tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52053358756396372522024-03-19T04:10:43.729-04:00yog-blogsothMichael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.comBlogger1016125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-41721441080323134952023-07-31T10:00:00.065-04:002023-07-31T10:00:00.135-04:00SCAB<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0yPO2UtayQ89ou3zGcpM4C5qpP9YZAh5AMPykrq048NQIT-r7pefd3FbzUg7cdwLRy6N7sEjZyGJ9Z8II5PZ2xwO_gVI44i1zoAdilQTmTDCRouNTxhb-FBKKtjXncucUQYOk6H5tq7278IRIUJtACO1tAuLlPlL8RQR1lJQwqDKh9zu--IHlcb4zJYK/s576/scab.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0yPO2UtayQ89ou3zGcpM4C5qpP9YZAh5AMPykrq048NQIT-r7pefd3FbzUg7cdwLRy6N7sEjZyGJ9Z8II5PZ2xwO_gVI44i1zoAdilQTmTDCRouNTxhb-FBKKtjXncucUQYOk6H5tq7278IRIUJtACO1tAuLlPlL8RQR1lJQwqDKh9zu--IHlcb4zJYK/w255-h400/scab.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;">SCAB</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He
had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a
two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a
combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts,
he carries a tumor of rotten principles.</span></div><p></p><div class="panel-pane pane-node-body" style="text-align: left;"><div class="pane-content"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels
weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out.
No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep
enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass
with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying
his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn't.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold
his savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country
for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern
strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children,
and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust,
or corporation</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Solidarity wins"<br /><span><span style="color: #990000;">Jack London, </span><i style="color: #990000;">Ode To A Scab<span></span></i></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br />As "hot labor summer" enters August, it's important to remember to support unions in their struggle for better working conditions not matter where they are or what type of work it is. We all deserve better wages, hours & conditions.<br /><br />I had set this monster aside to post if the Teamsters/UPS decided to strike but they have agreed to a temporary contract. This contract still needs to be voted on by rank & file UPS members and many part timers feel dissatisfied with the temp contract (part timers make up roughly 55% of UPS' entire workforce).<br /><br />However, there are some other high profile strikes happening right now. The <a href="https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub">WGA (Writers Guild Of America)</a> and SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). As with all strikes the fight is for better wages, hours & conditions but specifically the advent of streaming and its opaqueness has led to the decimation of residuals. Residuals used to be how most actors were able to support themselves. The WGA SAG strike is also important for ALL of us because it's establishing a blueprint for how to fight & regulate AI in the workplace. <br /><br />To support the WGA & SAG-AFTRA you can donate to the <a href="https://secure2.convio.net/afa/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app20002b?df_id=2857&2857.donation=form1&mfc_pref=T&NONCE_TOKEN=CDE01250D02DB54C285C2679539DBA63">Entertainment Community Fund</a>.<br /> <br />In less glamorous but equally pressing labor news:<br /><br />Southern California hospitality workers (<a href="https://www.unitehere11.org/">Unite Here Local 11</a>) are currently on strike!<br /><br />You can donate to their <a href="https://www.unitehere11.org/donate-to-the-unite-here-local-11-strike-mutual-aid-fund/">strike fund here</a>.<br /><br />Waffle House employees in South Carolina (<a href="https://ussw.org/">Union Of Southern Service Workers</a>) are currently on strike. <br /><br />SUPPORT STRIKING WORKERS EVERYWHERE!<br /><br /><br /></span></span><p></p>
</div></div></div> </div>
</div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-20965782848266384012023-06-30T11:00:00.001-04:002023-06-30T11:00:00.148-04:00SUCCUBA<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhENsU8MTDsYywxmSC7xuwxhtZAicI8R27mnybd5ySpAM-zULOLaFDJJABiwIlAuD6ZfRGdCDC0iw7PuA18aJRKOdusgI-6PiHHriSbMUwDGgCOoY8uWFj89cWTny43V0JL2a8s38YP1r7mbcNFJcIC4NmE1d9MlrurrfPUwDJgO4JfEJLLsMhFeXDhRBap/s3455/58-succuba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3455" data-original-width="3455" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhENsU8MTDsYywxmSC7xuwxhtZAicI8R27mnybd5ySpAM-zULOLaFDJJABiwIlAuD6ZfRGdCDC0iw7PuA18aJRKOdusgI-6PiHHriSbMUwDGgCOoY8uWFj89cWTny43V0JL2a8s38YP1r7mbcNFJcIC4NmE1d9MlrurrfPUwDJgO4JfEJLLsMhFeXDhRBap/w400-h400/58-succuba.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;">SUCCUBA</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">"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, <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/05/satyr.html">satyr</a>, and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/aegipan.html">aegipan</a>, <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/07/incubus-not-safe-for-work.html">incubus</a>, succuba, and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2012/02/lemur.html">lemur</a>, <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/06/twisted-toad.html">twisted toad</a> and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/06/shapeless-elemental.html">shapeless elemental</a>, <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/10/dog-faced-howler.html">dog-faced howler</a> and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/05/silent-strutter.html">silent strutter</a> in darkness—all led by the abominable </span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2012/03/lilith.html">naked phosphorescent thing</a></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;">
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."</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br />H.P. Lovecraft, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;">The Horror At Red Hook</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;"></span></span></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span><span class="ssens"><span style="font-family: arial;">"Succubus.
A devil in female form, the succubus specializes in seducing men.
Although feminine in meaning, in form this medieval Latin word, </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">succubus</span><span style="font-family: arial;">, is masculine (because demons were supposedly sexless); the feminine form </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">succuba</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (strumpet) is occasionally found."</span><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">Rossell Hope Robbins,</span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Encyclopedia Of Witchcraft & Demonology<span></span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;">Here's the succuba to go witht he incubus! Same thing here, I redid the linework and rerendered it but kept the design the same.</span></span></span><br /><span class="ssens"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="ssens"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0Hycm2JBWlCs8HPzsjr76MV-GHnKLYYk7QgzlW9-tInPogah_7qD_PJX7xz-0r-_5OWdO03W9_a3_xTPaphRFa5_j8htacVqyDx2gheUyC55aEmbZ-AVjid_7CHiqfoi7xu2c5csOEKe_Yuvm-oehMU7V950P4XxW3_9r8N5tFJaU0ofUeHBo_im23hJ/s3455/oldvnew.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3455" data-original-width="3455" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0Hycm2JBWlCs8HPzsjr76MV-GHnKLYYk7QgzlW9-tInPogah_7qD_PJX7xz-0r-_5OWdO03W9_a3_xTPaphRFa5_j8htacVqyDx2gheUyC55aEmbZ-AVjid_7CHiqfoi7xu2c5csOEKe_Yuvm-oehMU7V950P4XxW3_9r8N5tFJaU0ofUeHBo_im23hJ/w400-h400/oldvnew.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></span></span></span>Next week is the LAST week of new monsters but after that I'll announce an extremely cool secret project I've been working on!</span><br /></span></span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></span><p></p></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-76609042782335781762023-06-27T11:00:00.037-04:002023-06-27T11:00:00.139-04:00DELUXE EDITION BOOKS NOW AVAILABLE!<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://">DELUXE EDITION BOOKS ARE NOW AVAILABLE!!!</a></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZfHgkzMbkx0RKqjBodFwcHvEG04Ilw2O0iIUPOmH22YTNFWskly2XvA_9WsOG9eWixAgDzG4lbasK7rm8yISDH_D88C7pAG_6luPO6YuK2_Peq1PcuQvKO2EgljxTuhNG94HZW8P8AUJQzU-EYkq5HK8vlZ0lhG5vOf6-liKWYlMFvDoSdmeJn4JCRV-/s1654/harboring.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="925" data-original-width="1654" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZfHgkzMbkx0RKqjBodFwcHvEG04Ilw2O0iIUPOmH22YTNFWskly2XvA_9WsOG9eWixAgDzG4lbasK7rm8yISDH_D88C7pAG_6luPO6YuK2_Peq1PcuQvKO2EgljxTuhNG94HZW8P8AUJQzU-EYkq5HK8vlZ0lhG5vOf6-liKWYlMFvDoSdmeJn4JCRV-/w400-h224/harboring.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">HARBORING MONSTERS DELUXE EDITION<br /></span></span><ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hand signed.</span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hand numbered.</span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Includes original drawing of a monster from the book.</span></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: arial;">AVAILABLE NOW<br /><br /><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">
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<br /></span></b></span></form><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div><br /></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-50513788105785479192023-06-26T11:00:00.058-04:002023-06-26T18:40:38.148-04:00INSECTOID BEAST<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydPf-FfFYeknCWQDmBRzY_paGldOKYLWb22E6U_fW_PSRP01WqnFnwqj5MrzNRcuZ-GU4ucTwRAa5z_VyqK3Zu9mlq93DwQH3ZpEaSxpi8OhnDhMQj8GZJYdrEaeFJK4U-eX_nDWXX7rTPsnwwdB_LHmfr1vmNW67YDAbnZV40SMN3OBL_wM5iM_B9E-p/s576/altarBLOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjydPf-FfFYeknCWQDmBRzY_paGldOKYLWb22E6U_fW_PSRP01WqnFnwqj5MrzNRcuZ-GU4ucTwRAa5z_VyqK3Zu9mlq93DwQH3ZpEaSxpi8OhnDhMQj8GZJYdrEaeFJK4U-eX_nDWXX7rTPsnwwdB_LHmfr1vmNW67YDAbnZV40SMN3OBL_wM5iM_B9E-p/w255-h400/altarBLOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;">INSECTOID BEAST</span><br />"He could see, miles below the surface, a large stone slab, rough and stained. The bodies of children were splattering against it, and crouched down in that darkness was a creature, a large black beast with stiff limbs, each long and bent but quick. The creature's elongated, twitching head danced atop its insectiod torso as it skittered from one end of the slab to the other, gathering the broken bodies of the children as fast as they were falling, enwrapping them, keeping them alive, keeping them for its own sake."<br />Philip Fracassi, Altar<span><a name='more'></a></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">This creature is from the book <a href="https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store/p657/fracassi_horrors.html">Harboring Monsters</a> where I illustrated a bunch of Philip Fracassi stories. During our correspondence, Philip told me this particular creature is inspired by the demon in Salvatore Rosa's The Temptation of St. Anthony and that he saw it as related to the demon in Shiloh.