Okay, this is not today’s news, but I finally took a few pictures of four weird fantasy books I designed and had printed by a friend of mine who owns a copy shop. Included are H. P. Lovecraft’s Dream-Quest for Unknown Kadath (also features more Dreamlands tales and Beyond the Mountains of Madness to increase page count – these hardcovers kinda need to be of a certain thickness, I am told), and collections of three C. A. S. cycles: Averoigne, Hyperborea and Zothique.

For the curious, all of the layout was made in Word, using the popular Century Gothic font. I also created the cover images; they were done with AutoREALM of all things, plus some help by our friend MSPaint. Next, all volumes were printed on creamy white heavy-duty paper typically used by local producers for wine labels. As I have heard, the Roman page numbering caused a bit of headache due to a few misplaced sheets; fortunately, no errors occured. Afterwards, I took the printouts to a local book restaurator. I originally wanted the book to look entirely like something produced in the 1930s. Most of it could have worked out, but for one small detail – I envisioned the title as pressed into the cover in golden Century Gothic. Regrettably, the shop didn’t have any of the old equipment, and the alternatives were too modern or just plain not good enough. So, following a suggestion by the printer, I went with the current design: plain paper with matte foil on the top. A player of mine still mistook the book for an original release, and wondered how much I had paid for a copy in such a pristine condition!

And the photos:

All four books


Averoigne


Hyperborea


Zothique


Unknown Kadath


Hyperborea open at my favourite CAS tale


The books in Good Company® (okay, The Book of Eibon and The Tsathoggua Cycle are rather cruddy, but the point stands).


And finally a pic of a rose that grew in my garden!

***

Not so frequently asked, but possibly upcoming questions:

- Isn’t this illegal?
No, it isn’t by Hungarian laws. And speaking of ethics, I also own most of this from other editions.

- Isn’t this expensive?
It is cheaper than buying four other books of similar physical quality. For the even more curious, the whole bunch was in the range of ca. 16.000 HUF, or 80 USD. But I got a bargain on the paper and the printing, since I play in the same group with the guy who did it. He was also a playtester for Necro’s upcoming Tegel Manor.

- Isn’t this a bit indulgent?
It is just your envy speaking, m’boy. They are pretty, and nobody else in the world has another set like this.

- What’s with the tablecloth?
It’s from Transylvania. Nice, eh?

Sweet!

That's aweomse, Melan. For true awesomeness, though, you'd have to have them leather-bound instead

I take it that in Hungarian things become public domain much sooner than in Australia or the USA - which are 75 years after the death of the authour?

I can't begin to describe how utterly cool that is.

If I can find a book-maker of similar quality in Uruguay, I'm going to have to try to do the same thing some time with some RPG books!

RPGPundit

Awesome.

groovy.

Very, very elegant design. This from a former editor at a high-end art publisher.

Two typographical quibbles: line width is a tad too broad, and sans serif makes for a somewhat tough read. But then, I'm an ideologue.

Very nice!  
:cool:

You have good taste in literature. Complete Pegana... always kinda wanted to see those gods statted out for DnD.

Very nice work on the covers.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityTwo typographical quibbles: line width is a tad too broad, and sans serif makes for a somewhat tough read. But then, I'm an ideologue.

Century Gothic is awesome. And I am also an ideologue. :hehe:

Well, underlining is wrong, and underlining with equal signs is doublepluswrong. Apart from that, nice work.

Good on you!

Hell, that's probably the only way to get the works of C. A. Smith on your shelf these days. The great old stuff never seems to see print anymore but for the grace of Del Rey.

Groovy.

The C.A.S. books got my attention.