As I was finishing up my posting on Eldritch Tales #12, I found out that issue #13 was out. I was hoping we’d get another issue of Crypt of Cthulhu, but I still don’t see one.
While Eldritch Tales #13 came out on Amazon under the name of Robert M. Price, it is somehow not connected to his other works there. Again, there is no info as to the issue number on Amazon or on the cover. It is on the table of contents page.
Again, it’s from Robert M. Price and again published through Exham Priory (again, I’m not sure why Cryptic Publications wasn’t used) and made available from Amazon via print-on-demand and Kindle. It’s digest-size, 8.5- by 5.5-inches, lacking any copyright notices or publication dates. There are fantasy and sf tales, along with several Lovecraftian works.
Eldritch Tales #13 came out in September 2024 and has five stories, two by Price and two by Glen Usher, along with an introductory article by Price on the subject “Writing Tips from H.P. Lovecraft” and another article by him. The writing tips are what might H.P. Lovecraft have given, and help with understanding what he was trying to achieve with his stories. Price’s other article, “October Agenda,” is on the many “creature feature” movies he likes to watch in October with his daughter. In addition, to the various classic works with the Universal monsters, there are several others. It’s a pretty good overview and review of these.
The first of Price’s two fiction pieces is “Yoga Sothoth,” about a librarian at Arkham University who is put in charge of their Restricted Section and fails to heed the warnings about delving into the Forbidden Section of that area. “Shanghaied to Shaggai” is another sf story with the Star Pirate (first seen in #12), who must deal with a dangerous insectoid race.
Glen Usher’s two stories are both horror tales. The first, “The Blood Horde” is set in an old and forbidden city on the Baltic coast after WWII. The Soviets are trying to take control but things don’t go as expected when they awaken something. The second one, “The Crack in the Sky,” starts off with a meeting of a sinister group in Switzerland toward the end of WWII, then shifts to somewhere in the Rockies in the late 1970s as some try to stop what this group started.
The longest story in this issue is Mark Howard Jones‘s “The Feast of Forever.” In Wales in 1907, a sea captain and priest must confront the horrors of a group of ghoulish worshipers of some cosmic “god.” Will they prevail?
It’s another enjoyable issue. I keep an eye out for upcoming issues of Crypt of Cthulhu, but I guess I need to keep an eye out for future Eldritch Tales as well, as who knows when the next one will drop.
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