Mantichore 5, No 3 (Whole number 18).

Edited by Leigh Blackmore

for the SSWFT (Aug 2, 2010/38th mailing), &
Esoteric Order of Dagon (Aug 2, 2010/
151st mailing) Amateur Press Associations.
78 Rowland Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2500.
Australia.
Below: Ghouls of Sydney’s Waverley Cemetery:
L-R: Fred Phillips, Danny Lovecraft and Perry
Grayson during Fred and Dee’s Australian
sojourn, May 2010. Right: “Nevermore!”

MANTICHORE 18
Leigh Blackmore
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?pa
ge=86
LB’s library (catalogued) can be accessed at:
http://www.librarything.com/profile/666777
Contents This Issue
Mantic Notes…………….……….…………..2
A US Lovecraftian Down Under –
Fred and Dee Phillips in Oz…………………5
Mantic Notes
(Pronunciation:'man-tik. Etymology: Greek mantikos, from mantis: of,
relating to the faculty of divination; prophetic).
Of all my various ideas for this issue, most have not
been accomplished. I had the idealistic notion of having
an all-Mailing-Comments issue, catching up with the
issues from the past two mailings of SSWFT and EOD,
but time precludes it, and I’ll tell you (as my
grandfather used to say) “for why.” Most of my spare
time in the last quarter has been involved with reading
reams of stories (well upwards of a hundred tales so
far) submitted for Midnight Echo issue 5. I am proud to
have been invited to guest edit this issue of the official
journal of the Australian Horror Writers Association. I
am also fortunate that by the time my issue gets into
print (probably Oct or Nov this year), the deal with
both the British Fantasy Society and the Horror Writers
of America whereby members of those organisations
get free copies of Midnight Echo will mean that stories
and poems I select for ME5 will be seen on three
continents. There’s a good chance that the issue will
include stories by several well-known members of EOD
– though for the present, that’s all I can reveal. Issue #4
of ME, edited by Lee Battersby, has just been released
and can be obtained from AHWA at:
http://australianhorror.com/index.php?view=115.
But in addition to editing that issue (which I
am still in the throes of doing – there are many
budding horror writers out there, that’s for sure!) I
have been assessing novel manuscripts as usual, and
it’s left me little time for Mantichore. (I’ve also been
busy with things like providing Graeme Phillips with
source material for his planned special issue of Cyaegha
on Australian writer Vol Molesworth’s Lovecraftian
tales). And I have a medical diagnosis at last for my
chronic neck pain – osteoarthritis. So I only have to
look for part-time work at least for the time being, and
my manuscript assessing may satisfy the government
on that score. In May occurred the much-anticipated
visit of raconteur, bon vivant and all-round nice guy as
well as talented poet, historian, film buff, bibliophile,
heraldic expert, long-term fan (or ‘apahacker’ as Fred
refers to it), occult student and god-knows-what-else,
Fred Phillips, and his charming wife Dee, to these
Antipodean shores. Unfortunately my involvement
with their week-long sojourn was cut short due my
mother, Beth, being taken to hospital with an
emergency (see details later). It was a worrying time, of
course, and overshadowed to some extent the joy of
meeting Fred, though the time I got to spend with him
and Dee was wonderful (See the longer report below).
So I’m going to abandon my idea of catching up past
mailings with comments. This is damned annoying as I
had many responses I wanted to make, especially to
Scott Briggs’ lengthy issues. Maybe I can get back to it
in a future issue. Anyway, I won’t even feature my
regular columns such as “Books By My Bedside” this
time, or the new one on “Women Writers of Horror”.
