Or by any author, involving the mythos...
Have to say, I think "The Colour out of Space" is mine...

Wow, great to find not only a forum on cephs, but also a healthy Lovecraftian fanbase! I hit two birds with one stone here lol

My favourite Lovecraft story is At the mountains of madness. There are too many good ones to mention all of them, but that is my favourite.

The one that effected me the most was "Rats in the Walls" done as a radio play one New Years Eve, with the sound effects of the rats claws all the way through it. I was totally freaked and stayed up till dawn as I was so scared.

I used to make little knitted Cuthulus (sp?).

KRin

I used to make little knitted Cuthulus (sp?).
KRin

For fans of Nyarlethotep, the Crawling Chaos, click here (http://givemetoys.com/product/TVCTHULHUNYARLATHOTE?meta=a10b). :mrgreen:

My favorite H. P. Lovecraft is a tough call, there’s so much that’s just so very good. 8)
The stories of the Dreamlands probably resonate the most with me.

“Celephais” is one favorite.
Another is “The Strange High House in the Mist”, the opening to that one was pure poetry.

--Carl
:squid:

Mine would have to be the story "At the Mountains of Madness"

Had forgotten how good "rats in the walls" was...good call !! Yeah, what a brilliant writer ! Do you all like the new stories? (ie: King, Murphy, etc?)

Phillip Jose" Farmer wrote a particularily funny one called "The Freshman"
(the book by Mythos is worth every penny...some scary, some sexy, some funny)

So, according to this page:

http://www.cthulhu.org/cthulhu/index.html

the top 5 Cthulhu-related stories to read are:

1. The Call of Cthulhu
2. The Shadow over Innsmouth
3. The Dunwich Horror
4. At the Mountains of Madness
5. Pickman's Model

I've made it through the first 3 so far, my favorite being The Shadow over Innsmouth. Man, what could be more frightenening than a bunch of smelly fish frogs in the night?

I also read The Rats in the Walls, and so far Call of Cthulhu has easily been my least favorite of Lovecraft's stories.

I should get to the Mountains of Madness and Pickman's Model tomorrow. Are there any other Cthulhu-related stories that are absolute essentials?

Hmmm..."the shadow out of time" has some good bits, although I think it is the silliest of his writings... "dreams in the witch house" is good too, as is "picture in the house".
I would heavily recommend reading some of the more modern stories also, the talents of King, Bloch, etc are stunning ! Del Rey books publishes some really great composites regarding Cthulhu...

Rats in the Walls?
Call of Cthulhu?
From Beyond?
Case of Charles Dexter Ward?

I can't decide. Brain aneurysm!

for a fun "b" movie, you can rent "reanimator" involving Herbert West...funny and somwhat creepy at the same time...some nudity though!
greg

Dunwich Horror or Case of Charles Dexter Ward
I like how Pickman is horror in Pickman's Model and comes back as fantasy sidekick in the DreamQuest

The only ones I actually found scary were Dreams in the Witchhouse and Shunned House. :cthulhu: They aren't even really very Mythos.

The best non-Lovecraft Mythos story has got to be "Black Man With a Horn".

The only ones I actually found scary were Dreams in the Witchhouse and Shunned House. :cthulhu: They aren't even really very Mythos.


Fortunately these are both in the book with At the Mountains of Madness that I just picked up. I had to buy it because the only copy the UCSB Library had was one of the Lovecraft books in Special Ccollections that went missing 5 years ago. It seems that dead Cthulhu no longer waits dreaming in his house at Ryleh. He has risen and is continuing his evil ways by stealing library books.

Or by any author, involving the mythos...
Have to say, I think "The Colour out of Space" is mine...

Really makes you wonder about that tap water doesn't it? I bet bottled water marketers would love that story!

might as weigh in with my :twocents: ....

i guess Mts of Madness takes first for me.... i think Dunwich is a runner up......

Greg,

Oh, that's diabolical. Next you'll ask me what my favorite WWII piston-engined fighter is.

Much as I love "Mountains of Madness,""Innsmouth" and "The Colour Out of Space," I must give pride of place to "The Whisperer In Darkness." Not his best, but my favorite.

Stay out of Vermont, folks.

:goofysca:

Clem

heheh...uh oh. :lol:

I love "Dream Quest of Unknown Kaddath," and its sequel "Through the Gates of the Silver Key."

But then I also love "The Dreams in the Witch House" -- especially Gilman's dream where he sees the Old Ones.

I've had the same dreams too!

ah, you mean something like this pops up in your dreams? You might want to run for the hills!!!
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3842

My vote is the Mountains of Madness.

Also, the film Dagon isn't half bad. (Really has atmosphere - worst hotel in all of Europe in this film!)

Where did you find that illustration, Greg? It's not yours, is it?

