river, which communicates in some

8:40

occult manner with the waters of the cave.

8:43

I occupied my terrible vigil with

8:45

grotesque conjectures of what alterations cave

8:48

life might have wrought in the

8:50

physical structure of the beast, remembering

8:52

the awful appearances ascribed by local

8:55

tradition to the consumptives who had

8:57

died after long residence in the

8:59

cavern. Then I remembered

9:01

with the start that, even should I

9:03

succeed in killing my antagonist, I

9:06

should never behold its form, as

9:08

my torch had long since been extinct, and

9:10

I was entirely unprovided with matches. The

9:14

tension on my brain now became

9:16

frightful. My disordered fancy

9:18

conjured up hideous and fearsome shapes

9:20

from the sinister darkness that surrounded

9:23

me, and that actually seemed

9:25

to press upon my body. Nearer,

9:29

nearer the dreadful footfalls

9:31

approached. It seemed

9:33

that I must give vent to a

9:35

piercing scream, yet had I been sufficiently

9:37

irresolute to attempt such a thing, my

9:39

voice could scarce have responded. I

9:42

was petrified, rooted to the spot.

9:45

I doubted if my right arm would

9:47

allow me to hurl its missile at

9:49

the oncoming thing, when a crucial moment

9:51

should arrive. Now the

9:53

steady path of the steps was close

9:56

at hand. Now very

9:59

close. I

10:01

could hear the laboured breathing of the animal,

10:03

and terror struck as I was. I

10:06

realized that it must have come

10:08

from a considerable distance, and was

10:10

correspondingly fatigued. Suddenly

10:13

the spell broke, my right hand

10:15

guided by my ever trustworthy sense

10:17

of hearing, through, with full force,

10:19

the sharp angled bit of limestone

10:21

which it contained, toward that point

10:24

in the darkness from which emanated

10:26

the breathing and pattering, and, wonderful

10:28

to relate, it nearly reached its

10:30

goal, for I heard the

10:32

thing jump, landing at a distance away, where

10:35

it seemed to pause. Having

10:39

readjusted my aim, I discharged my second

10:41

missile, this time most effectively,

10:43

for with a flood of joy I

10:45

listened as the creature fell in what

10:48

sounded like a complete collapse, and evidently

10:50

remained prone and unmoving. Almost

10:53

overjoyed by the great relief which rushed

10:55

over me, I reeled back against the

10:57

wall. The breathing

10:59

continued, in heavy

11:01

gasping inhalations and expirations,

11:04

whence I realized that I

11:06

had no more than wounded the creature, and

11:08

now all desire to examine the

11:10

thing ceased. At

11:12

last something allied to groundless,

11:15

superstitious fear had entered my

11:17

brain, and I did not

11:20

approach the body, nor did I

11:22

continue to cast stones at it in order

11:24

to complete the extinction of its life. Instead,

11:28

I ran at full speed in what was,

11:30

as nearly as I could estimate, in my

11:32

frenzied condition, the direction from which I had

11:34

come. Suddenly I

11:36

heard a sound, or rather a regular

11:38

succession of scenes. In

11:40

another instant they had resolved themselves into

11:42

a series of sharp metallic clicks. This

11:45

time there was no doubt, it was

11:47

the guide. And then I

11:49

shouted, yelled, screamed, even shrieked with

11:51

joy, as I beheld in the

11:53

vaulted arches above the faint and

11:55

glimmering effulgence which I knew to

11:57

be the reflected light of an

11:59

approaching torch. I ran to

12:01

meet the flair, and before I could

12:03

completely understand what had occurred, was lying

12:06

on the ground at the feet of

12:09

the guide, embracing his boots and gibbering,

12:11

despite my boasted reserve, in a most

12:13

meaningless and idiotic manner, pouring out my

12:16

terrible story, and at the

12:18

same time overwhelming my auditor with

12:20

protestations of gratitude. At

12:23

length I awoke to something like my normal

12:25

consciousness. The guide had noted my

12:27

absence upon the arrival of the party at

12:29

the entrance of the cave, and had, from

12:31

his own intuitive sense of direction, proceeded to

12:34

make a thorough canvas of the bypassages just

12:36

ahead of where he had last spoken to

12:38

me, locating my whereabouts after a

12:40

quest of about four hours. By

12:43

the time he had related this to me, I,

12:46

emboldened by his torch and his company,

12:48

began to reflect upon the strange beasts

12:50

which I had wounded, but

12:52

at a short distance, back in

12:54

the darkness, and suggested that we

12:56

ascertain by the rushlight's aid what

12:59

manner of creature was my victim.

13:02

Accordingly, I retraced my

13:04

steps, this time with a courage born

13:06

of companionship, to the scene of my

13:09

terrible experience. Soon we

13:11

described a white object upon the

13:13

floor, an object whiter

13:16

even than the gleaming limestone

13:18

itself. Shortly

13:20

advancing we gave vent to

13:22

a simultaneous ejaculation of wonderment,

13:24

for of all the unnatural

13:26

monsters either of us had

13:28

in our lifetimes beheld, this

13:30

was in surpassing degree the

13:33

strangest. It

13:35

appeared to be an anthropoid

13:38

ape of large proportions, escaped

13:40

perhaps from some itinerant menagerie.

