Cthulhu Calendar

So here it is at last, the stars are right, etc. I had the idea for a Cthulhu calendar after I finished the Cthulhoid piece in January and realised I had about eight or more different representations of everyone’s favourite dreaming alien monstrosity. In gathering them together I’ve alternated between old and new works to avoid the front of the run being all black-and-white drawings. I could have coloured the black-and-white pieces, of course, but since they were never intended to be seen that way I prefer to leave them alone. The main alteration has been the adding of side panels or borders in order to help rectangular artwork fill out a square space. As usual this calendar is available through CafePress, priced at $19.99 / £15.00 / €18.50.

Before making a purchase please note: CafePress recently added a completely unnecessary feature to their calendars whereby purchasers can choose to have the pages start in late 2012 instead of January 2013. They don’t give me any way to disable this option, hence the warning. If you want a calendar beginning in January 2013 you have to select that option yourself.

Examples of the pages follow. See the artwork at a larger size here.

JANUARY: Title page from The Call of Cthulhu (1987).

The opening page from my comic strip adaptation of the story.

FEBRUARY: Resurgam (2012).

MARCH: Cthulhu Arisen from The Call of Cthulhu (1988).

Cthulhu’s appearance from the comic strip adaptation.

APRIL: De Profundis (2012).

MAY: Cthulhu from The Great Old Ones (1998).

This is the original drawing (done with a Biro pen) which was used in my collaboration with Alan Moore, The Great Old Ones. The version printed in The Haunter of the Dark book has been treated slightly in Photoshop so looks darker and less distinct.

JUNE: Cthulhoid (2012).

JULY: Violet Deep (2000).

In 2000 I was asked to put together a Lovecraft-themed calendar, a project which never came to fruition. For the cover I produced a pencil drawing which was then subjected to some Photoshop treatment. In 2003 it was used as the cover of The Book of Dark Wisdom #1, a Call of Cthulhu gaming magazine. The version here is the drawing with the overlaid layer removed and a purple colour drop added so it now looks gloomily Gigeresque. The original artwork was swapped circa 2001 with Peter Christopherson for some Coil CDs. Since he died I’ve been wondering where it is now.

AUGUST: Keep Calm Cthulhu (2011).

The whole “Keep Calm” thing has become pretty tired so I considered dropping this. But it makes a good contrast with the more detailed works surrounding it.