The Spore Creature Creator, from autistic demigod Will Wright, has spread at a breakneck pace throughout the internet since its release. YouTube is heavy and tumescent with short videos of various abortions of nature and blasphemies from people, ignorant in the ways of creation, anatomy, and a life without the horrible pain resulting from a spine bent at various, unnatural angles.
Even Ectomo is not immune to the siren call of such god-like powers. Qais has become so deeply drawn into his own, private Book of Genesis that we fear we may have lost him forever. Even now, as I write these words, I can hear the strains of Strauss’s “Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30″ wafting through the offices. He plays it so loudly that, even with his door shut, every movement can be heard quite clearly. His correspondences have even begun to suffer, consisting almost solely of links to videos of his newest life-forms; and they are always, at the very least, unsettling. I’m still not comfortable with anything having that many pairs of testicles.
Needless to say, then, that it was inevitable that the great Cthulhu would shamble forth from the diseased brain of Spore obsessed cultists. The number of different interpretations excreted onto YouTube is impressive, though they range from quite good to, frankly, awful. One can only wonder if, when the full game is released, we will see entire planets of Cthuloid creatures, growing and thriving until maturing enough to go off into the universe of Spore and lay it to waste.
A BBC Radio documentary originally aired in 2006 covering the life and work of the late, great Howard Phillips Lovecraft; featuring interviews with Neil Gaiman, S.T. Joshi, Kelly Link, Peter Straub, China Mieville among others.
I am simply amazed by what these crafty girls can do with yarn. A knit Cthulhu? And knitted for her husband? What a lucky guy…
I remain suspicious Katy. Craftster member JenGoPop says she made this knit Cthulhu for her “husband”, but I fear it may be a cry for help. I cannot imagine a marital situation where such a fantastic Cthulhu — look at those eyes, they’re perfect — would be manufactured. On the other hand, a poor woman imprisoned in a suburban sweatshop in someone’s dingy basement, forced to work 16 hour shifts in order to meet a daily quota of diminutive, knit otherworldly beings seems perfectly realistic.
Yesterday, on Cthulhu Cthursday Eve, Ryan over at Ninja Dolls unleashed a furious flurry of stuffed, ninja goodness upon Etsy. There, nestled amongst the likes of Infected Pink Ninja and Yellow Sad Ninja lies the greatest of all ninjas. Bedecked in his azure costume, woven from the most demulcent of fabrics, Cthulhu darts silently through the narrow streets and atop the ominous roofs of R’lyeh, dispensing brutal, ninjutsu justice.
At 7 inches tall, he is large enough to strike awe and fear into all who witness his majesty and yet small enough to leap about unnoticed should some foul miscreant dare invade your living space; something they shall regret dearly as the stealthy Old One bears down upon them, their minds barely comprehending this denizen of the deep from beyond time and space before it neatly dissevers their head from their torso, their consciousness obliterated amidst a crimson geyser. Make sure to check out his site as well for upcoming ninjas *cough*moustache*cough*.
When word started spreading in Seattle that someone was making a film entitled Cthulhu my local ilk became cautiously excited. Not only was someone taking a shot at producing a quality piece of Lovecraftian cinema, they were doing so locally. Unfortunately, the film ended up being a confused mess of sloppily applied Lovecraftian mythos infused with a political and sexual agenda.
In the latest issue of The Stranger (Seattle’s local alterna-newspaper), Cthulhu’s screenwriter Grant Cogswell published a piece outlining the long, torturous journey that was getting the film completed. It’s quite a read, detailing depression, suicide attempts, insane parties, drug abuse, and the eventual realization that sometimes it takes more than hard work. However I’ll spare you all the hard lessons of Mr. Cogswell by outlining exactly where he went wrong.
Ech’h-Pi-El Speaks is a short work written by Lovecraft and published in 1972 by Gerry de la Ree in a limited run of five hundred. The piece is just over three thousand words and, according to de la Ree, is the longest autobiographical piece by H.P.L. published; at least at the time. The illustrations were done by Virgil Finlay, who was a correspondent of Lovecraft shortly before his death, although the illustration on the right was only partially finished before it was completed by Joe Wehrle in 1971.
Most of the details presented in this essay are well known to Lovecraft enthusiasts and he spends a good deal of it listing his influences. He also takes the time to point out just how much he feels his work falls short of what he would term “literature”, though “It doesn’t look so bad beside the unutterable junk forming the bulk of “W.T.’s” (Weird Tales) contents […].” His summation of his views presents, perhaps, the clearest window into the man’s work:
That’s the kind of guy I am — a cynic and a materialist with classical and traditionalist tastes; fond of the past and its relics and ways, and convinced that the only pursuit worthy of a man of sense in a purposeless cosmos is the pursuit of tasteful and intelligent pleasure as promoted by a vivid mental and imaginative life. Because I believe in no absolute values, I accept the aesthetic values of the past as the only available points of reference — the only workable relative values — in a universe otherwise bewildering and unsatisfying.
