THE IDOL OF THE HEADLESS MEN (NYARLATHOTEP)

 THE IDOL OF THE HEADLESS MEN (NYARLATHOTEP)
    "The massive crypt door fell from its hinges with a resounding clang, and they saw what the Professor had brought back with him from his expeditions. At the time he had carried it in a crate no bigger than a bread box, but it had grown in the years since. As it rolled forth from the tomb, it looked at first like a giant boulder—maybe one of the papier mache boulders that decorated Kirby's sets. But then as it came to a stop they could make out its features and they recognized it for what it was: a mummified human head, albeit one the size of a camera truck."

    "That would have been enough, of course. To freeze their blood, to send them running, but it wasn't the end. For a moment the grisly thing just sat there, resting on the place where its bottom jaw should have been, and they were allowed the blissful illusion that its movement had been a natural occurrence, the result of it becoming unsettled within the tomb. But then they saw one horrid eye peer at them from a gaping socket, and then retreat on some kind of stalk, as though it was not the eye of the head at all, but of some creature that dwelled within."

    "With a sound like the grinding of giant teeth, the skull began to rock back and forth, and they saw masses of human arms—of normal size, but as mummified as the head—scrabbling at the ground from beneath it. One by one, the gnarled hands found purchase, and then the head began to lurch toward them, pulled along by a tide of arms, like a hermit crab dragging its shell."
Orrin Grey, The Cult Of Headless Men

Written Exclusively For an Illustro Obscurum Collaboration

SHE WHO LURKS BEYOND THE VEIL (NYARLATHOTEP)

SHE WHO LURKS BEYOND THE VEIL (NYARLATHOTEP)
"I found eventually a brief excerpt in a tome I will not name here. In it was mentioned a rare form of XX:

"For she was there, a woman of refinement and grace. A vessel of lust and intrigue. My heart was compelled to love [her], while my being shuddered in deep shame and revulsion.
I became obsessed with the idea of this incarnation. The search for it forced me across continents, scouring rare books and scrolls, staring at etchings on walls of temples.
There were times when I felt a fool, when I thought perhaps the mask of the Woman was merely a mistranslation. Some fever dream. Why did I want to find her so badly?"

"I was staying in Budapest, with a nobleman and scholar. He was hosting a ball for the seasonal equinox. The guests were a glittery assortment of the wealthy and local academics. I was in a dour mood. Bored. Annoyed. I kept to a shadowy corner, sipping a warm Brandy, scowl affixed to my face. When, from out of the crowd, 

a woman approached me."
 

"She was tall, with a long swan neck, and a heart shaped face. Cherubic cheeks and pouty swollen lips. Those lips were pink, shining and wet. Obscene. Her eyes glinted. Like… like sapphires. Her hair, auburn, shone like spun copper in the candlelight. She took my hand in her gloved one and led me outside toward the gardens. They were silent as a shadow and so was she. She took me into the groves, the moonlight remote and cold above us. Then she turned to me, a faint smiling curling at her puffy mouth. And without a word she undid her gown and lowered it to her waist."

"Her breasts were high set, shapely. They ignited that most base desire in me. I went to her. She was graceful as a dancer, silent as a serpent, and soft as a flower petal. My eager hands sought out the bunching fabric and pushed the gown down, down to the dirt. I knew then that I had found the creature I so desperately searched for all this time."

"Below its taut belly and swell of womanly hips, hung her sex. It was massive in scale and dangled,obscenely, swaying like a tropical fruit from between strong thighs. Layers and layers of flesh and membrane resembling the draped fabric of a ladies skirt. Glistening and amphibious. Dripping with musk. A musk, I say with a deep shame, aroused me as it repulsed me. Then and now. Beneath the folds, like a pearl in an oyster, was its massive clitoris: large as a melon. I stared transfixed as it moved, revealing to me, another face. I think now this was Its true face. No less beautiful than the one above, wreathed in silksoft nether flesh and down hair."
 

"This was the mouth that beckoned me close, onto my knees, to press my ear to its velvet contours. This was the mouth that spoke."

"They found me the next morning, naked and pale, trembling and covered in viscous fluids. I still cannot sleep, cannot dream…"

"It was two months later that I finally took the small knife to my own genitals. As I cut, the words that mouth spoke echoed in my mind. I thought I could silence them. I was wrong."

Victoria Dalpe, Excerpt from Encounters Beyond the Veil

Written Exclusively For an Illustro Obscurum Collaboration

THE THING FROM THE DOLMEN (NYARLATHOTEP)

THE THING FROM THE DOLMEN (NYARLATHOTEP)

"The cold pop and crack that trees do when icicles hang from your nose, I thought that's what made the noise. Wrong, very wrong. Stars and trees glowed the same color and the milky vapor of my breath hung before me as I twisted to see what…A shape emerged from the dolmen I’d departed, bearded slick stones reflecting the black deep, and deeper black wrapped a cavity of wormy softness. The figure came onward, hitching and dipping at disjointed angles, an unsleeved mass undulating and cohering into the towering semblance of a stick man screaming soundlessly 

through a mouth of rotted birchwood."

Laird Barron, Untitled
Written Exclusively For an Illustro Obscurum Collaboration

EXCLUSIVE NYARLATHOTEP COLLABORATIONS

Now that Volumes VII and VIII of Illustro Obscurum have been up for sale I'm ready to tell you guys about my next Yog-Blogsoth project.

