Andrew Ritchie's Azathoth

I've been a fan of BOOM! Studios for a while. In their earlier days they published a masterpiece of Lovecraftian horror called Fall of Cthulhu, the delightful anthology series Cthulhu Tales, and the worth-a-read Necronomicon. They have gravitated away from Mythos stuff, but they're still quality publishers (Hexed comes to mind immediately).

Andrew Ritchie was a staple contributor to BOOM!'s Mythos titles. Necronomicon was drawn by Andrew Ritchie. Fall of Cthulhu's first volume, The Fugue, featured Andrew Ritchie's work. Cthulhu Tales had some stories illustrated by Andrew Ritchie.

Ritchie is known for his eerie, corpse-like characters and monsters mixed with old-school comic book colors. "The Beach" from Cthulhu Tales is a good example. Michael Alan Nelson, who wrote Fall of Cthulhu, creates a typically horrifying story, but Andrew Ritchie's art will freak the hell out of you. Seriously. It will stay with you for a while.

Anywho, I'm a fan of his work, so I naturally contacted him to do a pic of Azathoth's throne. He already drew Azathoth in Necronomicon:

After a while, he agreed, and sent me the result today.

One word: wow.

Happy Belated Halloween

Hello!

We figured that since we haven't posted in a while we just might throw something together for you to look at. I can tell you that Richard Svensson has started on the sculpt for one of the Hyperspace creatures, and so far it looks amazing. But you'll have to wait and see...

What is this, exactly? A while ago I put together a DeviantART journal of all Witch House-inspired artwork. I think its a fine selection. It took me a while...everytime I found something cool, I found another thing, and I eventually had to stop myself. Yes, there are KingOvRats, Jason McKittrick, and Lone Animator pieces in there, but still.

I also wish you a happy belated Halloween. In celebration, watch this Vinyl Geek Halloween special with Dreams in the Witch House - a Lovecraftian Rock Opera in the foreground. Alaine Kashian (the Witch), Douglas Blair Lucek (himself), and Mike Dalager (Brown Jenkin) appear in it. Its an interactive video where you navigate the Vinyl Geek through the Witch House, so you'll wanna try to watch it on YouTube, but I'll post it here anyhow.

Now, the list of concept artists in-waiting are:

• Jason B. Thompson
• Devon Devereaux
• ...and maybe Kory Merrit. He does the fabulous webcomic Lost Side of Suburbia which features some pretty Lovecraftian beasties (though he has only a passing knowledge of H.P.) but he is currently too busy to help us. He might do so in the future, though.

I am also pleased to announce that Gregg Stockdale will be drawing the scene where Gilman sees Keziah on the witch-cult island (y'know, the one on the Miskatonic River with the standing stones) in the fog.

Some of the actors will come for Christmas and we'll do some shooting. Goodbye for now!

Pete von Sholly and Others

In looking for more concept artists to jump onto the already talented team of Witch House, I have contacted several renowned artists in the past few months: most recently Jason B. Thompson (artist of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath comic and movie), Devon Devereaux (artist of Hot Rod Horror and Graphic Classics contributor), ebe-1, and Pete von Sholly (artist of the utterly random, grotesque, and fabulous, including P.S. Publishing's Lovecraft series, Graphic Classics: H.P. Lovecraft; First Edition, History of Monsters, Capitol Hell, and other strange and limited collectibles). Less recently, Gris Grimly (Frankenstein, Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness) and Michael Zigerlig (friend of the late H.R. Giger and artist of The Call of Cthulhu) were contacted. Here are the results.

• Jason B. Thompson will be drawing the Twilight Abysses of Hyperspace in December.
• Devon Devereaux will be doing a pen, ink, and Prismacolor drawing of the meeting between Gilman and the Black Man, also in December.
• ebe-1 is too busy to work for us right now, but we're going to talk about it soon.
• We'll talk about Pete von Sholly in a minute. He did supply us with something awesome.
• Gris Grimly is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy to busy to work for us, but he told us so in a very courteous manner.
• Michael Zigerlig is willing to do something once we have the proper funds.

So if you like creepy art by awesome artists, you're going to be in for a real treat in the next few months.

