31 Days of Monsters: Day Thirty — Cthulhu

"The Thing cannot be described — there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order. A mountain walked or stumbled. God! What wonder that across the earth a great architect went mad, and poor Wilcox raved with fever in that telepathic instant? The Thing of the idols, the green, sticky spawn of the stars, had awaked to claim his own. The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident. After vigintillions of years great Cthulhu was loose again, and ravening for delight."

"The Call of Cthulhu"
H.P. Lovecraft

A special treat — "The Call of Cthulhu" motion picture. Enjoy.

31 Days of Monsters: Day Twenty — A jumped up woodchuck with a head full of poison

My favorite Stephen King short story is "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut." Mrs. Todd is obsessed with finding shortcuts in her Mercedes sportscar. She shares this passion with handyman Homer, and even takes him on a drive through one of her latest finds. After seeing strange plants and animals while on the jaunt, Homer begins to realize that Mrs. Todd's shortcuts are taking her through places that aren't on any map. At one point in the story, Homer is tasked with taking care of a nasty piece of roadkill Mrs. Todd brings back from one of her outings. Homer finds it dangling from the Mercedes bumper with its teeth embedded in the metal, as if it had decided to go down fighting when it knew it was about the be hit.
I love the story because it has some chilling parts but also a sense of wonder and magic about it. It reminds me of some of Lovecraft and Dunsany's dream-like stories. I used to have a book-on-tape version of the story that was narrated by an actor who had a great voice and captured the New England accents perfectly. It's out of print now, but if anyone comes across it, please let me know. I'd love to hear it again

31 Days of Monsters: Day Seven — A Shallow One

I'm about to head out the door to Trick 'r Tiki, and I realized that I haven't posted today's monster.
I love H.P. Lovecraft, and all of his various creations.  For today's monster, I started to draw a Deep One, one of the fish-human hybrids that swim off the coast of Innsmouth, but he ended up more amusing than terrifying. Putting him in a cheap Fruit-of-the-Looms undershirt and Bermuda shorts, I decided he was from the shallower end of Innsmouth Bay, where the townsfolk were a little too eager to greet their watery kissing-cousins in days gone by. Ew.