Cthulu

I am Working on (among other things) a Cthulu story for the next issue of Arsenic Lullaby.  I knew jack squat about Cthulu when I started…after a bit of research I have learned that no one knows jack squat about Cthulu.  H.P. Lovecraft (the guy who came up with him) wrote really vague stories in the vein of “lights out” (if you don’t know what “lights out” was…I pity you), where he gave just enough information for the readers imagination to tell the story for itself.  It’s a difficult way to write because you are describing allot without describing anything…here is an excerpt.

.” The idol resembles the Wilcox sculpture, and represented a “…thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters”.

…what? 

He hasn’t actually told you anything tangible but he has given you the creeps none the less, he is telling a story to make you feel something ,rather than know something.  He is essentially ignoring half of your brain and doubling down on your emotional half.  Very effective when done correctly, dreadfully bad and pretentious when done incorrectly.  It is one of those styles that LOOKS EASY.

Anyhow since H.P. never enforced any copyrights on the story and the creature is vague, and his writing style LLOKS EASY every Tom Dick and Hairy has had a go at butchering the character and mythos.  I am not sure really why a Cthulu story popped into my head other than my own sub conscience getting tired of resisting doing the obvious. Given my readers, vein of humor and mood of the stories I do Cthulu seems like a obvious match up.  One reason I resisted so long is I don’t like making crap up, by this I mean if I do a story about a Vietnam vet, I want the latitude and longitude, name of the region he served in , division, unit, and commander to be accurate (why?…i don’t know) also  I figured Cthulu fans would be much like Star trek fans( any misinformation I stick into the story would be like a poke in the eye for them).  Since I loathe reading fiction …doing research on Cthulu seemed like more aggravation than it was worth. 

A little while ago though, a story popped into my head that was perfect for Cthulu and would go well not only into a comic book, but an animated cartoon too.  So I broke down and read a little of H.P. that was recommended to me…and much to my delight…details are few and far between in Lovecrafts work and the mythos is fluid and vauge.  Sweeeet.

long story short.  I have 5/6 page chtulu story in the next issue and I stuck old octopus head onto the next cover.

This cover is a perfect example of why I hate coloring things…the black and white version was fan-fucking-tastic…the colors ruined everything.  Might change the entire color scheme.

stay tuned here for info on when this issue is coming out, and info on seeing us at COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL 2012!!!

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