ZOOG

ZOOG

"In the tunnels of that twisted wood, whose low prodigious oaks twine groping boughs and shine dim with the phosphorescence of strange fungi, dwell the furtive and secretive zoogs;"

"Most of them live in burrows, but some inhabit the trunks of the great trees; and although they live mostly on fungi it is muttered that they have also a slight taste for meat, either physical or spiritual, for certainly many dreamers have entered that wood who have not come out."

 "It was the zoogs, for one sees their weird eyes long before one can discern their small, slippery brown outlines."

H.P. Lovecraft, Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath

This is one I've been wanting to redraw for a while now. Since I've gotten better at illustrating eyes, I've really wanted to go back and redraw this one...and all my creatures with prominent eyes honestly. The tail is more like an actual rat tail and the anatomy in general is just a little better. 

There's not too many depictions of these guys but one does appear on the back cover the 1970s Ballentine Books paperback edition by Gervasio Gallardo. This seems to be the first time the zoogs are shown with tendrils for mouths, an aspect that was carried over into Petersen's Field Guide To Creatures Of the Dream-lands published in 1989. This version is basically a tarsier with some face tendrils. They were even carried over into Petersen's Field Guide To Lovecraftian Horrors (2016). I don't really understand it. 

Especially this monstrous rat version. The tendrils are never mentioned in HPL's text and never even hinted at. I understand the urge to make creatures weird or unsettling but this seems lazy. It's the Lovecraftian trope of "just throw some tentacles on it". My guess is that there was some confusion between the zoogs and moon-beasts (who are actually described as having tendrils on their faces). 

Up next is a true weirdo from a round robin story...