A beautiful collection of paintings by Blanka Dvorak based on Lovecraft stories. For no good reason — other than, perhaps, the manic scribbles found throughout — they remind me of Stephen Gammell.

Apologies to H.P. Lovecraft [Artist’s Site] : MONSTER BRAINS

Bookended by scenes from an episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, entitled “Professor Peabody’s Last Lecture” what follows is madness of the highest order. I can’t really explain what ensues but it involves J-Pop and choreographed dance moves.

Ah, the internet and its wonders.

Apologies to Mr. Lovecraft… [YouTube] : GrimReviews

Most of my nights are, blessedly, dreamless; vast stretches of blissful, barren darkness bookended by painful reality. Those nights on which my fevered brain decides to regale me with nightmarish visions, however, seem endless; the parade of grotesque images forced in front of my mind’s eye taking my last refuge from me. Now, do not misunderstand me, I have no delusions of grandeur. My dreams are certainly no worse than yours, dear reader. I do not pretend to assume that my mind houses apparitions any more terrible than anyone else’s. All I am saying here is that the nights in which I dream that Isaac Mizrahi has taken my beloved pet Velociraptor, Paul, hostage and is forcing me to murder women and collect their labia for the coats he plans to show for his winter line…well…

Those nights are bad.

The filthy warrens of my subconscious aside, I can say with some certainty that I have never conjured up anything as disturbing and wonderful as the Cthulhu Kitty doll pictured above. Fashioned by limeinmoloko, it has, alas, already been sold. Still, we can marvel at her spindly frame topped by a massive, feline cranium. We can gaze upon her horrific, tentacled visage, which belies her demure pose, those tentacle-like extremities crossed ever so delicately. We can try to catch the gaze of her eye with its milky, pearled cataract. Truly, it’s a fantastic piece, effortlessly walking the line between ghastly and beautiful.

Not like labia coats. No one wants those. I have no idea what Isaac was thinking.

cthulhu kitty OOAK art doll - RESERVED [Etsy] : Under Vhoorl’s Shadow

Stylish craniums by the artist simply known as Jim, using what appears to be twine, their visages adorned with long, hanging tendrils. A worthy addition to any worshiper’s domicile.

skullgallery [Artist’s Site] : who killed bambi?

C’thulhu Fhtagn [My[confined]Space]

High atop his shelf in The Watcher in Toronto, Canada The Loneliest Cthulhu of All waits, weeping. From his precipitous perch he hangs his head, his muscles unable to support the massive weight of his Sadness; and really, who can blame him? Out of season the outlook for the future seems bleak; his stocking body and winter colors rendering him all but invisible in the heady days of spring. Perhaps once the weather turns, and the Earth once again shrivels under freezing conditions and slate skies he will rise triumphant over someone’s hearth. Until then he can do nothing but wallow, the promise of the future providing no solace.

Cthulhu Santa uploaded by ryancouldrey [Flickr] : Thanks, RyTron!

A short film from 1998 by director Djie Han Thung based upon an even shorter novel fragment by H.P. Lovecraft titled “Azathoth” — which bears a resemblance to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath — Between the Stars is a meditative and quintessentially German film about a man who seeks to escape from the drudgery of his meaningless existence.

Between the Stars [YouTube] : Under Vhoorl’s Shadow : Grim Reviews

Cthulhu Thing sketch done at this year’s recent Emerald City Comic Con by Warren Ellis’s faux-hawked golem, Ben Templesmith.

Cthulhu Thing [Artist’s Site] : Under Vhoorl’s Shadow

An example of Lovecraft’s notes, which in this case appears to pertain to At the Mountains of Madness, complete with a sketch of one of the barrel shaped creatures the expedition finds. From Something About Cats, edited by August Derelith.

Something About Cats [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

I seem to remember seeing this before, though I’ll be damned if I can remember where. The inscription, from what can be made out reads as follows:

To R.H. Barlow, Esq., whose Sculpture hath given Immortality to this trivial Design of his oblig’d of all obdt (obedient) Servant.

Cthulhu
H.P. Lovecraft
11th May, 1934

Barlow was a close friend of Lovecraft and collaborated with him on several stories including, one might reasonably conclude, one of his most famous, The Call of Cthulhu. Lovecraft went so far as to make Barlow his literary executor.

Despite its crude nature, it’s still a great representation of Cthulhu, not only because it is directly from the mind of his creator but also for the inclusion of the multiple, spider-like eyes. Few illustrations of the Lord of R’lyeh come to mind that show him this way.