13:43

Its hair was snow white, a thing

13:45

no doubt due to the bleaching action

13:47

of a long existence within the inky

13:49

confines of the cave, but it was

13:51

also surprisingly thin, being indeed

13:53

largely absent the save on the head, where

13:56

it was of such length and abundance that

13:58

it fell over the shoulders inconsiderable. miserable profusion.

14:01

The face was turned away from us, as

14:04

the creature lay almost directly upon it. The

14:07

inclination of the limbs was very

14:09

singular, explaining, however, the alternation in

14:11

their use which I had before

14:13

noted, whereby the beast used sometimes

14:15

all four and on other occasions

14:17

but two for its progress. From

14:21

the tips of the fingers or

14:23

toes, long, nail-like claws extended. The

14:26

hands or feet were not prehensile,

14:28

a fact that I ascribed to

14:30

that long residence in the cave

14:32

which, as I before mentioned, seemed

14:34

evident from the all-pervading and almost

14:36

unearthly whiteness, so characteristic of the

14:38

whole anatomy. No tail seemed

14:40

to be present. The

14:42

respiration had now grown very feeble,

14:45

and the guide had drawn his pistol

14:47

with the evident intent of dispatching the

14:50

creature, when a sudden sound emitted by

14:52

the latter caused the weapon to fall

14:54

unused. The sound was

14:57

of a nature difficult to describe. It

14:59

was not like the normal note of

15:02

any known species of simian, and

15:04

I wondered if this unnatural quality

15:07

were not the result of a

15:09

long continued and complete silence, broken

15:11

by the sensations produced by the advent

15:13

of the light, a thing which

15:15

the beast could not have seen since its

15:18

first entrance into the cave. The

15:20

sound, which I might feebly attempt

15:22

to classify as a kind of

15:25

deep-toned chattering, was faintly

15:27

continued. All at

15:29

once a fleeting spasm of energy seemed to

15:31

pass through the frame of the beast. The

15:34

pause went through a convulsive motion,

15:36

and the limbs contracted. With

15:38

a jerk the white body rolled over

15:41

so that its face was turned in

15:43

our direction. For a

15:45

moment I was so struck with horror

15:47

at the eyes thus revealed that

15:49

I noted nothing else. They

15:52

were black, those eyes, deep,

15:55

jetty black, in hideous contrast to

15:57

the snow, white hair, and flesh.

16:00

Like those of other cave denizens, they

16:03

were deeply sunken in their orbits and

16:05

were entirely destitute of Iris. As

16:08

I looked more closely, I saw that they

16:11

were set in a face less prognathous than

16:13

that of the average ape and infinitely more

16:15

hairy. The nose was quite

16:17

distinct. As we

16:19

gazed upon the uncanny sight presented to

16:21

our vision, the thick

16:23

lips opened and several sounds

16:26

issued from them, after

16:28

which the thing relaxed in death. The

16:32

guide clutched my coat sleeve and

16:34

trembled so violently that the light

16:36

shook fitfully, casting weird,

16:38

moving shadows on the walls about

16:40

us. I made

16:43

no motion, but stood rigidly

16:45

still, my horrified eyes fixed

16:47

upon the floor ahead. Then

16:50

fear left and wonder, awe,

16:54

compassion, and reverence

16:56

succeeded in its place, for

16:59

the sounds uttered by the stricken figure

17:01

that lay stretched out on

17:03

the limestone had told us

17:05

the awesome truth. The

17:08

creature I had killed, the

17:11

strange beast of the unfathomed

17:13

cave, was, or

17:16

had at one time been,

17:19

the man. Everybody dies, don't they?

17:28

They're so close. So

17:35

welcome, Todd. We

17:38

just heard the H.P. Lovecraft

17:40

story, The Beast in the Cave,

17:43

and you very kindly sent me

17:45

a copy of your chapbook of The Beast in

17:48

the Cave, which you've taken, Lovecraft's story. I'm

17:50

going to show some video of this so people

17:53

can see it better. You've illustrated it. It

17:55

looks, I mean, and it's a

17:57

limited edition. But

18:00

you put this wonderful things like the flashlight

18:02

bookmark in it and

18:05

it's absolutely a beautiful piece of work. People

18:08

won't be able to feel it,

18:10

but even the paper quality, this

18:13

feels like a

18:15

precious object, you know? So

18:20

before we get ahead of ourselves, I

18:22

just wanted to ask you about how did you

18:24

come? I mean, I guess I'm

18:26

interested in the story. I'm surprised you picked that,

18:28

but I'm particularly interested in how did you come

18:30

to make such a thing as this? Okay.

