THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK (NYARLATHOTEP)
"The skull was in a very peculiar state—stained yellow, and with a charred aperture in the top as if some powerful acid had eaten through the solid bone."
"Those living near the dreaded church had sworn that the thing in the steeple had taken advantage of the street-lamps’ absence and gone down into the body of the church, flopping and bumping around in a viscous, altogether dreadful way."
'“What am I afraid of? Is it not an avatar of Nyarlathotep, who in antique and shadowy Khem even took the form of man?"'
'“I see it—coming here—hell-wind—titan blur—black wings—Yog-Sothoth save me—the three-lobed burning eye. . . .”'
H.P. Lovecraft, The Haunter Of the Dark
"The skull was in a very peculiar state—stained yellow, and with a charred aperture in the top as if some powerful acid had eaten through the solid bone."
"Those living near the dreaded church had sworn that the thing in the steeple had taken advantage of the street-lamps’ absence and gone down into the body of the church, flopping and bumping around in a viscous, altogether dreadful way."
'“What am I afraid of? Is it not an avatar of Nyarlathotep, who in antique and shadowy Khem even took the form of man?"'
'“I see it—coming here—hell-wind—titan blur—black wings—Yog-Sothoth save me—the three-lobed burning eye. . . .”'
H.P. Lovecraft, The Haunter Of the Dark
Great illustration.
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ReplyDeleteHuzza! Great version of the Haunter!
ReplyDelete"O haunter of the dark
My soul shall now be thine
Thy knowledge must be mine
I gazed into its window and saw the three lobed burning eye,
The titan blur on black wings - Now I am it and it is I !
Black Pharaoh they call me though Nephren Ka's my name
And amongst the folk of the Nile
I spread my poison reign"
The Shining Trapezohedron - The Vision Bleak
Will some more of the Thousend Mask of Nyarlathotep follow?
Just fantastic.
ReplyDeleteGood Illustration! Took me a bit by surprise given Nyarlathotep also comes in human form in the book named after him. Then I realized there's two stories that involve his human form and "true form". :)
ReplyDeleteNever imagined Nyarlathotep like that. Very interesting illustration!
ReplyDeleteThat is one of the best illustrations I've ever seen of Nyarlathotep. Great work.
ReplyDeleteWhoa...
ReplyDeleteBravo, well done sir.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the acid-dripping tendrils lining the wings? Other than that, good depiction--especially of the three-lobed burning eye!
ReplyDeleteThis has to be my favorite illustration by far! First off, the illustration itself is very well done and looks great (especially the eye). Secondly, this creature looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteI feel like I need to roll my eight sided dice. I like the fiery eye.Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteFantastic illustration for the Haunter of the Dark, but I would also love to see Nyarlathotep as he is described in his eponymous tale!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, interesting interpretation. I never took the "burning" eye to be literal, more a figurative burning, piercing of the mind's eye.
Great God! And epic SAN loss! This is truly amazing!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! I'm glad you like it!
ReplyDeleteDerek C. F. Pegritz-I didn't see any mention of tendrils on wings in the story...could you find a quote for me?
Logan & Burton-The Pharaoh from Nyarlathotep and The Black Man from Dreams In the Witch-House are on the list! Don't know when they'll come but expect them in the future
Awesome. Finding this blog has forced me to go back and re-read... everything I have access to. Looking forward to everything you have planned to illustrate in the future.
ReplyDeleteIn "New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos" there is a story by A.A. Attanasio, "The Star Pools" . Where a man serves as a host body or gestation sac for Nyarlathotep, tho he is not aware of it at first. It, like his other yarn, "Glimpses", has some nastiness and such in it.
ReplyDeleteThe last mythos tales I've read ,have convinced me that the genre is now in the realm of fan-fiction and I'm sticking to the ones I already read, the better earlier ones that is.
Paul, I actually just picked up two really awesome collections. Lovecraft Unbound (edited by Ellen Datlow) and Cthulhu's Black WIngs (edited by S.T.Joshi). Both editors of those collections explicitly requested tales INSPIRED by HLP, not pastiche. So, almost all of the stories even lack mythos creature names or places. There's a few that slip in here or there but for the most part both collections capture that grim, preapocalyptic worldview...
ReplyDeleteThis may be the weirdest feedback you've gotten, but I'm a psychic medium by trade and have a lot of interactions with different deities in my visions and stuff. This includes five or six Lovecraftian gods, of which Nyarlathotep is one. And I gotta say, the eyes are totally spot on with how he appears in my visions!
ReplyDeleteI mean, not to say I have any kind of objective grasp on these deities, but it really lines up with how I experience him (though when I see him, his mouth tends to be more insectile, kind of like a combination of Cthulhu's mouth tentacles and fly mandibles)!
But yeah, really great stuff, I love the detail and the colors ^ ^ (I've also written a LCian paper & pen rpg and have been looking for inspiration for new villains, so hooray for that too :3)