Now, here's the wonderful thing that happened with Pete von Sholly.

Mr. von Sholly has done an admirable job of resurrecting good ol' popcorn-munching monster movies, toys and pulp magazines in his work. When I contacted him, he was very polite and kind, saying that he'd be happy to help - but he'd need to decompress from Monsterpalooza first. Today, I contacted him again.

After giving him an outline of what I wanted, he told me that there was nothing new he could bring to the table. He had outlined all of the best scenes so well in his book version from P.S. Publishing that he had already said it all - already got the best bits.

What he did do was send me all six images from the book, and said I could use any or all for free.

The City of the Elder Things.

The Hyperspace Endpapers.

Hyperspace.

The bones of Brown Jenkin.

These are two thirds of what he showed us - the others just as fantastic.

I tried to make a Universal monster movie style poster out of the Elder Thing City drawing. It turned out TERRIBLE.

Mr. von Sholly made a few suggestions on this little mockup.

• Credit H.P. (I forgot)
• Don't put stuff all over it - let the art speak
• MAKE IT READABLE
• Remove cast names. Sounds kind of weak when everyone has the same last name

Here's the direction he suggested.

So I tried it out that way, arranging the words like Mr. von Sholly suggested. My only addition was the artist credit. It looks MUCH better, and Mr. von Sholly agreed.

But, in any case, I am eternally thankful for what Mr. von Sholly has given us.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Two: Keziah at the Violet Window

The Violet Window.

We bring your attention to the photograph above, dubbed by me "the Violet Window," for it is here that the next installment of "The Photography in the Witch House", wherein Keziah lurks into the window.

First off, Gregg took photos of three old women and composited them together. When this was finished, he distorted the horrific image. The result achieved, Gregg ended up with this - 

Ick!

All that was left was to composite one image into another. Subtly, the image of the Arkham witch became visible...

Awesome work! Check out Gregg on DeviantART.

Mark Foster's Poster Art

Mark Foster has provided his piece for the Dreams in the Witch House poster art, and I must admit I'm really quite blown away.

Iä Nyarlathotep! Sened Mark Foster! Oosur poster art! Iä! Iä! Iä!

I actually received this back on June 12th but it was just so sudden I could not provide the money immediately. But it really is QUITE an astonishing piece in my opinion. The look, the design, and the detail that Keziah's face is just like Brown Jenkin ("the accursed little face which he at last realised bore such a shocking, mocking resemblance to old Keziah’s") all make this poster one of the most stunning pieces of art ever produced. I couldn't be happier.

Mark Foster wrote of it on H.P. Lovecraft Art and added some personal thoughts on the story (as always, grammatically edited by yours truly) -

A commission I did for a student film inspired by the Lovecraft story. I had fun working on this one, especially the design of the poster. In reality Dreams in the Witch House is really the only story by Lovecraft that freaking creeped me out to no end; it's this blackly-dismal story of a helpless student who is perpetually harassed by horrendous supernatural forces well beyond his control, and who wish for him to join in their unspeakable horrors. 

I would personally declare that this is Lovecraft's blackest story, with other dark stories, like Cthulhu or Colour actually having a sort of descriptive or conceptual beauty or wonder to them; whereas this story is to me his most horrifically dreary in its systematical destruction of Gilman's sanity, though there is a bit of wonder in the concept of Gilman being physically pulled to a specific point in space—that scene left me genuinely awestruck. 

Thanks, Mark!

Mark Foster & the Poster Art

I have been waiting for a response from Carlos Garcia Rivera. In the meantime, I have found another poster artist who is incredibly talented. This is Mark Foster of H.P. Lovecraft Art.

We've been chatting and I am saving up the money for the commission. Today, Mr. Foster sent me these preliminary sketches for the poster art that looks very promising.

This shows some downright CREEPY sketches of Nyarlathotep reaching out. Added with a Cabin in the Woods-esque Witch House, violet light, stars, claws, and Keziah, I was blown away by these designs.

Some beautiful Nyarlathotep sketches for the poster.

If Mr. Rivera accepts, than thanks, we'll take that. But two posters for one film is not uncommon, and I think that Mark Foster is an incredibly talented artist.