18:34

Well, I run Angel Bomb,

18:36

which is a small letterpress print

18:38

shop in Minnesota in

18:41

the United States. And

18:44

I've been running

18:46

Angel Bomb since 1997, so 26 years now. Primarily

18:52

it was set up for doing client work. I'm

18:54

a graphic designer, so I've been a designer for

18:56

over 30 years. And

18:59

so it was mostly client-based, but

19:01

about 10 years ago, I made

19:03

my first book as

19:05

a professional and it was a graphic

19:08

novel that I wrote. And so

19:11

I've been getting more and more into book arts, less,

19:14

you know, kind of drifting away

19:16

from the client work and focusing

19:18

on fine book arts. And

19:22

a lot of my projects

19:24

are either science fiction

19:27

or horror-based. And I like

19:29

those as a way

19:32

of looking at or analyzing kind

19:34

of problems in

19:36

society. And

19:40

I've done a couple of works. Well,

19:43

I've done one other piece that was

19:45

Lovecraft-inspired. It was like an ode to

19:47

Lovecraft. I grew up in a small

19:49

town in North Dakota, which was just

19:53

culturally deficit. And

19:57

it was, you know, a small town.

20:00

small-town thinking, like there was just

20:02

no creativity. And

20:04

as a creative person, even as

20:06

a youth, like I just struggled.

20:08

And discovering Edgar

20:10

Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft

20:14

was like a boon to me. And

20:17

just kind of opened my eyes

20:19

to, you know, a broader

20:21

world. It kind of gave me this love

20:24

of the New England setting with

20:26

the twisted boughs on branches and,

20:28

you know, the hills and the

20:32

valleys and just

20:34

this beautiful area,

20:36

which also had this sort

20:38

of spookiness. But

20:40

I loved Lovecraft for his otherworldly,

20:44

you know, unnameable

20:47

creatures. And so

20:49

it was really, I

20:52

wanted to do something, a small little

20:54

chapbook that would sort of honor

20:57

this history that I have with

20:59

him and his stories and

21:02

was looking for something. Most

21:04

of my projects take a long time, a couple of

21:06

years at least. And so I wanted to

21:08

do something that was a little bit shorter. I'm

21:11

so inspired by the early

21:15

pulp stories as well as like the

21:17

illustrations. I mean, I think, you know,

21:19

so much of science fiction,

21:21

so much of what we see today,

21:23

owes something

21:27

to that kind

21:31

of the golden age of sci-fi era

21:33

in the early to mid 1900s.

21:35

And so I just

21:37

wanted to do a little piece that sort

21:39

of paid tribute to that. So how long

21:42

does it take you to produce this? It

21:44

actually took close

21:47

to a year, but that was, I'm

21:49

always working on multiple projects at once.

21:52

And it kind of took

21:54

me a while to determine like

21:56

the illustrative style. That's always kind

21:58

of unique. I want to each, typically

22:01

each project I do looks different. And

22:04

I wanted this to really

22:06

have this. I was reading a lot

22:08

of like old, creepy

22:10

and weird tales,

22:13

comics. And so I,

22:15

you know, I was really wanted to

22:17

pull that style of illustration in this as

22:19

well. So it was probably like nine months

22:21

to a year. And I mean, I

22:23

think, you know, we talked about the pulp magazines

22:25

are like amazing stories and things like that. They

22:29

were all they were pretty disposable.

22:31

They were they were cheaply produced,

22:33

cheap paper, you read

22:36

it, I guess people did collect them.

22:38

Of course they did. But they were,

22:40

I don't think they were intended for

22:42

collection. Yet, this is this is a

22:44

real quality piece of work. This is

22:46

probably this story has probably never been

22:48

produced in such quality as this probably.

22:53

And the paper itself,

22:56

tell me about the paper, how do you source

22:58

the paper? So I one of the things that

23:01

I do when I work on a

23:03

book project is I have

23:06

a I have an interest

23:08

in experience in experientiality or

23:10

like the experience of interacting

23:13

with the book, I seek to draw

23:16

people in and have them make a

23:18

deeper connection with the story through their

23:20

interaction with it, instead of just a,

23:23

you know, turning the page in a single

23:26

narrative. I mean, this is

23:28

a pretty straightforward one, but I still

23:30

kind of hid things throughout

23:32

there that, you know, would,

23:36

you know, kind of delight to as

23:38

you explore, there's some blind impressions of

23:41

the stalactites on the

23:43

cover. You

23:45

know, the dust jacket,

23:47

if you hold it up to the light,

23:49

it looks like a watermark through

23:52

the cover there. And

23:54

then with that, with the

23:56

sewn in flashlight as a bookmark. really

24:00

playing across the idea

24:03

that this book is all about fear,

24:06

fear of the other. It's

24:10

in the way my mind works when I want

24:12

to put a story on the paper.

