SATYR

 

SATYR 

"In an instant every moving entity was electrified; and forming at once into a ceremonial procession, the nightmare horde slithered away in quest of the sound—goat, satyr, and aegipan, incubus, succuba, and lemur, twisted toad and shapeless elemental, dog-faced howler and silent strutter in darkness—all led by the abominable naked phosphorescent thing that had squatted on the carved golden throne, and that now strode insolently bearing in its arms the glassy-eyed corpse of the corpulent old man."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook

 
"Satyrs are hybrid humanoid creatures in the classical mythology of Greece that were equated with the fauns of Roman mythology. There are several descriptions of them through the various time periods. Originally, they were depicted as a human male with the legs of a goat and small horns on the head."

"The satyrs during the latest periods are the ones with the most familiar image, with human faces, pointed ears and horns but with hairy male bodies above the body and the legs of a goat below."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons

FAUN

FAUN

"With this grave retinue he trod the grove
And pray’d the Fauns he might a Poe-et prove.
But sad to tell, ere Pegasus flew high,
The not unrelish’d supper hour drew nigh;"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Poe-et's Nightmare

"O Prophetess more lovely than the Sybil of Cumae when Apollo first knew her, though hast truly spoken of the new age, for even now on Maenalus, Pan sighs and stretches in his sleep, wishful to awake and behold about him the little rose-crowned 
Fauns and the antique Satyrs." 
H.P. Lovecraft & Anna Helen Crofts, Poetry and the Gods 

"These beings are the offspring of the classical Greek demigod Faunus, which resembled him in their semihuman form with the legs, hooves, and horns of a goat bu the torso and head of a human male. They are likened to the Satyrs and are guardians of the wild life of the woods and fields they inhabit."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons 

 

FAIRY

FAIRY
 "When tales fly thick in the grottoes of tritons, and conches in seaweed cities blow wild tunes learned from the Elder Ones, then great eager mists flock to heaven laden with lore, and oceanward eyes on the rocks see only a mystic whiteness, as if the cliff’s rim were the rim of all earth, and the solemn bells of buoys tolled free in the aether of faery."
 
"Ironic humour dragged down all the twilight minarets he reared, and the earthy fear of improbability blasted all the delicate and amazing flowers in his faery gardens."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Strange High House In the Mist

"There is a long tradition in myth and legend of these diminutive enchanting spirits throughout Europe and the Middle East, althought they figure less in other countries of the world. The Fairies may vary in their appare and abodes but in general they resemble tiny humans."

 Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns and Goblins

 

LICH

 LICH

"I shall go mad if he is not, for I may be the next. But my will is not weak—and I shall not let it be undermined by the terrors I know are seething around it. One life—Ephraim, Asenath, and Edward—who now? I will not be driven out of my body . . . I will not change souls with that bullet-ridden lich in the madhouse!"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing On the Doorstep

"It was a lich's face-desiccated flesh tight over its skull. Filthy strands of hair were matted over its scalp, tattered lips were drawn away from broken yellowed teeth, and, sunken in their sockets, eyes that should be dead were bright with hideous life."

Karl Edward Wagner, Sticks 

"After a while, in the gray waste, they found the remnant of another horse and rider, which the jackals had spared and the sun had dried to the leanness of old mummies. These also they raised up from death; and Mmatmuor bestrode the withered charger; and the two magicians rode on in state, like errant emperors, with a lich and a skeleton to attend them. Other bones and charnel remnants of men and beasts, to which they came anon, were duly resurrected in like fashion; so that they gathered to themselves an everswelling train in their progress through Cincor."
Clark Ashton Smith, The Empire Of the Necromancers

 

NECRONOMICON 2013 PROVIDENCE

I'm packing all my stuff in a tiny rented car and heading to the convention! I'll be wandering around all day tomorrow and I'll be tabling Sunday during the day. Say hi if, for some reason, you recognize me, haha. 

I'll be in "Salon" area on Sunday!! With zines available!!

 

And I want to thank  Christopher Burdett, Justin Gray, Jeanne D'Angelo, and Kristin Scholz

 for contributing to Guests In the Witch House this time around. I'll be in New England all week but I have two weeks worth of new monsters and gods set to auto post while I'm gone!! 

