The Double Shadow is a podcast covering the weird fiction writings of American author Clark Ashton Smith. Although currently on hiatus, it has covered Smith’s work chronologically within his cycles or locations, beginning with the Averoigne stories in chronological order, then moving on to Poseidonis, Hyperborea, Zothique. Our podcast takes its name from one of Smith’s stories, “The Double Shadow,” which he also used as the title of a self-published collection of his works.
Tim Mucci, Philip Gelatt, Ruth Tillman
Mordiggian is the god of Zul-Bha-Sair. And “The Charnel God” is one of Smith's best stories. Join us for fits of near death, necromancy, and hot ghoul action. Music by Kevin MacLeod. Readings by Joe Scalora. Outro music by Boney Washington.
Join us this week as we go on “The Voyage of King Eurovan Euvoran” Justine Jones joins us on this episode. Justine will be illustrating a Clark Ashton Smith zine for Mike Bukowski's Seventh Church Ministries. Look for that around October. Find Justine's art on her Tumblr: http://hauntedforests.tumblr.com, her Illustration site: http://justinejonesillustration.tumblr.com/, and on her […]
Happy 2016! Phil's been working on filming of Laird Barron's “-30-“, Tim's been working on writing projects, and Ruth's been doing some writing and hunting for a new job (success, yay). But we've got an episode for you, recorded in the fall but stuck on the editing table, “The Isle of the Torturers.” Our reading […]
After 43 episodes, we arrive in Zothique with a necromantic splash. (Wait, would a necromantic splash involve a lot of…rotted flesh? Ok, maybe not.) That's right, it's time for “Empire of the Necromancers“! Our reader this week is Alex Mills. Next time, we'll take a voyage to “The Isle of the Torturers.” [edit: audio levels […]
This week we take the second of the Maal Dweb stories, The Flower-Women. This week's reader is Jordan Smith. Music: Kevin MacLeod Outro: Boney Washington
We're back this week with the first of the Maal Dweb stories “The Maze of the Enchanter.” This week's reader is Jordan Smith. The episode of This American Life mentioned is this one's section vocal fry. Our next show will be “The Flower Women.” From there, we'll move on to Zothique! Music: Kevin MacLeod Outro: […]
As Tim said in our last post, it has been a rough/busy/awesome year for your faithful podcasters. But we've got “Vulthoom” for you and we're scheduling more recording times. Here's to getting back on schedule in 2015! We'll be doing Maal Dweb and Zothique after this. Our reader this week is Jordan Smith. Music: Kevin […]
Yes, we are back with “The Dweller in the Gulf” and have recorded an episode for “Vulthoom” as well! Where were we? Well…a lot of places. Phil was making a movie and Ruth was hunting for a job. But now Ruth has a job, Phil's got a lot done on the movie, and Tim's taken […]
After a family wedding and some delays, we're back with “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis.” Check out this awesome comic of The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis hosted on Eldritch Dark! A listener also sent in this artwork of his, posted on Eldritch Dark. Join us next time for “The Dweller in the Gulf.” Our reader this week […]
This week, we're traveling into the ether with “Seedling of Mars.” This is an actual issue of the Salt Lake Tribune from 1912. Make of it what you will: Join us next time for “The Vaults of Yoh Vombis.” Our reader this week is Jordan Smith. Music: Kevin MacLeod
This week's story is “The Devotee of Evil”. Our reader is Olivia Davis. New outro by forum member “Boney Washington.”
