A Critique of Lovecraftian Erotica

This fellow has drawn, along with many other unfortunate subjects, a library of art that he labels "Lovecraft." Assuming he meant the author and not a compound word, here is why, painting by painting, he's wrong. I would have included pictures or links to pictures, but his server wisely does not permit it. I suggest that you open his Lovecraft section in a new window and follow along.

"Bride of Nyogtha" - Ooh, bad start. Nyogtha is from Kuttner, not Lovecraft. In the Mythos, but wrong author - and this section wasn't titled "Cthulhu Mythos."

"Bride of Nyarlathotep" - Unless there are other twisted albinos in the Mythos than Lavinia Whateley, he really means Yog-Sothoth.

"Nyarlathotep's Deciple" - That's totally not how you spell "disciple," dude.

"Deep One Fertility Rite" - That's a pretty weird human: Deep One ratio. Deep Ones are organized and I'd always gotten the impression that most of 'em live together, worshiping blasphemous horrors in the deep sea. Random human sorcerers aren't going to summon them as servitors, and as for breeding with humans, well, Deep Ones do that on their own. Cultists could call them on the phone to impregnate human females and spare a lot of goat's blood.

And that Deep One looks more fishy than froggy. Red fins? What is it, part guppy?

"Mi-Go Mind F**k" - Mi-Go are cold-blooded, logical fungoid life forms. They aren't going to up and have sex with the specimens. Their heads are not exposed brains like that, either. No antennae. Particularly not those antennae.

Also: check out the nipples on that guy! And how come Kthanid can draw full-on human-alien penetration but can't bring himself to write the word "fuck"?

"Priestess of Y'Golonac" - Ramsey Campbell, not Lovecraft. Also, which one is the priestess? I count three women, two of whom seem to be enjoying themselves. Sloppy.

"I Married a Proto-Shoggoth" - Modifying "shoggoth" with "proto-" leaves me with nothing to say against this picture. Except the fact that there's no shading and the lamp is like nothing in nature.

"Spawn of Atlat-Nacha" - Yes, that would imply a large spider. But what is it doing in a pleasant if featureless bedroom? Also, Atlach-Nacha is from Clark Ashton Smith.

"On the Altar of Nyarlathotep" - This could well be Nyarlathotep; he does have a thousand forms, after all. Altar's sigil looks more like the Sign of the Dark Mother, but that's up for debate.

"The Sacrificial Rock" - see previous Deep One comments. There is also something horribly wrong with that woman's pubic hair.

"Beguiled" - Unless that is Yig, Father of Serpents, this picture's not really Lovecraftian. Really disturbing things on that chick's face and pelvic areas.

"Cheap Date" - Ghouls (I assume that's a ghoul) don't usually kill - they prefer their food aged. However, it's not without precedent, at least in gaming resources. The ears, on the other hand! Good Lord, the ears! Either Kthanid saw 'The Unnamable" a few too many times or it's related to a Dr. Seuss character. That the ghoul is pure white as well supports the former.

"Dancing with the Devil" - Ooh, the King in Yellow. Robert W. Chambers, not Lovecraft, but this one's fairly as described: wearing the Pallid Mask and yellow (okay, at least yellow-ish) tatters. Keen! Why the naked chick, I don't know.

"The Ghoul King's Choice" - Points for having spots of dirt on the ghouls; they do live in graves and tunnels, after all. But why so white? And what the hell is with those ears? I can't bring myself to be menaced by anything with ears like that.

"Merrow's Bay" - My Mythos knowledge fails me here, leading me to assume this is a recent and/or net-based addition to the canon. If it's a reference to a story about an oddly proportioned chick in a lake, congratulations on an accurate depiction.

"Atlatnacha's Queen" - By which he means "Atlach-Nacha," I'm sure. Old A-N is described as having a half-human face, but Kthanid did a good job illustrating its qualities of big-fucking-spiderness. Emphasis on the middle of that adjective.

"Spawn of the Spider-God" - Barking mad heroine, no obvious inaccuracies. Way to go, Kthanid, you've captured the spirit of the Cthulhu Mythos!

"Victim" - Helluva sagittal keel on that chick. Same Deep One criticism applies. "'Fraidy" shouldn't be capitalized.

"Ia! Great Mother" - Much more like it, following along the lines of Obed's mysterious "islander" wife who was never seen in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." But how did they get Mother Hydra (I assume) through that tiny opening? This also begs the question: would fish-women have breasts? It looks like they're full-blooded Deep Ones (or have already made the transition), so common human ancestry can't be cited. They're going to put someone's eyes out with those nipples.

"Haunter in the Dark" - Tee-hee. Three-lobed burning eye: check. Another triumph!

"Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Ftagn!" - "Fhtagn," I'm afraid. Other than that, and the fact that Cthulhu is generally more literal when he eats people, there is nothing glaringly wrong. The red sub-tentacles are puzzling.

"Wedding Night Blues" - Another Lamp That Should Not Be, and possible misspelling of "Shub-Niggurath." The creature involved seems to be the artist's creation, so other than the pornographic misspelling of "come" and the missing "i" in "with," everything is peachy.

My conclusion: Kthanid needs to do much more research for his pornography.

In all of Lovecraft's writing, to my knowledge, there are four documented cases of sex, mostly inferred: Lavinia Whateley with Yog-Sothoth, the white ape and Arthur Jermyn's ancestor, sundry Deep Ones with sundry humans, and Yig, Father of Serpents with that pioneer chick in "The Curse of Yig." Shub-Niggurath could be used if you speculated a lot; similarly Asenath Waite and Edward Derby.

Of this list Kthanid has used only the Deep Ones and gone on to make up various other hideously improbable situations in which Mythos creatures might mate with humans, almost always to unintentionally humorous effect. With so many workable choices, this is shoddy craftsmanship.

I expect much, much more from amateur Lovecraftian pornography.