<br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgeNVl2wXDc2eZqjRyaJz3qKpbOlg-3Ngq3t71qZxcxPstwIMZtMtkCFU5S7rvWxH_pxSCglF7NHpJJ50RbKthsvegXpn1yCSPTSsAFbaXrPxrKzsk-C51QBtxMgJ-8ywPx1qXuhC18z9-8jV1-lrOcYzKShifxc_LYiGHLmJbyewdCco_70w5P8kJCx2/s874/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-26%20at%208.04.20%20AM%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="764" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgeNVl2wXDc2eZqjRyaJz3qKpbOlg-3Ngq3t71qZxcxPstwIMZtMtkCFU5S7rvWxH_pxSCglF7NHpJJ50RbKthsvegXpn1yCSPTSsAFbaXrPxrKzsk-C51QBtxMgJ-8ywPx1qXuhC18z9-8jV1-lrOcYzKShifxc_LYiGHLmJbyewdCco_70w5P8kJCx2/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-26%20at%208.04.20%20AM%20copy.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br />He wanted Rosa's demon to be a starting point but not the exact design. And since Lovecraft mentioned Rosa's painting in the Commonplace Book, I'd already drawn it and didn't want be redundant. <br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-0aPeDI4Adge-MmUXMT5xT28yyd5hzpbDyIXQchwyqCLCFzQhZTOFo8RNxXyFtcDJOBmoTyQ9ASqEwm8Mz63oATnoJ9gOxe7c6V4Ub7EyP-OQvee5VckqmvIEWUJssgsW5UldCtf2mJbQ6KieL7Hu4c6kurlHE9J8QEE-iUgCFlhXE8tfJsE2BGlECJ1/s1473/demons.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="1473" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-0aPeDI4Adge-MmUXMT5xT28yyd5hzpbDyIXQchwyqCLCFzQhZTOFo8RNxXyFtcDJOBmoTyQ9ASqEwm8Mz63oATnoJ9gOxe7c6V4Ub7EyP-OQvee5VckqmvIEWUJssgsW5UldCtf2mJbQ6KieL7Hu4c6kurlHE9J8QEE-iUgCFlhXE8tfJsE2BGlECJ1/w400-h183/demons.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Rosa's demon, the insectoid creature from Altar and the demon from Shiloh</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />And lastly don't forget <a href="https://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/p/scary-store.html">deluxe edition books go on sale tomorrow!!</a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/p/scary-store.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="734" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWxNSX7Q_OH4nAy1sPvE9IrDF1ywlHEzXPlA6fri3slfdl3KWh8v0j9_w_OyNjLFb0UpkBNJzhqrJ3WmdGYm0fFuQio2M2YgBGCctY62gQ_8YyXIBuq-2yX5hYwCNglCdwRhIHRTz6umnN7e02RnjcLJ5vC7N5Qm1G6-85L9GS6qtfyYMsUwBPaApFIFu/w400-h321/threebooks.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></span></span><br /></div><div><p></p></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-5501615068423440652023-06-16T11:00:00.004-04:002023-06-16T11:00:00.150-04:00INCUBUS<p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-dV3BjbuFbxPTNO2FGBFqcwovR094jujyd3npqCUji5jiY5Cn5VR_vHBdPhQJ4Hp-GUVC_VJQtynOJVIhjfdq-9jL4ldTKXhzNrl-KdFcshTBcNaXML30bqiLmDUQ2kH9pKT7d4hjG-0VIs0ISMbOVjXADzd4yqDfnfeqwl6frjdakRgv1_7dsxevnw/s576/fungusLBOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-dV3BjbuFbxPTNO2FGBFqcwovR094jujyd3npqCUji5jiY5Cn5VR_vHBdPhQJ4Hp-GUVC_VJQtynOJVIhjfdq-9jL4ldTKXhzNrl-KdFcshTBcNaXML30bqiLmDUQ2kH9pKT7d4hjG-0VIs0ISMbOVjXADzd4yqDfnfeqwl6frjdakRgv1_7dsxevnw/w255-h400/fungusLBOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">INCUBUS</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;">"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, <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/05/satyr.html">satyr</a>, and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/aegipan.html">aegipan</a>, incubus, <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/search/label/Succuba">succuba</a>, and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2012/02/lemur.html">lemur</a>, <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/06/twisted-toad.html">twisted toad</a> and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/06/shapeless-elemental.html">shapeless elemental</a>, <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/10/dog-faced-howler.html">dog-faced howler</a> and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/05/silent-strutter.html">silent strutter</a> in darkness—all led by the abominable <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2012/03/lilith.html">naked phosphorescent thing</a>
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."</div><span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">H.P. Lovecraft, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;">The Horror At Red Hook</span></div></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;">"According
to many Church Fathers, an incubus is an angel who fell because of lust
for wemen. Essentially the incubus is a lewd demon or goblin which
seeks sexual intercourse with women. The corresponding devil who appears
to men is the <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/05/succuba.html">succubus</a>."</div><span style="color: #990000;"><div style="text-align: center;">Rossel Hope Robbins, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Encyclopedia Of Witchcraft & Demonology</span></div><span style="font-style: italic;"><span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;">This redrawing was done to fix the human anatomy. Yes, even tha<span style="font-size: 100%;">t. </span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEg6yaTS8l4iAAdrk9QxQj1xFt-7Tgrih6jcbyuwYIC_x4ZY9HSNkKJ57hta60kG1fjJBQ3-mViEFxyZo9cVK6k_EhbTuZjYEj8GIf3-WubIxKDLfbELH6xFMRXD-5g2b-B7PVtUgyExxy1rTyPS4-eELpDEMttLUc3G6M8494jC_vRVc8n4vmirdosA/s688/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="688" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEg6yaTS8l4iAAdrk9QxQj1xFt-7Tgrih6jcbyuwYIC_x4ZY9HSNkKJ57hta60kG1fjJBQ3-mViEFxyZo9cVK6k_EhbTuZjYEj8GIf3-WubIxKDLfbELH6xFMRXD-5g2b-B7PVtUgyExxy1rTyPS4-eELpDEMttLUc3G6M8494jC_vRVc8n4vmirdosA/w400-h350/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><p></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-62035250606205799512023-06-15T11:00:00.025-04:002023-06-15T11:00:00.147-04:00 INTERDIMENSIONAL SPIRIT<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRNZ_oyQy9Su16EgJW1IJ-F5FeQC8zUU9AvOH5EQV6SjcI07l8GlwXcT4g2R-7kVSqN9euz-VSUwzvgNyqKEQIfNXT4GRFiG0BsvyP48wQdWTqeh4DAb02gUrMcryD44LGlDQvqNvRFyITaXpVU6U9wUkLzUAW_Hd4yJP3wwFVi0PQZamnrV0rGgyF2Q/s576/fungusLBOG%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRNZ_oyQy9Su16EgJW1IJ-F5FeQC8zUU9AvOH5EQV6SjcI07l8GlwXcT4g2R-7kVSqN9euz-VSUwzvgNyqKEQIfNXT4GRFiG0BsvyP48wQdWTqeh4DAb02gUrMcryD44LGlDQvqNvRFyITaXpVU6U9wUkLzUAW_Hd4yJP3wwFVi0PQZamnrV0rGgyF2Q/w255-h400/fungusLBOG%20copy.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">INTERDIMENSIONAL SPIRIT<br /></span><span style="color: #222222;">"It was incredible, surely, but there, opposite and slightly above me, were shapes of some indeterminate sort among the willows, and as the branches swayed in the wind they seemed to group themselves about these shapes, forming a series of monstrous outlines that shifted rapidly beneath the moon. Close, about fifty feet in front of me, I saw these things."</span></div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="color: #990000; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; text-align: justify; text-indent: 16px;">"I saw it through a veil that hung before my eyes like the gauze drop-curtain used at the back of a theater—hazily a little. It was neither a human figure nor an animal. To me it gave the strange impression of being as large as several animals grouped together, like horses, two or three, moving slowly."</span></div></span></div></span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><div style="text-align: center;">"They first became properly visible, these huge figures, just within the tops of the bushes -- immense, bronze-coloured, moving, and wholly independent of the swaying of the branches. I saw them plainly and noted, now I came to examine them more calmly, that they were very much larger than human, and indeed that something in their appearance proclaimed them to be not human at all. Certainly they were not merely the moving tracery of the branches against the moonlight. They shifted independently. They rose upwards in a continuous stream from earth to sky, vanishing utterly as soon as they reached the dark of the sky. They were interlaced one with another, making a great column, and I saw their limbs and huge bodies melting in and out of each other, forming this serpentine line that bent and swayed and twisted spirally with the contortions of the wind-tossed trees. They were nude, fluid shapes, passing up the bushes, within the leaves almost -- rising up in a living column into the heavens. Their faces I never could see. Unceasingly they poured upwards, swaying in great bending curves, with a hue of dull bronze upon their skins."</div></span></span></span><p></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">"For just as the body swung round to the current the face and the exposed chest turned full towards us, and showed plainly how the skin and flesh were indented with small hollows, beautifully formed, and exactly similar in shape and kind to the sand-funnels that we had found all over the island." </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">'"Their mark!" I heard my companion mutter under his breath. "Their awful mark!"'</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">Algernon Blackwood, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Willows</span></span></div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><a name='more'></a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">The most drastic of my redrawings from this week, I did a complete overhaul on the interdimensional spirits from The Willows.</span><br /><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZM0-55SjpfG36xMGdkjhkEaWA-oHpRt7P22YcXQWGJnRlzr-rKcKW3z_TxHvJ214xcoA-vK00-Ylchcr2YvFP9UwGc1YBXpbp3_hi_VtFStZvG759Isga6zqbxj-XTAiXqJM8ivKl5XjROe3fqB4Cduh33ZqgcFllUFz9vPDpVabHM1lgvUGrl9PsQ/s740/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="740" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZM0-55SjpfG36xMGdkjhkEaWA-oHpRt7P22YcXQWGJnRlzr-rKcKW3z_TxHvJ214xcoA-vK00-Ylchcr2YvFP9UwGc1YBXpbp3_hi_VtFStZvG759Isga6zqbxj-XTAiXqJM8ivKl5XjROe3fqB4Cduh33ZqgcFllUFz9vPDpVabHM1lgvUGrl9PsQ/w400-h311/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br />In my original drawing I completely missed the reference to horses. Now I know this doesn't suggest that Blackwood meant they looked exactly like horses or even at all like horses but I don't think it's a random mention. Whenever I do these drawings I take all things in the story into consideration; Was the author referencing another story or author? Was have subsequent authors referenced this story? Did the author reference other creatures or animals in passing in the story? That's usually a big one for me. If the author, even unconsciously mentions an animal or creature, however briefly, in the story I run with it. It's like a clue.<br /><br />There are also other illustrations of this story where the artists interpret the interdimensional spirits as human spirits (similar to my original drawing). Upon reflection this doesn't fit the Weirdness of the story for me. I wanted something more animal and strange for this new version and I'm much happier with the results. </span><br /></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-48982843154220318072023-06-14T11:00:00.024-04:002023-06-14T11:00:00.141-04:00TOME DEMON<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Hgz7RBgJr-V2vlbkdG5-0FJqQZpV__IoQ-woOBaiI6NiGUNqF2c3QDhkbNCAJgpbb-3oL8s1NVGDwSL7z8mjHricS4-VUHAAuto56cvvtAWjQhrcac_ELOPUTrEnKQeL1fAfAJce79IkdhfKRxhNU5cjqpp1NydFY0CaXMuOISUqHAYSwJKNkCBRzQ/s576/fungusLBOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Hgz7RBgJr-V2vlbkdG5-0FJqQZpV__IoQ-woOBaiI6NiGUNqF2c3QDhkbNCAJgpbb-3oL8s1NVGDwSL7z8mjHricS4-VUHAAuto56cvvtAWjQhrcac_ELOPUTrEnKQeL1fAfAJce79IkdhfKRxhNU5cjqpp1NydFY0CaXMuOISUqHAYSwJKNkCBRzQ/w255-h400/fungusLBOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">TOME DEMON</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;">"At first you saw only a mass of coarse, matted black hair; presently it was seen that this covered a body of fearful thinness, almost a skeleton, but with the muscles standing out like wires. The hands were of a dusky pallor, covered, like the body, with long, coarse hairs, and hideously taloned. The eyes, touched in with a burning yellow, had intensely black pupils, and were fixed upon the throned King with a look of beast-like hate. Imagine one of the awful bird-catching spiders of South America translated into human form, and endowed with intelligence just less than human, and you will have some faint conception of the terror inspired by the appalling effigy."