#cthuloid

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Justin C Key's "The World Wasn't Ready For You"

On September 22, I'm (virtually) presenting at the DIG Festival in Modena, Italy. That night, I'll be in person at LA's Book Soup for the launch of Justin C Key's "The World Wasn’t Ready for You." On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine.

The World Wasn't Ready For You is Justin C Key's first book. It's a short story collection, from a major publisher. This is basically unheard of. Big publishers rarely publish collections, and when they do, it's almost always after a string of extremely successful novels:

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-world-wasnt-ready-for-you-justin-c-key?variant=41016598036514

Yes, there are exceptions. Ted Chiang. Kelly Link.

And now, Justin C Key. To be in such company is, as they say, a big fucking deal.

I can't say I'm surprised. Key was my student at the Clarion West writing workshop – a year full of standout writers among whom Key was still a standout. I was immensely impressed with his work then, and when I found out that he was also an MD and a father, a young man juggling an unimaginably intense work and family schedule and still producing this polished, scary, precise work, I knew he could have great things ahead of him.

But to be honest, I wasn't sure he would write. Key was so obviously brilliant and competent, and had such an important dayjob, that I could easily have imagined him deciding that making up stories was fun, but that it was not nearly so rewarding as his other vocations.

I was wrong – and right. In the years since Clarion, Key's work has acquired a kind of medical precision. When Key stabs you, the knife slides right between your ribs and goes straight into the big arteries of your heart, slicing you so quickly that you hardly notice until you are slain.

These are all horror stories, though some of them are science fiction too, and more to the point, they'r Black horror stories. In his afterword, Key writes about his early fascination with horror, the catharsis he felt in watching nightmares unspool on screen or off the page. And then, he writes, came the dawning recognition that the Black characters in these stories were always there as cannon-fodder, often nameless, usually picked off early.

These stories represent Key's long rumination on the conjunction of Blackness and horror. Of course, that gets back to racism, in the way that, say, Jordan Peele's work does, or in the manner of NK Jemisin's post-Lovecraft Cthuloid tales:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/09/the-old-crow-is-getting-slow/#i-love-ny

But "Black horror" isn't merely parables about racism. In the deft hands of these writers – and now, Key – the stories are horror in which Blackness is a fact, sometimes a central one, and that fact is ever a complication, limiting how the characters move through space, interact with authority, and relate to one another.

The eight stories – mostly long – in The World Wasn't Ready For You deal with parenting, health, prison, corruption, and art – and they do so through hauntings and body horror and tension wound so tight you want to scream.

This is a brilliant and auspicious beginning from a brilliant and auspicious writer.

Key's book launches at LA's Book Soup on September 22, and I'll be there with him as interlocutor. I couldn't be more honored by this, and I hope you'll come out and see us:

https://www.booksoup.com/event/justin-c-key

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/19/justin-c-key/#clarion-west-2015

[loiterer87]

So I had a go at some more fully digital art. Still not convinced it's my thing, but again, any experimentation is worth exploring. Started trying to do something more in my normal style ended up turning it into an animation style reminiscent of the old 90's Spider-man cartoon. Kinda pleased with the shading, the background... not so much.

Anyway, Astonishing Spider-Man vs. the weird Cthuloid Doc Ock, I created! Because why not?

[monsters-conquer-the-world]

Separating the Art from the Ectoplasm

The Ghostbusters are called in to deal with one of the most famous and thematically-appropriate ghosts: the restless spirit of the massively influential innovator of literary horror, H.P. Lovecraft.

EXT. THE QUAD, MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY - NIGHT

The gaseous, glowing ghost of H.P. LOVECRAFT looms over all four Ghostbusters, stretching and twisting to impossible proportions, tentacles and antennae slithering out of him like growing shadows. A dry, howling, unnatural wind swirls through the Quad.

LOVECRAFT: CHATTERING INTERBREEDERS! FOUL, GUFFAWING APES! I WILL CLEANSE--

VENKMAN: Yeesh, who knew Poe was such a dick?

Ray stifles a chuckle and Venkman gives him a wink. All four Ghostbusters know this tactic and fan out accordingly. The four goofballs cut a surprisingly heroic silhouette as they calmly and carefully strafe the ghost. They box in the undead author with short, controlled bursts of their particle beams. "Controlled" is being generous, they're just barely not burning down the Dining Hall, but they are doing their best with crazy firehose-lasers.

