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Edited by Leigh Blackmore for the SSWFT (Apr 30, 2010/ 37th
mailing),
& Esoteric Order of Dagon (Apr 30, 2010/ 150th mailing) Amateur Press
Associations.
78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2500. Australia.
Mantichore 5, No 2 (Whole number 17)
Contact lvxnox@gmail.com
Official Website: Blackmausoleum – http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/
Latest SSWFT news at: http://sswftapa.blogspot.com/
LB at Australian Horror Writers Association:
http://www.australianhorror.com/member_pages.php?page=86
LB’s library (catalogued) can be accessed at: http://www.librarything.com/profile/666777

Contents This Issue

Mantic Notes………………………………………….……….…………..………..2
In Memoriam: Harry K. Brobst……………………………………………………5
Interview: Dave Carson, Illustrator of Nightmares…………………………….6
Books by My Bedside: Joan Aiken……………………………………………...13

Mantic Notes
(Pronunciation:'man-tik. Etymology: Greek mantikos, from mantis: of, relating to the faculty of divination;
prophetic).

Job-searching has occupied me for several months. as has the usual continuous round of
manuscript assessments for my agencies. I’ve read several books for review (some for Dead
Reckonings, some for Studies in Aust Weird Fiction), and written a modicum of new poetry. I
also completed reading Lovecraft’s letters to Barlow (compelling!) but have not yet tackled
the two-volume Lovecraft-Derleth correspondence, though it awaits. I stupidly (and due to
lack of funds) missed buying the Howard-Lovecraft letters set from Hippocampus; will now
probably have to await a paperback edition, much to my annoyance. Copies of the hc set
were on the antiquarian market at outrageous prices up to $1000 US a matter of weeks after it
was declared O/P by Hippocampus. //We had a weekend away in January with our occult
group MoonsKin, this time facilitated by Margi and Graham, as we undertook a mythic
journey based on the Sumerian myth of the Descent of Inanna – a very powerful piece of
inner work. It was nice to be in a bush setting away from the city for a bit, although the odd
bush rat crawling over us in our bunks at night was unsettling to say the least!//Apart from
that, poor health, rehearsals with our band and family preoccupations (including Graham
having a major dental operation, and our kitchen being renovated ) have filled much of my
time//My co-editors and I have been pushing towards completing Studies in Australian Weird
Fiction No 4 and it will be a bumper issue when it appears.// I’m currently reading stories for
the fifth issue of Midnight Echo, published by the Australian Horror Writers Association –
have received upwards of sixty submissions for the issue so far.// One of the more interesting
occasions for me recently was having lunch in February with my old school friend Lindsay

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Walker, whom I had not seen for over 20 years. Lindsay it was who first introduced me to HP
Lovecraft back in the mid-seventies, and who co-founded with me the Arcane Sciences
Society and the Horror-Fantasy Society at our Newcastle high school. He also got me
interested in reading Tarot, reading deeply the works of Aleister Crowley, and in absorbing
ancient Egyptian religion & mythology – interests which remain with me to this day. We
attended together Aussiecon 1 in 1975, the first World Science Fiction Convention to be held
in Australia (I was but 15 years of age). Together we ordered books from Space Age Books,
Melbourne’s specialist sf supplier, tracked
down our first Arkham House books, and
wrote some never–published Lovecraftian
stories such as “The Horror in the
Manuscript.” Together we drove all over the
Hunter Valley region during the high school
years taking in horror movies of the time, and
screened horror films at school under the
auspices of our Horror-Fantasy Society. We
made a short film based on Clark Ashton
Smith’s “The Double Shadow” and scripted a
version of “The Music of Erich Zann”,
destined never to be filmed. Lindsay has
moved away from all that, but it was most enjoyable catching up with him in Newtown for
lunch and we spent several hours reminiscing about old
times. Here’s a picture of me with the man who made me a
Lovecraftian: //Juha-Matti Rahala has now joined SSWFT,
and John Haefele is thinking of doing so, so SSWFT may
have an overlap of four EOD members (including Fred
Phillips and Martin Andersson), a nice crossover. //Ex-OE of
SSWFT, Benjamin Szumskyj, will have an edition of rare Fritz
Leiber material out from Subterranean Press in October–
Strange Wonders. He tells me he had almost given up on
seeing it in print, when it was suddenly accepted. The
volume looks like a must for Leiber fans. // Danny
Lovecraft’s P’rea Press has just published (somewhat delayed
– it was meant to appear in January but has come out in
April) Richard L. Tierney’s Savage Menace and Other Poems of
Horror, a beautiful volume and a must have for fans of weird
verse. See my review of it online at: http://ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-
savage-menace-and-other-poems-of.html. If you wish to purchase it – there are only 100
hardcover copies, some already sold – please contact P’rea Press at:
DannyL58@hotmail.com.//I have undertaken a program of turning all my old correspondence
into PDFs. Digitising the contents of my filing cabinet will keep me busy for some time. One
day someone may be interested in the old correspondence, such as that with Lovecraftians
going back to the 1980s, and that with certain figures in the Australian weird/fantastic scene.
//
I caught up with Phillip Ellis in Sydney recently. Though we had little time to spend
together, due to Phillip’s other commitments, we had coffee and a catchup at Jet Café and
talked of our multifarious current plans. I managed to get to Galaxy Bookshop and purchased
Terry Dowling’s Make Believe (Ticonderoga Press) and S.T.’s American Supernatural Tales. //
I’ve watched a slew of b-grade 1930s and 1940s b-grade horror movies recently and while
most of them were tortuous to watch due to their low production values, I still enjoyed seeing
most of them. Probably my favourite was The Island of Lost Souls, based on the HG Dr Wells