This all started the end of last year when I dove head first into researching avatars of Nyarlathotep. I realized that since HPL mentions that the god has a thousand forms, any other guise author is canonical and gives me a reason to draw pieces based on some of may favorite and iconic mythos authors (past and present).

Around the same time, I started talking to Jason McKittrick of Cryptocurium about collaborating on something, but his work wouldn't fit with Guests In the Witch House. Then I thought, if I'm already incorporating all these other weird descriptions of Nyarlathotep why not come up with our own. The two of us sat down, and outlined a story for our original vision of the Mighty Messenger and devised a plan. We're going to work together to create a Nyarlathotep collection that will include artifacts sculpted by Jason and an extra long volume of Illustro Obscurum that includes all the avatars of Nyarlathotep (well most). It will include tons of extra goodies and be available on both our sites.

After that I got to scheming even further. If I can include any description of Nyarlathotep why not ask authors for brand new ideas? There are authors I've wanted to collaborate with but couldn't figure the means until now. So, I sent out a request for a fragment of a story that describes how each author envisioned the Crawling Chaos. That was it, I gave no other guidelines. The response was jaw dropping. Not only did I get quick enthusiastic responses but I got some of the weirdest, most bizarre imaginings I could've asked for. I couldn't wait to get to work.

So, starting next week, I'll be posting the first of two weeks worth of Yog-Blogsoth exclusive author collaborations. Some wrote brand new fragments, some wrote almost full stories, some gave me permission to use stories already in existence and one even gave me a story not yet published. Here's a rundown of week one:

1-LAIRD BARRON: Laird is, hands down, my favorite modern author and top five of all time. His collections The Imago Sequence, Occultation and The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All have received amazing praise from just about everyone. The novella The Light Is the Darkness (one of my favorites) and his novel The Croning are masterfully crafted to create a world and mythos all his own. Laird contributed an original fragment to this project and even though it's only a paragraph long, he manages to conjure up a mood and setting both ominous and terrifying.

2-VICTORIA DALPE: Victoria is an extremely multi-talented person. Her bone-obsessed oil paintings are stunning and I often find myself gazing at them on her blog. Her short stories have appeared in 100 Doors To Madness, The Dark Hall Press Ghost Anthology, as well as the Shub-Niggurath themed collection The Conqueror Womb. The long fragment she provided proved to be my favorite. It's disgusting, creepy and above all weird. It presents Nyarlathotep as a manipulator and destroyer that takes pleasure in destroying men. Hers will be NSFW and possibly the most obscene thing I've ever drawn!

3-ORRIN GREY: Orrin Grey's collection Never Bet the Devil, was one of my favorites from last year. He's got a way of putting a fresh spin on well worn horror tropes making them interesting and creepy. The story The Reading Room is a clever twist on the forbidden tome story and Black Hill manages to make an unlikely, yet terrifying revelation about the Mythos. Orrin's fragment was the most fun to draw and probably the most ridiculous! It harks back to Out Of the Aeons and the living mummies created by Ghatanothoa!

4-JOHN LANGAN: John's collection Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters contains my favorite modern mummy tale, and his other collection, The Wide Carnivorous Sky contains my favorite modern vampire story. When I approached John about this collaboration he told me he had just written a story that involved Nyarlathotep that was not yet published and asked if I'd want to use that. I was so excited. Not only did I get to read this epic futuristic/sci-fi/horror tale, I got to illustrate a character from it!

5-MOLLY TANZER: I first encountered Molly's fiction in The Book Of Cthulhu which contained her eerie story The Infernal History Of the Ivy Bridge Twins, which inspired me to redraw my Peculiar Dolphin to fit with her story! Molly was super enthusiastic about this idea and pointed me towards a story she had published in Book Of the Dead where The Faceless God takes on a Tesla/Houdini type guise somewhat akin to his appearance in Lovecraft's poem Nyarlathotep.

In a few weeks there will be a second round featuring SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA, PHILIP GELATT, W.H. PUGMIRE, LIVIA LLEWELLYN and more!

News...

Hey everyone...a bit of news to tide you over until ILLUSTRO OBSCURUM VOLUME VII is available this coming FRIDAY, APRIL 11TH at 11AM, EST in the Yog-Blogsoth store!!!

I just finished my piece for Jenn Woodall's Fight! zine. The idea was to create a female fighting character that would face off with another artists character a la Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken, etc. Below is my contribution:

Obviously I couldn't resist throwing Nyarlathotep into the fray (seriously...no one can beat Nyarlathotep). I chose the avatar of The Queen In Red from the Malleus Monstrorum. She doesn't have ties to any specific work of weird fiction but Scott David Aniolowski incorporated a few mythological and folk characters into the mythos for his bestiary. Expect a stripped down version of this avatar to appear on the blog soon.

SLIME CREATURE FROM OUTER SPACE

SLIME CREATURE FROM OUTER SPACE

"They were ugly, they were mean

Biggest heads I ever seen

They made everybody scream and shout"

"They got slimy lizard skin

And an evil lookin' grin

And they sure could use some manicures"

"They got hands all covered with fungus

They got eyes like some kinda bug

I sure hope they don't come in here

I just shampooed the rug"

"Weird" Al Yankovic, Slime Creatures From Outer Space