Thus I am an ultra-conservative socially, artistically, and politically, though an extreme modernist despite my 39 years in all matters of pure science and philosophy. Loving the illusory freedom of myth and dream, I am devoted to the literature of escape; but likewise loving the tangible anchorage of the past, I tincture all my thoughts with overtones of antiquarianism.
Earlier this week, Weird Tales and oft adored Ectomo favorite Steven Archer began a year long art project that is certain to end in non-euclidean tragedy. Each day, Weird Tales will reveal a new Lovecraftian piece created by Steven — all of which are for sale at obscenely low rates — ending the project once the Earth has completed its annual drunken wobble ’round the Sun.
While I’d love to see this project completed it seems unrealistic not to expect some kind of massive psychological break resultant from spending each day rendering the various visages of creatures that inhabit the noplace between worlds. On day 360 I’m blowing town for the arctic. A five day head start should be just enough time to get out of the path of the octo-godlet that, even now, grows inside poor Steven’s head.
For those of you who, unlike me, are allowed access to sharp objects and are of the artistic persuasion, One Monk Miniatures has available for download a Cthulhu papercraft model measuring nine inches tall with an impressive fourteen inch wingspan when completed.
Is it really any surprise that we find the gospel of the R’lyehian sleeper within the murky, neglected confines of a Detroit squat, however duplicitous they may be? Cthulhu may save us, but only for a midnight snack. Yet it is our obligation — as indigent wretches slave to the whims of beasts lurking in the nothing-space between worlds — to lure the unwary into the famished maw of our ageless lord beyond the stars.
A departure from the traditional image of Cthulhu but one that works just as well, making the Old One appear even more alien than usual. I especially like the long, thin neck combined with the bulbous cranium.
Pictured above is a mailer that was sent out from a company called Veer. Is it not beautiful? It is the membership info for The Very Secret Order Of Creative Understanding, whose crest is emblazoned with the visage of the Great Cthulhu. If there are any criticisms to be leveled at this kit it is the fact that the room it is pictured in is not to be found at the Ectomo offices. Yes, you read correctly, Ectomo is not privy to this very secret knowledge! I know, it’s crazy that we, the stewards of Cthulhu Cthursday, have been omitted from the Order’s mailing list! It must have gotten lost in the mail. Yes, that’s it! Some errant postman must have espied our kit and realizing that he was in possession of forbidden knowledge, he kept it. No doubt the miscreant is, at this very moment, partaking in the secrets that are rightfully ours. That BASTARD!
Needless to say he won’t be able to handle it; he just doesn’t know how to parse that kind of information. So, if you see a postman gibbering with a wild look in his eyes let us know, as he no doubt has something that belongs to us. In the meantime we will have to settle for downloading this PDF which includes all the aforementioned documentation.
And to our postman: we will find you and we will come for what is ours, in the night, while you and your children sleep; and it will be unpleasant.
Cast A Deadly Spell is the best Lovecraftian film adaptation to date, anyone that argues that point with you either hasn’t seen it or is an imbecile unworthy of your time. The film centers around Phillip J. Lovecraft, a detective in a 1940’s Hollywood where magic and monsters are not only real, but common. Everyone, from housewives to CEO’s use magic, everyone except Phillip J. Lovecraft that is. It is my dubious honor to present you with the film, a favorite of mine for years, in its entirety, for today’s Cthursday thanks to the piratical inclinations of some benevolent soul. Don’t say we never gave you anything.
I’ll be honest, I can’t even bear to watch the news anymore. For those of you who don’t live in America the current contest to decide the next president has been going on, non-stop, here for about two years now. It is a constant barrage of sound-bites, platitudes, and nonsense. At this point satire isn’t even enough to get me to pay much attention. You too may be tired of it, even you who live in the parts of the world that our children are taught is simply called Not America. It is a disturbing trend in politics that most public official’s time seems to be spent in preparation for the next contest.
That said, however, at least there is one candidate who has the resources and ability to end this horrid cycle of Paid For advertisements and trite slogans. Ectomo is not political. We do not endorse candidates here nor do we wish to influence your decision, argue your chosen candidate’s merits, or win you over to our point of view. No, really all we want you to know is that we have accepted the inevitable, that it is not so much about change as it is about fate. You may argue amongst yourselves about who the best person for the job is but in the end it’s not going to matter. When he wakes up, we’ll all be food anyway.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