This week's episode is “Hunters from Beyond.” Paintings by Goya. Join us next time for The Devotee of Evil. Our reader this week is Jordan Smith. Music: Kevin MacLeod
This week, we go “Beyond the Singing Flame.” Our reader this time is Jordan Smith. Music: Kevin McLeod
This week, we start the Philip Hastane stories and cover “The City of the Singing Flame.” You can read the original in a flipmag viewer or in PDF. You can also check out the Eldritch Dark combined version. There is also a reading on the Eldritch Dark site, but of the combined version. Next time, […]
In this episode/interlude, we talk a bit about what we saw and did at the NecronomiCon(vention) in August and go over what's next for the podcast, now that we're done with Hyperborea. The artist Ruth mentioned was Joe Broers, whose work can be found on his deviantART gallery at this point. The Hyperborean book Tim […]
A transcription of this episode is available. In this week's episode, we close Hyperborea with a story from the, err, “master thief” Satampra Zeiros. That's right, it's time for the infamous “Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles.” Join us next time as we reflect on the NecronomiCon conference we all went to at the end of […]
We finally present our long-awaited “Coming of the White Worm” episode. Between power failures and illnesses, this was as much a monster to record as it was for Hyperborea. But now we're recording more and back on track. Our guest is Mike Bukowski, who really does have a fake cult. The Gaspard Du Nord sketch […]
Progress has been made on our next episode, in that it's actually finally been recorded and is being worked on. But with travel schedules and projects, we're a bit behind where we'd like to be. Once we get to September, we hope to be back to the minimum of 2/month and possibly an interlude as […]
We've been having a hell of a time recording the next episode(s). We're looking forward to doing “Coming of the White Worm” with Michael Bukowski, but scheduling 4 people has been complicated by a power outage one time we tried to record and someone having a bad case of the stomach flu the second time. […]
This week, we conclude “The Seven Geases” with returning guest Jason Thompson. We've found that editing four voices together as compared to three (as compared to two on other Weird podcasts) takes significantly longer. But while we can't promise a perfectly predictable schedule, we will keep these coming. Phil was interviewed on Europa Report, which […]
This week, we welcome back Jason Thompson for the first of a two part episode about “The Seven Geases.” The walkthrough maps Jason mentions are worth checking out for any D&D player. Given the nature of this story, perhaps he'd like to do one for the episode. A note on transcriptions, they're proceeding apace, thanks […]
A transcription is available for this interlude. This week's mostly announcements and excerpts from some of CAS's letters! The delay is caused because, excitingly, we were nominated for the Parsec awards for speculative fiction podcasting! The three of us had to listen to most of the old episodes to discover what clip or clips we […]
This week, we follow Tortha the poet as he follows “The White Sybil.” Surely, the doom of Hyperborea is nigh. From the Eldritch Dark. Our reader this week is @CrowGirl42. Join us next time as we discuss “The Seven Geases” with Jason Thompson. Music credits: Int.Elect – Last Day on Earth Int.Elect – Call Me […]
This week, we're covering “Ubbo-Sathla.” Our reader is Jordan Smith. As noted in the episode, this is the first story (chronologically) this is the first time Eibon is referenced in a CAS story. The Brundage cover we mentioned is below: In exciting news, we've been nominated for a Parsec award. Thank you, listeners! Next time, […]
First, we (Tim) would like to begin by apologizing for the audio issue on this episode. It's got an echo because Tim's audio was messed up and straightening it out ended up with an echo. This week's episode is “The Ice-Demon.” Our reader is @JoeScalora. Because we were behind, the Pseudopod episode we mentioned is […]
This is our second week of “The Testament of Athammaus” with guest Mike Bukowski, the illustrator behind Yog-Blogsoth, a site devoted to artistic renditions of Lovecraftian, Smithian, Howardian, and other Weird beings. Mike has done hundreds of creatures by this point and put out three hard-to-snag volumes, which he periodically reprints. There are plenty of […]
This week we welcome Mike Bukowski, the illustrator behind Yog-Blogsoth, a site devoted to artistic renditions of Lovecraftian, Smithian, Howardian, and other Weird beings, to cover “The Testament of Athammaus” (part 1). Mike has done hundreds of creatures by this point and put out three hard-to-snag volumes, which he periodically reprints. There are plenty of […]
This week, we're continuing our Hyperborean adventures with the comedic morality tale “The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan.” UPDATE: We've had a wonderful illustration contributed by Robert A Neri Jr, of both Avoosl and the monster. There is still one more week to get in
This week, we're finishing up “A Door to Saturn.” Our reader is still @JoeScalora, a longtime listener and the first non-guest reader we've had for the podcast. Thanks for all the positive feedback we've gotten for him, we're planning to ask him to read from time-to-time in the future! As a reminder, we're giving away […]
A transcription of this episode is now available. This week, we're doing the first half of Smith's “A Door to Saturn.” Our reader is @JoeScalora, a longtime listener and the first non-guest reader we've had for the podcast. We're doing a giveaway of The Weird, a fantastic compendium of Weird tales. It's huge and we've […]
A transcription of this episode is available. This week, we'll be doing our first Hyperborean episode, “The Tale of Satampra Zeiros.” To see the rest of the Hyperborean stories, check out the list on our about page. We have our first guest in this episode, Jason Thompson, a.k.a Mockman or @khyungbird. Jason is the author […]
We're ending this cycle with a little of Clark Ashton Smith's poetry, read by Jordan Smith. “Atlantis“ “Bond“ “The Muse of Atlantis”“ “Tolometh“ Next time, we start Hyperborea with “The Tale of Satampra Zeiros” and a special guest! Music by Erdenstern.
