Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire
While at NecronomiCon this year I attended one of two sessions about zines and weird horror/fiction. The session was about W.H. Pugmire, and artist, author, and zine-maker I’d never heard of before. Before the session was even done I’d ordered three collections of his short stories.
Horror writer W. H. Pugmire signing books at World Horror Convention 2008 in Salt Lake City.
Photo by Gregory C. Lowney
Pugmire was born on May 3, 1951 to a Jewish mother and a father who was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka the Mormon Church.) His adopted middle name comes from the Edgar Allan Poe story, Hop-Frog. He grew up in Seattle as what he described as “a wimpy wee fag.” As an escape from the bullying he turned to horror and fiction. In high school he began playing the role of the vampire “Count Pugsly” at Jones’ Fantastic Museum, which he would continue doing through the 1970s. He served as a Mormon missionary in Northern Ireland for eighteen months, during which time he discovered the works of H. P. Lovecraft and began writing is own fiction.
Pugmire came out as gay in 1973, after returning from his mission trip. He was subsequently excommunicated from the Mormon Church, but returned later in life. In the early 2000s he was rebaptized, and told the church leadership he would be a “totally queer Mormon, but celibate.” He worked various jobs in the punk-rock scene where he was allowed to develop his distinctive look, which was heavily influenced by Boy George.
Pugmire described himself as “the Queen of Eldritch Horror” and a “punk rock queen and street transvestite.” His strongest literary influences were H.P. Lovecraft, Henry James, and Oscar Wilde. He became a staple in the Seattle punk scene, and started the influential zine Punk Lust in April 1981. Pugmire was obsessed with Lovecraftian horror, and established the fictional location of Sesqua Valley in which he set many of his own stories inspired by, or connected to, the existing mythos. His writing style has been described as “richly evocative” and “a truly unholy fusion that defies academic boundaries between ‘mainstream’ and ‘genre fiction’.” He attended the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival at the historic Hollywood Theater in Portland, OR whenever he could, and was often found sitting on a bench outside conversing with attendees.
In 2011 Pugmire experienced congestive heart failure. This experience and subsequent medical issues impacted his ability to be creative. He died in his home in Seattle on March 26, 2019, following treatment at a cardiac unit.
Learn more about W. H. Pugmire here:
Wilum Pugmire - Centipede Press
An interview with W. H. Pugmire - punktalk.punktowner.com (via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
Latter-day Saint, Latter-day Lovecraft: an interview with W. H. Pugmire - A Motley Vision
“…Fiction that is Audaciously One’s Own” An Interview with W. H. Pugmire - Litgressive
In Memory of Seattle Horror Writer, Magazine Editor Wilum Pugmire - Punk Globe
The WEIRD Bookshelf: An Interview with Wilum “Hopfrog” Pugmire - Weird Tales (via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