Instead, this issue features a piece on the visit of Fred
and Dee Phillips to Australia, and little else. I do hope I
can resume emcees in the issue following this one. I
haven’t even kept a record this quarter of books I’ve
read, though I enjoyed quite a few.//Studies in
Australian Weird Fiction No 4 is being put together
(finally) as I write, and we hope to get the issue out by
October or November – though it will unfortunately be
too late to take to Aussiecon, the World Science Fiction
Convention in Melbourne, which is on in early
September.//Richard L. Tierney, who had been
nominated for the Grandmaster Award of the Science
Fiction Poetry Association, lost out to fellow writer Jane
Yolen. This was a pity, especially in view of RLT’s
massive new collection Savage Menace and Other Poems
of Horror, which I believe consolidates his reputation as
one of weird verse’s finest. Don’t forget you can order
Savage Menace, along with other P’rea Press publicaions
such as ST Joshi’s valuable Emperors of Dreams: Some
Notes on Weird Poetry, by contacting Danny Lovecraft at
DannyL58@hotmail.com. //I am collaborating with RLT
on at least one poem, and may do similarly with Ann
K. Schwader, Fred Phillips, Margi Curtis and perhaps
more with Danny Lovecraft.//Not only am I digitising
all my paper files, but I am finally digitising my old
LPs. This excites me because I can rescue from
unplayable oblivion (Ex Oblivione!) some of the
excellent spoken word recordings I have by Bloch,
Ellison, Lieber, FB Long and others. I’ve also been
exploring the wonderful world of audio downloads
from the internet and have captured many worthwhile
Lovecraft recordings. I can highly recommend looking
up the link below at Digital Meltdown, which provides Testamur at the
further links to many scarce recordings of HPL tales, 44: 28 timing
including RM Price’s recording of “The Dunwich mark. // In June, I
Horror”, and such rarities as readings by David finished and
McCallum, Roddy McDowell, Erik Bauersfeld and even submitted my
some early radio dramatisations. See Sherlock Holmes
http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com/search/label/H.P. horror story “The
%20Lovecraft. (Scott, you may want to also check Arcana of Death”
http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com/search/label/Auss for the third
ie%20Rock, which has some downloads of scarce Edge Publishing
Aussie rock underground classics). Holmes horror
In May, Margi won First prize in the Karuna anthology, Gaslight
Portrait competition at Arcanum. I haven’t yet
TAFE for her portrait of heard whether it has been
Leonard Cohen. I accepted, but I have my
reproduce a detail of tentacles crossed. My
the winning work here. friend and fellow writer
We were all mighty Chris Sequeira may have a
proud of her! Margi has tale in the same volume. //I
of late been re-reading also turned 51 in June,
me the draft of her celebrating with a joint
fantasy novel Seed of the dinner at our place with
Whitherborn, which I my friends Scott (and his
have been enjoying wife Kara) and Adam (and
greatly. She plans to his wife Jude). Adam and Scott are also Cancerians like
write a final section and then I hope she will soon myself, so we were celebrating their birthdays as well.
submit the manuscript to potential publishers. Scott gifted me with a superb handcrafted version of
I John Dee’s Sigillum dei Amaeth, a central artefact of
started a Enochian magick, and I was bowled over by the time
blog and effort he had spent on it. It now reposes proudly
discussing on my magical altar awaiting use in a special working.
horror //Around the same time I managed to link up in
films at Sydney with fellow horror writer and former Terror
the Australis co-editor, Bryce Stevens, in Sydney. Check out
following Bryce’s latest published story “Trust Me”, available as a
link: free download from:
http://www.legumeman.com/free%20junk.html.
We had a great time yakking and hunting for
secondhand books, and we found some fabulous things
http://www.orble.com/screen-shadows-horror-films- at an amazing sale at Galaxy Bookstore. They had
classic-and-contemporary-with-leigh-blackmore/. I got paperbacks marked down to $1 and hardcovers to $5 –
as far as three entries on different movies and have not some of the latter were limited editions or academic hcs
had time to write more as yet, but will add to this blog worth $100+! Amongst my scores were – well, Scores, a
when I am less occupied. //I finally had my graduation collection of John Clute’s reviews (retail price $90 – sale
ceremony yesterday, July 23, at the University of price $1!);
Wollongong. (I had been unable to graduate in a critical
December when I finished my course due to some late work on
results). Margi and Graham were there to support me, Stephen
as was my brother Kent, whom I was very honoured to Donaldson
have make the trip down from Sydney to fly the family from a uni
flag. Now it’s all signed, sealed and delivered and at 51 press
I am finally a man of letters! (See a few pics here). And which I
for those Blackmore fanatics who may want to witness bought for
a streaming video of the presentation (lol☺) , see: Margi
http://www.uow.edu.au/student/graduation/video/five (retail $65
/index.html where you’ll find me receiving my – sale price $5); a Poppy Z Brite Subterranean Press
limited ed of essays, Guilty But Insane (retail $120; sale
price $5), and many others which were superb value.
