318: Metafiction and Horror, with Eleanor Hingley
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We’re back and we’re discussing metafiction and horror. More importantly, we’re getting the title of the episode in the first paragraph for SEO purposes. Main Topic: Metafiction and Horror Metafiction turns up in every genre from literary fiction to SF, breaking fourth walls, playing with storytelling conventions, and embedding fictional narratives within fictional narratives. Our focus here, however, is on the connection between metafiction and horror, whether this is self-aware slasher films or horror novelists who write about horror novelists. We look at various definitions of...
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317: Small Town Horror, with Eleanor Hingley
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We’re back and we’re keeping to ourselves. You really can’t be too careful. The outside world is full of dangerous ideas and strange people. Some of them don’t even play Call of Cthulhu. Sure, they might find our ways odd too, especially if they hear the singing in our early episodes. Still, the real small town horror is always other people. Main Topic: Small Town Horror This is a local episode for local people. We explore small town settings and why they work so well for horror. Isolated, insular communities are a mainstay of horror, usually populated by sinister locals who shun...
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316: Art and the Cthulhu Mythos, with Kailas Elmer
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We’re back and we’re pushing boundaries. Good taste has never come easily to us, but it’s downright impossible when talking about art that might inspire Call of Cthulhu games. From performance artists who mutilate themselves in inventive ways to photographers who raid the local morgue looking for models, it’s hard for horror writers like us to make this stuff any nastier. But still we try. Main Topic: Art and the Cthulhu Mythos This episode is the conclusion of our two-part look into the relationship between Lovecraft and art. , we looked at the artistic influences that...
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315: Lovecraft and Art, with Kailas Elmer
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We’re back and we’re mulling over bas-reliefs again. Once you start looking into the relationship between Lovecraft and art, the damn things are everywhere. We would say that there’s no relief from them, but that would be beneath us. Main Topic: Lovecraft and Art This episode is the first of a two-part look into the relationship between Lovecraft and art, and how this shaped the Cthulhu Mythos and Call of Cthulhu. Next episode, we’ll be flipping things around and looking for inspiration from the world of art, but here we’re examining the influence it had on Lovecraft’s life...
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314: Analogue Horror, with Holly Buteau
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We’re back and we’re twiddling the tracking knob. It’s supposed to help clear up the image on this old videocassette, but maybe that’s just missing the point. The static can be the most interesting part, filled with whispers, ghosts, and ancient secrets. Compared to such wonders, the film itself is a bit disappointing. Then again, analogue horror seems to be more of a vibe than a form of storytelling, so maybe we should just let the white noise wash over us. Main Topic: Analogue Horror This episode sees us explore analogue horror, trying to work out what exactly it is and how to bring...
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313: Horror in Space, with Holly Buteau
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We’re back and we’re and we’re answering the call of the void. Really, it’s about the scariest call you can receive, regardless of what Cthulhu may tell you. The yawning darkness of infinity shouldn’t be as tempting as it is. For all our talk about horror in space, maybe the real horror was inside us the whole time. Main Topic: Horror in Space This episode heads into the cold and the dark, exploring just what it is that makes space so scary. We talk about some of the real challenges and dangers posed by space travel and how they can amplify horror, then move on to inspirational...
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312: Comedy Horror, with Evan Dorkin
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We’re back and we’re and we’re putting on our ponchos. They look a bit silly, but that works for us here. The important thing is that they’ll keep some of the gore off our clothes. Comedy horror can be a messy business, especially once you bring gardening equipment into play. We’re not sure whether to laugh or cry, so we’ll probably just scream. Main Topic: Comedy Horror This episode sees us delve into the bloody world of comedy horror, trying to pin down what makes the two genres work so well together, looking at some examples from media, and trying to work out how to perform...
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311: RPGs and Fiction, with Evan Dorkin
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
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310: Something Wicked This Way Comes, with Cuppycup
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
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309: Theme Parks and Horror, with Cuppycup
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
We’re back and we’re learning about protein spills. What sounded like an innocent sexual innuendo has turned out to be more scatological than any of us would have liked. The unpleasant realities of theme parks are well hidden behind twee language and cute costumes. Happily, once we strip them away, we can find some good horror inspiration. Although we do wish it all smelled a bit better. Main Topic: Theme Parks and Horror This episode, we visit the topic of theme parks, amusement parks, funfairs and the like, looking for Call of Cthulhu inspiration. As with so many things rooted...
