Cthulhu Tales Vol. 1 TPB

I would be lying if I told you I hated Cthulhu stuff. I would be living in a realm of falsehoods if I said uttering "Hastur" didn't fill me with perverse glee...

What? I'm still here? That Hastur is getting lazy ever since he discovered cosmic bacon.

Anyway, the gibbering madmen at Boom Studios have compiled Cthulhu Tales, Cthulhu Tales: The Rising, and Cthulhu Tales: Tainted; which if you're into Lovecraft and his sanity-blasting literary progeny and haven't read-- you are missing out on some unspeakable wonders.

But enough with the hyberbolese, let's get down to the brass tacks out of space...
Brief tacks.

The first story, Cthulhu Calls, is cuddly Cthulhu as a phone-stalker. Throw in some Fatal Attraction stuff and VIOLA! A great short tale.

Then there's The Beach by Fall of Cthulhu littérateur Michael Alan Nelson. This haunting tale will completely degrade your senses, partially due to Andrew Ritchie's awfully compelling illustrative work. Seriously, this one will stay with you a while... Make sure to pack your +7 Water-Wings of Protection.

There's a lot more in this maddening tome, all of it from ghoulishly good to terrifyingly terrific. And you don't have to be a bad knock-off of The Cryptkeeper like me to enjoy it.

One writer I was happy to see is Kevin Church, who has two offerings, The Art of Noises and the brutal-yet-entertaining Bowels of the Earth. Michael Alan Nelson and Andrew Ritchie also pop back up with For You. James Kuhoric, another writer I admire, gifts us with What Lies Beneath, complete with great art by Dan Parsons that reminds me of an old adventure comic. Kuhoric also throws I Hear the Call at us, and I doubt all of me is intact after the experience.

This first volume of Cthulhu Tales has a LOT to offer. 132 pages of illustrative madness on an unprecedented magnitude. Although I'm not going into intense detail and only covered a handful of the stories, you have to understand that every story in this book-- both short and long and either quaint or horrific-- is pretty remarkable. This is one of the best comic story collections I've read in quite some time.

Now, as if your very being depends on it, go forth and buy this wonderful anthology. GO!

Read more about it here.


Lethality: 7 of the 8 investigators are torn to shreds. The sole survivor leaps to her death before anyone from Miskatonic University can ask her any questions.

Dice, Minis, Paizo... and Madness?

Howdy, folks... or those few of you who take the time to stop by... I thought I would take some time myself today to link to a few things that I found of interest.

First off, take a look to the left there. See those? Call of Cthulhu dice! How neat is that? "Very neat, Steve" you'd better say. Chaosium is bringing the Halloween season with some cool stuff, but what mainly stole my immortal soul were these babies. And only $18 (US) plus shipping. Not bad when you think about it. Click on that purty picture for a direct link to some more information on this awesome aberration of an unspeakable thing.

Another thing I saw in my travels through the mess that is the World Wide Web was Erik Mona of Paizo talking about the possibility of Paizo not jumping on the D&D 4th edition bandwagon, or at least not right away. He talks some good points concerning his company and WotC / Hasbro. Then, being the good sport he is, asks people to chime in. Read it in all of it's glory here. Personally, I'm hoping Paizo continues to become an independent gaming power. I'd love to see them do some more 3.5 stuff and also join ranks with the Castles & Crusades crew. We'll see what happens.

Hirst Arts creates molds for you to make blocks in order to build neat minis terrain. Sure, it's some work, but I've found stuff like this to be very rewarding. Anyways, they have a gallery that shows off what some people have done. It all caught my eye nicely, but what REALLY caught my eye was this bridge scene. Wow, I say. Wow.

Alrighty, that's all the time I have right now to do an update. As usual, here is me saying that I'll try to do more in less time. Always a hollow promise, I know.