My best score was a copy of the Tartarus press Lost
Poems of William Hope Hodgson, in pristine condition – a Left: Danny
$100 book for $5 bucks! All up, I spent about $30 and Lovecraft with the
must have gotten around $500 worth of books. It was four books he has
incredible – one my proudest moments in recent years published so far
as a bookhunter – and capped my recent installation by under the imprint
Fred Phillips as Arch-Provost for NSW of the Antient of P’rea Press,
and Honourable Order of the Drowned Rat! //Sadly, we including the new
discovered that our cat Hades, who had been ailing for weird verse
some time, has cat AIDs and we don’t know how long collection Savage
he has to live. We’ll look after him as best we can.// Menace & Other
Rohan has a new job in IT at North Sydney, which is Poems of Horror
great. Margi is enjoying yoga, life drawing classes and by Richard L.
reading Tarot for Lotus (as usual), and is adjusting to Tierney.
the changes under the new owner at the shop. Graham
had school holidays during July and we managed to
get our kitchen renovations further advanced as well as
doing many other improvements to the house
including repairing guttering. //We had a special trip to
Sydney in the last couple of days to meet a Reclaiming-
tradition witch from Bay Area San Francisco. Margi
and Graham are working towards holding local Witch
Camps with Melbourne-based Reclaiming people, and
it was great to meet this woman, who had been a
lawyer defending death-row prisoners for many years.
We had a nice meal at a Newtown café, and also linked
up with Rohan, before adjourning to another café to
introduce our US friend to the delights of the Aussie
dessert Pavlova. //I found out that my favourite
musician of ALL TIME, Todd Rundgren, will be
playing in Australia for the first time ever in October.
He will play two dates in NZ, then play the Southern
Blues Festival in NSW (held in Narooma, not a long
drive from where I live in Wollongong) and possibly
some Sydney dates before going on to Japan. I cannot
express the overwhelming excitement I feel as I look
forward to beholding this masterful musician,
producer and songwriter live after 30 years of
following his every recorded note on LP and CD!!!
Todd is Godd!!!//Graeme Phillips (to whom, much
thanks) has lent me much assistance in helping
complete my runs of Lovecraft Studies and Studies in
Weird Fiction, though I still need a number of issues of
the latter. If anyone can help me with copies of SinWF
Above: Certificate from Brown University Library
#8, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, and 21, I would be happy to cross
acknowledging my donation of sixty volumes of
their palms with silver and supply my eternal
Lovecraft in foreign translation, in 1990. The works
gratitude. And surely EOD is the right place to be
were mainly in French, Italian, German and Japanese.
asking about this? Many of you must have runs or
spares? Any assistance appreciated!! I really want
original copies of the issues, though if anyone has these
numbers and would be prepared to scan them and
make me a PDF, the aforementioned eternal gratitude
would also be forthcoming…
 A US Lovecraftian in OZ – We were given a fascinating tour of the place,
and Fred waxed rhapsodic, drawing on his heraldic
Fred & Dee Phillips Down Under knowledge to confound the otherwise-experienced tour
guide re: coats of arms of the previous Governors
It was the end of May and the long-anticipated General of NSW. I was struggling with my bad throat
visit of Fred Phillips and his wife to Australia was and had a dreadful coughing fit in the elaborate dining
nearing. What room; thought I was going to cough up a lung, but
should happen but managed to recover, eyes watering, and more
that the week embarrassed than anything else. After viewing the
before I came down ballroom and the unique grand piano, we took some
with a sore throat photos of our group in a couple of locations outside.