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novel The Island of Moreau, starring Charles Laughton as Moreau, and Bela Lugosi as ‘the
Sayer of the Law’. This was a classic I’d never caught up with before; great moody
photography and surprisingly effective treatment of the novel’s themes. //My Honours thesis
from last year finally got bound and I have been able to present copies of it to author Terry
Dowling, to the Sydney Jung Society and to my parents. Van Ikin’s long-running and
respected Science Fiction magazine will print the critical thesis on Dowling in two parts over
forthcoming issues, so it will be a little more accessible than just a dusty old thesis shelved
away at the university. Meanwhile, if you’re really keen to read it, you can download a free
copy from here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/28002113/Deep-in-the-Reality-Crisis-
Individuation-Mytho-Realism-and-Surrealistic-Traces-in-Terry-Dowling-s-Tom-Rynosseros-
Cycle. I have re-applied to formally graduate and should be able to do so in July. // I’ve
managed to find time to actually read a few books for pleasure, and read them cover to cover
for once. From Baltimore to Bohemia: The Letters of George Sterling & H.L. Mencken, edited by STJ
was fascinating. I mightily enjoyed Michael Shea’s Polyphemus, which I had been meaning to
read for years. It was truly remarkable, and I now want to track down his Nifft the Lean
books as well as ST’s new antho of Shea’s Mythos tales, Copping Squid. I also knocked over
E.H. Visiak’s Medusa, J.G. Ballard’s The Unlimited Dream Company, and Jack Mann’s Nightmare
Farm. Books I merely dipped into to read stories included Henry S. Whitehead’s Jumbee and
Other Uncanny Tales and Lucius Shepard’s The Ends of the Earth – a feeble attempt to begin to
actually read the many Arkham House books I have collected. //
Since last time I received two books about August Derleth by John
Haefele. One, a bibliography, came with the compliments of John
himself. The other, August Derleth Redux, published by Henrik
Harksen Productions, was sent to me by the publisher in return for
some small favour I had done him. I thank these gentlemen
immensely for their gifts. John Navroth was kind enough to send
no less than three signed copies of his still-in-print poetry booklet
More Fungi from Yuggoth, so I am able to give signed copies to
Danny Lovecraft and Perry Grayson as well – this must await my
next infrequent visit to Sydney. Many thanks, John, you’re a
gentleman and a scholar! I was also grateful to receive a
photocopy of some Robert H. Barlow materials including ON
LOVECRAFT AND LIFE, which I was missing, from Marcos Legaria; and S.T. Joshi provided
me with a copy of Duane Rimel’s “Dreams of Yith” poetry sequence, which I had had trouble
locating. I am humbled by the generosity of all these fellow weird fiction enthusiasts // I’m
giving some thought to running more magical workshops at Lotus Bookshop in Wollongong
shortly, once the new owner has settled in there (it changed
hands recently). Meanwhile, I’m working on my next Sherlock
Holmes story, for the anthology Gaslight Arcanum. It all seems to
be enough to keep me out of mischief.//I must apologise (for the
second issue running) that I am making no mailing comments
here. I do hope to get back on track, but I hope the extensive
Dave Carson interview will be some compensation. //Fred & Dee
Phillips will be visiting Sydney in early June, and Danny
Lovecraft and I will show them some sights including the
Australian Museum. It will be great to meet Fred and indulge in
bibliomaniac discussions…Perry Grayson and Phillip Ellis may
also be able to join us.//Many thanks to Graham Wykes for some
design assistance with this issue of Mantichore.

