I was looking at this really cool gallery of lovecraftian entities entered for a contest there, when I suddenly realized: I didn't find any of these monsters frightening.

I think all these wonderful illustrations we see of all the horrors Lovecraft and his buddies described in so many stories and that we still describe in our own games kind of kill their fantasy, their impact, the weird about them.

What do you think?

My favorite illustration of Cthulhu is still the old one from the Arkham House hardback.

http://www.rffc.org/images/cthulhu-rising.jpg

But yeah, the constant pop-culture remixing and deconstruction of Lovecraft's creatures have sapped a lot of their power for me.

You might be jaded due to the mass overusage of Lovecraft in the last year or two, now that his stories are entering Public Domain. And if you've been playing CoC as long as me, you've seen pics for years. In any case, I suspect that if you saw a blob covered in teeth and eyes coming towards you, you'd scream and run like hell. The monsters in your attached post also seem to derive at least partially from D&D, so that also probably affects your viewpoint.

Well first things, first, Dan, I could scare you just as shitless in an AD&D game as I could a CoC game. Trust me.

So don't sell me that "AD&D is for kiddies" crap. Thanks.

Second, maybe the paraphernalia has something to do with it. Maybe not. At least the multiplication of it since HPL's works hit the public domain, sure. I just think that Mythos monsters are much more scrary when you describe them, or read through a book, rather than pointing to a piece of art. Imagination handles these things much better than any artist ever could, IMO.

The things are indescribable. They only in a squint-eye way look like the things we've had pictures of.


Remember. Mankind's mind is wonderful, but there are things even inconceivable to the best imagination. That is where the darkness of Lovecraft's monsters creep in from.

Pretty much agree with Benoist on this point.

Lovecraft and the members of his circle, tended to steer away from outright description of the different horrific entities the characters encounter. When they are descriped they tend to be 'glimpsed in a moment of terror' which means the description is sketchy at best. Also the writers tend to describe things through other senses besides sight (ex. the awful smell caused by the Cthonians).

It's been years since I re-read the mythos cycles, but the only one that really stands out as a complete description is the frozen creature dug up in "The Mountains of Madness."

And yes, I think the entrance of the Cthulhu Mythos into pop culture has weakend its ability to instill horror. It's not that an uncommon occurance. How scary is the average depiction of a Vampire (sparkly or not)? This just means that the GM has to be a bit craftier to evoke the horror he's looking for.

Quote from: Benoist;416335Well first things, first, Dan, I could scare you just as shitless in an AD&D game as I could a CoC game. Trust me.

So don't sell me that "AD&D is for kiddies" crap. Thanks.

What?

Most of those images are too clean.  Lovecraft's monsters should be in shadow or coming out of the dark, you can't get a clear look, or is it that your mind doesn't want to see?

That having been said, my current favorite Cthulhu image is...

I always liked this pic of R'lyeh:

Quote from: danbuter;416361What?

I was answering to this: "The monsters in your attached post also seem to derive at least partially from D&D, so that also probably affects your viewpoint." If I misunderstood, please clarify. Thanks!

I never got into Cthulhu and Lovecraft stuff.

 Even after 20 plus years of friends and aquaintances talking about it I still have found nothing appealing about Lovecraft or the whole Cthulhu Mythos thing. Wikipedia and reference books is the only reason I 'get' the meaning of any of the mythos and Lovecraft jargon and slang terms.

What is the appeal of it all?


- Ed C.

n00bs.  Clearly, Erol Otus was singularly gifted with the ability to make any picture Cthulhulian.  

Quote from: Koltar;417797I never got into Cthulhu and Lovecraft stuff.

 Even after 20 plus years of friends and aquaintances talking about it I still have found nothing appealing about Lovecraft or the whole Cthulhu Mythos thing. Wikipedia and reference books is the only reason I 'get' the meaning of any of the mythos and Lovecraft jargon and slang terms.

What is the appeal of it all?

- Ed C.

If you haven't figured that out from twenty years of talking to your friends and acquaintances, I'm not sure what a stranger on the internet could say that could possibly make a difference. :hmm:

For me the appeal is in the brooding Gothic stylings of Lovecraft's stories and the relative complexity of the mythos. Cosmic / supernatural horror has always held a lot more appeal to me than the teenage slasher thing that's far more prevalent in horror, and Lovecraft was very skilled at exploiting the "fear of the unknown."

That's it in a nutshell I guess.