which steadily We walked up past Sydney’s Conservatorium
became worse as of Music and Danny pointed out various architectural
their visit features to be found on some of Sydney’s old sandstone
approached. By the buildings. He’s a veritable HPL when it comes to
day before, my appreciating architecture! We found a suitable place for
throat was lunch, a Japanese restaurant which served great food at
ulcerated and reasonable prices, and Fred regaled us with
extremely painful. I impressions of great film stars of the 40s, some of
felt like death. Was which were very funny. His memory for the actual
I going to allow this condition to intervene and stop me lines from particular movies is extraordinary. I think it
from meeting the poet from afar and his wife? Like hell was over lunch that Fred formally appointed myself,
it was!! I made my way to Sydney by train, laden with Danny and Perry to positions in his legendary Antient
various books that I planned to give Fred, plus a bunch and Honourable Order of the Drowned Rat, as fellow
of books and videos that I’d been saving up for Danny bibliophiles. I was appointed Arch-Provost for the
Lovecraft. At Town Hall Station, I met up with Perry region of NSW and Environs (or something along those
Grayson and chatted about the unfortunate demise of lines). Next stop on our whirlwind tour of various
his latest band, Moonshine. It wasn’t long before we Sydney locations was Waverley Cemetery. When I first
spotted Danny Lovecraft heading towards us, and the knew Danny
immediately recognisable figures of Fred Phillips back in the
(wearing an Esoteric order of Dagon hoodie) and his 1980s, he
companion Dee. Fred arrived talking and I quickly lived with
learned that the man is an inexhaustible fount of witty his parents at
observation, learned commentary mixed witty remarks, Bondi, and
and generally akin to Harlan Ellison on speed! After a Waverley
quick viewing was one of
of the QVB his nearby
building and stomping
the Victoria grounds. The
Shopping cemetery is
Arcade, an amazing place, being located on the very edge of the
during which coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. While it lacks the
time I chatted overgrown splendour of such Sydney cemeteries as
to Dee about Rookwood
her work, and and Gore
observed that Hill, the
she was adept at taking in the sights of the city around sheer
her, we piled into Danny’s car and embarked for NSW breathtaking
Government House, situated within Sydney’s scenery of
sprawling ‘Domain’ park in the inner city. Strangely, I the blue
had never been into this residence of the NSW ocean, the
Governor General. (Having been, most of my adult life, atmosphere
an anarchist, I had sedulously avoided visiting seats of created by
government). the various
birds (including massive glossy ravens) who perch
atop various stone monuments and columns, and the
way one must climb and clamber up precipitous and
winding paths amidst the gravestones makes Waverley
one of the great must-visit spots in Sydney for the
horror aficionado or ghoul. (‘Searchers after horror
haunt strange, far places”). The great Australian writer
Henry Lawson is buried
there, although there
was so much to see that
we didn’t pause to
examine his grave. Fred,
of course, kept up a non-
stop stream of enjoyable
banter regarding
fandom, the US
Lovecraftians, and all
manner of things. With
my sore throat it was
difficult to respond in
kind, but we were
having a great time. It was a rare privilege to be
spending time with American visitors who shared a
love for Lovecraft, weird verse and suchlike.
There had been storm warnings for that
afternoon indicating that Sydney may be hit by gale-
force winds, and I was somewhat concerned that our
outdoors excursion may be cut short, but even when
we left Waverley to drive to Bronte Beach, the weather
didn’t seem to get quite that violent. The breakers at
Bronte surged madly, and the wind whipped around
us as we stood at the safety railing above the surf, but
the choppy water had not prevented many surfers from
being out in the swells. Rather them than me!
Following Bronte, we drove by Bondi Beach and then
to the Gap, which overlooks Sydney Harbour’s two
spectacular heads (North Head and South Head) and
the wider ocean. We continued our madly leaping
discussions, as though trying to cram in all possible
information during Fred and Dee’s brief stay, as sunset
glowed above the horizon.
Cramming back into the car, we then returned
to Danny and Margaret Lovecraft’s place at Lane Cove
on Sydney’s
North Shore.
With great
relief I to spend some hours chewing the fat while we trolled
unburdened
myself of the
many
treasures I morning I was still feeling so ill that I had to bow out
was carrying,
still coughing
fit to bust. I
handed over all the stuff I had for Danny, and also
presented Fred with copies of various Australian
horror anthologies including a copy of my old ‘Terror
Australis’ anthology, and two ‘Agog’ anthologies
containing stories by myself (God knows if he’ll ever
get time to read them…). Fred and Dee presented us
with some fine shoulder bags they had brought for us
as gifts from New York’s Strand Bookstore. Margaret
welcomed us into home with her usual panache despite
the descending hordes of Lovecraft fanatics. Fred was
carrying some of his poetry with him, and treated us to
an impromptu recital of a couple of his pieces. It was
great to him actually reading his own verse, after being
an admirer of his written work for so long. Hurry on
the publication of From the Cauldron, his forthcoming
volume of verse from Hippocampus Press! (I see from
Hippocampus Press’ website that this volume may
appear as soon as December).
