The glorious Vendor Hall at Necronomicon

As Necronomicon enters the full adult stage of its four day life, wee Thursday toddlerdom and energetic Friday late-teens giving way to brawny, wide-shouldered, keen-eyed prime of life. Today sees peak attendance, as day-trippers flock in to swell the ranks of shoppers on the Vendor Hall and help pack the seating in panels and presentations.

The Armitage Symposium organizes traditionally academic panels at Necronomicon, a nice way to draw a distinction between them and more traditional fan-oriented panels, and also a much nicer thing to put on one’s academic vita (like a resume) than the name of a fictional book that contains… stuff.

In The Surpassing Despair Which Flows from a Loss of Identity: Postcolonial Historiography and Race in Lovecraftiana, four academics presented papers on topics that fit under the awkward umbrella of the panel name. I could do a whole post about the art of crafting panel names for collections of academic papers, but whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy would I do that to you?

Cosmic Horror Monthly magazine, the artist Danielle Draik, and more stars of the Vendor Hall

Suffice to say, The Armitage Symposium adds a good deal of muscle to Necronomicon’s offerings, requiring direction from a working scholar. While the presenters in this particular panel haven’t all cottoned to the idea that literally reading one’s papers is a bad idea — this took yours truly quite awhile to figure out as well — it is a sign of the times that all the speakers had electronic support in the form of projected information with pictures, illustration, useful bullet points, and citations.

Fun for a good number of attendees, as the room was mostly full for this and other Armitage events. Other fun was had by Yours Truly viewing a double feature of truly awful movies… so bad, they’re good! The definitely Lovecraftian Die Monster Die! (a rendition of “The Colour out of Space”) was followed by the less Lovecraftian but even more awful (and therefore… better?) Planet of the Vampires, a movie that defies brief description. If you’re reading this, you have internet. Look it up.

The Cryptocurium team, and Reckless Deck in the Vendor Hall

A hub of fun, a locus, a center, a nucleus of enjoyment at most ‘cons is, of course, the dealer’s room, or as it is called here at Necronomicon, the Vendor’s Hall. Here follows a sprinkling of people and things one might encounter there….

The Cryptocurium one of many examples of artists who create objects of desire for fans. Applaud these folks for the unusual accuracy of some of their models to their fictional origins. Another artist creates… things…. And yet another making her way through life as an independent artist, Danielle Draik, does it with style. Writers are artists, too, and one table represents at least six publishers of Lovecraftian game materials

Staff of The Outer Dark podcast, and the august Darrell Schweitzer

But Vendor Halls are more than just artists and writers. The Outer Dark is a podcast helping celebrate the “weird renaissance,” and they had a table. And a ‘con circuit favorite, the rascal, rapscallion, and all ‘round rogue Darrell Schweitzer (a key word in his Wikipedia profile is “prolific”) wouldn’t miss a Necronomicon for love nor money.^*

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society is way more fun than the name might suggest. And at Necronomicon, the one game company that must be recognized, nodded to, acknowledged, and given due credit is Chaosium, the first real challenger to D&D as a role-playing game company back in the day (say that, please, in Grandpa Abe Simpson’s voice) who publish The Call of Cthulhu (CoC), an amazing way to enjoy cosmic horror.

Stygian Fox and other independent Call of Cthulhu publishers,
and the friendly folks at the well-stocked Chaosium booth

I mean, you gotta love a game where the ineluctable consequence of playing a character is… insanity. In the character, not the player. At least in classic CoC, a character’s SAN score must reach zero. At which point your character… well, TMI.

Other funs? Parties. One of those escape room deals. Costumes. Freebies. Fun things BEYOND COUNT. The inevitable consequence of a well-organized and executed convention focusing on cosmic horror. Go figure.

One of the… things on display in the Vendor
Hall. This one was crafted by Joseph Gubocki

Our 2024 Necronomicon reports include:

Wednesday: Necronomicon Coming
Thursday Report: They Stir
Friday: The Paneling
Saturday: All the Funs

^*I have no independent way to assess this glib comment. He’s a con regular, though.