The last few weeks have been very busy, but also really fun and interesting.  I've been doing a great deal of writing and game design work on a few different projects, but I've also started up a new project with my small press, a series called Kthonia Illustrated Classics.

The idea behind this series was first proposed by an illustrator here on DA, who was thinking about releasing her own volume of illustrated Lovecraft. I thought that illustrated Lovecraft was a fantastic idea! And I offered to join forces with her as an author, editor and publisher to create a very cool annotated and illustrated edition of works by one of my favorite writers.

Since she was not interested in a joint project, I decided to pursue the idea on my own. I'm taking a different approach than the one which she proposed.

Kthonia Illustrated Classics will be a whole ongoing set of weird fiction books released in various e-book formats and trade paperback. Brand new black-and-white interior illustrations and brand new full-color covers, combined with the classic fiction and new annotations and essays, presenting new critique and research on the authors, artists, events and ideas that helped to shape modern popular culture.

At the moment there are two books in the series already in progress with two separate illustrators. A third book is just beginning work with one of my favorite painters, and a fourth illustrator has expressed an interest in providing book covers.  In the end this series will be  many volumes long, and will span many decades of great science fiction, fantasy and horror.

I was an amateur Lovecraft scholar in the 1990's and I grew up reading classic weird fiction and sci fi. This project is giving me a chance to return to my roots and really dive deeply into the words and ideas of some classic authors who have meant a great deal to me over the years. It's great fun, and it's great to be able to work with material I love, meet new artists, and give new work to some of the artists that I have worked with here at DA over the last year.

In other news, I also have a commission for avatars and a few other commissions for illustrations for a science fiction game on-going. Some time in the next 90 days I will probably be looking for some horror art as well. Subject matter: ZOMBIES. In full, (un)living color!

As always, if there are any old friends and colleagues out there who read the journal here and would like to get involved in any of these current projects, let me know. The fact that we have fallen out of touch does not mean that the door is closed.

Stay creative!

-A