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 IN MEMORIAM:
HARRY K. BROBST – LOVECRAFT’S FRIEND

The Rev. Dr. Harry Brobst, longtime resident of Stillwater, died Jan. 13, 2010, in Joplin, Mo.
He was born Feb. 11, 1909, in Wilmington, Del. His parents were Harry Walter and Cora
Annie Kern Brobst. He was married to Judith Sylvia Heideman, who died about 15 years ago.
He was a registered psychiatric nurse and received his B.A. from Brown and his M.A. and
Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
According to Joshi and Schultz’s An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia: “Securing HPL’s
address from Farnsworth Wright, Brobst wrote to HPL, probably in the autumn of 1931,
receiving a cordial reply. In early 1932, Brobst entered a program in psychiatric nursing at
Butler Hospital in Providence, and from that time until HPL’s death he was a frequent visitor
at HPL’s home and companion on his local travels, including Bristol and Warren, R.I. in
March 1932 (SL 4.29) and a tour of Butler Hospital sometime in 1932 (SL 4.191).“ (There is
more information in the Encyclopedia regarding Brobst’s involvement with Lovecraft.,
including the fact that Brobst confirmed that HPL worked briefly as a ticket agent in a movie
theater in downtown Providence.
Brobst was for 28 years a faculty member in the psychology department at Oklahoma
State University. His work involved measuring people and their responses. He did some
testing of children for the public schools. Following his retirement from OSU, Harry obtained
a master of divinity degree in 1977 at Phillips Seminary, located then in Enid. He was
ordained in 1977 by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Stillwater and served as minister for
three years. At his death, he was the last surviving founding member of the church, which he
helped organize in 1947.
Brobst’s extensive recollections of HPL are recorded in “An Interview with Harry K.
Brobst” (Lovecraft Studies Nos 22/23 [Fall 1990]: 22-42; abridged version in Peter Cannon’s
Lovecraft Remembered as “Autumn in Providence: Harry K. Brobst on Lovecraft.”)
Harry is survived by his cousins Penni Lee, Amy and William Fallow of Joplin, Mo.
He asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the UU Church and/or the Humane
Society. His memorial service, which he requested to be called "A Gathering of Friends," was
at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13, at the church. His ashes were scattered.

PHOTOS FROM THE 1990 LOVECRAFT CENTENNIAL CONFERENCE

It’s nearly 20 years since the HPL Centennial Conference. I can hardly believe it! William E.
Hart, who attended, has put a long sequence of his photos of the occasion up on Flickr.com: ,
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/3831646300_2
bdc01eacd_m.jpg&imgrefurl=http://lovecraftnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.
html&usg=__oRq-
OTCzXXI9wI6y5eSqN2uCW0=&h=240&w=158&sz=21&hl=en&start=17&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid
=HKPagtmlda1rKM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=72&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dharry%2Bbrobst%2Blovec
raft%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-
US:official%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1I have many photos from the
conference in my own collection, but currently I have used all my free
photos (200) at Flickr and can’t afford to open an account. If & when I
eventually do, I’ll put my photos up so fellow Lovecraftians can share
them. And maybe I’ll finally even print my Pilgrimage to Providence
recollections of my voyage from Australia…

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 DAVE CARSON:
ILLUSTRATOR OF NIGHTMARES
Interview by Leigh
Blackmore

LB: Dave, I first

encountered your
illustrative work in some of
the fantasy and horror
fanzines of the early 1980s
such as the British Fantasy
Society’s Dark Horizons and
Dave Reeder’s Skeleton
Crew. I still have my copy of
the lavish Italian-published
magazine Kadath (July 1982)
– the special on occult
detectives – which featured
some superb black and
white work by you. Around
that time I commissioned
from you a letterhead for
my long-since-defunct ‘HP
Lovecraft Bio-
bibliographical Centre’ – a
superb piece which I still
use (although not as often
in these days of email!). As
a subscriber to Carl Ford’s
Dagon magazine (sadly
missed!) I saw much more
of your excellent art. For
many years (through the
eighties and nineties) I had
laminated prints of your
illustrations from the
portfolio Haunters of the
Dark and Other Lovecraftian
Horrors decorating my
living-room walls, and I’m
proud to say that I still have
the signed copy of one of the original black and white (I think it was an edition of 300) H.P.
Lovecraft 1890-1937 posters on the wall in my work area – now accompanied by the more
recent colour HP Lovecraft poster where you’ve depicted him with the tentacled face! And
naturally I have many of the books in which you’ve had illustrations or design work, perhaps
pre-eminently Fedogan and Bremer’s Shadows Over Innsmouth anthology. It’s a pleasure to
finally interview you after all these years….