24:16

How can I expand that? How can

24:18

I bring

24:21

my own creativity,

24:24

my own thoughts

24:27

to that story while

24:29

still paying tribute, not

24:32

changing it? So I thought

24:34

that, especially with Lovecraft's famous

24:37

quote about fear, the

24:39

strongest emotion of man is fear, the

24:41

strongest kind of fear is fear of

24:43

the unknown. I thought

24:46

that that felt really that tied in

24:48

so well with the story and it

24:51

seems to really harken to a lot

24:53

of things that's going on in the

24:55

world today. So we've got bigger

24:57

issues to deal with but we're still worried

24:59

about that dude because his clothes are weird

25:02

or their color is different or something and

25:04

it's just, I don't know,

25:06

I guess that's something I want to analyze and kind

25:08

of bring to the forefront. It's very

25:10

tactile as you say, the

25:13

cover which people won't get unless they

25:15

touch it, the weight of

25:17

it, the feel I'm running my fingers

25:19

over the cover because it's embossed. I don't

25:21

know if that is a technically correct way

25:24

of saying it feels embossed. There is a text

25:26

you to it. The

25:30

flashlight bookmark which has a little

25:32

message, a quote from Lovecraft

25:34

on the back. Even the

25:36

thread is like a quality thread. I

25:38

don't know if it's a wax thread

25:41

or but it feels, you know, and

25:43

so it's a very arresting thing so it's really

25:46

interesting what you say about people might not be

25:48

able to see this on the one

25:50

but see if it's a podcast of course but take

25:53

my word for it. It's

25:56

wonderfully done and when you sent it to me

25:58

I thought because normally I would have I

26:00

talked to writers as writers,

26:02

but interestingly, recently did an

26:04

interview with Lewis Darley, who

26:07

was a filmmaker and an

26:09

animator really, as well

26:11

as a writer. So it

26:13

just grabbed me, you know, it really did, it

26:15

really did grab me there. Now,

26:18

I've been reading a book, this book, I've been reading called

26:21

Saving the Appearances by a guy called Owen Barfield,

26:23

who was dead, and he was a friend of

26:25

C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien and people like that.

26:29

And one

26:32

of the it's a hard book, you know, but

26:34

one of the things he says is that if

26:37

you think you when you when you drink coffee, we

26:40

think that we think we can separate it into

26:44

I drink coffee as

26:46

if they're separate things. But these

26:48

experiences don't they don't come in

26:51

parts. We like we do

26:53

that like post hoc. We do that

26:55

after the event. So we

26:57

experience the thing as a whole.

26:59

So all our experiences are as

27:01

a whole. So when we're reading the

27:03

book, I'm putting people say

27:06

to me, if I ever they like

27:08

hearing the turning of the pages. So

27:10

I used to think, right, I want to I want to edit

27:12

that out. We want just the pure voice. But

27:14

then they like the turning of the page pages because

27:16

I think that's part of that whole book

27:18

reading experience. And so for me, particularly

27:22

with this book, the

27:24

feel of it, I can't get over the the

27:26

visuals of it, that the the

27:29

arresting graphics, but also the feel of

27:31

the page. And

27:33

so they are slightly slightly

27:36

different style. No, maybe not. They're not. I saw some of

27:38

them. I thought, well, you know, it looks slightly different. But,

27:42

you know, people are going to see it. Yeah,

27:47

no. So so what I'm saying about Owen Barfield is the

27:50

fact that he would say, you know, when

27:52

you drink the coffee, it's a fully so when you read a

27:54

book, it is the full experience of

27:56

reading the book. You don't go, I am the

27:58

stories in my head. one of my

28:00

fingers doing is separate. I think it enhances

28:02

the the

28:05

the story. So and the other thing

28:07

you said that was interesting is then

28:10

you have a similar task to me in

28:12

lots of ways in that when

28:14

people say, oh, read a story. It's not

28:16

it's about getting the right story at the

28:18

right length. That is the right feel

28:20

and is the right you know, has to be a lot of

28:22

right things. And it sounds like you picked

28:24

this. I didn't know this one based in the

28:26

cave. I don't think I'd ever read it. It's

28:28

like if I if I recall correctly,

28:31

like he started it when he was 14.

28:34

And then I think it was first published when he was

28:36

15. I

28:38

liked it because there's a

28:40

lot of these and I read a lot

28:43

of like old sort of anthologies. So like

28:45

right now I'm reading up a

28:47

Twilight Zone anthology that contains all this,

28:50

the original stories from like the

28:52

first two seasons that were then,

28:54

you know, changed into screenplays for the

28:57

first two seasons of the show. And

29:00

I mean, I grew up on those.

