THOUGHT MONSTER

THOUGHT MONSTER

"'There is one alternative: perhaps there was nothing for the dying man to see.'"

"'But,' objected the doctor, 'I thought it was what he saw that killed him.'"

"'Fear,' said Cummings, 'can enter a man's soul through other senses than sight. Anyway, I shall work on that hypothesis for a while, and see where it leads me.'"

"And then the air was filled with something that had being, yet was not made of matter. Great, waving tentacles were groping for my mind, trying to suck it into themselves! With a scream, I rushed from the room. The experiment which I began last fall had succeeded without my knowing it, and I have let a thought-monster loose upon the community!"

"The intelligence that was James Gibson has been swallowed up in the maw of my detestable invention!"

"I can feel its tentacles groping for my mind, trying to read my thoughts."

Amelia Reynolds Long, The Thought Monster

This story was first published in the March 1930 edition of Weird Tales with a racist cover and an interior illustration by C.C. Senf.

Here we have another "invisible" creature that's only described through the protagonists thoughts and feelings. While I'm sure the author didn't intend the "tentacles" to be taken literally, when illustrating these unseen creatures, I draw from clues in the text as to how to portray them.  She also mentions a "maw" so I decided to give my creature a gaping mouth. It's also inferred that they "suck" peoples thoughts so I gave them suction cup orifices on the end of each tentacle. 

I will admit I was also influenced by the creatures from the movie adaptation of this story. In 1958 this story filmed under the title Fiend Without A Face. The "thought monsters" were portrayed as ambulatory brains with antennae and spinal "tentacles". This movie was pretty popular and even spawned a resin model kit!

Illustration by David A. Trampier

I also drew inspiration from D&D's intellect devourer that appears as a massive brain with four cat-like legs. This is definitely a guy I'm gonna have to draw sooner than later....along with a mind-flayer.

Maybe soon? That's the last of the new monster drawings....for now!