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 You’ve cited Lee Brown Coye (1907-81), American illustrator and sculptor whose
work appeared in magazine s such as Fantastic and Amazing and in many August Derleth
anthologies, as well as HP Lovecraft’s Three Tales of Horror and Manly Wade Wellman’s Worse
Things Waiting, as an influence on your work. In what ways do you see Coye’s work as
inspiring your own, and what do you admire about the man and his artistic output?
DC: When I first encountered Coye’s work in the 60’s I considered it to be almost a
joke. I thought that here was someone who just couldn’t draw at all. I mean, what the hell are
all these sticks everywhere? And just look at those misshapen characters! As I grew older,
and wiser, I came to appreciate what he was doing and to love it. From what limited
knowledge I have about the man’s life I gather he was a self-taught artist just like me, and it’s
his bare-faced originality that I admire. There was simply no one who could draw the bizarre
and grotesque like Coye. It seemed to come very naturally to him.
LB: You also express admiration for the work of the American Norman Blayne
Saunders (1907-89), illustrator for many forms of popular culture from the pulps, paperbacks,
men’s magazines, comics and trading cards. What it is about Saunders’ work that appeals to
you?
DC: It was his art for the MARS ATTACKS! trading cards that did it for me, but he
was also a very talented artist in other areas. I loved those outrageous, gory, almost
hallucinatory images of giant bugs eating people, Martian death rays burning the flesh off
dogs and cows, and those evil looking Martians themselves. Crazy shit! Of course there was
outrage about them in the newspapers at the time. I remember The Belfast Telegraph ran a
front page feature along the lines of BAN THESE SICK CARDS, accompanied by about four
reproductions of the grossest ones. So, if I hadn’t been aware of them before I saw that feature
I sure would have been straight down to my corner shop and bought some right away after
seeing that headline. Outrage is always great advertising. His AMERICAN CIVIL WAR cards
were pretty grim too, lots of blood and gore, but I preferred the Martian stuff of course. I’ll
never forgive Tim Burton for turning MARS ATTACKS! into a slapstick joke of a movie.
LB: Neil Gaiman quotes a story about you in which you talk about loving HP
Lovecraft’s work simply because you “love to draw monsters”. Is that a true story, and how
would say Lovecraft has influenced you? Do you re-read his stories, or have you absorbed his
influence thoroughly into your work over the years?
DC: I’m constantly dipping into HPL’s writings – and it never ceases to give me
inspiration, even after all these years. Few writers can do that. Neil’s story is indeed true. I
said it on a panel discussion at some Fantasy Con many years ago and the quote seems to
have stuck with me. They’ll probably chisel it on my tombstone. He even wrote it up in a
piece he did for KNAVE men’s magazine back then. My exact remark was “I just like
drawing monsters”, which I do.
LB: Your MySpace site describes your occupation as “Obscure Struggler.” Is that how
you feel about your career in art and illustration? What are some of the frustrations of being
an artist? What are some of the best, most rewarding experiences you have had in getting
your vision out there?
DC: That’s a little joke really. One of Arthur Machen’s characters in The Recluse of
Bayswater is described as a “realist and obscure struggler”. I can certainly identify with that.
Come to think of it, I once lived in Bayswater... A lot of Machen’s writing is slyly humorous,
something that’s generally ignored. I am a struggler, and let’s face it, pretty obscure.
That doesn’t particularly worry me though as I consider the stuff that I produce as
outsider art, and am happy with it that way. What would bother me would be having to bow
down to the dictates of an “art editor” probably fresh from college and knowing significantly
less than I do on the subject of horror illustration and more about slapping a picture from an
image library on a book. I have a very low tolerance threshold for this class of asshole, but
unfortunately publishing appears to be full of them.

