L’Oracle du Mort: One of many amazing clockwork pieces by Thomas Kuntz to be featured here in the Archive. Thomas Kuntz, a professional artist for over 20 years, began as a sculptor of Commercial Toys, but later gained notoriety circa ’89-98 as a pioneer in the making of model kits based on old silent films like Nosferatu, The Man Who Laughs, Vampira, and others. After a period of time Kuntz found that merely sculpting his dark creations was not nearly enough for him, and that he wanted to give life to his creations through mechanical, perhaps supernatural means… This change in method resulted in some of the darkest and most interesting automations known to man, and not nearly as many fatalities and disappearances as may be rumored. You may have seen Thomas’ twisted creations in many places, though you may not have been aware of the crafter behind them, or the astounding degrees of meticulous craftsmanship responsible for their being. Mr. Kuntz’ creations have served in the armies and arsenals of many noteworthy people, interesting […]
Tag: strange fiction
Gate House Gazette #7
In response to the discovery of lost Metropolis footage, issue #7 is dedicated to this 1927 classic of silent film and the metropolis in general. Of course there is a review of the original Metropolis, by Mr Marcius Rauchfuß, as well as an article about the 2001 anime of the same name, by Mr Sigurjón Njálsson. For the latest about what is going on in that other fine city, the Old Smoke called Londontown, we introduce Brigadier Sir Arthur Weirdy-Beardy of The Steampunk Club, while Mr David Townsend is off to farther realms once again, traveling by the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney, Australia. We are also extremely glad to present an exclusive preview of Mr Toby Frost’s upcoming Space Captain Smith novel, Wrath of the Lemming Men! And it almost goes without saying that this issue features all the columns and features that you might have come to expect from us: Ms Hilde Heyvaert writes her “Steampunk Wardrobe” about ethnic steampunk; Mr Craig B. Daniel dedicates his “Liquor Cabinet” to a story about […]
“The Rain Maker” by Phillip Challis
The Rain-Maker by Phillip Challis Published with permission May 18th, 2009 Morgan Booth looked up at a stretch of wide blue sky and waited for the miracle to happen. With the winds kicking up, little dust devils tumbled across the plains and scoured the land. Standing on the edge of town, Booth found himself surrounded by a sizable crowd of townsfolk. Their mood struck him as electric, like the static carried on dry winds that sometimes threw blue sparks off wire fences at night. That’s how it was with the people. They had an excited air about them. He could see a few had even gone so far as to throw coarse blankets down on the bare ground. Families tucked into their picnic dinners and children played in what used to be fertile soil now gone to lifeless powder. This town was just the latest in a string of used up little communities he’d wandered into and out of again over the past few months. The past few summers had seen withered crops and wasted […]
Antarctic Experiment
“All in all, the experiment was a brilliant success, though it ran for a shorter time than desired. The Resonator had to be shut down prematurely, else we might not have had enough crew to make it comfortably back to port. Over forty Russian tribesmen bravely gave their lives to science this day – a terrible tragedy as they will surely be expensive to replace. Also lost was an entire crate of ether, carelessly dropped from the edge of a berg in the midst of today’s activities – a tragedy on so many levels. Nevertheless, we saw many wondrous and splendid things this day: creatures and landscapes from the aether danced and swam about us through the air, and we saw the laws of our world temporarily suspended by those of the aether world. It leaves me to wonder: How closely does the placement of their world correspond with ours? Are these same creatures to be found elsewhere on our planet, or would we perhaps find other inhabitants should the machine be tested in new […]
Call for Submissions
We of the Miskatonic Archive have been rather indisposed these last few weeks – Myke Amend has been working away at commissions, home repairs, income taxes and the like. Bethalynne Bajema has been finishing up her Tarot card set and seeking publishers. All the archive members have been up to their ears in much of the same. Our goal here has always been to bring some of the best and most interesting literature, artwork and inventions that fit into our school’s advanced metaphysics curriculum, but we have not had a lot of submissions lately, and our exploration budget has been drastically cut for this fiscal year. So, here is our reminder, that we do take submissions, and do rather enjoy them. There is only so much that can be found searching online, and many of the places we find things are many of the places people such as you, such as us already tend to frequent. We would like to do more than to simply mirror content from our and your favorite sites, and since […]
The Vineyard
An earlier painting by Myke Amend, now available in printed form at 11×14 inches and printed edge to edge in high detail. The Vineyard depicts a strange sort of harvest, or perhaps a strange means of conception, making for a very Lovecraftian strange-fiction themed image, brilliantly, vividly colored, yet oh so dark. Printed in 200 years archival pigment ink, heavy metallic stock in order to best bring out the rich colors and contrast of this vibrant piece. A UV-protective lustre finish also helps protect the print against moisture and scratches. Print size (edge to edge) is 11 x 14 inches, and can be purchased at mykeamend.com, or at Beth and Myke’s Joint Etsy Account: Ettadiem Prof. Aden M. Kemywww.mykeamend.com
Professor Semper Vogel’s Reading Machine
At the height of the Spiritualist Movement when creators like Huxley Auspex were inventing their other worldy creations like the Auspicmoriscope, a more mundane line of invention was being attempted by brilliant creator Professor Semper Vogel. Vogel, not content to simply teach his knowledge and try and inspire the youth of his city to push their gray matter towards more profound things, he put his talents and intellect to the task of inventing machines that would aid the afflicted in his world. His first attempts were at a clunky brand of hearing aids. Most of them proved too large and impractical for the individual use. They were little better than the old fashioned method of putting an ear horn to your head and hoping for more hearing clarity. After much frustration and failure Professor Vogel came upon an invention that seemed to conduct itself perfectly. The rather large invention was a reading machine, a device that could be placed over a page of written words that were read and clearly reproduced aloud from a speaking […]
From Beyond
Written in 1920 by H. P. Lovecraft Published June, 1934 in The Fantasy Fan Horrible beyond conception was the change which had taken place in my best friend, Crawford Tillinghast. I had not seen him since that day, two months and a half before, when he told me toward what goal his physical and metaphysical researches were leading; when he had answered my awed and almost frightened remonstrances by driving me from his laboratory and his house in a burst of fanatical rage. I had known that he now remained mostly shut in the attic laboratory with that accursed electrical machine, eating little and excluding even the servants, but I had not thought that a brief period of ten weeks could so alter and disfigure any human creature. It is not pleasant to see a stout man suddenly grown thin, and it is even worse when the baggy skin becomes yellowed or grayed, the eyes sunken, circled, and uncannily glowing, the forehead veined and corrugated, and the hands tremulous and twitching. And if added to […]