Cthulhu in the eyes of his creator. [My[confined]Space]

Via The Onion:

ARKHAM, MA—Arguing that students should return to the fundamentals taught in the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Necronomicon in order to develop the skills they need to be driven to the very edge of sanity, Arkham school board member Charles West continued to advance his pro-madness agenda at the district’s monthly meeting Tuesday.

“Fools!” said West, his clenched fist striking the lectern before him. “We must prepare today’s youth for a world whose terrors are etched upon ancient clay tablets recounting the fever-dreams of the other gods—not fill their heads with such trivia as math and English. Our graduates need to know about those who lie beneath the earth, waiting until the stars align so they can return to their rightful place as our masters and wage war against the Elder Things and the shoggoths!”

Ectomo fully supports the efforts of Mr. West to enlighten the children of Arkham. They are, after all, our future.

Lovecraftian School Board Member Wants Madness Added To Curriculum [The Onion] : Thanks to Anthony and Peregrine!

It was a strange, unpleasant end to the previous week for me, dear readers. My guts, seized by some unholy specter, churned and roiled, swiftly and explosively expelling any and all substances that passed through their many, circuitous bi-ways. Thus it was that my feverish malaise burst into a fluid drenched hallucinatory nightmare for 48 hours. I can honestly say that I was out of sorts.

All this is bad enough, but to then have one of my editors suddenly reappear, kicking in the door of my office, a demented smirk on his face, filthy, and reeking of Strawberry Ripple and shame; staying just long enough to scream “HEY BOY, TAKE A LOOK AT MY WORD MAKING!” before running off into the night, cackling; off to gallivant wherever it is he gallivants, well, you see how I might be a little confused.

That said, this Cthursday-flavored offering comes from Joseph Nanni — whose work has previously been featured on Ectomo — and Bad Advice for Good Times. It was important that I post this. They have to talk to you. About polyps.

Elder Sign [YouTube]

Eliza exists not as a traditional girl, concerned with the girly pursuits of the Powerpuff and the Hello Kitty, but as a translucent wraith locked in the attic of the Ectomanse. Her skin shivers with spiders; her eyes glow gold in the dark; from her throat frothily burbles the lost franca lingua of the Eldritch. She spends all of her days and her nights inhumanly slouched in front of an ancient machine, her vertebrata crinkling. And there she toils forever, making buttons. Which we, shameless capitalists, want to sell you in the name of our dark Cthulhoid overlords.

You’re already familiar with our regular Ectomo buttons: subdued and dapper affairs for the lapel which both broadcast your affinity for Lovecraft and Cthulhu and subliminally indoctrinate others in preparation for his glorious return. Now, added to the mix, three original buttons of Cthulhoid furies, “etched with delicate graphite onto fine paper.” One of a kind and never to be reproduced… unless Eliza needs to make rent again.

The artist would like thirty dollars for each fury, and will include four glossy Cthulu Cthursday slogan buttons for the price. If you buy all three furies at once, the price is discounted to $75 and you get triple the Cthursday buttons to pass out amongst your friends.

Buy, drooglings, buy!

Fury 1 [Etsy]

Fury 2 [Etsy]

Fury 3 [Etsy]

UPDATE: All gone!

As promised, the day dawns with yet another set of pins with which to proudly proclaim your deviant affectations. Of course, today’s focus is on the tentacular author of our destruction, and the literary mind from whence it came.

Why, if the heightened sensitivity of my complete set of prehensile, supernumerary nipples didn’t preclude me from button-wearing, you can be sure I’d adorn myself with the full line of these chthonic accessories. Of course, not everyone is so fortunately endowed, but those of you suffering from such a lack can take solace in these alternative methods of chesticular enhancement. Almost guaranteed not to cause radiation poisoning or birth defects!

Cthulhu Cthursday [Etsy]

I’ve got to wonder if it’s wise to produce plastic parodies of a beast imbued with the ability to eat worlds, hearts, and minds. A god-thing hovering in the icy dark, waiting for the time when all things will end at the tip of a tentacle laden with taste-buds split and filled with teeth of their own.

Ultimately, debating the merit of such a move is moot, as Dreamland Toyworks intends to tempt the ire of phonetically frustrating gods every Monday as they unveil the latest in John Kovalic’s line of “Mythos Buddies.” Each icon of the world’s end is available as a blind-box figure from purveyors of graven images everywhere.

Mythos Buddies [Vinyl Pulse]