Lovecraft Launched, Now Into Day One --

The Friday night launch of the Horror in the Hills: HP Lovecraft in Vermont event went purty well, concluding with lively readings from Faye Ringel and Joe Citro -- after a solid lineup of others, including yours truly.

Now, off to bed, with Day One of the event ahead later this morning. My 4 PM presentation is set to go, offering an overview of the seminal underground comix Skull adaptations of Lovecraft's works (with a focus on the late, great Jack Jackson's version of The Hound and the very-much-alive-and-still-kicking Richard Corben delineation of The Rats in the Walls, to my mind still the finest of all Lovecraft comix or comics adaptations).

OK, we're outta here! Lovecraft Fest, ho!

Greater Horrors Every Day

In the meantime, who can sleep any longer? We're reeling in escalating daily horrors of our own making. Any conceivable Lovecraftian horrors -- however cosmic in scale -- seem miserably feeble in the shadow of grim reality. With

Rumsfeld refuting culpability for the complete destabilization of Iraq and the utter failure of his own lunatic strategies and policies, insisting it's all up to the Iraqis now,

and the President maintaining his maniacal "stay the course" lunacy,

it's no surprise we're seeing

our own GIs driven round the bend in one of the most horrific (reported) stateside shockwaves of the war to date.

It's all of a piece, damn this fucking war.

At this point, mere rats in the walls would seem a blessing...

[Sunday AM note: This appears not to have been published as of this AM. Too bad -- well, here's hoping these blogging woes are worked out this week... keep you posted, nyuk nyuk!]