Elder Signs Press is excited to announce The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia by Daniel Harms.

This is the third edition of his popular and extensive encyclopedia of the Cthulhu Mythos. Updated with more fiction listings and recent material, this unique book spans the years of H.P. Lovecraft’s influence in culture, entertainment, and fiction. The voluminous entries make The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia invaluable for anyone knowledgeable about the Cthulhu Mythos and necessary for those longing to learn about the Cosmic Horrors from past and present decades. 

Price:   £9.99

A wide-ranging and friendly journey through H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of cosmic terror and wonder, the Tour de Lovecraft is the ideal companion to the work of the twentieth century’s greatest American horrorist.

Kenneth Hite has spent decades reading and re-reading Lovecraft and his heirs, slipping through their forests of verbiage to discover the solid literary ground beneath. With his game designer’s eye for structure and connection, in this book he reveals the threads and themes that run throughout Lovecraft’s masterpieces. The Tour de Lovecraft alternately ambles and careens through all fifty-one of the Master’s horror tales in chronological order from 'The Tomb' to 'The Haunter of the Dark,' offering cheerful opinion, incisive literary criticism, playful speculation, and the occasional unhinged rant. It’s a response to Lovecraft, and to his occasionally humorless critics, that offers you Edmund Burke’s Gothic perspective on Cthulhu side-by-side with 'The Haunter of the Dark' considered as Grail quest. 

Price:   £8.99

Arkham Tales: Call of Cthulhu RPG Stories of the Legend- Haunted City. Nestled along the Massachusetts coast, the small town of Arkham has existed for centuries. It is the source of countless rumours and legends. Those who have visited it each telling a different and remarkable account, whisper tales of Arkham.

Reports of impossible occurrences, peculiar happenings and bizarre events, tales that test the sanity of the reader are to be found here. Magic, mysteries, monsters, mayhem, and ancient malignancies form the foundation of this unforgettable centuries' old town. Collected in this volume are the strange and terrifying stories of the legend-haunted city. 

Price:   £9.99

As explorers conquered the frontiers of North America, they disturbed sleeping terrors and things long forgotten by humanity. Journey into the undiscovered country where fierce Vikings struggle against monstrous abominations. Travel with explorers as they learn of buried secrets and the creatures guarding ancient knowledge. Go west across the plains, into the territories were sorcerers dwell in demon-haunted lands, and cowboys confront cosmic horrors.

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Price:   £9.99

Clark Ashton Smith's Cthuhu Mythos Fiction

The Ghoul, A Rendering from the Arabic, The Hunters from Beyond, The Vaults of Abomi, The Nameless Offspring, Ubbo-Sathla, The Werewolf of Averoigne, The Eidolon of the Blind, Vulthoom, The Treader of the Dust, The Infernal Star

Clark Ashton Smith finished 'The Ghoul' on November 11, 1930 and was pleased with the result. He mentioned it to Lovecraft: "The legend is so hideous, that I would not be surprised if there were some mention of it in the Necronomicon. Will you verify this for me?" Not surprisingly, Smith’s instincts proved to be sound; Lovecraft reported: "Oh, yes - Abdul mentioned your ghoul, & told of other adventures of his."

Clark Ashton Smith made unique contributions to and understanding of the Cthulhu Mythos. In an exchange of letters with August Derleth after the death of their friend Lovecraft, Smith, the first Mythos buff, set forth a notorious theology of the Mythos, making the Old Ones evil foes of the blessed Elder Gods as well as elemental forces of earth, air, fire and water.

It is fascinating how Smith’s original tale 'The Ghoul,' turned out to be the mere tip of the iceberg for a larger tale, in effect, a kind of round robin to which he, Lovecraft, and Lin Carter would all contribute.

by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Robert Price. 224 pages. Trade Paperback. 

Price:   £7.99

The Spiraling Worm offers seven stories sharing background, characters, and storyline depicting humankind’s struggle against the Mythos.

by David Conyers and John Sunseri. cover illustration by David Lee Ingersoll. 320 pages. Trade Paperback, perfect bound.

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Price:   £8.99

Horripilating Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

Professor Rudolph Pearson moved to New York City after the Great War, hoping to put his past behind him. While teaching Medieval Literature at Columbia University, he helped the police unravel a centuries’ old mystery. At the same moment, he uncovered a threat so terrifying that he could not turn away. With the bloody scribbling of an Old English script in a dead man’s apartment, Rudolph Pearson begins a journey that takes him to the very beginning of human civilization. There he learns of the terror that brings doom to his world.