</span></div></span></span><p></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"There was black and tattered drapery about it; the coarse hair covered it as in the drawing. The lower jaw was thin — what can I call it? — shallow, like a beast’s; teeth showed behind the black lips; there was no nose; the eyes, of a fiery yellow, against which the pupils showed black and intense, and the exulting hate and thirst to destroy life which shone there, were the most horrifying features in the whole vision. There was intelligence of a kind in them — intelligence beyond that of a beast, below that of a man."</span></div><div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;">M.R. James, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;">Canon Alberic's Scrapbook<span><a name='more'></a></span></span><br />Mostly I wanted to fix the legs on this guy. And the contrast in the fur.<br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDYwlLBITmEnvN0g9zCmkxdgsNLfsRJD2d4OangTWZ4DoPOyrfMPNOj5UnNiAKFIxF8PP_hEvAe5M9oZ9vLiIQVt5jE-v1_aK3t75wfnQoLjDKS0PnDzNYTgfJysMOuDSZsU-4IT7SKZFJqanplPz7bOJaEATiNmKkf7rhtl082mpDiiCUO7Hy9Qbrzw/s1362/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1005" data-original-width="1362" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDYwlLBITmEnvN0g9zCmkxdgsNLfsRJD2d4OangTWZ4DoPOyrfMPNOj5UnNiAKFIxF8PP_hEvAe5M9oZ9vLiIQVt5jE-v1_aK3t75wfnQoLjDKS0PnDzNYTgfJysMOuDSZsU-4IT7SKZFJqanplPz7bOJaEATiNmKkf7rhtl082mpDiiCUO7Hy9Qbrzw/w400-h295/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">There have been no film or television adaptations of this story despite it being one of James' best known and creepiest works!<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Scrapbook02 13cd22d9cc.jpg" class="mw-mmv-final-image jpg mw-mmv-dialog-is-open" crossorigin="anonymous" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Scrapbook02_13cd22d9cc.jpg" /><br />Above is the illustration by M.R. James' friend & companion James McBride which accompanied the original publication.<br /></span></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-24585001703425002142023-06-13T11:00:00.002-04:002023-06-13T11:00:00.150-04:00THE UNNAMABLE<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbL7y5og_z1voFpG9A5KoKqXiC2edugUzLSObYMZ6pFVcZMJz6aeBvAdyrr-Tgv4SoiaBOQHbBPIThrShTM8lqveUVAed77lFDBj8Q_AIS6Jc1WbWd6VXvWcT9bU-xG6swC-4P99j6kVLPIv7RhqZEFgUwwp6DlQgNYFuiqYFaQgBRwtqo9Az22b7GqA/s576/fungusLBOG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbL7y5og_z1voFpG9A5KoKqXiC2edugUzLSObYMZ6pFVcZMJz6aeBvAdyrr-Tgv4SoiaBOQHbBPIThrShTM8lqveUVAed77lFDBj8Q_AIS6Jc1WbWd6VXvWcT9bU-xG6swC-4P99j6kVLPIv7RhqZEFgUwwp6DlQgNYFuiqYFaQgBRwtqo9Az22b7GqA/w255-h400/fungusLBOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>THE UNNAMABLE</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">'"Don’t think I was a fool—you ought to have seen that skull. It had four-inch horns, but a face and jaw something like yours and mine.”'</span></div></span><p></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #222222;"><div style="text-align: center;">"I was not so seriously hurt, but was covered with welts and contusions of the most bewildering character, including the print of a split hoof."</div></span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>'“No—it wasn’t that way at all.</i> It was everywhere—a gelatin—a slime—yet it had shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory. There were eyes—and a blemish. It was the pit—the maelstrom—the ultimate abomination. Carter, <i>it was the unnamable!”'</i></div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">H.P. Lovecraft,</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;">The Unnamable<span><a name='more'></a></span></span><br />Here's another one where I liked the majority of the design, though I did redo the face and the linework and color got a revamp.<br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinTLKafITpFC9AmVgJKPecnUDihCxY3hwkPykdGgZxlu5nT16YUgWUhrZQXdEcQUCrz4puydmpDvJBT-g2I5ya-h67d6yK8Wr0rzkCZBXH7KLFmMdmF9uvj-ldhEYK8uBT4tV1DrhF5dhudN48RX2so7RLt5O616F-Zu1mLUjPdgxztWIUySn56CHU3Q/s1523/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1037" data-original-width="1523" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinTLKafITpFC9AmVgJKPecnUDihCxY3hwkPykdGgZxlu5nT16YUgWUhrZQXdEcQUCrz4puydmpDvJBT-g2I5ya-h67d6yK8Wr0rzkCZBXH7KLFmMdmF9uvj-ldhEYK8uBT4tV1DrhF5dhudN48RX2so7RLt5O616F-Zu1mLUjPdgxztWIUySn56CHU3Q/w400-h272/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></span></span>This story is an interesting one; two friends sit on a tomb and talk about a local legend. A child born hideously deformed and even written about by Cotton Mather. The child has horns and a blemished eye and possibly one cloven hoof. A very Jersey Devil style story. But then they encounter the thing and it's unlike that. It's amorphous, taking and losing forms and shapes at will. Like a shoggoth but a little more specific. I imagined that the aspects mentioned in the legend were actually people just catching glimpses of a much more monstrous creature.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilndpY-LePASqFTjkYDTVRn-VRX3XBAqNTNMa6TG3cU0dflVhZpj6DF-OXkkGCZuaDiWPc-WTUyCrOM_BbKSkbeGcyVJsPIMhtJvRGxeeqXNEcd3Xu1gjwf-07akfYwAzIZcxMt52kXfa7NtMsEAAfC9x4-ldySfiUB9IOOvtxeYeLLH1eEBw-uqFfvg/s632/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-12%20at%207.07.16%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="632" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilndpY-LePASqFTjkYDTVRn-VRX3XBAqNTNMa6TG3cU0dflVhZpj6DF-OXkkGCZuaDiWPc-WTUyCrOM_BbKSkbeGcyVJsPIMhtJvRGxeeqXNEcd3Xu1gjwf-07akfYwAzIZcxMt52kXfa7NtMsEAAfC9x4-ldySfiUB9IOOvtxeYeLLH1eEBw-uqFfvg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-12%20at%207.07.16%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div></span></span>This story was adapted into a movie where they ignored the part about the monster actually being a gelatinous, shape-shifting blob and made it about the original legend. Boring.</div><br /><br /></span></span>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-63367779862995435892023-06-12T11:00:00.027-04:002023-06-12T11:00:00.174-04:00FUNGUS PERSON<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_iH2sQ7SjFJbnaX6rUIycwbICvDHI7c0g8kv6s6eGas3mMTaCaloeUeBRwUYhANpBZhk9wrUCtNmOViPL4AwHqilgJ8sZdDMCMAd4gJntIbea2exP_cDic6PBh-JZLCS9HPb7JbwtBBa3ci5ijnbrK3T9MaqwGiCdzip69jBy_tXwB7nS1G8dz7WrQ/s576/fungusLBOG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_iH2sQ7SjFJbnaX6rUIycwbICvDHI7c0g8kv6s6eGas3mMTaCaloeUeBRwUYhANpBZhk9wrUCtNmOViPL4AwHqilgJ8sZdDMCMAd4gJntIbea2exP_cDic6PBh-JZLCS9HPb7JbwtBBa3ci5ijnbrK3T9MaqwGiCdzip69jBy_tXwB7nS1G8dz7WrQ/w255-h400/fungusLBOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>FUNGUS PERSON</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;">"126- Castaways on island eat unknown vegetation and become strangely transformed."</span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">H.P. Lovecraft, <span style="font-style: italic;">Commonplace Book</span></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">"Yet, as we drew near to it, I became gradually aware that here the vile fungus, which had driven us from the ship, was growing riot. In places it rose into horrible, fantastic mounds, which seemed almost to quiver, as with a quiet life, when the wind blew across them."</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">It was on the thumb of her right hand, that the growth first showed. It was only a small circular spot, much like a little grey mole. My god! how the fear leapt to my heart when she showed me the place. We cleansed it, between us, washing it with carbolic and water. In the morning of the following day she showed her hand to me again. The grey warty thing had returned."</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">"Abruptly, as I stared, the thought came to me that the thing had a grotesque resemblance to the figure of a distorted human creature. Even as the fancy flashed into my brain, there was a slight, sickening of noise of tearing, and I saw that one of the branch-like arms was detaching itself from the surrounding grey masses and coming towards me.</div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">William Hope Hodgson, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;">The Voice In the Night</span><br /><span><a name='more'></a></span><br />This redrawing is a long time coming. I love my original design but wanted to fix the linework, movement and add more color.<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg35g4_MMQpK1nHM5YtJGd3lyR60iFtBLCVlQUbDDbCCUxrbYUgOQC2IRpG6rW-gvWNjZD5D9KePAQ3eUpwXFkFhYD6vmUEgd9Hv5jX5X4LYJBzZdxIn9z5AFqxbGwKTBKAONRgPWJEt6b-zvC4BBxz5HsTiHlLVfluND88ssq_9wDPw_5g1_ur0MWiJw/s748/compare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="748" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg35g4_MMQpK1nHM5YtJGd3lyR60iFtBLCVlQUbDDbCCUxrbYUgOQC2IRpG6rW-gvWNjZD5D9KePAQ3eUpwXFkFhYD6vmUEgd9Hv5jX5X4LYJBzZdxIn9z5AFqxbGwKTBKAONRgPWJEt6b-zvC4BBxz5HsTiHlLVfluND88ssq_9wDPw_5g1_ur0MWiJw/w400-h308/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />The original Lovecraft quote is from his Commonplace Book. It was a sort of journal that he used to jot down ideas, inspiration and/or quotes. The similarity between his idea and Hodgson's The Voice In the Night is obvious. It was not uncommon for him get an idea from another author and then have notes saying "avoid copying _______". So it's not a wild speculation to think this note is directly related to A Voice In the Night.<br /><br />A Voice In the Night was also a popular story. It was adapted for <span style="color: #202122; text-align: left;">television series </span><span style="color: #202122; text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicion_(American_TV_series)" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; color: #3366cc; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Suspicion (American TV series)">Suspicion</a></span><span style="color: #202122; text-align: left;"> (1958) and made into the Toho film </span><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #202122; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">directed by </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishir%C5%8D_Honda" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #3366cc; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none;" title="">Ishirō Honda</a> under the name Matango.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinMoj7o4jPkOqI_z6HbdCmfDVLYUmBC1te561lbw8nzifLjTqp5k2bu3Su921pDR3FN3yzfkFanxFG0cGrvqtgxL81sVjHZ4kPaTjgdTcRAUWTR0MPC8Bc10eZHruoXCtlp6LNk4J2ZCETCYoyPsc0lR5MU5UnKdAp9PMOHpxY_QpYmLR45AvHPR1ywA/s827/movies.