As a horror movie fiend and tiki mug collector, Jonathan “Atari” Chaffin, married his two passions with his first Horror In Clay creation, the Cthulhu Tiki Mug, the centerpiece of the Pickman’s Cove Collection, in 2012. Cthulhu’s tentacles weren’t just wrapped around its namesake mug but also ensnared the accompanying swizzle sticks, bar spoon, jigger and everything else you might find in a tiki bar from your worst Lovecraftian nightmares.
“I collect tiki mugs and horror autographs and thought, ‘If I had a tiki bar, what would the coasters look like? What would the tiki mugs look like? What would the swizzle sticks look like?’,” says Chaffin. “I’m a graphic designer, so I designed all these things. Then I thought, ‘I wonder what it would cost to get one of these made.’ It turns out, it would cost a lot to have one made. But once you have the mold made, you can make more. So I decided to do a Kickstarter and that’s where the Cthulhu Tiki Mug came from. It’s for a fictitious tiki horror bar I design stuff for. When I designed the first mug, Cthulhu is holding a fog cutter mug, which is an homage to Trader Vic’s. Then I designed the Innsmouth Fogcutter mug, which became the second mug in 2014.”
The backstory of each collection is fleshed out not only within the intricacies of each mug’s design, but with the accompanying hardware and other collectibles Chaffin designs. So, while it might just be a unique way for some horror fans to consume their libations, for others it’s an immersive experience that adds to the mythos of the stories and creatures being portrayed.
“All of our mugs are designed as collections with backstories,” says Chaffin. “There are actually cryptographic clues that are hidden in the T-shirts, the recipe cards and the mugs that tell an additional narrative. I like the idea of hiding clues throughout the collections and throughout the different product lines that call back to each other. For example, The Cthulhu is holding the Innsmouth Fogcutter, and if you look at the Innsmouth Fogcutter you can see Cthulhu’s eyes looking out on the lower part of the mug.”
All of Horror In Clay’s mugs are fired at very high temperatures, making them very durable restaurant-quality containers. Unfortunately the Pickman’s Cove watering hole referenced in the Cthulhu collection and the Gilman House mythologized in the Innsmouth Fogcutter assortment aren’t real places that serve drinks in Chaffin’s mugs. You can, however, drink from Horror in Clay creations at Tacoma Cabana in Tacoma, Wash. and Cane and Table in New Orleans. They’ll even let you take home the mug for a premium price.
Chaffin’s most recent release is the Amontillado Barrel Mug Collection based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado. After meeting sculptor and mask maker Andrew Bones at Monsterama last year (they’ll both be vendors there again this year), Chaffin and Bones came up with a unique pairing to help break open this cask-themed collection.
“Part of what we do is explore the Zeitgeist of whenever something is set,” says Chaffin. “The Cask of Amontillado is set in the 1780s or 1790s and the story references that Montresor is wearing a mask. What did that mask look like? There’s a style of Italian mask that most people recognize from the movie Amadeus called a bauta. What’s interesting is everyone could wear them, so you always had to assume whoever you were speaking to was noble. Commoners could sneak into ritzy parties and be treated like lords and ladies.
“Another interesting thing about the bauta is it doesn’t actually cover the mouth,” he continues. “So you can speak, eat and drink. One of the things you have to design your Halloween costume around is, ‘Can I party in this costume?’ I knew I wanted to offer a wearable mask as part of The Cask of Amontillado collection. None of the commercially-available ones were sturdy enough to really survive an evening of hanging out. I had bought one of Andrew’s Krampus masks and wore it out for an evening during the Krampus Krawl last year. I really liked it, so I asked him if he could make some bautas. One of the levels on the Kickstarter for The Cask of Amontillado was Montresor’s bauta. Hopefully we’ll see some people wearing those and drinking out of their Cask mugs for Halloween.”
Chaffin is also considering releasing a red glaze variant of the Amontillado Barrel called the Cask of the Red Death with a matching red mask. Offering different color variations of his mugs is an idea Chaffin is resurrecting for Chillinghast’s Dark Lantern collection, based on a recurring character at Netherworld haunted house known simply as The Collector. A limited number of corpse blue mugs are available through Horror In Clay’s website, while the burnt bone version is available exclusively through Netherworld’s gift shop, which opens Sept. 25. This collection is rounded out by glow-in-the-dark swizzle sticks, a coaster with a recipe for the Spirits of the Dead cocktail and other novelties.
“The mug depicts elements from the backstory of Netherworld’s iconic character The Collector, who lurks around the Whyshburg Burial Grounds,” he says. “One side shows him at the gates of the cemetery. The other side is a closeup of the lantern The Collector carries to collect the Spirits of the Dead.”