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 Practically everyone who wants me to do some work for them are more often than
not in a great hurry for it. Take a casual glance at my drawings and it’s easy to see that they
are not something that can be knocked out quickly in an afternoon. A client recently asked me
when the art would be finished. I asked him when the deadline was. He replied that in an
ideal world he really needed it last week. My reply was that in an ideal world I could pull
finished artwork out of my ass. And so it goes... As for the rewarding experiences, I’ll get
back to you on that one.
LB: Your work has been praised by great writers of the horror and fantasy field
including Fritz Lieber and Karl Edward Wagner, and you are admired by fellow weird artists
such as Harry O. Morris. You have won the British Fantasy Award for Best Artist on five
occasions. What else is there left for you to achieve in your chosen field?
DC: I would like to get paid a decent rate for my work.
LB: Tell us more about your eccentric uncle who used to leave tied up bundles of
books in the attic. How did that help develop your artistic inclinations?
DC: That was my Uncle Jim, god bless him. James Speers, one of my mother’s three
brothers. He was an ordinary working class Belfast man, employed by the railway company
at one point. He was also an extraordinary man on many levels, and an avid reader who was
quite learned in astronomy,
science, politics, history and
myriad other subjects. I
remember him as being always
jovial and kind, and bearing a
remarkable resemblance to Oliver
Hardy. He separated from his
wife, moving out of their home
into rented accommodation when
I was quite young, and had
nowhere to store his many books
other than the attic of the small
house where my grandmother,
mother, and I lived. I used to
climb up through a trap door into
the attic with a candle and go through the dusty parcels of books which were wrapped in
brown paper and tied with string. There were volumes of encyclopedias, science and art
books, everything. It was like my own personal treasure trove. When I had no paper to draw
on I would sketch monsters and dinosaurs on the flyleaves of the books. Through some of
those books I became interested in natural history and this may show in a strange way
through my drawings. There always seems to be bits of insects and various invertebrates in
there somewhere.

LB: Did you draw at school? You left school at 15, correct? Did you immediately take
up art as a vocation? How did you land your first professionally published work in The
Encyclopedia of Horror (Octopus Books, UK, 1981)?.
DC: I drew even before school. I’ve probably always drawn. My mother and
grandmother gave me great encouragement. On leaving school art was the last thing on my
mind. I was more into music, babes and partying. My friends and I were all long haired
hippy types, which didn’t really go down too well in Belfast at the time. I eventually moved
into a rented house with a number of friends and one of them was a pretty good artist, so we
started producing rock/pop posters for sale to the public. These were drawn and painted in
poster paints on large sheets of card, and we had them stuck up in the window of the house.

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The neighbours must have loved us. Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and stuff like that. The main
objective was to earn enough money to go out on the town as frequently as possible.
An artist’s agent that I was briefly with in the early 80’s placed those two pieces with
Octopus Books for the Encyclopedia of Horror. If you look at the book (I think it gets
reprinted every now and again) you’ll see that my H.P.Lovecraft 1890-1937 poster drawing is
printed around quarter page size, whereas the Frank Long illustration is full page. I can only
assume that someone screwed up and put the Frank Long “Brain Eaters” piece, the original of
which was a small drawing and never meant to be enlarged to such an extent, on the
incorrect page and reduced the large H.P.Lovecraft piece to a little filler in a corner.
Publishers...
LB: Do you still have that issue of the Magazine of Horror where you first discovered
HP Lovecraft via the story ‘The Lurking Fear”?
DC: Unfortunately I do not. It must have been amongst the things I left behind in
Belfast when I departed for London all those years ago with just a small suitcase and £17 in
my pocket. A weird thing happened a few weeks ago. Every now and again I Google up
some old Belfast images – feeling nostalgic. Anyway, I happened to Google “Smithfield
Market, Belfast”. Smithfield was a strange covered market square in the town centre. You
could get everything there, used furniture, pets, you name it, it was there. I used to go
hunting through its many bookstalls after school and at weekends. On Google I came up with
an old photograph of the interior of the market taken sometime in the 1960’s that someone
had posted on their website. As I sat looking at it I suddenly realised that one of the figures in
the picture was me. It really was quite a shock. There I stood, back to the camera, outside the
bookshop where I had bought that very issue of Magazine of Horror which had sparked my
interest in Lovecraft. It all came flooding back in an instant. I downloaded that photograph
and enlarged it in Photoshop, printed it out, and it now hangs on my wall. I still get a strange
feeling thinking about it, I mean, what are the chances?
LB: As one HP Lovecraft’s most acclaimed and respected illustrators, what is your
favourite HP Lovecraft story? How would you assess Lovecraft’s influence on the horror
field?
DC: Lovecraft’s influence on the field is undeniably incalculable. I can think of no
other horror writer who has had such an impact on the genre.
I would have to say that my favourite is still “The Call of Cthulhu.”
LB: What is your preferred modern horror reading?
DC: None at all I’m afraid.
LB: Most of your work is black and white line illustration. Do you work mainly in
black and white because you admire the old time b&w illustrators like Finlay, Bok and Coye?
You’ve also produced some superb colour work, some of which can be seen online at:
http://www.templeofdagon.com/artists/dave-carson/ and more at
http://dcarson.deviantart.com/gallery/. Not to mention the absolutely fabulous limited signed
colour prints available from Elder Signs Press -
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.esp-
books.com/shop/images/cthonian.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.esp-
books.com/shop/index.php%3FcPath%3D65%26main_page%3Dindex&usg=__oxPBv34F_HO
xleg2oNshyoosVnk=&h=600&w=480&sz=35&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=WAJPI4AS
us4s_M:&tbnh=135&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddave%2Bcarson%26hl%3Den%26clie
nt%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-
US:official%26hs%3DHfZ%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1
Do you have plans to do more colour illustration?
DC: I’ve never been fully comfortable working in colour as I believe that dark visions
demand black and white. I prefer working with pen & ink as it seems to come more naturally
to me, for whatever reason. I don’t need to force it. I have to try much harder to produce