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We’re back and we’re and we’re answering the call of the void. Really, it’s about the scariest call you can receive, regardless of what Cthulhu may tell you. The yawning darkness of infinity shouldn’t be as tempting as it is. For all our talk about horror in space, maybe the real horror was inside us the whole time.
Main Topic: Horror in Space
This episode heads into the cold and the dark, exploring just what it is that makes space so scary. We talk about some of the real challenges and dangers posed by space travel and how they can amplify horror, then move on to inspirational media and just how all this relates to gaming. While we of course talk about alien life and all sorts of concepts from science fiction, the scariest part of the episode might be the description of just what can go wrong on a space walk.
Our Guest Host
We are delighted to welcome Holly Buteau to the Good Friends! Holly co-hosts RPG Reanimators, a podcast focusing on providing resources for GMs and players of horror RPGs. She’s also a regular on Into the Darkness, an actual play YouTube channel. In addition to RPGs, she’s an avid board gamer, space nerd, and all-around trivia enthusiast. You can find Holly over on the RPG Reanimators discord.
Links
Things we mention in this episode include:
- Heisenberg compensators
- The Expanse
- For All Mankind
- The Expanse by James SA Corey
- Alan Shepard
- EVA 23 account from Luca Parminato
- Apollo 13
- Apollo 13 (1995)
- Life (2017)
- Survival horror
- Alien (1979)
- The Expanse Roleplaying Game
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Call of the void
- Gravity (2013)
- Firefly
- Warhammer 40,000
- Serenity (2005)
- World War Z by Max Brooks
- International Space Station
- The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
- Odyssey 5
- ISS (2023)
- The 100
- Pandorum (2009)
- Passengers (2016)
- The Black Hole (1979)
- Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
- Interstellar (2014)
- Aliens (1986)
- Alien 3 (1992)
- Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Moon (2009)
- Mothership
- RoboCop (1987)
- Apollo 18 (2011)
- “Kill the Moon” from Doctor Who
- The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
- The Quatermass Experiment
- Deep time
- “The Shadow Out Of Time” by HP Lovecraft
- Pictures taken by Michael Collins
- Europa Report (2013)
- Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
- Alien: Romulus (2024)
- Event Horizon (1997)
- Warhammer 40,000: Imperium Maledictum
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Babylon 5
- Babylon 5: Thirdspace
- The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Hellraiser (1987)
- Jason X (2001)
- Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)
- Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
- Critters 4 (1992)
- Dracula 3000 (2004)
- Fermi paradox
- Dark forest hypothesis
- Great Filter
- Recent evidence of extraterrestrial life
- Blue Planet
- Voyager programme
- “To Serve Man” by Damon Knight
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
- Twilight Imperium
- Death in Space
- The Signal (2014)
- The Signal (2007)
- Traveller
- Secrets of the Ancients
- Seth Skorkowsky’s Secrets of the Ancients campaign diaries
- Annic Nova
- “Grace Under Pressure”
News
A Weekend With Good Friends
GM signups for A Weekend With Good Friends will close very soon! This, of course, is the online convention organised by our lovely listeners, taking place on the Good Friends Discord server.
Key dates are:
- GM signups: 23rd of April – 7th of May
- Player signups: 22nd of May – 5th of June
- A Weekend With Good Friends: 13th – 15th of June
Games and panels will run throughout the weekend.
We shall share more details are they become available.
Long Cut of the Good Friends
As existing backers may already have seen, we release a long cut of every episode of the Good Friends on Patreon. These are almost completely unedited, giving you a chance to hear both the stuff that didn’t make it into the final cut and all the times we mess up and retake bits. Sometimes, the long cuts only contain a few minutes of material, but the two recent episodes with Evan Dorkin — “RPGs and Fiction” and “Comedy Horror” — contain around two hours of additional content. We had such a good time talking to Evan that we lost track of time, and we had to edit out a whole load of fascinating stuff just to get the episodes down to a reasonable length. Please do check them out if you’re a backer.