LOVECRAFT: POE?! THAT MEWLING QUIM?! THAT DREARY, INSIPID, BIG-HEADED LITTLE--

RAY: What?

LOVECRAFT: I AH.. What?

RAY: I can barely follow what you're saying. Why do you talk like this?

VENKMAN: Well he's, olde tymey, right?

LOVECRAFT: INDEED, FOOLISH, THOUGHTLESS BLATHERERS! I AM FROM AEONS BEFORE. ANCIENT, FORGOTTEN AEONS MOLDERING BEYOND THE VEIL THAT--

Winston, with his cigarette bouncing in his mouth, starts laughing upROARIOUSLY AT Lovecraft. It is obviously fake and sarcastic and over the top and that just makes it funnier and more awesome. He does start genuinely cracking himself up. Lovecraft huffily stops vamping.

LOVECRAFT: WHAT'S SO FUCKING FUNNY?

WINSTON: Ancient aeons? You died in 1937!

LOVECRAFT: SO?

WINSTON: Nobody talked like that in the 1920s, ya weird dork!

VENKMAN: Yikes, nerd alert!

LOVECRAFT: FUCK YOU GUYS!

Lovecraft freaks out and launches an all-out attack focused on Winston and Venkman. They brace themselves as reality itself warps around them. Shadows and the ground itself twist and undulate, transforming into gnarled claws and chittering, grasping shadow creatures. They do their best to stay cool and stay breathing. Egon throws Lovecraft off-balance by hosing him down with a few hundred gallons of positively-charged slime.

LOVECRAFT: WHAT THE HELLARRGHGLGLGHRLHRLGBLKJARLBR--

Egon hammers one last slime-bomb right down Lovecraft's gasping ghost gullet. RAY does a "cha-ching" gesture to the sky before just BARELY blasting a slavering CTHULOID away from VENKMAN.

RAY: I knew this batch of slime would respond well to Judas Priest!

Lovecraft spins his now-massive, spectral form and stretches into the sky above. Egon and Ray begin to have their minds bombarded with psychedelic, eldritch perceptions of reality. Venkman and Winston's version of reality is even further along into madness, once-normal buildings now shimmering and fracturing off at impossible angles.

EGON: Whoa.

Winston coughs and struggles against the oozing, skittering masses of tentacles and centipedes climbing his body. Venkman is even further along, already up to his knees in eldritch muck, blasting Lovecraft. Winston gathers his breath.

WINSTON (hoarse and having his consciousness slowly splinter into different dimensions): I can't believe... I'm gonna get killed by... the poor man's... Robert E. Howard...

LOVECRAFT: ARARRRHALKAHALRHALR

VENKMAN (up to his shoulders in black slime, eyeballs, and teeth, chuckles anyway): N-Nerd alert.

From out of the warping, swirling dimensions of madness now inhabiting the Quad of Miskatonic University come two arcing jets of positronic energy. With Winston and Venkman unable to buy them any more time, Ray and Egon stumble through churning waves of earth and cobblestone to finally flank the core of the snarling deceased author.

RAY (not breaking eye-contact or beam contact with Lovecraft): This is 6, Z!

Winston does his best to flex his tentacle into an appreciative thumbs up. Ray grows a third eye in response.

LOVECRAFT (snarling and writhing as he is trying to break free of Egon and Ray's confinement streams): FINE, I'LL ASK, 6 WHAT?

EGON: It's the 6th time we've caught a ghost--

RAY: --because Winston minored in Literature!

LOVECRAFT: WAIT WHAT

Ray stomps the foot pedal on the ghost trap, sucking Lovecraft down in a cone of brilliant white light and crackling muons. With the ghost safely locked away in the trap, all four Ghostbusters are able to perceive normal reality once again--buildings, the earth, reality itself all snap back into shape. A shape that does also now include a lot of ghost AND Ghostbuster-induced structural damage to the immediate area. Said damage includes the ashen, neutralized ectoplasmic cocoons almost completely encasing the still-delirious and recovering Winston and Venkman.

WINSTON: I even like a lot of the stuff he wrote... but he was just such an... absolute turd of a man.

VENKMAN: Agreed. Also, was he seriously talking shit about Edgar Allen Poe?

WINSTON: Like he sucks... and he has bad taste?

VENKMAN (pouting exaggeratedly): Yeah, yuck, tough night!! Tough night, Egon! EGON!?

RAY (chiseling Winston out of the hardened eldritch and collecting flakes of it in a vial): Yeah, even as a casual fan this was (sighs) incredibly disappointing. Maybe it was something else that just took his form? Hopefully we can learn more from these samples...

