The Call of Cthulhu

I've always been a big reader / fan of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction. Love his crazy, cosmically horrifying imagination, his wordy, luxurious writing voice, and his dark, unswerving certainty regarding the unavoidable, miserable future for the pathetic little human race.

So I've been struck by the urge to do a series of illustrations based on his work.

Here's my illustration for: "The Call of Cthulhu".

This seemed like the ideal Lovecraft story to start with, since it is one of his most famous stories... and because Cthulhu himself is the trademark monster of Lovecraft's fiction.

Of course, in "The Call of Cthulhu" you only learn vague facts about the monster from the perspective of confused, skeptical, or mentally deranged people, who know almost nothing about him, and are simply horrified upon finally witnessing his appearance.

You have to dig a bit deeper, and read the much longer novella "At The Mountains of Madness" to learn the whole history of where Cthulhu came from, and his place in the family of monsters who ruled our earth long before man existed... and who have been hibernating ever since, waiting for the perfect moment to return and take the planet back from us...

But that's the fun thing about Lovecraft's fiction - the way all his stories intersect and tie into each other. Cthulhu is mentioned or discussed in other Lovecraft stories as well, and not just the ones that fall into the "Cthulhu Mythos" series. It seems like a very confusing mythology until you read "At The Mountains of Madness" and then it all kinda makes sense.

But personally, as a horror fan, I find the mysterious, less detailed story "The Call of Cthulhu", with its explosive ending, much more fun, scary, and entertaining. So here's my rendition of it.

I've made up a list of my top 10 favorite Lovecraft stories and plan to slowly, gradually noodle them out, one by one. Now let's see if my kindergarten level attention span lasts long enough for me to get through the rest of them!



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