29:02

And it's so to read

29:05

the original stories and compare to the

29:08

the television show is I find

29:10

is really unique. But

29:13

so I read a lot of these, you know,

29:15

these, these older stories. And something

29:19

that draws me is these, you know, these,

29:21

these twist endings at the end, or the,

29:23

you know, these twists at the end. And

29:25

I thought that this was a delight, even

29:28

though as you read it as an adult, I think you can

29:30

pretty much see it coming. But

29:32

it almost felt to me like this

29:36

would be a good introduction

29:38

to not only like Lovecraft

29:41

and horror

29:43

for a young person, but

29:45

almost an introduction to

29:47

the book

29:50

as a collectible as well. You

29:53

know, I'm, I'm, I'm considered

29:56

a, I guess, a fine press

29:59

book artist. even

30:01

though, you know, I've

30:04

done a lot of horror and science

30:06

fiction versus say like, you know, a

30:09

throw which

30:13

a lot of traditional book artists, you

30:16

know, may gravitate towards. So

30:19

it's a little bit of a

30:21

unique niche, but it's

30:24

something in trying to because I

30:28

felt such delight in discovering these stories as

30:30

a kid. I kind of want to do

30:32

something that if you had

30:34

a young person that you would you could

30:36

introduce them to this and it's not rife

30:38

with his racism like it's some of his

30:41

later stuff. It's, you

30:43

know, you get a sense

30:46

of his vocabulary starting to

30:48

grow, you know, his, you

30:51

know, I can't remember if I think I

30:54

read it somewhere where basically someone was like,

30:56

you know, Lovecraft, why use 10

30:58

words when 26 will do

31:00

or something, you know, and there's most

31:04

syllabic words and they're long and it's like,

31:06

as a kid, I had to look, you know, I'd look

31:08

those up. What does this mean? And it was, again,

31:11

just kind of part of that discovery. And you can,

31:13

even though I think this,

31:15

you know, this is a youthful

31:17

story for him or a story

31:19

from his youth, you

31:21

can see that coming. You can

31:24

kind of feel that direction that

31:26

he's going to. And I think that

31:30

kind of gives a little

31:32

bit greater depth or insight as

31:34

well, you know, seeing something from

31:36

different stages of someone's career. I

31:39

mean, I think about Lovecraft's use

31:41

of language is easily

31:44

pastiche, if you like, you

31:46

know, the unspeakably blasphemous, squamous,

31:49

blah, blah, blah, you know.

31:52

And it's easy to do

31:54

that. But I think he's coming from in

31:56

many ways. I know he's looking forward. He's

31:58

cosmic horror kind of is, is. development

32:01

of horror themes or,

32:03

you know, I read a lot of the

32:05

classic ghost stories and these weird tales and

32:07

with Ashton Smith and people like that, they're

32:09

coming, they're looking forward to the new development

32:11

is what I'm trying to say. But he's,

32:14

this ornate vocabulary is something

32:16

very Victorian, whereby the Victorians

32:18

felt, you know, they were going to, they were

32:20

going to use these big words that you wouldn't

32:23

use in ordinary language to heighten

32:25

it, I think, and to make

32:27

it a separate, it wasn't intended to

32:29

be naturalistic. You know, like we

32:31

will, you know, these days, you're right, you

32:33

pick up a novel and it's written in

32:36

kind of straight language, you know, to be

32:38

immediate, but they weren't doing that and they

32:40

knew nobody, nobody spoke like this, they knew

32:42

that. But it

32:44

is an Easter trans stretchy vocabulary. So

32:47

I think I think that that is

32:49

interesting. It's not so much cosmic horror

32:51

in this one, but the

32:54

phobia, I mean, there is

32:56

a little bit in that

32:58

the weirdness of the the the

33:00

no spoilers because people have read it,

33:03

the the the milk

33:05

white ape man, if

33:07

you like. That

33:09

is fairly weird. But

33:11

the the getting

33:13

lost somewhere underground is in the

33:15

I mean, I don't know if

33:17

you might not magazine Alaska did

33:19

one called The Tower, which is

33:22

all about vertigo. It's a phobia

33:24

story. Basil copper did one called

33:26

The Spider, which is a rachna

33:28

phobia story. So there is a

33:30

fine tradition of single phobia stories,

33:32

if you like, you know, and

33:34

that's that's what this is. When

33:38

you were talking about I'm gonna you

33:40

know, my mind jumps. No, no,

33:43

go right. Yeah. We're talking about you're talking

33:45

about North Dakota.

33:47

Now, you have to

33:50

understand my US geography is

33:52

rudimentary. So I can kind

33:54

of point vaguely to

33:56

a map of the states where that is. How

33:58

far are you from? Utah. So

34:01

North Dakota borders Canada in the

34:04

middle of the country. So it's

34:07

central, far north. Utah

34:09

would be further

34:12

west and

34:15

then further south.

34:18

I'm not sure how to say like how

34:20

many miles or kilometers it is, but

34:22

it's about like maybe a third

34:25

of the country away or like a quarter away.