Page 9 of 14
something in colour that I’m content with. Perhaps it is the influence of the pulp magazines,
or it may be all those old encyclopedias with their marvellous black and white illustrations
that I read over and over again as a child. Then again, I had many early influences. I used to
love Steve Ditko’s work in those Warren magazines Creepy and Eerie.
LB: When did you see your first artwork by Harry Clarke, and how did it affect you?
Given Clarke was an Irishman like yourself (he was born in Dublin) did the locale of his birth
inspire you as an Irish-born illustrator?
DC: I can’t remember exactly. I’m sure that I must have been aware of his work from
an early age, given my reading habits. It was only much later that I discovered that he was
Irish, but where a person is born has never concerned me greatly. He was another seriously
underrated illustrator; just try looking for a book on Clarke, or Coye for that matter. Apart
from one or two hard to find volumes they just aren’t out there. There are many, many, books
on many, many lesser talents and that pisses me off a
great deal. Sadly we live in an era where imitation
and unoriginality are hailed as virtues by slack-
jawed publishers, journalists, film makers, educators,
and much of the knuckle-dragging public. Some
critics are of the opinion that Harry Clarke was
merely a Beardsley imitator and dismiss his work
completely. My own opinion is that this is far from
the truth. Beardsley rarely produced such richly
detailed illustrations as Clarke’s. The subject matter
of both artists is typically different too. With the
exception of a handful of Poe drawings Beardsley
could never really be classed as a horror illustrator,
as much as I love his work. The styles, though
superficially similar, are not close enough to warrant
accusations of plagiarism on Clarke’s part. For an
artist to be driven so low as to plagiarise another’s
work it is usually indicative of a terrible lack of
imagination and creativity and I see no evidence of
this in Clarke’s work at all, in fact it is full of
marvellous invention and design.
LB How long have you lived in the UK? When did you move there and why?
DC: I have always lived in the UK. Northern Ireland is a part of it. That’s what all the
trouble has been about. I moved to England in 1971 or thereabouts primarily to escape the
violence and intolerance of Belfast at that time. For a young Belfast lad 1970’s London seemed
like heaven on earth. I felt free for possibly the first time in my life. I could walk around the
streets without fear of being gunned down, blown up, or kicked to death by thugs. Things
have changed a little in London since then though. I still have a great love of the place where
I was born; it will always be a part of who I am. It’s just such a tragedy that insanity took
control of the place for so many years.
LB: What other jobs have you had to support yourself during quiet times in your
artistic career?
DC: Most of my artistic career has consisted of quiet times I think... I have had lots of
jobs over the years. I have worked in the Civil Service for a short time, been a car undersealer
(that’s spraying black gunk on the underside of cars), builder’s labourer, factory worker, a
warehouse packer in a novelty goods firm, and very briefly, a barman at the Earl’s Court
Exhibition Centre in London. I was also with a movie & television props hire company for
quite a few years. It was there that I became friends with Robert Rankin, who has gone on to
become a successful writer of strange and amusing fantasy novels. A recent one was THE

