Shadows of H.P.Lovecraft

Posted by John Dennett in In the works

28

Oct

2013
“Innsmouth by Moonlight”: Deep One sculpture WIP
​Crossing the deserted beach under the moonlit sky of Innsmouth, Massachusetts moves a sea creature known a a Deep One; a member of an aquatic race of humanoid beings older than mankind and more sinister than one’s nightmares may imagine. It and it’s kind have been interacting with the inhabitants of this secluded fishing village for more than a century and have altered the town and it’s people to a hideous level of deformed decay spoken about only in shuttered whispers by the neighboring residents of Newburyport, Ipswich and Arkham. What the ultimate fate awaiting mankind at the hands of the Deep Ones cannot be fully envisioned but its certain that it won’t be a pleasant outcome. We can only hope to completely overcome their threat when the time comes for final confrontation of the species. The story of these creatures was brought to light in the weird fiction of author Howard Phillips Lovecraft under the title of “The Shadow over Innsmouth”. Written in 1931 and finally published in 1936, the tale continues the theme from his other tales of deeply unnerving revelations that the world is populated with darkly menacing beings that threaten all animal and plant life here and that may one day not only take over the earth but carry it off to some unfathomable place in the universe or some other time for unimaginable purposes. Very strange stuff indeed! H.P.Lovecraft’s imaginative fiction has grown in popularity due to his ability to create cosmic horrors unlike any author before him. These terrible tales have entertained countless readers in the last eighty years and have also inspired other writers to add to his dark mythology by creating new stories populated with the characters he created so memorably in his original works. Collectively Lovecraft’s creations are now grouped under the banner of the “Cthulhu Mythos”, being that so many of his stories concern recurring elements leading to the threat of an apocalyptic end to Earth by, among other horrors, the monstrous deity called Cthulhu. Back in 1982 I was employed by Grenadier Models who had acquired the license to create miniature figures for the new RPG (roll playing game) “The Call Of Cthulhu” produced by Chaosium Inc. My job was to create in miniature form all the monsters used in the game that were based on descriptions from H.P.Lovecraft’s stories and from them I designed and sculpted some of the most popular of his creatures. Among the hoard were: the Old Ones, the Great Race of Yith, a Shoggoth, Dark Young of Shub-Niggurah, Dimensional Shambler, Ghoul, Byakhee, Night Gaunt, Chthonians, MiGo, Hunting Horror, Nyarlathotep, Hound of Tindalos, Deep Ones, Tsathoggua, Sand People, Serpent people and a Spawn of Cthulhu. They were quite popular among the gamers so much so that our entire line won the H.G.Wells award for Best Miniatures in the Horror/Fantasy category that year. Years after leaving Grenadier I continued to design new renditions of the Mythos Monsters and sculpted a large figure of Great Cthulhu that was produced as a vinyl model kit by Inteleg International in 1994. I personally produced a resin version of this in a very limited quantity for those modelers not content with the vinyl version and was at the time planning an all new line of sculptures based on at least a dozen other monsters directed at the larger scaled Garage Kit marketplace. Beginning in 2014 the new Mythos series will begin. Many creatures are planned for the line with the in-progress photo of the Deep One shown above being only a glimpse of whats to come. Please check back as the new year progresses for updates, images and release dates.

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