This week, we conclude the stories of Poseidonis with “The Death of Malygris.” The story was originally rejected from Weird Tales because it (or that draft) too-closely resembled a prose poem, but it was accepted and published in April 1934. Tim found this awesome track called “The Death of Malygris” by Aperion Project. Next time, […]
A transcription of this episode is available. This week, we have a more modern pirate story in which a merry band encounter “A Vintage from Atlantis.” This story originally appeared in the September 1933 issue of good ole Weird Tales, alongside stories by authors including: Robert E. Howard, Hugh B. Cave, and (we kid you […]
This week, The Double Shadow does…”The Double Shadow“! This story was first accepted by Strange Tales, which then folded before publishing. Smith published it himself in 1933 in a volume titled The Double Shadow with “The Maze of the Enchanter,” “The Voyage of King Euvoran,” “A Night in Malnéant,” “The Devotee of Evil,” and “The […]
A transcription of this episode is available. This week, we escape the sinking continent of Poseidonis on A Voyage to Sfanomoë.” Voyage is the second of Smith's Poseidonis stories and the first we've had so far in the podcast with scientists instead of magicians or necromancers. It was published in the August 1931 issue of […]
A transcription of this episode is available. Welcome to Poseidonis! The About page has been updated with our new list of stories. Today we start off with “The Last Incantation.” Unicorn head by Robert A Neri Jr. or Ranger Games We've jumped back in time to June of 1930, when this story was published in […]
This week is our last in Averoigne. We talk about the three major synopses from the Eldritch Dark and a little biographical and critical information. Synopses: “Queen of the Sabbat,” “The Werewolf of Averoigne,” and “The Sorceress of Averoigne | The Tower of Istarelle.” The essay Phil referenced is “Into the Woods: The Human Geography […]
This week, we're covering the last published Averoigne story, “The Satyr” along with its variant conclusion. The poet referenced in the story was Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585), who was a member of the group of French poets known as La Pléiade. The phrase we were looking for from the Podcast to the Curious was the […]
This week's episode is on “The Enchantress of Sylaire.” Enchantress was published in the July 1941 issue of Weird Tales. Illustration from Weird Tales most likely by Clark Ashton Smith. The Wikipedia entry for Cromlech has an illustration of a basic one, as well as more complex outlines. A few links here for those interested […]
This week's episode is on “Mother of Toads” (abridged version here). As with “Maker of Gargoyles,” we warn listeners that this story does contain sexual assault, in this case against a male. IMDB page for The Theatre Bizarre in which the “Mother of Toads” adaptation Phil mentioned appears (and picture of Richard Stanley). A trailer […]
A transcription of this episode is now available. This week is a somewhat shorter episode on Smith's “Disinterment of Venus.” After a number of revisions, this story first appeared in the July 1934 issue of Weird Tales alongside “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” by HPL and E. Hoffman Price and other stories. The […]
This week's episode is on Clark Ashton Smith's “The Holiness of Azédarac” (originally titled “The Satanic Prelate”). “Holiness” was published in Weird Tales in November of 1933. You can hear H.P. Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith discussing the history of Averoigne as used in this story in our two interludes: Lovecraft's letter to CAS and […]
In this week's episode, we'll be covering The Beast of Averoigne in the version which was published in Weird Tales, May 1933. We'll also be talking about the differences between this version and the one originally submitted to Weird Tales, which you may enjoy reading as well. Beast of Averoigne illustration created by Mike Mucci. […]
A transcript of this episode is now available. This week's episode is on “The Mandrakes.” At the beginning of the episode, we noted a change in our line-up and an error we'd made regarding story order. The proper story order is reflected on our About page, although we kept Colossus where it had been and […]
A transcript of this episode is available. In this week's episode, we finish “The Colossus of Ylourgne,” sections 5-8. Our site's moved hosting, but we're in the same spot on iTunes and our feed hasn't changed. If you're experiencing redownloaded episodes, that may occur because of the feed change. Merriam-Webster defines an “oubliette” as a […]
A transcription of this episode is available. This week's episode covers the first half of “The Colossus of Ylourgne,” sections 1-4. You can subscribe in iTunes or via RSS. The illustration above was commissioned by Farnsworth Wright to go along with the story's publication. According to his correspondence, Smith was dissatisfied with the piece as […]
A transcription of this episode is available. This week covers “A Rendezvous in Averoigne,” the second story in Clark Ashton Smith's Averoigne Cycle. Rendezvous was first published in the April/May 1931 issue of Weird Tales, alongside Robert E. Howard's “The Children of the Night” and H.P. Lovecraft's poem “Alienation” (#32 from Fungi from Yuggoth). The […]
A transcription of the episode is now available. (and now available on iTunes!) The very first episode of The Double Shadow, a podcast that will explore the life and works of 20th Century weird fiction author Clark Ashton Smith. Episode One talks about Ashton Smith's importance as a Weird Fiction author, his place in history […]