34:27

So it's a fair way. Exactly. Yeah. And I'll

34:29

tell you why I was saying

34:33

that because I remember

34:36

flying over at once, but the

34:39

skinwalker ranch jumped into my, you

34:41

know, because there's those kind of

34:44

crypto cryptids that lurk

34:46

in the middle of

34:48

the vast empty middle of the USA, you

34:50

know, in and you were talking about the

34:52

sun-baked plains, I think you said in the

34:55

beginning. So I'm like, oh yeah,

34:57

what lurks there? I mean, what things

34:59

are lurking there? And that seemed very

35:01

Lovecraftian, but I'm a thousand miles out.

35:03

Yeah. So the climate is hot in

35:10

the summer and cold. It's like a continental climate, hot

35:12

in summer cold, very cold in the winter.

35:15

Yes. And where

35:18

I grew up, I mean, there weren't a lot

35:20

of trees, so it wasn't like a lot

35:22

of shade. And I was also working on a

35:24

farm. So it's like you're out in a dusty

35:26

field all the time. And

35:29

I hated it. So like in the

35:31

winter, when you couldn't like to

35:33

curl up inside and, you know,

35:36

it's like the wind would

35:38

rush down from Canada.

35:41

It's very windy there. And, you

35:43

know, with the blowing snow, like that was just

35:45

the perfect setting to curl up with a book

35:47

and just get lost. There's a friend of mine

35:49

I've just seen, and he's saying he's in Oregon

35:52

and he's saying it's going to be like minus

35:54

10 degrees centigrade. And I don't

35:56

know what that is in Farahund. Yeah,

36:00

it's pretty cold though. It's

36:02

getting, yeah, it's gotten like, we've got a big

36:04

kind of like a nationwide storm that's kind

36:07

of affecting lots of places. So yeah, it's

36:10

suddenly much colder here than it has been

36:12

in the last several weeks. And

36:15

was it work that took you to

36:17

Minnesota? How did that happen? I

36:20

actually moved to Minnesota to

36:23

attend college. So

36:26

I'm in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis, St.

36:28

Paul. This is

36:30

where I went to school. And,

36:33

you know, this was back in the late 80s. And

36:36

then I've moved,

36:39

I did go into the Navy and

36:41

I've moved a little bit, but always

36:43

came back because there's a

36:46

lot of nature around. Like Minnesota

36:48

is much more wooded. We're

36:51

known as like the land of 10,000

36:53

lakes. So there's just a lot of nature to be

36:55

had. And it's

36:58

something that I really like is as

37:00

that, you know, being able to kind

37:02

of put your daily worries

37:04

away and just get out and sort of

37:06

really enjoy nature without

37:08

feeling like, you know, you're

37:11

just getting baked by the sun and

37:13

it's just uncomfortable. So is

37:15

it like a wilderness? I imagine

37:18

it's, when you get out, there's not

37:20

a lot of, I don't know, but

37:23

is it an empty sort of place for

37:26

people once you get away from the city? Not,

37:30

well, yes and no.

37:32

I mean, not, it's

37:34

not completely vacant. I mean, there's lots of

37:36

like small towns and stuff, but you can,

37:38

you know, you could, basically

37:41

there's like where I really like to

37:43

say holiday is go up to the

37:45

North Shore, which the

37:47

northern, northeast

37:51

portion of Minnesota borders

37:53

one of the great lakes. So

37:56

it's just very, it's very rocky up there. There's a

37:58

lot of, you know, the trees are more coniferous.

38:01

So it just, it feels, I've

38:04

always loved Colorado for the mountains. So

38:06

it kind of feels like that without

38:08

being as large or

38:10

majestic, but it's just, you

38:12

get a sense of ruggedness and

38:15

wilderness. You

38:18

know, so if you've ever read any

38:20

like, Jack London or something, it kind

38:22

of harkens back, harkens back to that.

38:24

Yeah, and what other projects are you

38:26

involved in at the moment? What else are you

38:29

doing? I'm working on a fun

38:31

project. I should have, I couldn't run

38:33

over and grab it. The

38:35

last big project that I did

38:37

was John W. Campbell's Who

38:40

Goes There? and which

38:42

is the basis for all the Thing

38:44

movies. Yeah. And

38:48

so that, that story is near

38:50

and dear to my heart. Like I remember

38:52

stumbling across the movie at

38:54

my grandparents house when

38:57

they left me alone for

39:00

a rare occasion where they went out to lunch

39:02

and I got to use

39:04

their cable television, which we didn't have,

39:07

and stumbled across this movie with

39:09

these effects of these creatures and it just

39:11

scared the bejesus out of me. I mean,

39:13

I ran outside in the front lawn just

39:15

because it was like sunny and bright

39:18

and like nothing can get me

39:20

here. And

39:22

so basically it took me a few

39:24

years to find who had

39:26

the copyrights to that and how could

39:29

I work with them and

39:31

found the literary agency and then we

39:33

worked up a contract. So I created

39:35

a limited

39:37

edition of Who Goes There? And

39:40

then one of my patrons

39:43

that bought it asked

39:45

me if I'd ever heard of Peter

39:47

Watts's The Things. And

39:50

so I had, I said no and

39:52

I looked it up and read it.