Gathered here are the weird investigations of Rudolph Pearson. This compilation of cosmic horror and Cthulhu Mythos tales brings to life a world full of the grotesque and the malefic, set against a backdrop of an unknowable universe. Progress can be horrifying.

by William Jones. 240 pages. Trade Paperback. 

Price:   £7.99

The Best Weird Tales of Arthur Machen, Volume 3

Arthur Machen produced some of the most evocative weird fiction in all literary history. Written with impeccably mellifluous prose, infused with a powerful mystical vision, and imbued with a wonder and terror that he felt with every fiber of his being, his novels and tales will survive when works of far greater technical accomplishment fall by the wayside.

The Terror is a short novel that inspired a host of imitations of its basic plot - animals turning against human beings - ranging from Philip Macdonald’s brief tale "Our Feathered Friends" to Daphne du Maurier’s much better-known (but sadly mediocre) novelette, "The Birds." The Terror reveals several features characteristic of Machen’s later fiction. The first, perhaps, is frank autobiography. The first-person narrative voice not only seems to be Machen himself, but he plays upon his own role as a journalist and reporter.

There is no deliberate intent to deceive; but the circumstantiality of his account, and its generally reportorial tone, suggests that Machen is hoping to convey a deeper truth - the truth that the brief, fitful, and ultimately temporary "revolution" of the animals against humanity’s reign over the earth is a signal that human morals are collapsing as a result of the hideous and unprecedented warfare that had broken out two years earlier.

The other feature that distinguishes The Terror is its mystery or even detective element. On the basis of several stories included here, one could easily imagine Machen writing an accomplished detective novel; but of course he would never have done so, for the notion of resolving all loose ends, and thereby emphasizing the rational intellect’s understanding of the world, was anathema to Machen, the religious mystic. For him, something of mystery must remain as a bulwark against the relentless march of science, which Machen felt was tearing away all the wonder and beauty of existence.

And yet, in its way The Terror is nothing more than a logical working out of all possibilities, so that, by a process of elimination, a single explanation - even if it is supernatural - remains as the only viable solution to the case.

Several other tales in this volume do indeed involve nothing supernatural- "The Islington Mystery" (1927), a murder tale pure and simple; "The Cosy Room" (1928), a conte cruel about the guilty conscience that plagues a murderer; "The Children of the Pool" (1936), a story that suggests the supernatural but proves to be one of psychological horror.

Machen’s witchery of words makes these works something more than mere crime stories; his vision, which always looks over the horizon of the known to the impenetrable mysteries beyond.

This is the third Machen volume edited by S. T. Joshi and published by Chaosium. The first volume was The Three Impostors and the second The White People.  

Price:   £9.99

Can a god be a pet? Even a devil-god who relishes human sacrifice? It is hard to deny that for his creator and godfather, Clark Ashton Smith and H. P. Lovecraft, Tsathoggua was exactly that. They found the Saturnian-Hyperborean-N'klaian toad-batsloth- deity as cute and adorable as horrific, and this strange ambivalence echoes throughout their various tales over which Great Tsathoggua casts his batrachian shadow! 

Price:   £9.99

"The Deep Ones croaked their terrible croaks

and smacked their terrible lips

and rolled their terrible eyes

and waved their terrible flippers"

Renowned Mythos aficionado Ken Hite retells H P Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" in this parody of classic children's literature.

After greedily yelling for more fish, young Bobby is sent to his bedroom without any supper at all. But Bobby escapes when the Manuxet River runs right through his room carrying an old boat that takes him to Innsmouth. When the Deep Ones come for him he flees, but when he eventually joins their wild rumpus under the ocean, they crown him the most Deep One of all.

Where the Deep Ones Are features 32 pages of full-color illustration, and is sure to be a hit with the newest generation of Lovecraft fans and their parents. The first in the Mini Mythos series.

Author: Kenneth Hite

Illustrator: Andy Hopp  

Price:   £10.99

Call of Cthulhu fiction anthology by Chaosium

This massive collection brings together the entire body of Robert W. Chamber's Weird fiction works including material unprinted since the 1890's. Chamber's is considered a landmark author in the field of horror literature for his King in Yellow collection, which itself represents but a small portion of his weird fiction work. These stories are intimately connected with the Cthulhu Mythos introducing such manifestations as Hali, Carcosa, and Hastur. 

Price:   £12.99

As World War II rages, the SS Karotechia, is calling upon the obscene powers of the Cthulhu Mythos to ensure a Nazi victory, meddling in powers they do not understand and cannot hope to control. The men and women of Delta Green will be tested to their limits to hold the apocalypse at bay. These are the glory days of Delta Green. They are also humanity’s darkest hour. 

Price:   £10.99