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="820" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinMoj7o4jPkOqI_z6HbdCmfDVLYUmBC1te561lbw8nzifLjTqp5k2bu3Su921pDR3FN3yzfkFanxFG0cGrvqtgxL81sVjHZ4kPaTjgdTcRAUWTR0MPC8Bc10eZHruoXCtlp6LNk4J2ZCETCYoyPsc0lR5MU5UnKdAp9PMOHpxY_QpYmLR45AvHPR1ywA/w396-h400/movies.jpg" width="396" /></a></div></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Clockwise: Matango, Suspicion, The Last Of Us, The Girl With All the Gifts<br /></span><br />It wasn't just HPL, many other authors have been inspired by the story as well. Stephen King (Gray Matter), Brian Lumley (Fruiting Bodies), Jeff VanderMeer (Ambergris), Mike Carey (The Girl With All the Gifts) and let's not forget The Last Of Us video game/tv series.<br /></div><br /></span></span><p></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-68004696491453219402023-06-09T11:00:00.026-04:002023-06-09T21:27:11.497-04:00UNWELCOME BOY<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgAkKmvzCBhKSEnJOzyKUPihdkv2RnUU36gKb99SUnECGdOvexsmFDvTPXfWZ0o59zYjpRdYTmnk8nBmrx75quJCEp-1Zlm7IGxEJb75tyEBg1oALoTbeQb8_5_iDYvLdCipS_pQnX6mbXaa_7_AlXLG93X-Y10mzc3555IkBszeJLXef8FjKKDVR2w/s576/unwelcomeBLOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgAkKmvzCBhKSEnJOzyKUPihdkv2RnUU36gKb99SUnECGdOvexsmFDvTPXfWZ0o59zYjpRdYTmnk8nBmrx75quJCEp-1Zlm7IGxEJb75tyEBg1oALoTbeQb8_5_iDYvLdCipS_pQnX6mbXaa_7_AlXLG93X-Y10mzc3555IkBszeJLXef8FjKKDVR2w/w255-h400/unwelcomeBLOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">UNWELCOME BOY</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">"As Terry and Thatcher reach the field, they see the dancing figures were once Better Boys. Once, because their bodies are slack, heads flopping loose on the necks, legs and arms limp, as if their skeletons were stolen, hijacked to help the stalks rising out of their jaws, stretched inhumanely wide. The glistening,mauve tendrils reflect the moonlight, and their weak glow illuminates the slow dance. Filaments from the thickest stalk’s bulbous head extend down to the boy’s wrists and shins, moving them like a marionette on its strings."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Thatcher’s gasping a litany of swears. Terry’s reminded of the rare hothouse orchids at the Toledo Botanical Garden. “Look at them,” he says, as Thatcher pulls him back. They’re almost beautiful."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Unwelcome Boys start waving their stalks toward the both of them.The nearest lift their host’s legs, a bow-legged shuffle, to come closer. Terry reaches out to it, and a tendril, long and supple wraps around his hand, a slick,warm festoon between tucker and that which had been tucked away."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Free of its burdensome host, the Unwelcome embraces Terry with all its sprigs and shoots, then startles Thatcher when it wraps around him for an instant. As it leaps away, to bound across the field, toward the distant treeline, toward the river. Thatcher is trying to perform CPR on still Goshen."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">Steve Berman, <i>The Unwelcome Boys</i></span></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Steve Berman specifically requested I draw a creature from <a href="https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store/p196/Fit_for_Consumption.html">his story The Unwelcome Boys from his collection Fit For Consumption</a> and I was delighted to do so. The story is about a young man that attends a prestigious wrestling camp only to find that some of the attendees aren't what they seem.</div></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store/p196/Fit_for_Consumption.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG8Zcg8KAYct8TkSgLztiag6LzqUbL_29gApYv5UqvPzrJymQgigcxPXjajpZll8e4uOzwKjsN6E_O8h0ixbkNgGP2Xzfcjox4XBcN8yz-hlZMk84lSZDYYmTslhdHLZWKZ1K-91z6JPOgylvdckENcMgI9jpqXcYULXz2Hw5z6GFxRnNhRKUzkfBXeg/s320/Untitled-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The story is also a coming of age tale as our protagonist has his first encounter with someone else his age that's out and proud! He also has his first sexual experience with the same young man. <br /><br />I LOVED drawing this. I hunted down so much reference of orchids and deep sea jellyfish and getting to combine them was a real joy. <br /><br />Next week we're back to redrawings of some old friends!</span><br /><br /></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-85633560980441539812023-06-08T11:00:00.004-04:002023-06-09T21:08:22.873-04:00TAURAN<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKH2TF3mb7lZXAZ-X-NACFhJ0JE_sRQ3KGnrxABK6WkSte5mXeJ_LBXaMBPnAMigfU-pPnNRNertHqbvzOciF6hIVkX8G-2DVpCJu2L8iV9B45W02N1WPzAVcG-MaIEmkw8VeoOilingOtWwPSDlksjUiC4lKOiNbFwyqP8HtjBRQx_S8M3XJ9p3CVmw/s576/tauranblog.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKH2TF3mb7lZXAZ-X-NACFhJ0JE_sRQ3KGnrxABK6WkSte5mXeJ_LBXaMBPnAMigfU-pPnNRNertHqbvzOciF6hIVkX8G-2DVpCJu2L8iV9B45W02N1WPzAVcG-MaIEmkw8VeoOilingOtWwPSDlksjUiC4lKOiNbFwyqP8HtjBRQx_S8M3XJ9p3CVmw/w255-h400/tauranblog.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;">TAURAN</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“He had two arms and two legs, but his waist was so small you could encompass it with both hands. Under the tiny waist was a large horseshoe-shaped pelvic structure nearly a meter wide, from which dangled two long skinny legs with no apparent knee joint. Above that waist his body swelled out again, to a chest no smaller than the huge pelvis. His arms looked surprisingly human, except that they were too long and undermuscled. There were too many fingers on his hands. Shoulderless, neckless. His head was a nightmarish growth that swelled like a goiter from his massive chest. Two eyes that looked like clusters of fish eggs, a bundle of tassles instead of a nose, and a rigidly open hole that might have been a mouth sitting low down where his adam’s apple should have been. Evidently the soap bubble contained an amenable environment, as he was wearing absolutely nothing except his ridged hide, that looked like skin submerged too long in hot water, then dyed a pale orange. “He” had no external genitalia, but nothing that might hint of mammary glands. So we opted for the male pronoun by default. ”</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“Well, yes; I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures. About all they don’t show is the texture of the skin. It’s pebbly and wrinkled like a lizard’s, but pale orange.”</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><div style="text-align: center;">Joe Haldeman, <i>The Forever War</i></div></span><span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">You knew I had to draw the taurans!</span></div><p></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-29581745318726876232023-06-07T11:00:00.010-04:002023-06-07T11:00:00.147-04:00HEAVENIAN SHARK<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEL6M7FSJIlJ00lmRqJYUgCERl_zBcyUFC1nP2x48WW93JP6ug3TNQF-aSSFJ5Tp7dIpACGLPVNtZdDXyuq1hKnZKkUT_WNDP6JTrI-1MiYwVKlo-CSijv6eMxKKompz-K2n2C6XTjbT8SuF_HJ132Sex-XsaT6DUZOQVkFgxy7i_5JUCChoVr1kLymQ/s576/heavenianshark.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEL6M7FSJIlJ00lmRqJYUgCERl_zBcyUFC1nP2x48WW93JP6ug3TNQF-aSSFJ5Tp7dIpACGLPVNtZdDXyuq1hKnZKkUT_WNDP6JTrI-1MiYwVKlo-CSijv6eMxKKompz-K2n2C6XTjbT8SuF_HJ132Sex-XsaT6DUZOQVkFgxy7i_5JUCChoVr1kLymQ/w255-h400/heavenianshark.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">HEAVENIAN SHARK</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">“He was twelve meters of flexible muscle with a razor-sharp tail at one end and a collection of arm-length fangs at the other. His eyes, big yellow globes, were set on stalks more than a meter out from his head. His mouth was so wide that, open, a man could comfortably stand in it. Make an impressive photo for his heirs.”</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">Joe Haldeman, <i>The Forever War</i></span></div><span><a name='more'></a></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> The soldiers in The Forever War take leave on a small resort planet named Heaven. While there they witness a "shark". This reminded me of Ursula K. LeGuin's story The Eye Of the Heron where animals on another planet are named after things the humans recognize. This thing is NOT a shark, but a shark is the closest thing the earthlings can associate it with.</span><br /></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-24768558067566970532023-06-06T11:00:00.046-04:002023-06-06T11:00:00.150-04:00CHARONIAN<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNDv-ssVxyXNPW-XkZvIDXg2FpqeIJxz1_bBEk3FliKo5EoDmfvDs6kHhN1lf2twHeirwi38QCr-xpLERsRDQJwQXRzsM4_zOvDS-c5nPZP_Fo34anF97XQevfuMzKpirAYiKwpVVV4DRKp2XfXwvCAu31FkjyugcV5GvkZvDwiq-kVBhFb6AKokMmRQ/s576/charonian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNDv-ssVxyXNPW-XkZvIDXg2FpqeIJxz1_bBEk3FliKo5EoDmfvDs6kHhN1lf2twHeirwi38QCr-xpLERsRDQJwQXRzsM4_zOvDS-c5nPZP_Fo34anF97XQevfuMzKpirAYiKwpVVV4DRKp2XfXwvCAu31FkjyugcV5GvkZvDwiq-kVBhFb6AKokMmRQ/w255-h400/charonian.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">CHARONIAN</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“They were not quite as tall as humans, but wider in girth. They were covered with dark green, almost black, fur — white curls where the laser had singed. They appeared to have three legs and an arm. The only ornament to their shaggy heads was a mouth, wet black orifice filled with flat black teeth. They were thoroughly repulsive, but their worst feature was not a difference from human beings, but a similarity….”</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“Nothing in that fucken head but a mouth and ten centimeters of skull. To protect nothing, not a fucken thing.”</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“The creature sat back on its haunches, leaning forward on the one front leg. Big green bear with a withered arm.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><div style="text-align: center;">Joe Haldeman, <i>The Forever War</i></div></span><span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> This week all monsters by more contemporary authors and today, tomorrow & thursday will all be creatures from Joe Haldeman's excellent novel The Forever War. While Haldeman has stated that the book was written based on his experiences in the Vietnam War, many saw it also as a direct response to the novel Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. Haldeman has stated that he thought Starship Troopers glorified war and critics have even called it "unremittingly grim fascism" and the author himself a <span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">"fanatical warmongering fascist"</span>. Obviously, I'm way more interested in Haldeman's anti-war view than whatever Heinlein was up to.</span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GfX2SMGhIcZEij51FXNPrFfhfdp2qoJQqZxo-UQTsquAuG4DYyAFgR5iaFXPQzoDkaS3tJt0HMrDvU4FdIaf2YaOXd610g17nrI3uKMYclXveQxbkIFp9Iy1NW7lPQeMY7yhVzNKqWoVEnh1WJIzeg2VA2gooay_buZ6RlYxRPwMmf0PxK8aYYT81Q/s731/covers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="731" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2GfX2SMGhIcZEij51FXNPrFfhfdp2qoJQqZxo-UQTsquAuG4DYyAFgR5iaFXPQzoDkaS3tJt0HMrDvU4FdIaf2YaOXd610g17nrI3uKMYclXveQxbkIFp9Iy1NW7lPQeMY7yhVzNKqWoVEnh1WJIzeg2VA2gooay_buZ6RlYxRPwMmf0PxK8aYYT81Q/s320/covers.