While astronomical art is my specialty, I can't do planets 24 hours a day. So sometimes I set that aside to do something to get my mind off Mars or Titan or Gliese 467b or whatever it is I have been sweating over. H.P. Lovecraft has always been one of my favorite authors, so a few months ago I started a series of Lovecraft illustrations.


My first one, above, was an attempt to depict Cthulhu dominating the non-Euclidean city of R'lyeh as it rises above the waves of the Pacific (above). When I showed the results to a friend and fellow HPL fan, he urged me to do more. Always one to respond to flattery, I went to my shelf, pulled down an ancient, musty tome and pored through its moldy pages, seeking inspiration and listening all the while for the slimy gibbering to begin outside my studio door...


...who might have been Wilbur Whately and his loving mother, Lavinia. Peeking through the attic window is what the neighbors unkindly referred to as The Dunwich Horror

...and Wilbur's brother, who took after their father more.


While a neighboring farm goes wrong when it suddenly erupts with The Colour Out of Space.


The Picture in the House was about an old man with a terrible hobby, and while speaking of houses, The Strange High House in the Mist had some interesting secrets of its own, as does the house that suffers from The Rats in the Walls.



A shoggoth beneath The Mountains of Madness is an unwelcome surprise to a couple of Antarctic explorers...but perhaps not half so surprised as the inventor of the machine that conjures some horrors From Beyond. And some things are best left alone. Just ask any of the friends of Herbert West: Reanimator.


The Terrible Old Man liked his friends so much he collected them in jars.


The commander of a sunken U-boat discovers The Temple at the bottom of the Atlantic...and that someone has left a light on. And Little Asenath Waite would be anyone's idea of a swell Hallowe'en date.


So after all this I can only hope you have pleasant dreams. Unless, of course, you happen to be rooming in the Witch House...


Illustrations by Ron Miller