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BRIGHTONOMICON, set in that town by the sea where he now resides. Anyway, my
employment record could fill a book in itself.
LB: You’ve illustrated for a plethora of publishers and anthologies over the years.
Can you recall for us which work pleased you most and why?
DC: It would probably be the work I did on SHADOWS OVER INNSMOUTH for
Fedogan & Bremer. The job came in just at the right time for me. I was in a good place
mentally and I had a lot of fun with it, particularly with the MOTHER HYDRA drawing.
There were three large collaborative pieces to be drawn for the book by Martin McKenna, Jim
Pitts and myself. I had to start off my main piece with a big central figure and the guys would
add surrounding details. As in the other two large drawings we each had to do the central
figure. I was sort of at a loss as to what to come up with for mine, and I eventually decided to
do something so outrageously gross that it would give Martin and Jim a real hard time
supplying surrounding details which would be in keeping with the rest of the drawing.
I must say that they did a great job on it. The drawing has been described recently by
an outraged peasant on the internet as “foully obscene” which gave me a great deal of
pleasure.
LB: Does it bother you that in some cases your images have been bootlegged for
unauthorised reproduction on books and t-shirts?
DC: Yes. Greatly. I am working on summoning the Hounds of Tindalos to hunt down
and destroy horribly those who would violate my copyright.
LB: What is your favourite form of illustration? For instance, do you like doing t-shirt
designs over book illustration?
DC: With the t-shirt designs I have to constantly try to subdue my natural tendency
to add a lot of detail. It just won’t reproduce well during the screen printing process, as the
images need to be kept relatively simple. But I tend to push it to get as much as much as I can
into a t-shirt piece. With book illustration there are no restraints, although I think that adding
a lot of detail just for the sake of it is an unfortunate attitude to take with artwork. I’ve had
some clients say “there’s not a lot of detail in this is there?” The reason for the lack of “detail”
being that I didn’t feel that the piece required it. There’s a sort of “value for money” mentality
at work in cases like this. It can’t possibly be a good drawing unless every fucking inch of the
paper is covered in stipple work. They’re paying for it, so they want to see the detail, even if
it’s not needed at all. I tend to have the opinion that I’m the artist and I think my judgement
should be final. If you don’t like it, do it yourself, or hire someone who will fill your drawing
with all the little useless details that your heart desires.
LB: Your work has on occasion been compared to that of contemporary horror
illustrator Allen Koszowski. Have you ever met Allen K and chewed the fat over art
techniques? Are there any other modern fantastic artists you admire?
DC: I met Allen and his wife recently at the World Horror Convention in Brighton. A
hectic schedule didn’t allow much time for talking shop.
Unfortunately all of the artists I admire are long dead and gone, as are my favourite writers.
LB: What do you think of Clark Ashton Smith’s somewhat technically primitive but
fantastically evocative artwork?
DC: I particularly love his sculptures. C.A.S was another original, a man of immense
imagination and talent and I wish there were more like him around today.
LB: Your work has a sophistication which makes it highly decorative as well as
graphically horrific. The border designs in Chaosium’s books make them worth owning
irrespective of the quality of the stories! How did your relationship with Chaosium develop
and was it a satisfying experience?
DC: I did enjoy doing those borders. Of course I had been doing border designs for
THE PAN BOOK OF HORROR for several years before Chaosium came up with the idea of

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commissioning me to design some for them. The Chaosium episode was just another job
really.
LB: Can you tell us a little more about some of the more off trail projects you’ve
worked on over the years, for instance the Beneath Nightmare Castle role-playing book?
DC: It was a very pleasant experience working for Puffin Books. The editor was very
nice and she gave me a lot of freedom, but as usual not a vast amount of time to complete the
illustrations for that book. One or two of the drawings were rejected as being “too horrific”
for a children’s book. I was quite pleased about that.
LB: You redesigned and sculpted the British Fantasy Award yourself in the mid-
1980s. How does it feel to have been a five-time recipient of that award?
DC: Any award is of course a great honour, but it did seem odd getting my own
sculpture back in award form after having carved it for The British Fantasy Society from a big
wax candle in an extended lunch break at work one day. During a particularly poverty
stricken phase of my life I ended up having to burn the original wax candle carving for light
and heat due to my gas and electricity being disconnected for non-payment. Ah, the tales I
could tell...
LB: Brian Lumley encouraged your career, did he not, providing introductions for
some of your portfolios? How did you first meet him, and do you get together these days?
DC: We met up at World Horror Con a few weeks ago. We don’t get together too
often and it was great to see him again after so many years. Indeed, Brian kindly provided
introductions to several of my portfolios after I wrote to him when we both lived in London.
We used to meet up for a few drinks, and then we were always running into each other at
conventions and parties. It was a tight horror/fantasy community in London back then, but
times change and people relocate, things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, etc, etc.
LB: What was your friendship with Karl Edward Wagner like?
DC: Even after all the time that’s passed since his death I still find it hard to accept
the fact that he’s no longer with us. He was a great friend, the best you could ask for. We used
to have some wild adventures when he visited London, which he did frequently. I first met
him at a British Fantasy Convention around 1978
or so, he then came over for a big Convention in
Brighton in 1979. That’s when we really became
friends, after I gave him about 5 copies of my first
portfolio LOVECRAFT’S PANTHEON in the hotel
bar one night. My Wagner tales could also fill a
book. Conger eels in bars and strange
synchronicities stirring whenever we got together,
hanging out in Kensington Market, R. Chetwynd
Hayes and Karl carrying me home drunk, urgent
phone calls for help to remove large quantities of
Jack Daniels from a certain Brighton hotel. I could
go on all night, but maybe one day I will get
around to writing it all down. He is greatly
missed.
LB: Does your partner Linda share your
love of eldritch abominations?
DC: I think that it puts years on the poor
woman to be honest. That’s a Belfast expression,
which would probably translate as “ages
prematurely”.
LB: You were recently Artist Guest of Honour at the World Horror Convention at
Brighton. What were the highpoints of that experience for you?