VENKMAN: EGOOOOONN!!

EGON (hollering from over by the car, placing a call on a cell phone he invented): I am putting in an order with Golden Wall right now!

VENKMAN, WINSTON, RAY (in unison and excitedly but also haggard and weakly): Yay.

EGON: AND I AM MAKING IT A DOUBLE ORDER!

VENKMAN, WINSTON, RAY (in unison and excitedly but not quite as haggard and weakly): Yaay! (The down-to-the-nub cigarette finally falls out of Winston's mouth)

RAY (under his breath): And beers.

VENKMAN: AND BEERS, EGON!!

Long shot of Egon on the phone. He thoughtfully considers the loopy hollering of his colleagues.

EGON: Peter, I do not think they have beers. Yes this is for pick-up.

Roll credits

[banemcdeath-blog]

Today, I shall reveal a darker thought that maybe coffee is the cause of or maybe I have been touched by insanity.

Just a recap:

I believe this dark evil Yahwehova god is nasty indeed. Jesus Christ is a dark sorcerer traversing many dimensions to entrap, imprison, and enslave mankind destroying his willpower, his freedom, knowledge of truth, and perverting the Justice and true nature of all creation. While he is away, his sorcerous twin clone the Holy Spirit is manifested as a force to ensure it entraps and lures more souls into slavery. The force known as Satan/Lucifer is but another tool of the dark god Yahweh/Jehova (yahwehova). As GOD enjoyed the smell of burnt flesh sacrifice offering in the OT, it surely will love the smell and taste of an eternal hell bbq of millions (or billion upon trillions of parallel multidimensional onmniversal realities exist).

We “sin” or don’t appease “GOD” and it devours our essence forever in hell. We become slaves as its sorcerous avatar Jesus Christ buys our wages of sin. As slaves we are locked away in this huge cube Heaven it is creating made of gold and gems and sounds like a huge living machine perhaps manufactured by the mega robot-archangel METATRON. Designing the tesseract hypercube Heaven is GOD’s last creation sone say and will house all the host of Heaven. Likely, more war machines to conquer not just this world but all worlds, galaxies, and universes.

Mankind may be the last stand against this tyrannical megalomaniac narcissistic dark evil god. And mankind is losing as the candle is burnt from both ends of this “sin” vs “surrender” paradox.

Can the entire host of undead angels (for they do not live as we nor are they dead) and creatures this god controls as well as the demons and devils it has at its disposal from the fires of hell (separate from its lake of eternal bbq fire) be defeated?

Maybe…. It only takes one insane hobo to thwart this cosmic plan. Maybe the omniverse needs to be destroyed. The “Holy Trinity” and its dark secular spirit empire must be destroyed. The religious fools caught the attention of these cthuloid entities and they plan to feed upon mankind and destroy our world.

Man should submit to no one. We strive to be ever free of any shackle including ones by other men.

(Quoted notations revealed through songs)

“ We are free as the wind

We have fought, we have sinned

In glory and pain

Our stand will remain

Mighty swords are held high

Hear the roaring from the sky

Heaven's turning red

By the blood of the dead

Fighting on the battlefield in search for the Golden Land

Riding side by side for freedom, the brotherhood of men

We are sending out a warning to every warrior in town

Gather your sword, and weapons, war is shaking the ground

Soldiers gather weapons to defend what's left of the town

Darkness wrounds us everywhere, we have to protect the crown

Treatening shadows getting closer now, the end feels so near

Fight for honour, fight for freedom, face your fear

Raise your shields and fight till you die

Fight till your enemies draw their last breath

Raise your swords, high in the sky

Riding the storm, let them face death

“The battle is near, we have to find a way

to save us from this evil lord of death.

We rise from the ashes, like a phoenix we fly high.

Spread our wings and fight for freedom 'till the day we die.

The eternal flames still burn inside our hearts with pride and joy.

That is something you can never kill or destroy.”

[chronivore]

Cthuloid Bestiary

[ranarh]

Bowler Hat Monster

For roleplaying publishers Sons of the Singularity. The task was to use a strict palette and art deco style - I chose to be inspired by figures of Edgar Degas - to paint a shambling monster of the Cthuloid mythos in the sewers. Wouldn't wanna meet this guys, not even on a sunny day.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/singularity-sons/the-blessed-and-the-blasphemous

[leviathis-krade]

theres nothing wrong with being a furry, & it is A-ok to just be the Belle to the Beast.

hell you could be a scalie instead, or any litany of the furry subtype.

its okay to just envision your human self doing it with werewolves, vampires, cthuloids, and any monster that has existed or yet to exist.