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Here are the covers for Starship Troopers (by Carl Lundgren) & The Forever War (by Murray Tinkelman)</span><br /><br />The book tells the story of a war between two societies throughout the universe. But near-lightspeed travel results in wild relativistic time effects; most notably the first expedition, beginning in 1997, lasts only two years from the soldiers' point of view, but due to time dilation, they return to Earth in 2024. Or a battle will be fought on a planet where the humans claim victory but by the time they get back home, several more battles have been lost with the enemy gaining the upper hand. The entire book really brings home the idea of the futility of war. <br /><br />These creatures are animal life that happen to be in the crossfire of the first battle we witness. The "inconsequential" indigenous lifeforms caught between two warring factions. These aren't the taurans, the main antagonists, who are humanoid (two legs, two arms, a head & a torso). These are creatures the soldiers barely register.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Tomorrow there'll be another obscure & overlooked creature from The Forever War.</span></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-40252311816147101962023-06-05T11:00:00.004-04:002023-06-05T11:00:00.147-04:00SNOW SERPENT<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvC1smpGzmWyJZEvbLIlB7u7CQWV4twKF27WkGsOxA1Qc2JEdpu9S6KJrafxrfWd8r1YExIA8iLEnuwZ0gC3_dvbqndyt94OrFaGfYR4CNR2SQ3JEqyqUPLfSjk3TLqxS8F0Pb83J1HTNAWEEnHecDSZ1q819--ePA4oc1CiMtUyZHw6B1pUW3uIn5g/s576/snow%20snakeBLOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvC1smpGzmWyJZEvbLIlB7u7CQWV4twKF27WkGsOxA1Qc2JEdpu9S6KJrafxrfWd8r1YExIA8iLEnuwZ0gC3_dvbqndyt94OrFaGfYR4CNR2SQ3JEqyqUPLfSjk3TLqxS8F0Pb83J1HTNAWEEnHecDSZ1q819--ePA4oc1CiMtUyZHw6B1pUW3uIn5g/w255-h400/snow%20snakeBLOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">SNOW SERPENT</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">“Without more warning than that, a long snowbank between that step and the next above reared up its nearest white end a dozen feet and hissed fearsomely, showing it to be a huge serpent with head a big as an elk’s, all covered with shaggy snow-white fur. Its great violet eyes glared like those of a mad horse and its jaw gaped to show slashing-teeth like a shark’s and two great fangs jetting a mist of pale ichor.The furred serpent hesitated for two sways between the nearer, taller man with flashing ax and the farther, smaller one with thick black stick.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The Mouser’s attention was fixed on a fur-wisped violet eye as big as a girl’s fist.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Hrissa looked down the monster’s gaping dark red gullet rimmed by slaver-swimming ivory knives and the two ichor-jetting fangs.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Fafhrd said, “A hot-blooded serpent, a snake with fur—it goes against experience. My father never spoke of such; I doubt he ever met ‘em.”</div><span style="color: #990000;"><div style="text-align: center;">Fritz Leiber, <i>Swords Against Wizardry</i></div></span><span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">I had read some of Leiber's short horror stories (monsters from that are on my list) and had heard a lot of hype around his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, so I decided to try them. I have the Mike Mignola graphic novel and enjoyed it so...</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-3CTa3oRGG2VGUJ5OI13iaFM8TnTQIrMZtvpUSGbJP79uJoQmtuLu3S5-dEHfIFm1M7QbAysVSixLJme-2MjZm5L1HQxs7e1yj2U51_suoND7FsK2HM71fs1AjBaWEcY6HXwfMZrxCe4cQNJz1CY-cTvkjon8UGisS2xsaMJEp63vrGSwOlSr2lF5Cw/s1182/fandgm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="1182" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-3CTa3oRGG2VGUJ5OI13iaFM8TnTQIrMZtvpUSGbJP79uJoQmtuLu3S5-dEHfIFm1M7QbAysVSixLJme-2MjZm5L1HQxs7e1yj2U51_suoND7FsK2HM71fs1AjBaWEcY6HXwfMZrxCe4cQNJz1CY-cTvkjon8UGisS2xsaMJEp63vrGSwOlSr2lF5Cw/s320/fandgm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">The Mignola graphic novel and the original publication with a cover by Jeffrey Catherine Jones</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">I was not impressed. The protagonists didn't feel fleshed out and I didn't care about the secondary characters. I guess knowing it was the first in a long series of books meant that I knew there was no real sense of peril. It just didn't hit for me....BUT....the idea of a snake that's evolved with fur to live in cold climates really stuck with me.</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioUoTtuNtx7QLoHXZx94PBKwClzhbi64JbvaEOPWE3TtgflcE2AoN3FoBeF8O2JcSQ5UvaZp8XeA9dStGQ8vFCOxhmgIX_fr-aUKPVIzttk3fB7V1JURWKANFM91oEdtPjDNlfOowa-pvzkcsLO6tPuIWcgKUwAHedZlE6zT4DoJS2jW0se3N6ju0SZg/s720/dnd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="720" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioUoTtuNtx7QLoHXZx94PBKwClzhbi64JbvaEOPWE3TtgflcE2AoN3FoBeF8O2JcSQ5UvaZp8XeA9dStGQ8vFCOxhmgIX_fr-aUKPVIzttk3fB7V1JURWKANFM91oEdtPjDNlfOowa-pvzkcsLO6tPuIWcgKUwAHedZlE6zT4DoJS2jW0se3N6ju0SZg/s320/dnd.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">These serpents also make an appearance in the now infamous recalled version of Dungeons & Dragons supplement Deities & Demigods. Above is the original illustration by Jeff Dee.</div></span><br /><br /><p></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-90128929315046545222023-05-26T11:00:00.002-04:002023-06-05T08:02:07.266-04:00BEAST<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJ5hy9GCpNEsOVF2cfhtdknpCyxFK0ULdwSFvFrei1aqmrZlhEn4_ZvwMGXFjcwBa8dy68LI9KQEm0NqWzhxfXlduU00L5a_-cANAfDxnoRpwacc3N6vGGnlaLCMLus0i-1lx9oEaNwfesmPER5z3zU0Lr287UJrnJRKKbkdmgAgH9vRz8ei7QHagTQ/s576/beastBLOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJ5hy9GCpNEsOVF2cfhtdknpCyxFK0ULdwSFvFrei1aqmrZlhEn4_ZvwMGXFjcwBa8dy68LI9KQEm0NqWzhxfXlduU00L5a_-cANAfDxnoRpwacc3N6vGGnlaLCMLus0i-1lx9oEaNwfesmPER5z3zU0Lr287UJrnJRKKbkdmgAgH9vRz8ei7QHagTQ/w255-h400/beastBLOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;">BEAST</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“The human within him woke, catching his reflection. Instead of skin and clothes, he beheld mangy, tangled fur, alien eyes, fangs, and a blunt snout. Horns protruding from his head. A lolling tongue.”</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“He sees himself in the blue mirror of the old man’s eye, in all his terrible glory. He sees a vicious thing, neither dog nor weasel, but somehow both. A long snake-like body, with four legs that end in razor-sharp claws. A muzzle that slavers, full of serrated teeth. All of this murderous-impulse-made-flesh enrobed in matted golden fur, full of bristles.”</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“They were like hands, and not like hands at all. The bone structure o a hand-like thing was there, but it was covered in golden fur, and each ‘finger’ was tipped with long, claw-like nails.”</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“A creature stared back at him. It had a tapered south with fangs that glittered evilly when the mouth was open. It walked on four legs, and each foot ended in cruel claws. Rams’ curled horns sprouted from its awful head. The body of the beast was long, rather like a weasel’s body. This body was covered in thick, blond fur. Keith ram nor weasel nor lynx — it was all three. A monster. An abomination.”</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><div style="text-align: center;">Craig Laurance Gidney, <i>Fur And Gold</i></div></span><span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This was another story where I had to put the book down and draw the creature. Such a vivid and cool description!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Next week will be a set of redrawn monsters followed by another week of monsters inspired by more contemporary autho</span>rs.</div><p></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-76502267297018802562023-05-25T11:00:00.025-04:002023-05-25T11:00:00.140-04:00MAN-SIZED POPPET<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipQKNrLhgWAPJyIVbolG0vFMsdUAKq4p2Gm5ttgKKwXo42nySWtlQQzTK-1W31fRKPYtFtQWGDNwl0QnnxNVcczcj48XhC3cs63tm2muKBVoSbZmmEhPMgDmFjP7Y6KwzvuFVd8jPSgTNwo6WBTpwUodF0ZeWpIHjej_C3iKgFIlnq__zJDYA3Khd7Xw/s576/poppet.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipQKNrLhgWAPJyIVbolG0vFMsdUAKq4p2Gm5ttgKKwXo42nySWtlQQzTK-1W31fRKPYtFtQWGDNwl0QnnxNVcczcj48XhC3cs63tm2muKBVoSbZmmEhPMgDmFjP7Y6KwzvuFVd8jPSgTNwo6WBTpwUodF0ZeWpIHjej_C3iKgFIlnq__zJDYA3Khd7Xw/w255-h400/poppet.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="color: #990000;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">MAN-SIZED POPPET</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;">“So Fox went down to the swamp, where a pool of hot
black tar bubbled. He mixed the tar with a crude figure he made of
sticks and bones he’d dug up from graves. He gave the tar-thing glass
eyes stolen from a little girl’s doll, a maggoty potato for a nose, and a
slice of watermelon fro lips. A gator’s over-ripe heart, bout with wire
was placed in the thing’s gloppy chest. Fox knew some Hoo-doo, so he
put the whammy on the thing and Presto! Blammo! It lurched behind him, a
man-sized poppet.”</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">Craig Laurance Gidney, </span><i style="color: #990000;">Beneath the Briar Patch</i></div><span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;">I've loved Craig's work since I read his anthology Skin Deep Magic but he really hooked me with his amazing novel A Spectral Hue.</div></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp3s4xwgWNS4eAkrC9IyG2imb4jmrksJCvmSgdDkZhY_AzN4TvAmSWcJsFqQ2vXyWG20KQtqmcXWWbhZJb8y9KkXYHa4sqVAy5Y423u4Bmu2GB0-cxWMCeUR6Hz9n8oMALWwCSU_NFx_9faBHQ8VtJ5pf1sqDiOt9Zg8HuVQBjgL_BeIy5qla9ifzmOg/s2012/gidney.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="2012" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp3s4xwgWNS4eAkrC9IyG2imb4jmrksJCvmSgdDkZhY_AzN4TvAmSWcJsFqQ2vXyWG20KQtqmcXWWbhZJb8y9KkXYHa4sqVAy5Y423u4Bmu2GB0-cxWMCeUR6Hz9n8oMALWwCSU_NFx_9faBHQ8VtJ5pf1sqDiOt9Zg8HuVQBjgL_BeIy5qla9ifzmOg/w400-h199/gidney.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This creature and tomorrow's are from two different stories in his most recent collection Sea Swallow Me. I love the idea of a poppet made of mud and trash made by a rabbit!</span><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-18462012566041693522023-05-24T11:00:00.019-04:002023-05-24T11:00:00.143-04:00ACHTI<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFwspjOYxKcclXy2g3RAq9MULzOz8PDkZCgpWwoIY0OKXB15qrdvKprqJ-X_Ny8xAY1-ltaHWimaWKrju44WLuWq8xekRx3kWzIhM8XsslHLzjfyJrGDwJm_UPWJNwlfD3QvQ8sQ_uM6CU6q1_q3U4EhfayZ65MuSGtM1jBZQhlu8pTqwRHoxRqvwEbQ/s576/achti.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFwspjOYxKcclXy2g3RAq9MULzOz8PDkZCgpWwoIY0OKXB15qrdvKprqJ-X_Ny8xAY1-ltaHWimaWKrju44WLuWq8xekRx3kWzIhM8XsslHLzjfyJrGDwJm_UPWJNwlfD3QvQ8sQ_uM6CU6q1_q3U4EhfayZ65MuSGtM1jBZQhlu8pTqwRHoxRqvwEbQ/w255-h400/achti.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">ACHTI</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">"An achti, perhaps. Some of those were the right size though they had three times as many teeth as I did and a real love of using them."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"I put the achti's long, warm body over my shoulder<span><span>—glad that some of the weight I'd gained was muscle</span></span><span><span>—and took it to the kitchen."</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span><div style="text-align: center;">"T'Gatoi might want one, I told myself, for the tough, heavily furred hide of the achti."</div></span><span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">Octavia Butler, <i>Blood Child</i></span></div><span><span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Another one from Butler's Blood Child. I feel like when people discuss the alien aspect of this story the tlic get all the attention, but the achti are there too. Weird little furry creatures with a lot of teeth that are also indigenous to this planet. It's hinted at that the tlic used to use the achti in their impregnation rituals but the achti figured out how to kill the unborn before they burst out. I love that detail that hints about the ecology and evolution of the planet.