 

QUEEN TARAMIS AND SALOME THE WITCH by KRISTIN SCHOLZ

QUEEN TARAMIS AND SALOME THE WITCH
'You never had a sister?' came the sweet, poisonously mocking voice. 'Never a twin sister whose flesh was as soft as yours to caress or hurt?'

'Why, once I had a sister,' answered Taramis, still convinced that she was in the grip of some sort of nightmare. 'But she died.'

"The beautiful face in the disk was convulsed with the aspect of a fury; so hellish became its expression that Taramis, cowering back, half expected to see snaky locks writhe hissing about the ivory brow."

'Aye!' Salome's laughter was dagger-edged with hate. 'The curse of the kings of Khauran! They tell how the first queen of our line had traffic with a fiend of darkness and bore him a daughter who lives in foul legendry to this day. And thereafter in each century a girl baby was born into the Askhaurian dynasty, with a scarlet half-moon between her breasts, that signified her destiny.

Taramis was still beautiful, in spite of her rags and the imprisonment and abuse of seven weary months. She did not reply to her sister's taunts, but bent her head as one grown accustomed to mockery."

'I knew it!' It was a fierce, vibrant whisper, scarcely audible. 'She lives! Oh, Krallides, your martyrdom was not in vain! They have her locked in that dungeon! Oh, Ishtar, if you love true men, aid me now!'"

Robert E. Howard, A Witch Shall Be Born

Illustration by Kristin Scholz

JIREL OF JOIRY by JEANNE D'ANGELO

JIREL OF JOIRY
 "She was tall as most men, and as savage as the wildest of them, and the fall of Joiry was bitter enough to her heart as she stood snarling curses up at her conqueror. The face above her mail might not have fair in a woman's head-dress, but in the steel setting of her armor it had a biting, sword-edge beauty as keen as the flash of blades. The red hair was short upon high, defiant head, and the yellow blaze of her eyes held fury as a crucible holds fire."

"She might have been a little afraid at other times, but that steady flame of hatred burning behind her eyes was a torch to light the way."

"All about her, as suddenly as the awakening from a dream, the nothingness had opened out into undreamed-of distances. She stood high on a hilltop under a sky spangled with strange stars. Below she caught glimpses of misty plains and valleys with mountain peaks rising far away. And at her feet a ravening circle of small, slavering, blind things leaped with clashing teeth."

"She struck out across the narrow space which lay between her and the tower. She saw now that it was a building, and that the light composed it. She could not understand that, but she saw it. Walls and columns outlined the tower, solid sheets of light with definite boundaries, not radiant. As she came nearer she saw that it was in motion, apparently spurting up from some source underground as if the light illuminated sheets of water rushing upward under great pressure. Yet she felt intuitively that it was not water, 
but incarnate light."

"It was a lake--a lake that could never have existed outside some obscure hell like this. She stood on the brink doubtfully, wondering if this could be the place the light devil had meant. Black, shining water stretched out before her, heaving gently with a motion unlike that of any water she had ever seen before. And in the depths of it, like fireflies caught in ice, gleamed myriad small lights. They were fixed there immovably, not stirring with 
the motion of the water."

C.L. Moore, Black God's Kiss

Illustration by Jeanne D'Angelo

CHARLES FORT by JUSTIN GRAY

CHARLES FORT
"The more I laughed at such theories, the more these stubborn friends asseverated them; adding that even without the heritage of legend the recent reports were too clear, consistent, detailed, and sanely prosaic in manner of telling, to be completely ignored. Two or three fanatical extremists went so far as to hint at possible meanings in the ancient Indian tales which gave the hidden beings a non-terrestrial origin; citing the extravagant books of Charles Fort with their claims that voyagers from other worlds and outer space have often visited earth. Most of my foes, however, were merely romanticists who insisted on trying to transfer to real life the fantastic lore of lurking “little people” made popular by the magnificent horror-fiction of Arthur Machen." 
H.P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer In Darkness

Illustration by Justin Gray

CONAN by CHRISTOPHER BURDETT

CONAN THE CIMMERIAN
"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

Robert E. Howard, The Phoenix On the Sword

"Knots and bunches of muscle started out of the massive arms, and Conan beat his head forward and spat savagely at Constantius's face."

"Naked but for a loin-cloth, the man was almost a giant in stature, and his muscles stood out in thick corded ridges on limbs and body, which the sun had long ago burned brown. The perspiration of agony beaded his face and his mighty breast, but from under the tangled black mane that fell over his low, broad forehead, his blue eyes blazed with an unquenched fire."