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 DC: The ultimate highpoint has to have been when I was thrown out of the art show
(in which I had art on display) for being drunk. Other than that I guess that it was catching
up with some old friends such as Carl Ford, Neil Gaiman, Dez Skinn, Brian Lumley. The
Convention itself was incredibly well organised – probably the best I’ve ever been to.
LB: How close is your new art book, Called by Cthulhu: The Eldritch Art of Dave
Carson?. I understand this will include a lot of work by you that hasn’t been widely seen to
date? Where can we order the book from?
DC: Not close at all I’m afraid. I began working on it around two years ago, things
were going well and I had put a lot of time into it, then my computer’s hard drive decided to
give up the ghost. After much grief I managed to retrieve a lot of the files, but after that I kind
of lost interest in the project. When I feel the inspiration I will get to work on it again. I guess
I’ll have to, as so many friends helped me out by scanning my drawings from out of print and
obscure publications for me, and Neil Gaiman has already written an introduction to it.
There’s also the work on my Memoirs to Prove the Existence of Cthulhu to be getting on
with...
LB: Dave Carson, it’s been a great pleasure – thank you very much!

All art by Dave Carson in this issue including the portrait of Lovecraft on
the cover is © Cthulhuart.com and is used by special arrangement with the
artist.

BOOKS BY MY BEDSIDE: WOMEN WRITERS OF HORROR #1:

JOAN AIKEN

In a fanciful attempt to think that I can actually

read all the books I have acquired in my years of Terminal
Bibliomania, I am going to start brief discussions here of
books I actually own, commencing with my shelf filled
with volumes of women writers of horror. #1, proceeding
alphabetically, is Joan Aiken. (Since I have, by rough
count, at least 100 volumes in this section of my library
alone, if I discuss single books it will take me 100 mailings
(or 25 years) just to go through this shelf! So I had better
discuss authors.)
I have five volumes by Joan Aiken (1924-2004).
Chronologically, they are: The Windscreen Weepers & Other Tales of Horror & Suspense (stories,
1969). The Shadow Guests (novel, 1980); A Whisper in the Night (stories, 1982); The Haunting of
Lamb House (novel, 1991); A Creepy Company (stories, 1993).
Aiken, strangely, doesn’t rate a mention in Jack Sullivan’s Penguin Encyc of Horror and
the Supernatural, nor in E.F. Bleiler’s Guide to Supernatural Fiction; but she’s in the
Joshi/Dziemanowicz Supernatural Lit of the World; the St James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic;
and there’s an excellent long entry by John Clute in Richard Bleiler’s Supernatural Fiction
Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror.
She was very prolific, authoring 44 novels, 8 plays, 28 short story collections, and
close to 60 childrens books. She was the daughter of American poet Conrad Aiken, (author of

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the famous short story “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” amongst others) and wrote a memoir of
him. John Clute contends that of her 300+ short stories, around 50 are yet uncollected.
I’m not going to pretend to have read each volume I briefly mention here. I did read
Windscreen Weepers years ago, and remember Aiken’s facility with subtle unease and sinister,
spine-chilling suggestion. The Haunting of Lamb House, set in Aiken’s birth town of Rye in
Sussex, sounds like one of her best – divided into three sections, it’s the story of a boy, Toby
Lamb (son of the man who built the house), who leaves a confessional manuscript. The later
sections feature an alleged haunting which affects literary figures who actually resided there
– firstly Henry James and later, E.F. Benson. Fans of these writers (I’m thinking of you Don, re
H. James) might want to track this down.
A Creepy Company seems to have been her last collection of supernatural tales and
had different contents in the US and UK – eight stories in common, with an additional three
in the UK and two in the US. Aiken’s last book was The Witch of Clatteringshaws (eleventh and
last of her celebrated Wolves of Willoughby Chase series, which encompassed both alternate
fantasy and Gothic tropes).
Joan Aiken has a website established by her daughter Lizza at
http://www.joanaiken.com/

Left: Me with the two oldest issues of Weird Tales in

my collection. (I have about 100 issues all up). The one
on the left of pic is the Jan 1931 issue with cover story
by Seabury Quinn. That on the right of pic is the Feb
1928 issue with the cover pic being for an Elliot
O’Donnell story – but the highlight is, of course, the
original appearance of Lovecraft’s “The Call of
Cthulhu”. How dare they put O’Donnell on the cover!

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