After coffees and recuperation, it was time to
ferry two carloads of people to the restaurant where we
would dine, a feat which Danny accomplished with
commendable aplomb. The restaurant was one I hadn’t
dined at before, but its location was magnificent – right
near the Harbour Bridge with its sparkling lights,
overlooking the Harbour, and about 100 yards from
Sydney’s marvellous Luna Park funfair (a site of many
childhood memories for me – I first rode on its ghost-
train at the age of about 9, and while at university I
wrote an undeveloped screenplay thriller based there).
Dinner, of course, was a comfortable venue for more
banter. Fred and I discussed the Egyptian Book of the
Dead and so many more matters with which we are
both fascinated. The food was excellent and I believe
Danny, Margaret, Perry and Dee all enjoyed the repast.
Fred was now more like Harlan Ellison without the
speed, but still kept up an almost continuous stream of
observations on everything under the sun; the man is
quite remarkably well-informed on his special subjects!
After dinner Perry headed for the train to get
back to his place, Danny drove Dee and Fred back to
their hotel in the Sydney, and I returned to Lane Cove
with Danny & Margaret to stay overnight. It had been a
full-on day of sightseeing and babbling of shared
wonders, and it was with great relief I finally sank into
bed for an exhausted sleep.
The plan had been that some time in the next
day or two, I would have Fred (if not Dee as well)
down to Wollongong to meet Margi and Graham, and
through my extensive book collection, which I was sure
Fred would appreciate (though in numerical terms, his
home library far exceeds mine). Unfortunately, the next
and return to Wollongong alone. My throat was in a
shocking state. I had still not ruled out having Fred
visit down south, but the very next day my mother was
admitted to hospital with a serious emergency. It
seemed that she may have had a duodenal ulcer which
had hemorrhaged, although we later discovered it was
a slightly different though equally dangerous
condition. However, this threw a major spanner in the
works of me either getting back up to Sydney, or
having our US visitors at home in Wollongong. I was
very worried about my mother – she actually came
close to death due to blood loss – but the operation
proved successful and over the next few days it
transpired that she would recover.
Meanwhile, Fred and Dee did actually travel to
Wollongong (unbeknownst to me), later sending me
the photo of themselves at the local train station as
proof they’d made it that far. It was a great pity I didn’t
know, because I would still have invited them to the
house if I was aware, even though Margi & Graham,
were also down with the flu. Anyhow, in the end I had
to content myself with having seen them for the one
day in Sydney. I knew that they would be having good
experiences with Danny, Margaret, Phillip Ellis and
others of our Australian contingent, and I believe they
did. Fred and Dee had invited us all to a dinner in
Sydney’s Chinatown on the Friday night before they
left, but even at that stage, the ramifications of my
mother being so ill in hospital meant that I couldn’t
rejoin the crew for the dinner. But I heard that a good
time was had by all before Fred and Dee flew back out
for New York. I can only hope that I will someday
catch up again with my US friends of the EOD/SSWFT,
perhaps by travelling back to the States. Above: “The Thing on the Doorstep” by
Gavin L. O’Keefe, from The Australian HP Lovecraft
Centenary Calendar (1990).

Above: Danny Lovecraft and Leigh

Above: From my collection - copy of Robert
Aickman’s Night Voices signed to me by the
introducer, Barry Humphries. No, I didn’t meet him
in person. The book was sent to Humphries’ home in
LA by a bookseller friend, signed, and returned to me
in Australia. Who would have guessed the man who
plays Dame Edna Everage is a weird fiction
enthusiast?
Blackmore parody the famous shot of Frank Belknap
Long and H.P. Lovecraft playfully punching each
other in the noggin.
***Thanks again to Graham Wykes for some
formatting help with this issue***
Ia!! Yog-Sothoth!!