The Art Of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos

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Customer Reviews:

It's scary good. [Posted on 2007-02-15]
Having read a ton of H.P. Lovecraft and played 'Call of Cthulhu' ,the role-playing game, it was nice to see some of these horrors ghastly images put on paper. A great book to scare all these little mutants into bed for years to come.

The Art of The Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game [Posted on 2007-05-02]
When I first saw this on the bookshelf, I saw the title and thought the book would be a comprehensive collection of art inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Since the publisher is Fantasy Flight Games, it comes as no surprise that there is ample art from the Call of Cthulhu collectible card game published by the selfsame company. The art is quite fine, but there is disappointment upon realizing that the art is almost exclusively from the card game, with a few images from game books of the makers of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, Chaosium. Other reviews have pointed out that since these games have created their own settings and characters and situations, many of the art pieces featured in the book actually have little to do with Lovecraft outside of being set in the 1920's, and it's true. The irony is that some mythos-specific art from the games were not included. Furthermore, since many of the illustrations were created to appear in an area smaller than a playing card, the reproductions can only be blown up to a certain size before the illusion is lost. That being said, there are a lot of paintings to look at since they can fit several to a page, and many are quite nice.

Not what it SHOULD have been [Posted on 2007-05-14]
Considering the increasing public awareness of HP Lovecraft and his infamous Mythos, I fully expected an 'art' book having a much wider variety of Cthulhu Mythos creatures represented as I had found in the Barlow's Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos (I think I may be a bit off on the title but I also think this book is out of print).
In any case, a suprising number of the prints offered are of normal humans, presumably characters in a Mythos role playing game (I'm basing this assumption on the credits given to each picture). The painting/drawings of the Mythos creatures range from the nicely done to the uninspired with the later being the most frequent. I really can't see myself recommending this book unless you happen across it in a 1/2 off bin.

A Precise Approach [Posted on 2007-08-27]
This is a clear and succinct collection of well-organized and presented art. Make no mistake. The printing quality and obvious layout work that has been demonstrated by this book is almost flawless; and well worthy of the tribute it is.

However, even in the knowledge that much of this art comes from a TCG, and in the face of obvious streamlining as far as direction and theme are concerned; some fans of the mythos, such as I, could easily find themselves alienated in the almost 'cartoony' quality of the art itself.

I will, however, give this four stars; as it clearly pulls across a great degree of scope; covering many more aspects of the Cthulhu mythos than i thought possible or likely. The sheer variety is impressive in it's own right.

A committed and beautifully presented artifact - even if not as dark, disturbing and violent as it could have been.

Disappointing. 80% filler [Posted on 2007-11-06]
When I think of Lovecraft, the first thing I think of is of course his nightmarish creatures. Unfortunately, while there are some great paintings of them in this book (including the amazing cover art!), I was very disappointed to find that most of this book was in fact uninteresting paintings of flappers and gangsters and such. -- In other words human secondary characters created for the Call of Cthulhu CCG.

I was expecting much more in the way of monsters and cults, etc., but the vast majority of the paintings have little to do with this.

Still, the ones that I did like were so good (my fave was the painting of Shub Niggurath) that the book still earns a passing 3-star rating from me.

If buying this book, be prepared to get only a very minimal creature fix, along with a large dose of the irrelevant.

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