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otterno11's review
1.0
This book isn’t quite what I expected. While it does contain works of art depicting scenes and characters from the work of H.P. Lovecraft and other contributors to the pop culture world known as the “Cthulhu Mythos” (i.e., August Derleth, Robert W. Chambers, etc.), this is really the art of Fantasy Flight Games’ various Cthulhu Mythos themed board games like Arkham Horror. A few pieces from Chaosium’s venerable RPG Call of Cthulhu, upon which most of the thematic elements of FFG’s products are drawn from, also appear.
Because of this, all of the artwork included is explicitly “game art,” in that they are meant to illustrate the actions of playing a board or card game rather than a mysterious atmosphere befitting the cosmic and “indescribable” entities from Lovecraft’s fiction. Here, they are all very describable, usually with plenty of tentacles and teeth that they enjoy using on hapless humans. To be honest, none of them really do anything for me. They might serve their purpose as background on an item card or rule book or creature token, but in a standalone coffee table book billing itself as the “Art of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos,” I’d want more.
The works included are never subtle in their interpretations of Lovecraftian themes and take a very pulpy, action orientated approach with plenty of cult sacrifices, tommy guns, “exotic” locales, and magical glyphs flying everywhere. A handful of pieces do have a little atmosphere, but for the most part they are rather ugly, managing to appear both muddy and glossy at the same time. While some of the pieces are shown in large, one or two page spreads showing off some interesting details, far more often they are cramped, garish squares depicting cheesy monsters, illustrations obviously intended for one of Arkham Horror’s millions of tiny fiddly bits. There is a definite lack of the eerie, inexplicable feelings that I would expect from works inspired by Lovecraft’s work. It is always disappointing how often there is nothing really surprising or novel in visual approaches to the “Lovecraftian” material in the collection, and there are definitely more interesting collections of gamer art out there as well.
Because of this, all of the artwork included is explicitly “game art,” in that they are meant to illustrate the actions of playing a board or card game rather than a mysterious atmosphere befitting the cosmic and “indescribable” entities from Lovecraft’s fiction. Here, they are all very describable, usually with plenty of tentacles and teeth that they enjoy using on hapless humans. To be honest, none of them really do anything for me. They might serve their purpose as background on an item card or rule book or creature token, but in a standalone coffee table book billing itself as the “Art of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos,” I’d want more.
The works included are never subtle in their interpretations of Lovecraftian themes and take a very pulpy, action orientated approach with plenty of cult sacrifices, tommy guns, “exotic” locales, and magical glyphs flying everywhere. A handful of pieces do have a little atmosphere, but for the most part they are rather ugly, managing to appear both muddy and glossy at the same time. While some of the pieces are shown in large, one or two page spreads showing off some interesting details, far more often they are cramped, garish squares depicting cheesy monsters, illustrations obviously intended for one of Arkham Horror’s millions of tiny fiddly bits. There is a definite lack of the eerie, inexplicable feelings that I would expect from works inspired by Lovecraft’s work. It is always disappointing how often there is nothing really surprising or novel in visual approaches to the “Lovecraftian” material in the collection, and there are definitely more interesting collections of gamer art out there as well.
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