<br /><br />I haven't been able to find any illustrations of these guys but I imagined them as sheep sized ferrets with blunt teeth.<br /></div></span><p></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-58826798661152048652023-05-23T11:00:00.036-04:002023-05-23T11:00:00.142-04:00TLIC<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCdA7802K8xYxRTBl8bWc4Krrvz9SNxMGxTVL_bPZvyGeL3FVDAwUXOuE_YX_5XbxJHnIsQ3lyBYRnIWK_S8IRnvkBrrQj3X5PNBrXgepj5pdph31gzxc6iSJiMxgg9Gz1TwcK8xSpIQlCBnNrZReQmcdMylE-_IrmsSKBIHjr0GbmjdMG7Bg5wY1YQ/s576/tlicBLOG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCdA7802K8xYxRTBl8bWc4Krrvz9SNxMGxTVL_bPZvyGeL3FVDAwUXOuE_YX_5XbxJHnIsQ3lyBYRnIWK_S8IRnvkBrrQj3X5PNBrXgepj5pdph31gzxc6iSJiMxgg9Gz1TwcK8xSpIQlCBnNrZReQmcdMylE-_IrmsSKBIHjr0GbmjdMG7Bg5wY1YQ/w255-h400/tlicBLOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>TLIC</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"T'Gatoi whipped her three meters of body off her couch, toward the door, and out at full speed. She had bones<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">—ribs, a long spine, a skull, four sets of limb bones per segment. But when she moved that way, twisting, hurling herself into controlled falls, landing running, she seemed not only boneless, but aquatic</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">—something swimming through the air as though it were water. I loved watching her move."</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #202124;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #202124;"><div style="text-align: center;">"Except for the final few, all her limbs were dextrous."</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #202124;"><div style="text-align: center;">"Ignoring the knife I offered her, she extended claws from several of her limbs and slit the achti from throat to anus. She looked at me, her yellow yes intent."</div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #202124;"><div style="text-align: center;">"I stared at her, outlined in the moonlight—coiled, graceful body."</div></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #202124;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #202124;"><div style="text-align: center;">"I felt the familiar sting, narcotic, mildly pleasant. Then the blind probing of her ovipositor."</div></span><span style="color: #202124;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">Octavia Butler, <i>Bloodchild</i></span><i><span><a name='more'></a></span></i><br />This is one I've wanted to draw for a while but I've been intimidated by the sheer perfection of the story. In researching this, I've found that there are surprisingly few illustrations of tlic and the ones that do exist, imho, fail to capture the elegance and human qualities of the creatures. It's one of the main things that stood out to me in the story. Despite how cruel or brutal the tlic are, they're described with such loving detail.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMekj4sC-zdN7te572NhCr21cugGjyhfVtAho5CaJhcWxTLMK0whtaJKw44PoPgSEvH1HxeyrT4KCpkLeojj3BGPLOhWC1GQUS4EWWEhAhCOvn6m8TJNVgXnRS13-ki2OWBVCyiy6hzeD0PHAVZjyP6D9FASO7FrckRL6zjZBDKBHJYUV_-1BwYa2wdA/s939/barlowe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="633" data-original-width="939" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMekj4sC-zdN7te572NhCr21cugGjyhfVtAho5CaJhcWxTLMK0whtaJKw44PoPgSEvH1HxeyrT4KCpkLeojj3BGPLOhWC1GQUS4EWWEhAhCOvn6m8TJNVgXnRS13-ki2OWBVCyiy6hzeD0PHAVZjyP6D9FASO7FrckRL6zjZBDKBHJYUV_-1BwYa2wdA/w400-h270/barlowe.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></span></span></span><br />I do, however, think Wayne Barlowe's illustration is amazing. It was the cover of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1984 where the story was first published. <br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyTWPqBfbCNjtjHvjsXOxES92S2uZoCeM4hyL2IP66ykhfoAM30YF6kJYMbSxEizz2wSmk6cJ1-tXZniEVAouxNJofWvpMC3D2jKOldUPieKnpDpCk5_oFoGrswnyVjcuhmPbLDpq-0knT3CC3umSd9_CZKkDBDjgQ1bwwxGnn61m_VqMiJPjUtphnQ/s1024/%20bloodchild.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="1024" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyTWPqBfbCNjtjHvjsXOxES92S2uZoCeM4hyL2IP66ykhfoAM30YF6kJYMbSxEizz2wSmk6cJ1-tXZniEVAouxNJofWvpMC3D2jKOldUPieKnpDpCk5_oFoGrswnyVjcuhmPbLDpq-0knT3CC3umSd9_CZKkDBDjgQ1bwwxGnn61m_VqMiJPjUtphnQ/s320/%20bloodchild.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></span></span></span><br />The accompanying interior illustration <span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124;">Nicholas Jainschigg </span></span></span>is cool but it looks more like a Halloween mask than a graceful, lithe creature.<br /></div><br /><br /></span></span></span><p></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-24335237467917264192023-05-22T11:00:00.050-04:002023-05-22T22:15:00.312-04:00SHARK-WERE<div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsHi80pIkcfiYfBaGlYDwP8PK7s4QFctP76CRUtgOHmujRYsFVn_rXuocZ6gtwF8PrlfxBKnxNCRlwTA89JMAtqcwnmKTf_XSewcnM6Lgq_bXgH0TesrdNY0cLYY24Nz97OE7lPmcb1ezEl8uy4P1kQzfNM2udkFuK7vss_oXcMlmfhxy1e0ITi8-wBw/s576/sharkwereBLOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="367" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsHi80pIkcfiYfBaGlYDwP8PK7s4QFctP76CRUtgOHmujRYsFVn_rXuocZ6gtwF8PrlfxBKnxNCRlwTA89JMAtqcwnmKTf_XSewcnM6Lgq_bXgH0TesrdNY0cLYY24Nz97OE7lPmcb1ezEl8uy4P1kQzfNM2udkFuK7vss_oXcMlmfhxy1e0ITi8-wBw/w255-h400/sharkwereBLOG.jpg" width="255" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">SHARK-WERE</span></div><div style="text-align: center;">“Rusk noticed a new recruit, close-wrapped in layers of rags, whose looks disturbed him on some level far beyond mere instinct: squat but hunched, his eight grey-skinned fingers webbed and nailless, pallid skin visibly touched with chill. He did his work clumsily, forever turning a too-thick neck to train first one wide-spaced, lidless-seeming flat black eye on the task to hand, then the other; even what little the currently sinking sun was left appeared to pain him, making him bare a double-jarful of serrated teeth in a an aggressive sort of wince, as though he wanted to take a bite out of it and bring on a far more comfortable flood of dark.”</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">“The man barely seemed aware he was being spoke to, prompting Rusk to peer closer, checking whether his ears were over-muffled, slit — or even there, to begin with.”</div><span style="color: #990000;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">Gemma Files,</span> <i><span style="color: #990000;">Two Captains</span></i></div></span></span><p></p><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This week will be a random assortment of monsters from various, more contemporary authors I love. Starting off is this shark-were that appears in a few of Gemma Files' stories in the collection <a href="https://journalstone.com/bookstore/drawn-up-from-deep-places/">Drawn Up From Deep Places</a>. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I've loved Gemma's work for years and she's actually written an <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2015/04/humbaba.html">avatar of Nyarlathotep for me. And I've previously cited her story The Narrow World for my Humbaba drawing.<br /><br /></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghnkvlyKRX1y9FgTUAAZRKMQdWr1tFaa3Cnu4SBfuTuAx4MIo6AQxp-0Bq70b4_JIB8zRIxMWkIWFOOL-mmqCYBAM8vMpEmmyeBWY0Yw4i8Tx-Dw_KSW-KxJVTBMiiGQtEZuSAyg_dMexvTdbDJmvVCrXbqOwytzMS4RQXPIA1P9w9N6GiyG01KhqCeg/s4661/files.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3341" data-original-width="4661" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghnkvlyKRX1y9FgTUAAZRKMQdWr1tFaa3Cnu4SBfuTuAx4MIo6AQxp-0Bq70b4_JIB8zRIxMWkIWFOOL-mmqCYBAM8vMpEmmyeBWY0Yw4i8Tx-Dw_KSW-KxJVTBMiiGQtEZuSAyg_dMexvTdbDJmvVCrXbqOwytzMS4RQXPIA1P9w9N6GiyG01KhqCeg/w400-h286/files.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">I love the idea of an inverse were-creature. Not a man that turns into a shark but a shark that was turned into a man; still with that mostly gnarled fish intelligence, brutal impulses and resentment at being forced to walk on two legs.<br /><br />While Shark-weres are a Files' invention, weresharks aren't completely unheard of in popular culture. In 1976 the A&E (Alarums and Excursions).<br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hFeDrYuzgoip98-ATYFyVTMcgeDk4j2PCPrWnMdqQLABUj0W2xQ1m0qePVO4Zb9y5DjMO1VX6V8CcqPjK4eyplpp84fYqSYVxpNu-_oVxASrwYCrNzL4Q37whlTjKVD2CkHObbWu2Z_SFJ4maKfoXGYkiPlH20RTK9ivnLb2_BfX_ozknH283CrZUw/s528/wereshark.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="464" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hFeDrYuzgoip98-ATYFyVTMcgeDk4j2PCPrWnMdqQLABUj0W2xQ1m0qePVO4Zb9y5DjMO1VX6V8CcqPjK4eyplpp84fYqSYVxpNu-_oVxASrwYCrNzL4Q37whlTjKVD2CkHObbWu2Z_SFJ4maKfoXGYkiPlH20RTK9ivnLb2_BfX_ozknH283CrZUw/w351-h400/wereshark.jpg" width="351" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> #13 zine </span> article J. Eric & Chris Holmes laid down the premise and description for the wereshark that would reappear in various Dungeons and Dragons monster manuals. It appeared in an official capacity in Monster Manual II in 1983 with an illustration by Jim Holloway.<br /><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"></span> <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br /></div><br /><div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-26562481241415059262023-05-17T11:00:00.025-04:002023-05-17T11:00:00.134-04:00NOTH-YIDIK<div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheUeAa7pr9ZAgztaUFW9Y0GNLD_7_WlN9IuM_v4aBV0qLMTnhOGhgLCK6opxdcb6JDD982rVuFMFBtugMizIVPSQ5uGBQxuPFcUb02hRXUn72f1AZhOnCXbL9QjXZcDsD-tMtEwcxsuf5UOGdUE-bLlZwLezRhwR-coy6nU5Xcm7Dk02nWZ5IEAcJPqw/s720/nothyidikBLOG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="553" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheUeAa7pr9ZAgztaUFW9Y0GNLD_7_WlN9IuM_v4aBV0qLMTnhOGhgLCK6opxdcb6JDD982rVuFMFBtugMizIVPSQ5uGBQxuPFcUb02hRXUn72f1AZhOnCXbL9QjXZcDsD-tMtEwcxsuf5UOGdUE-bLlZwLezRhwR-coy6nU5Xcm7Dk02nWZ5IEAcJPqw/w308-h400/nothyidikBLOG.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">NOTH-YIDIK</span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;">“Fool! Spawn of Noth-Yidik and effluvium of</span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/kthun.html" style="background-color: transparent; color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">K’thun</a><span style="color: #222222;">! Son of the dogs that howl in the maelstrom of Azathoth! You would have been sacred and immortal, and now you are betraying It and Its priest!</span><span style="color: #222222;">"</span></div></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Horror In the Museum</span></div></span><p></p><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><div style="color: #222222; text-align: center;">"Aye, I speak of the very <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/hound-of-tindalos.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">Hounds Of Tindalos</a> themselves, those Hunters From Beyond that be the Spawn of Noth-Yidik and the effluvium of <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/kthun.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">K'thun</a>, and that howl forever in the maelstrom that is dread and fearsome Azathoth; aye, They be none other than the very minions and servitors of the Daemon-Sultan, under Their ghastly sire and dam, Noth-Yidik and terrible <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/kthun.