39:55

And so Peter Watts is a contemporary

39:57

Canadian author. He's

39:59

a zoobiologist. He's got a

40:01

brilliant mind. And

40:03

he took the story of the

40:06

thing and rewrote

40:08

it from the viewpoint of the alien

40:10

itself. And so it's

40:13

just, it's so good. It's

40:15

so good. And so I reached

40:17

out to him and I said, hey, can I

40:20

make a version of your book? And

40:23

so right now, that's what I'm

40:25

working on. I'm going to be launching

40:27

it later this month and

40:29

basically taking pre-orders. I've done a

40:31

lot of illustrations for it. And

40:34

I'm working on the binding and how

40:36

the book itself will look. But

40:40

that whole sort of like that universe,

40:43

like a Marvel universe or the DC

40:45

universe or whatever, this sort

40:47

of universe around the thing, this idea

40:49

of this creature that held

40:53

far beyond humankind, that it can

40:55

change shape and it's

40:57

conquered all these worlds. So it

40:59

has this knowledge

41:01

of eons of societies

41:06

alone here on earth and

41:09

trying to under... It's

41:11

like it wakes up and humans are trying to kill it

41:14

and he's just like, what's

41:16

going on? And

41:19

it's just delightful. And

41:22

so I've been really working hard

41:24

on like, how do

41:26

you illustrate a story? How

41:28

do you show something

41:30

from the viewpoint that's

41:33

so drastically different? And

41:37

so that's been a very fun project

41:42

to kind of dig into. Well, you've sold

41:44

it to me. I now want to get

41:46

hold of all your books. So

41:50

that's a good segue into how do

41:52

people get hold of your work? Yeah.

41:56

So I'm in a few

41:59

book dealers. deal carry

42:01

my work in the United States.

42:04

If any of your listeners

42:07

or viewers in the UK or elsewhere

42:09

are interested in carrying it, I would

42:12

be happy to talk to them. But

42:14

for most people, the easiest way would

42:17

be to go to my website. So

42:19

it's angelbomb.com. Just all

42:22

one word. Nice and easy.

42:24

angelbomb.com. Yeah. Yeah,

42:27

you know, you know, I was thinking, there

42:29

was that, I was I went

42:31

into that when we were in the States last I

42:33

went into a bookshop in Providence, Rhode

42:36

Island in the arcade, which is the

42:38

age pre Lovecraft bookshop, you may be

42:40

being there. Yes, I've been there.

42:42

It's like the art Lovecraft arts and sciences.

42:45

I love craft arts and science. That's it.

42:47

That's it. Yes. Do

42:50

they have your work there? They

42:53

should do if they haven't. They've

42:55

been difficult to work with.

42:57

I can't remember if they bought one

42:59

or not. It's yes,

43:01

it would be perfect. It

43:04

would be perfect to go there. So one

43:06

contacted me who has a shop

43:08

in that arcade, heard the podcast, and I said

43:10

I've been in there anyway, you must have walked

43:12

past our shop. You know, they

43:15

weren't the Lovecraft. So it's amazing who listens to

43:17

this now. I'm constantly amazed people say, Oh, yeah,

43:19

I was listening to your podcast. I'm like,

43:21

Oh, blimey. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

43:23

you never know. So if anybody wants to carry

43:26

it, or get in touch with you

43:28

in the in the first instance. And the other thing

43:30

that you've said that is interesting, sparked my interest is,

43:32

you know, kind of working with them. I've

43:35

always been I've done kind of some live,

43:38

like living authors work,

43:40

other people like the

43:43

hell house. Mathison's hell

43:45

house, you know, he did I am

43:47

Legion. And Richard Mathison and I

43:49

thought, Oh, God, I would love to do

43:52

a version of that. But it's

43:54

that shyness about reaching out to them and then

43:56

thinking, they're going to tie up in legal knots,

43:58

and you're going to end up paying a

44:00

fortune to do a version of it. But

44:04

it sounds like that isn't the case with many people. Well,

44:07

we'll see. It's

44:09

interesting. I

44:16

don't know what the average sort of

44:18

percentage is. But I

44:21

felt with working

44:24

with the

44:26

literary agency that Campbell's

44:28

estate, I felt

44:30

that they were completely reasonable. And maybe in

44:34

part because they've

44:36

been doing it for a long time. Or

44:40

working with live authors, I'd

44:44

sent my first proof to Peter. And

44:49

his response was a

44:51

little bit surprising. It turns out I couldn't

44:54

remember where I got my basic

44:57

document. So it turns out there

44:59

were some errors in that that

45:01

I wasn't aware of.

