The Statement of Randolph Carter

Mike Bennett Recently contacted me for another cover image for one of his podcasts. This time It was a superb reading of H.P. Lovecrafts 'The Statement of Randolph Carter' Check it out here 

Herbert West

Mike Bennett's latest podcast is now uploaded and live, and in it he reads, From the Dark, the first part of H.P. Lovecraft's classic tale of horror, Herbert West: Reanimator.

Mike Says:

'I think it's one of the best things I've ever done, I'm really pleased with it.

I also reveal a little of my first homemade audio books from way back in the 1980s, and share some news about the ongoing process of writing the next chapters in the Underwood and Flinch Chronicles.'

The cover art is by your truly. Please visit Mikes page here to listen to some of his work, you won't regret it

Sun, Sea & Sanguine Fluid

The long awaited return of the multi award winning saga by Mike Bennett, is finally over with the return of the Underwood and Flinch chronicles, Volume 3 Blood and smoke.

"Blood & Smoke" is a great new audio novel from Mike Bennett. Though I highly recommend the podcast to all fans of horror and suspense, this does come with the warning that the subject matter is extremely graphic and intense in content. It is never gratuitous, however, for to hold back anything depicted in its chapters would betray the premise and the story would suffer for it.

   “Blood & Smoke” proves that not only has Bennett grown as an artist over his last few novels, he is also brave enough to follow a story where it leads. Stephen King stated that once he finished “Pet Sematary” he put it away in a drawer thinking it too extreme for publication. The shock and awe of this high adrenaline narrative has much the same effect of that King novel or “The Exorcist.”

   If you can endure the extreme horror of writers like Edward Lee, I highly recommend this venture by Mike Bennett. He takes the listener into the bleak darkness of addiction and obsession, but rather than relying on gore and shock, it is his emotionally charged depictions of the damned characters at its core that keep you hooked.

Do yourself a favour and pop over to iTunes and subscribe, you wont regret it

Underwood leaves Almacena

This was more of an experiment into creating a smoky image effect in photoshop. The background was made in hexagon then rendered in Vue. For the bat i used a standard stock image. I desaturated the bat,  used a soft eraser brush to blend in some of the harsh edges on the picture left from cutting it out then placed it onto a new layer and set the opacity to 70% and set the blending mode to screen.

I also added some smoke with a brush pack I downloaded but before that, I  added some smoke by just using the brush tool for its wings.

I made another  new layer, set its opacity to about 70% and then use the soft eraser brush to blend the smoke in with the bat and background layer.

Finally I made yet another new layer, filled it with a light blue then set its blending mode to overlay and dropped the opacity to around 30%

From Beyond Still

Whilst rooting around my artwork drive, I came across this still of Crawford Tillinghast. It is the first frame from they story where our protagonist describes the dishevelled figure with candle in hand at the entrance to his house.

Hitler's reaction to not being able to get his favourite podcast

We've all been there, Wanted to listen to our favorite podcast or podiobook, only to find out we have Problems with our Internet Service Provider.

Now imagine if you were a colorful person such as Adolf Hitler, what sort of reaction would he have. Please note! There are a couple of Naughty words involved so view discretion is advised

Mike Bennett another H.P. Lovecraft classic

Mike has been busy beavering away to add some of his readings to youtube. The current reading is The music of Erich Zann.

A deliciously creepy tale of horror and madness from H.P. Lovecraft. A university student takes a room in a Paris lodging house. He meets another tenant, Erich Zann, an old man who plays the viol. At night, the student lies awake listening to the strange, eerie music coming from the old man's room. But he soon learns that  is not playing for pleasure.


Artwork by yours truly
Features music: "Violino" by Marco Esu.

Planet Underwood & Flinch Appeal

My Good Chum Mike Bennet over at Underwood & Flinch Podcast has made an appeal for his listeners to make short audio recordings and send them in. Say who you are, where you are, when and how you listen, and then give someone a shout if you like. Send the finished file in to themikebennett@gmail.com and he'll run it on the podcast. What do you mean your not a listener? Head over to Underwood&Flinch and subscribe!