I've been playing Cloud Meadow and I'm DEFINITELY a monsterfucker but I don't think Quite a furry?? Maybe?? I'm not sure. Kinda confused. Will figure it out probably. Sounds like fun :) kinda would suck if I ended up a furry but oh well

[nixiesart]

this one has been in my files for a few days, I love all things Lovecraftian.

[senotsuri]

Cthuloid can yawn... But it looks like a cat yawning.

[threeravenspublishing]

Need a new book to snuggle up with this All Hallow's Eve? Check out It Came From The Trailer Park this weekend!

Need a new book to snuggle up with this All Hallow’s Eve? Check out It Came From The Trailer Park this weekend!

That’s right, Releasing this weekend on Halloween, IT CAME FROM THE TRAILER PARK is sure to please. Do you love sparkly vampires? Well too bad, because you won’t find a single one of those fancy-dancy bloodsuckers anywhere in this collection! It Came From The Trailer Park began as a fun idea to revisit the Classic Horror and Old-School Creature Feature genres with a hefty helping of B-rate…

[lagomorphflix]

The dance floor is getting busy as everybody gets ready for a new decade, and Jackal finishes breakdancing in the traditional fashion. #bossfightstudio #kaijubash #bigmonsterbigyear #newyearseve2020 #morbius #jackal #gamorreanguard #cthuloid #godzilla #marvellegends #starwarsblackseries #neca #hasbro #shmonsterarts #actionfigures #toyartistry https://www.instagram.com/p/B6w3SNzA-qR/?igshid=1bidtbbyrbvrg

[bigvroman]

#Inktober Day 11: #Zen Cultist #Zenyatta is pretty done with your shit. #bigvroman #bigvart #sketch #drawing #paper #ink #pen #pigma #lovecraft #cthulhu #cthuloid #overwatch #cultist #halloween #healer

[travelling-my-little-pony]

Sweetie Belle the mermaid is posing with an airline meal on a LAN air flight to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). That was an omlette, the yellow thing she’s next to, we decided it was from an egg laid by Cthulhu.

[pickmansvinyls]

After a small handful of requests over the past few weeks, I pulled out the mold for the most recent Cthulhu idol from last year. Gonna be pulling a small handful of variants soon, so if you want a sorta neat one off Cthulhu Idol, there will be a Very small number available soon. I tend to shy away from realistic Lovecraft relics these days because @the_cryptocurium has it More than covered. I know there’s room for multiple artists to cover things like this, but why cover something that’s being done Perfectly already? We DO have a few Lovecraftian things planned in the near future in more of our own style... but realistic, as described in the stories, Lovecraftian relics? @the_cryptocurium is the pace to go for that. #cthulhu #lovecraft #hplovecraft #mythos #lovecraftcountry #thecallofcthulhu #greatoldones #eldergods #resin #resinempire #horror #monster #cthuloid #artist #madness #cthulhuftagn #arttoy #toyart #pickmansvinyls #glowinthedark https://www.instagram.com/p/Bufm8dXHTms/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=sd7sek9jph5h

[tetocajugar]

Más de 400 páginas de horrores #cthuloides #lallamadadecthulhu #cthulhu #juegosderol #rpg #jdr #roleplayinggame #rolgames https://www.instagram.com/p/Bys8FyjoUZY/?igshid=1y16umyfs7alz

[follyknight]

≻─── ⋆✩ Ahoy Everyone!! ✩⋆ ───≺

I'm Folly, and I'm an Eldritch, Cthuloid Vtuber over on Twitch! I'm a variety streamer and Pokemon shiny hunter! I like games that make me laugh or send my brain to the void while we chat, but that doesn't mean I shy away from spooky games! (I mean... look at me lol)

I'm also a self-taught 3D artist, focusing on sculpting! I often stream my progress, so please come by some time! 🐙💚

💚 My Twitch!︶꒷꒦‧₊˚⊹ 💕 My Highlights Youtube!︶꒷꒦‧₊˚⊹ 💚 My VODs Channel!꒷꒦‧₊˚⊹ 💕 My TikTok!︶꒷꒦‧₊˚⊹ 💚 My Carrd with more links!꒷꒦‧₊˚⊹

Hope to see you around!!