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">K'thun</a>."</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">Lin Carter, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;">The Madness Out Of Time</span><a name='more'></a>Another one that's only ever been mentioned, not described. I did enjoy designing these because I really got to go wild.<br /><br />The redrawing for this one fixed a few things; for one the unnecessary eyes running up and down the body. Secondly, the twisting body wasn't really accurate, but it's been fixed here.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQBY1o58QeiYZDOxNDt32o8cguiGNCk7k-MgQWUrZLCzax0R_6WyHnrSs6cPDyR_WtgZRGz7zVB2ahfBNqb3j2x3oFoeG0nZ1cEnJERh6OSL4HcXdHMHfjXnjyLF739EAzNZR2QhqpCOWDADIQedkHBvFE8hUtk0MioUEn7oZRwOFQZRED9ok2NUkng/s5182/compare2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3208" data-original-width="5182" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQBY1o58QeiYZDOxNDt32o8cguiGNCk7k-MgQWUrZLCzax0R_6WyHnrSs6cPDyR_WtgZRGz7zVB2ahfBNqb3j2x3oFoeG0nZ1cEnJERh6OSL4HcXdHMHfjXnjyLF739EAzNZR2QhqpCOWDADIQedkHBvFE8hUtk0MioUEn7oZRwOFQZRED9ok2NUkng/w400-h248/compare2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />What is interesting is that, while I can find no illustrations of Noth-Yidik before mine, the few I've seen after all keep the dual head worm idea! So, it's become sort of canon?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSsupoACgNMW65MOnnftDluZmYBiN-iCluW306zjszEWMPA0CxVUlg6l_Eenqfs3Uwd85ZLVrZzMaoF-L3y3-h0D1X57tMW1_glgnDdq-vGR9Qzc4d7PmGc3TBPvHnejpoWqH_cMbmiM9_ROL3TTfVRstTKqs7bmmjPXnOAKEZqWC3QX07FcrlKI1Klg/s2085/others.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1939" data-original-width="2085" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSsupoACgNMW65MOnnftDluZmYBiN-iCluW306zjszEWMPA0CxVUlg6l_Eenqfs3Uwd85ZLVrZzMaoF-L3y3-h0D1X57tMW1_glgnDdq-vGR9Qzc4d7PmGc3TBPvHnejpoWqH_cMbmiM9_ROL3TTfVRstTKqs7bmmjPXnOAKEZqWC3QX07FcrlKI1Klg/w400-h373/others.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Illustrations by Reddit user Bigeggs, RKain on Deviantart and a 3D printer design by user Schlossbauer<br /></div><br /><br /></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-38997347993913177212023-05-16T11:00:00.006-04:002023-05-16T11:00:00.152-04:00ZHAR<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-AMp69262kzuBfPrdX5U2LNn6dgynbvIsTSnNHrSrOu8r3IKptqF2EHsuDQMAoq-pMP4n-2DoCzRO3GVTv2hH5H_9Ln5i-VdGtPO-HW4DVRkQug9suB8GG8vp9VU0JQrOox-JnIWgyxlo2NP4vVtNP75aEmSCJmdmOJbxY92-NnlZsQLvzu5YR_-yw/s720/zharBLOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="553" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-AMp69262kzuBfPrdX5U2LNn6dgynbvIsTSnNHrSrOu8r3IKptqF2EHsuDQMAoq-pMP4n-2DoCzRO3GVTv2hH5H_9Ln5i-VdGtPO-HW4DVRkQug9suB8GG8vp9VU0JQrOox-JnIWgyxlo2NP4vVtNP75aEmSCJmdmOJbxY92-NnlZsQLvzu5YR_-yw/w308-h400/zharBLOG.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">ZHAR</span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">"Lloigor, Zhar and </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/10/ithaqua.html" style="font-size: 100%;">Ithaqua</a><span style="font-size: 100%;"> shall ride the spaces among the stars and shall ennoble those who are their followers, who are the </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/10/tcho-tcho.html" style="font-size: 100%;">Tcho-Tcho</a><span style="font-size: 100%;">; Cthugha shall encompass his dominion from Fomalhaut; Tzathoggua shall come from N'kai..."</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;">H.P. Lovecraft & August Derleth, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%; font-style: italic;">The Lurker At the Threshold</span></div></span></span><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span>"For
the thing that crouched in the weird green dusk was a living mass of
shuddering horror, as ghastly mountain of sensate, quivering flesh,
whose tentacles, far-flung in the dim reaches of the subterranean
cavern, emitted a strange humming sound, while from the depths of the
creature's body came a weird and horrific ululation. Then I fell back
into Fo-Lan's arms. my mouth opened to cry out, but I felt the doctor's
firm hand clapped across my lips, and from a great distance I seemed to
hear his voice. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span>"That is Lloigor!"'</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">August Dertleth & Mark Schorer, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Lair Of the Star Spawn<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /></span><span style="color: black;">As promised here's Lloigor's twin! Not much to say here that I didn't already say in that post but here's a comparison to the old drawing vs the new drawing.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlqM2Q68snMO4lBAWndHrTcSfdsryHqasvenplr-fsBfk1mlABxtP2VMA0RVmGZFV2iSYbbM8gdwBseG2gazcz2NzgvHJSsehGtTCSYXDHUVnRifkhNqdIwyhkTqCgPufaPD22RnUKjEpT9Z0guuLcHlSjPZstIDcRQJJi7YL9YprTMilNWLoZETS3w/s1544/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1318" data-original-width="1544" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlqM2Q68snMO4lBAWndHrTcSfdsryHqasvenplr-fsBfk1mlABxtP2VMA0RVmGZFV2iSYbbM8gdwBseG2gazcz2NzgvHJSsehGtTCSYXDHUVnRifkhNqdIwyhkTqCgPufaPD22RnUKjEpT9Z0guuLcHlSjPZstIDcRQJJi7YL9YprTMilNWLoZETS3w/w400-h341/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-13240515310257906052023-05-15T11:00:00.002-04:002023-05-15T21:01:37.491-04:00OORN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEtj3WnKQ7PFHuPlhX_RP0F-U9XpGOdWlasWIYyYfUOOFlO2z3JuxNG9hDqlvHf9BZx0B4ZZHpQzbV-EeaVBU3Iyxej5oss9whD8mmkI8LkUavO7loEFkOT-JZMhu9KRfRdiBKigIdiIJiMK61GLE033MjMh4zvGAyCqYClv5hsnUcVLxtOV2zMfDXw/s720/oornBLOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="553" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEtj3WnKQ7PFHuPlhX_RP0F-U9XpGOdWlasWIYyYfUOOFlO2z3JuxNG9hDqlvHf9BZx0B4ZZHpQzbV-EeaVBU3Iyxej5oss9whD8mmkI8LkUavO7loEFkOT-JZMhu9KRfRdiBKigIdiIJiMK61GLE033MjMh4zvGAyCqYClv5hsnUcVLxtOV2zMfDXw/w308-h400/oornBLOG.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;">OORN</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;">Oorn,
though a creature of extremely doubtful nature, was the virtual ruler
of Zeth. It obviously belonged somewhere in the outer abyss, but had
blundered into Zeth one night and suffered capture by the <i>shamith</i>
priests. The coincidence of Its excessively bizarre aspect and Its
innate gift of mimicry had impressed the sacred brothers as offering
vast possibilities, hence in the end they had set It up as a god and an
oracle, organising a new brotherhood to serve It—and incidentally to
suggest the edicts it should utter and the replies It should give."</span></div></span><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;">"</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;">For
a moment—as the ritual prescribed—he stayed in this abased position,
and when he arose the dais was no longer empty. Unconcernedly munching
something the priests had given It was a large pudgy creature very hard
to describe, and covered with short grey fur. Whence It had come in so
brief a time only the priests might tell, but the suppliant knew that It
was Oorn."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;">"Having
tidily finished Its food, Oorn raised three small reddish eyes to
Yalden and uttered certain words in a tone of vast decisiveness: <i>“Gumay ere hfotuol leheht teg.”</i> After this It vanished suddenly in a cloud of pink smoke which seemed to issue from behind the curtain where the acolytes were.</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"</span></span></div></span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;">H.P. Lovecraft & R.H. Barlow, </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%; font-style: italic;">The Hoard Of the Wizard-Beast</span></div></span><p></p><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Lovecraft collaborated with R.H.Barlow on a handful of stories but The Hoard Of the Wizard Beast and Collapsing Cosmoses are the ones full of monster, and the ones I'm concerned with. Oorn is one of the most obscure Great Old Ones or gods in the Lovecraft canon and I was excited to draw one with fur! There so many "rugous", "squamous", and slimy gods that I was excited for the change.</span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Another one where I liked the original design but redid the linework and some anatomy.</div></span><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTXhxYrY0DWdnIkiahn8F7Ms2BQgJREfgPTS9Yvpl9pdSuzBvrhkDdhQLOD5p76jsSCLK_fxpLVDjTbmAPMtdC3rPAA0YKXRCDAUrVwAw__spafZfi8QsPQC1j4D6p-rZVKqshMI9zSZ9eGTSQVNUDicyXAhCOiAqSFKJcDNMlxVjGFgYGdNrc9BqJQ/s4559/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2812" data-original-width="4559" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTXhxYrY0DWdnIkiahn8F7Ms2BQgJREfgPTS9Yvpl9pdSuzBvrhkDdhQLOD5p76jsSCLK_fxpLVDjTbmAPMtdC3rPAA0YKXRCDAUrVwAw__spafZfi8QsPQC1j4D6p-rZVKqshMI9zSZ9eGTSQVNUDicyXAhCOiAqSFKJcDNMlxVjGFgYGdNrc9BqJQ/w400-h246/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">It's worth pointing out how strange Lovecraft's relationship with Barlow was. They began corresponding in the 30s and in 1934 Lovecraft took a train, all the way to Florida, to stay with him...not knowing he was only sixteen! HPL wound up staying with the boy and his mother for SEVEN weeks but the true nature of their relationship is unknown. Barlow was openly gay later in love an HPL an open homophobe...not to mention the massive age gap. </span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-complicated-friendship-of-h-p-lovecraft-and-robert-barlow-one-of-his-biggest-fans" style="font-size: 100%;">You can read more about it here</a><span style="font-size: 100%;">.</span></div></span></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675055078l/7164209.jpg" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675055078l/7164209.jpg" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 100%;" /></div><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;">And as far as I can tell, there are no other illustrations of Oorn or at least illustrations that follow the description in the story. But here's a great chapbook with an </span></span></span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;">Allen Koszowski
cover!</span></span></span></div></span></span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></p>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-10625888857301145922023-05-12T11:00:00.001-04:002023-05-12T11:00:00.141-04:00LLOIGOR<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisuqznFUTHj-t2exM19BB-BtxlwzFE8Jh-CyGLr1mwvxet6Ecijl7wwXJgDEpxBCgRgnvVjkN5ykGTgZguaTHE_ZEfkhZrDijsTiXd1FNPE1bYOtu-XSc_-i2fxrX2ukaFqHov_VUO06dwSnCKzZlmlAHDKnCXrZFxK9S1ZpIYiyE_q_g7nhdshKHgmw/s720/lloigarBLOG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="553" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisuqznFUTHj-t2exM19BB-BtxlwzFE8Jh-CyGLr1mwvxet6Ecijl7wwXJgDEpxBCgRgnvVjkN5ykGTgZguaTHE_ZEfkhZrDijsTiXd1FNPE1bYOtu-XSc_-i2fxrX2ukaFqHov_VUO06dwSnCKzZlmlAHDKnCXrZFxK9S1ZpIYiyE_q_g7nhdshKHgmw/w308-h400/lloigarBLOG.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">LLOIGOR</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"Lloigor, Zhar and <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/10/ithaqua.html">Ithaqua</a> shall ride the spaces among the stars and shall ennoble those who are their followers, who are the <a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/10/tcho-tcho.html">Tcho-Tcho</a>; Cthugha shall encompass his dominion from Fomalhaut; Tzathoggua shall come from N'kai..."</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">H.P. Lovecraft & August Derleth, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Lurker At the Threshold</span></span></span><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"For