45:06

So he was surprised by

45:08

that or disappointed. But it's like, OK, well, you send

45:10

me the official copy, and we'll get this fixed. I'm

45:14

not trying to slip

45:17

one over on you and slip in

45:19

it. Do anything radically

45:21

different to your story. But

45:25

he seemed pretty

45:27

content or open to the

45:30

idea of, I made

45:32

this story. If you want to do, I've

45:34

done my bit with it. If

45:38

you want to do something here, feel welcome. And

45:42

of course, but you, in a sense, not

45:44

transform it. Everybody

45:47

changes it. Your interpretation through

45:49

your art is an addition

45:51

to his. He's been

45:53

one person. You're another person. And

45:56

say, you know, in the way I do

45:58

with things, am I. my then

46:00

voice interpretation is yet another aspect

46:03

of the story. But you know, I always feel

46:05

I feel like that myself if I write something,

46:08

well, I've done that, even just

46:10

in the reception of it, you may have the same idea.

46:14

People respond to your work in their own

46:17

way. And you can't predict how they will. And

46:19

even if they unless they love it, they love

46:21

it in

46:23

their own way, you know, they have their own

46:26

resonances and their own attachments

46:28

to it. So but yeah, it is interesting.

46:31

So maybe I'll be a bit braver and

46:33

contact people. So okay, we I can see

46:35

from the clock, we're running out of time.

46:37

So I don't you can see the clock

46:39

there, but there is a clock counting us

46:41

down. No, no, I can see

46:43

it yet. So I don't want to kind

46:45

of end it halfway through. So angel bot

46:48

bomb.com. You've done a

46:50

whole ton of work already

46:52

that people can access. Yep, I

46:56

the beast in the cave was my

46:58

seventh book. So I'm there,

47:00

you know, they vary in

47:02

size and scope. But

47:05

you know, right now, you know, the

47:07

next book I'll be publishing is the

47:09

things I've got a couple of more

47:11

personal works coming after that. But

47:15

I'm also here,

47:17

like, this is the first time that I've spoken

47:19

about this publicly. But next

47:22

year, like in one year, I'm going

47:24

to be sailing to Antarctica Wow, for,

47:27

for thank you for a

47:31

for research for some books based on

47:33

climate change, but also, because

47:36

I want to do my

47:39

own interpretation of this idea

47:41

of an alien

47:43

creature on that

47:45

continent. And so I'm going to go

47:48

and do research there. So so eventually,

47:50

I, you know, all have

47:52

created like a trilogy of books

47:54

sort of based around the thing

47:56

like with who goes there, the

47:58

things and then my, my forthcoming

48:00

projects. That's massively

48:03

exciting. Be careful of the mountains

48:05

of madness. I will.

48:08

Yeah. But, yeah, fantastic.

48:10

We're about to be cut off. So,

48:14

and at that point, dear listener, we were cut off.

48:17

I think we had an exchange of emails to see

48:19

whether we should reconnect, but I

48:21

think everything to be said had been

48:23

said. So remember Angel, angelbomb.com,

48:28

Todd Thyberg. I'll put the links in the show

48:31

notes. It was a nice, interesting

48:33

diversion. The story itself was

48:35

simple. It was short. It was one of Lovecraft's

48:37

early ones. Did he say, I didn't know this,

48:40

but he was 14 years old when

48:42

he wrote it. If that's true, that's pretty

48:44

good. It's not a bad story at all

48:46

for a 14-year-old. Goodness me, no. Todd's

48:49

work, honestly, is a

48:51

tactile delight and

48:54

a visual delight as well with the illustrations. You can

48:56

see how they harken back to the pulp illustrations.

49:00

That whole tradition of illustrating stories, which I always

49:02

liked, which was a big thing and

49:04

which we've fallen out of these days, I

49:07

like illustrated books. I think the

49:09

final thing I want to say is, of course, a

49:11

book. I

49:15

do use e-readers, but a book is

49:17

a book. A book is

49:19

not just the

49:21

words in it. It is the

49:23

feel of it, is the object. I think

49:25

many of you, I'm probably preaching to the

49:27

converted here. I'm sure many of you actually

49:29

have books. For those of

49:32

you who go with e-readers, I'm not dissing

49:34

you. I'm just saying, just get some, just

49:36

feel those books. Get one of Todd's books.

49:38

Just feel it. Yeah, the

49:40

paper, the embossing, the art. And

49:43

the little Easter eggs that he puts in.

49:45

Definitely well worth it. So back to classic,

49:47

well it was a classic, we tell us

49:49

both. More of that soon. Thank

50:00

you. Thank

50:32

you. Thank

51:00

you. Thank

51:31

you. Thank

51:36

you. of

52:00

the Heartwood Institute and of course the words,

52:02

the sample is from the 1970s Satanist biker

52:07

movie or zombie biker movie, I can't remember,

52:09

I have seen it, Psychomania.

52:12

It was called something else in the US, something

52:14

like Satanic Hell's

52:16

Angels or something, but it's

52:19

a very British film to be

52:21

fair. So anyway, Jonathan, yes,

52:24

thanks to Jonathan as always, thanks

52:26

to Todd, thanks to you for listening, hope I didn't wake you

52:28

up.