Robert E. Howard, A Witch Shall Be Born

Illustration by Christopher Burdett

News...

Hey guys, I got a bunch of news for you.

First off, here's some info on NecronomiCon. I made reprints of individual copies of Illustro Obscurum Volumes I-IV that will only be available at the Con. 

They have customized covers commemorating the Con and they're also held together with gold staples!

As well as these, I'll also have 25 copies of the Collection I and a ton of prints. Again, I'll only be selling work on Sunday in the Salon area, but I'll be wandering around and I'll also have pieces in the Ars Necronomica show in the Cohen Gallery at Brown University.

If you're going, keep an eye out for Dave Felton.  He'll be wandering around with his Cthulhu Commune zine which he interviewed me for! Keep an eye out!

This week will also be the start of Guests In the Witch House part two! Four AMAZING artists volunteered their time and did beautiful pieces based on mythos heroes. Once that's done there will be two full weeks of new monsters.

And lastly, I finally joined the 21st century and got a smart phone, which means I got an Instagram account. I post a lot of in progress shots and I'll be posting pics from NecronomiCon. Check it out here.

News...

Hey folks! A few cool updates while I work on more monsters. 

First off, I will be tabling at NecronomiCon in Providence in August. If you're making the trip out (which, if you can afford to, you totally should!) I'll be selling a bunch of Illustro Obscurum merchandise. Including 25 copies of COLLECTION I! 

I will also have special INDIVIDUAL, NecronomiCon ONLY, editions of Illustro Obscurum Volumes I-IV. So, if you're going to be in Providence and you missed out on an of the first four Volumes this is your chance to grab them and get caught up.

There will also be a three venue Lovecraft themed art show called Ars Necronomica that's going on to coincide with the Con. I'll have 6 pieces in the show at Cohen Gallery in Brown University alongside Alan Brown, Paul Romano, Justin Bartlett, and NICK BLINKO among others! You can get all the info about that here.

I'm also in the process of getting together the next installment of Guests In the Witch House! More on that in a week or two.

I will also be a guest on The Double Shadow podcast again for Clark Ashton Smith's amazing story The Coming Of the White Worm. So keep checking their site for that episode!

I've got 9 new creatures drawn (only two are redrawings) and will start inking them soon. It may be a while til I can post any of them because I'll be preparing for NecronomiCon. If you'll be in Providence then come by and say hi!!! I'll be in the L'Apogee/Salons area circled in the map below ON SUNDAY AUGUST 25th.

DAPHNE

DAPHNE

"Apollo, chasing Daphne, gain'd his prize 

But lo! she turned to wood before his eyes."

H.P. Lovecraft, On the Vanity Of Human Ambition

"Her strength begins to fail, and, ready to sink, she calls upon her father, the river god: 'Help me, Peneus! open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger' Scarcely had she spoken, when a stiffness seized all her limbs;  her bosom began to be enclosed in a tender bark; her hair became leaves; her arms became branches; her foot stuck fast in the ground as a root."

Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology

KALI

KALI

"It was as though his body had been suddenly transformed into one of those many-limbed and many-headed effigies sculptured in Indian temples, and he contemplated the aggregation in a bewildered attempt to discern which was the original and which the additions—if indeed (supremely monstrous thought) there were any original as distinguished from other embodiments."

H.P. Lovecraft & E. Hoffman Price, Through the Gates Of the Silver Key 

"Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga, decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas."

Devi Mahatmyam

"Although there are depictions of Kali as a maternal goddess, she is usually depicted as an old woman, made emaciated and bony by the constant bearing and feeding of life. She has an insatiable hunger for life and devours everything in her way. She often has tusks or puts out her tongue which is dripping with the blood of her victims."

Eva Jansen, The Book Of Hindu Imagery: Gods, Manifestaions and Their Meanings

"Kali is another form of the goddess that is often seen in temples and pictures. She is usually pictured as nude except for being covered by her scattered hair. She has a dark complexion. She wears and apron of human hands and a garland of human skulls, and sometimes carries a human head in one hand, freshly severed and dripping with blood, and a long chopper in the other hand. The other two hands are giving blessings and offering protection. Her tongue is protruding, dripping with blood."

Stephen Knapp, Avatars, Gods and Goddesses Of Vedic Culture