the thing that crouched in the weird green dusk was a living mass of
shuddering horror, as ghastly mountain of sensate, quivering flesh,
whose tentacles, far-flung in the dim reaches of the subterranean
cavern, emitted a strange humming sound, while from the depths of the
creature's body came a weird and horrific ululation. Then I fell back
into Fo-Lan's arms. my mouth opened to cry out, but I felt the doctor's
firm hand clapped across my lips, and from a great distance I seemed to
hear his voice. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"That is Lloigor!"'</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">August Dertleth & Mark Schorer, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Lair Of the Star Spawn</span></span></span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span></span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="color: black;">A really obscure Old One that's part of a pair. Lloigor & Zhar are similar to Nug & Yeb in that they're never described but they only appear in August Derleth's subpar mythos stories & posthumous collaborations with HPL. I know he did a lot for Weird authors with Arkham House but his personal work is honestly the work of a hack. Boring, derivative and needlessly taxonomic.<br /><br />Anyway, I took it as an opportunity to draw some really weird squid monsters. Here's an old vs. new. The redrawing has much better movement and color.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuUTUB0so9BlUc2WK262_7lZ_BQsu_6iI2-rhMoN778RgxUA4S8Ap4l7FiUvGnlrsYd4XgFtFTUzCu4gFYVgI39CKC-w9YzTIb9R6_KMXENfO8WHYu64tBIDAkx_SSZC86YbYzt0-dGw4np1WoAw13eH2-Dfd0BlwiIDyTNWjizAC1sJze8XsszuPEzw/s1608/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1291" data-original-width="1608" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuUTUB0so9BlUc2WK262_7lZ_BQsu_6iI2-rhMoN778RgxUA4S8Ap4l7FiUvGnlrsYd4XgFtFTUzCu4gFYVgI39CKC-w9YzTIb9R6_KMXENfO8WHYu64tBIDAkx_SSZC86YbYzt0-dGw4np1WoAw13eH2-Dfd0BlwiIDyTNWjizAC1sJze8XsszuPEzw/w400-h321/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></span></span>If my versions of Nug & Yeb are faternal twins, then Lloigor & Zhar are identical. I'll post Zhar on Monday.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span><p></p></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-20468636704646571452023-05-11T11:00:00.018-04:002023-05-11T11:00:00.159-04:00<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpCavDhl8Ofns2zXQIaWQnkhq-js7gtmjwV2-hygnJ3CKIcS7umJJ-o51vu1RUkhMGmFMh7fgZUFAAjdTz8fccN2jNYOI41_S-4PQBazhzyEtieIirXzX-an5XcgrmxHLYH0l9ZQkUiKkf4VpRDpTySgaYEYY9pU78lirWabmLa72BR8EKY3ecca8kw/s720/nugBLOG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="553" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpCavDhl8Ofns2zXQIaWQnkhq-js7gtmjwV2-hygnJ3CKIcS7umJJ-o51vu1RUkhMGmFMh7fgZUFAAjdTz8fccN2jNYOI41_S-4PQBazhzyEtieIirXzX-an5XcgrmxHLYH0l9ZQkUiKkf4VpRDpTySgaYEYY9pU78lirWabmLa72BR8EKY3ecca8kw/w308-h400/nugBLOG.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>NUG </span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;">"The ceremonies of</span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/nug.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">Nug</a><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span><span style="color: #222222;">and Yeb sickened him especially—so much, indeed, that he refrained from describing them in his manuscript."<br /></span></span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">The Mound</span></div></span><p></p><div><p></p><div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #222222;">"I talked in Yemen with an old man who had come back alive from the Crimson Desert—he had seen Irem, the City of Pillars, and had worshipped at the underground shrines of </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/nug.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">Nug</a><span style="color: #222222;"> and Yeb—Iä! </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/04/shub-niggurath.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">Shub-Niggurath</a><span style="color: #222222;">!"</span><br /><span style="color: #990000;">H.P. Lovecraft & </span><span style="color: #990000;">Adolphe de Castro</span><span style="color: #990000;">, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;">The Last Test<br /></span><br /></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"In the end he felt sure that the gods friendly to man could be arrayed against the hostile gods, and believed that Shub-Niggurath, Nug, and Yeb, as well as Yig the Serpent-god, were ready to take sides with man against the tyranny and presumption of Ghatanothoa."<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="color: #990000;">H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald,</span><i style="color: #990000;"> Out Of the Aeons<br /><br /><span><a name='more'></a></span></i><br />The second of the twin blasphemies....Nug!<br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hIWWKNV8oS05a5W2LRALhEaB5XIw9lH_L0uvUQrsmkpkZPOHvL3WXHJfuEAnSIfP7gMB983q0dUIYjv3QyfgRVFbV9SvC1dSyegPl-BaxPt-BZBqwsGMx06GDsTvCrlfdOjuMEecSbm7-ZiqEewjDH2b8ySpEfmpTV_YiNiEe-oIQONt2ubLEP0LnA/s3803/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2678" data-original-width="3803" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hIWWKNV8oS05a5W2LRALhEaB5XIw9lH_L0uvUQrsmkpkZPOHvL3WXHJfuEAnSIfP7gMB983q0dUIYjv3QyfgRVFbV9SvC1dSyegPl-BaxPt-BZBqwsGMx06GDsTvCrlfdOjuMEecSbm7-ZiqEewjDH2b8ySpEfmpTV_YiNiEe-oIQONt2ubLEP0LnA/w640-h450/compare.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></span>Again, better linework and sense of movement in this new version. I also had a tendency to just add odd bits to creatures without thinking them through; ie the eyes in Nug's mouth. It's a cool idea but seems superfluous. Maybe for a different creature where that's the focus.<br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5qJk3n4sTZCrA1bRrXhqCu9nVEOqFojMzdT9Dz7xYs8zwM8vxTv_OlLHd4JzET_MwFT0UDh0nbr79qN5_w48A9AQ3MZsVSSb99rGaQiZuWqWovM8xaDUcixI7_kcFsZguYU-ml5RiaxZLvNhKGRC-pkRfziuARCMZtPTWFpEoj74N2jaTv-xaLKTS-g/s535/Screenshot%202023-05-10%20121937.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="535" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5qJk3n4sTZCrA1bRrXhqCu9nVEOqFojMzdT9Dz7xYs8zwM8vxTv_OlLHd4JzET_MwFT0UDh0nbr79qN5_w48A9AQ3MZsVSSb99rGaQiZuWqWovM8xaDUcixI7_kcFsZguYU-ml5RiaxZLvNhKGRC-pkRfziuARCMZtPTWFpEoj74N2jaTv-xaLKTS-g/w400-h399/Screenshot%202023-05-10%20121937.png" width="400" /></a><br />Anyway, here's the Hugh Rankin illustration that accompanied The Last Test in Weird Tales November 1928. I have to be honest, I find Rankin's illustrations sloppy, vague and unsatisfying.</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></span></div></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5205335875639637252.post-31725505596750561442023-05-10T11:00:00.018-04:002023-05-10T11:42:03.676-04:00YEB<div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5HFWBoqcwQq9eba_MiBgMICnxDTlGU9dvDGCnaL7wWvdPpmlSLpZqGl-Rj0qa_G37duoCGniW_I0UIBXsfnT-aWFy_53F4JDlXV98yOSnHSOzIBnZg2HU_XOi7loUnX_OSKaXyxpFc47dlU3A-2oPr0r_ZSVUaemLzT6uNpMCdbmHMbCVGPANe8WYLw/s720/yebBLOG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="553" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5HFWBoqcwQq9eba_MiBgMICnxDTlGU9dvDGCnaL7wWvdPpmlSLpZqGl-Rj0qa_G37duoCGniW_I0UIBXsfnT-aWFy_53F4JDlXV98yOSnHSOzIBnZg2HU_XOi7loUnX_OSKaXyxpFc47dlU3A-2oPr0r_ZSVUaemLzT6uNpMCdbmHMbCVGPANe8WYLw/w308-h400/yebBLOG.jpg" width="308" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"> Y</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">EB</span></span></span><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial;">"The ceremonies of</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial;"> </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/nug.html" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: arial; text-decoration-line: none;">Nug</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #222222;">and Yeb sickened him especially—so much, indeed, that he refrained from describing them in his manuscript."</span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial;">H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">The Mound</span></div></span><p></p><div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #222222;">"I talked in Yemen with an old man who had come back alive from the Crimson Desert—he had seen Irem, the City of Pillars, and had worshipped at the underground shrines of </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/03/nug.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">Nug</a><span style="color: #222222;"> and Yeb—Iä! </span><a href="http://yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com/2011/04/shub-niggurath.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration-line: none;">Shub-Niggurath</a><span style="color: #222222;">!"</span><br /><span style="color: #990000;">H.P. Lovecraft & </span><span style="color: #990000;">Adolphe de Castro</span><span style="color: #990000;">, </span><span style="color: #990000; font-style: italic;">The Last Test<br /></span><br /></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the end he felt sure that the gods friendly to man could be arrayed against the hostile gods, and believed that Shub-Niggurath, Nug, and Yeb, as well as Yig the Serpent-god, were ready to take sides with man against the tyranny and presumption of Ghatanothoa.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;">H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald,<i> Out Of the Aeons<br /><br /><span><a name='more'></a></span><br /></i></span>Another redrawing...and we're going even more obscure. This is one of the pair of Great Old Ones known as the "twin blasphemies"....Nug & Yeb! <br /><br />I adjusted the pose of this one and fixed some of the anatomy, linework and color.<br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6pdsJNm_gFIwjQ0l0q-pa3GciMXMUC03AhRMZxbuog1BBJExQkCEz3XYIdX49dRNEo3YD6Ewb7sleUujSzpKRwFJoIQcg5VrJHZR9H9rpEv7GRsnOkSD53aR2VpEOMT0vUWwPNU2ZgZYSzh7MxNuX7wRR-_E_q2j6mXYTPDQvF_PffHnUbTd53Oj16A/s3803/compare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2678" data-original-width="3803" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6pdsJNm_gFIwjQ0l0q-pa3GciMXMUC03AhRMZxbuog1BBJExQkCEz3XYIdX49dRNEo3YD6Ewb7sleUujSzpKRwFJoIQcg5VrJHZR9H9rpEv7GRsnOkSD53aR2VpEOMT0vUWwPNU2ZgZYSzh7MxNuX7wRR-_E_q2j6mXYTPDQvF_PffHnUbTd53Oj16A/w400-h281/compare.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Old version vs new version</span><br /><br />These two are never described by Lovecraft himself and, if I'm not mistaken, the above passages are the only times he ever even mentions them.<br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWVsNYATgJRRjQonK5gGPVoi0GDoYbMAiAKhCjR_8FXgsiCuEUqXjgXmz5UHU6dwd9r2BArChi7pTAGM1be0fjnq48Xhb9mWsWtiLtTgb66X4e5oDKul1MXRerygr1iU4WLVpLVlOfaHThtzlOfjYeDES7pmruwu9NHn9Dxubisg8_vPKogbCU8M_JWQ/s840/mound.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="803" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWVsNYATgJRRjQonK5gGPVoi0GDoYbMAiAKhCjR_8FXgsiCuEUqXjgXmz5UHU6dwd9r2BArChi7pTAGM1be0fjnq48Xhb9mWsWtiLtTgb66X4e5oDKul1MXRerygr1iU4WLVpLVlOfaHThtzlOfjYeDES7pmruwu9NHn9Dxubisg8_vPKogbCU8M_JWQ/w383-h400/mound.jpg" width="383" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Check out this illustration by Harry Ferman from the original publication of The Mound in Weird Tales November 1940</span><br /><br /></div></div>Michael Bukowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05551050082487650160noreply@blogger.com0