Nancy

No, it isn't mine...I don't have the black and white skills that that artist has...ah well....jealous. We vied for the 1st place spot in the nationwide scholastic art doothingy (back in the 80's), and I came in second...but we did become friends!
Dagon was decent, but the scripting....aaarrrgghhh...even my wife fell asleep. I spent much of the two hours ranting at the tele about devils reef, etc... :lol: :x
greg

"At the Mountains of Madness" would probably be my fave just based on the whole prehuman history being chronicled in detail (plus HPL's reference to Cthulhu and his Spawn as "cosmic octopi" - just too cute), but "The Rats in the Walls" is truly frightening. Somebody told me there's a recording with Christopher Lee reading it, but I haven't tracked it down. I know David Maccallum did a recording of "The Dunwich Horror" at some point. Any votes for "The Thing on the Doorstep"? It's about as close to a relationship story that HPL ever got.

Well, when I dreamed of visiting the Old Ones (and they looked much like your fabulous illustration), they had already been infected by human culture -- they had adopted Mexican cuisine, macramé and hackey-sack -- and with five legs, they were unbeatable!

=( )=
///||\\\

i will cherish your image of the Old Ones as trustafarians forever :jester:

Hehe....I actually did a scientific illustration of an Old One for a semester project once...(lost that one too :( ) and was amazed at the detail that Lovecraft described them in, with all of the curling tentacles (x5 with everything), looping wings, and eyes popping up all over. Made for a neat piece...
greg

I thought I'd revive this thread to mention that I just found that all of HPL's works are now on the web at:

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

and because no one mentioned my favorite HPL story: The Haunter of the Dark! Although the Mountains of Madness and Dream Quest are good, too.

:cthulhu:

Thanks for the link Monty.

Oddly enough, I just started reading nick polletta's That Darn Squid God today.

Is Polletta's effort a severe case of überPratchett?

Nobody does it like Pratchett but this one isn't too bad.

Will have a go at it, then!

Just can't get into Terry P...seems like kind of a spinoff of Jerry P's work with the "nickelpedes" and such.

For you Herbert West fans:

http://artscool.cfa.cmu.edu/~lee/deanimator.swf

I bet you've just tried pratchett's early discworld stuff. Try small gods, it is a multileveled work on the nature of religion.

weren't the nicklepedes from piers anthony's xanth books?

got 51 my first try

Whoops...dislexia in atcion (sic) ! You are correct, I was referring to the Xanth books. I've tried to get into Pratchett, but just can't.

Not even Hogfather? :sad:

I THINK YOU HAVE A PROBLEM :wink:

Have you tried Good Omens? It's a co-effort, which might make it more bearable...

My favorite story would be The Call of Cthulhu. Two of my other favorites are At the Mountains of Madness and The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.

I have never read any Lovecraft stories.

I have never read any Lovecraft stories.

As I mentioned about 10 posts back , you can read all of HPL's stories for free on the web at http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/, if you want to change that... of course, you might lose some sanity as a result...

ahhh, my fave would probably have to be At the Mountains of Madness, but Dream Quest is good, even if it's more like a dark fantasy story! Shadow out of Time's pretty cool also, as is Whisperer. I liked some of his more obscure ones also, like the ones set in the Dreamlands, the Doom that Came to Sarnath and the like. A few of the non-Lovecraft ones are good too! The Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos is a great book, there's a couple of crackers by Derleth in there!
As for Pratchett... are you MAD man!? The guy's a literary genius!

Graeme

Always thought that "Rats in the Walls" was a good one...not as great as "The Colour Out of Space", but close.
Pratchett, a literary genius? Come on...schlock plots with thin characters. Pick up James Thurber and compare the two...night and day! A bunch of my friends really, really love Pratchett's work, so, yes...of course he is talented, and appeals to a lot of people. Just not to me.

greg

ah well. S'pose it's just "whatever floats yer boat" at the end of the day... very much like HPL. I know a couple of people who just didn't like him, and a lot of people reckon he's a bad writer, but with an amazing imagination. He's not the BEST writer out there, but I never saw a problem with his stuff to be honest!

Graeme

Shanlyn, the missus, tried to read HPL a few times...gave up, and said "damn, this is BORING!" But she likes the Pratchett stuff...like you said, different strokes...etc.

I'm rather partial to The Cats of Ulthar, myself. It has a very happy ending!

My faves will have to be the first few I read "The rats in the Walls", "Call of Cthulhu", "The Dunwich Horror", and "A Shadow over Innsmouth".

Didn't Fritz Lieber (best known for Fathhrd and the Grey Mouser) also write a few mythos stories? and I seem to remember that Stephen King and Alan Dean Foster also wrote a couple.

yyeahhhh... :hmm: >scratches chin< I can't name any just now, but sure they in fact did! Fritz Lieber... something's telling me "Terror from the Deep" or something??? If it's the one I'm thinking of; fantastic story!! And also quite sad. See, I'm also trying to rememeber who wrote "Rising with Surtsey", but I'm pretty sure I'm correct with the first one.
I wish I had the book with me just now, but it's not around just now. Has stuff by Frank Belknapp Long and August Derleth as well.

Graeme

Sounds good.

My Favourite HPL is Call of Cthulhu, but I like the one with the cats and the Dreamquest ones with wossname in who becomes a ghoul or something. I really need to re-read them.

Check out this Neil Gaiman one

http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf

In a nice format too!

Also I just saw this and I'm telling EVERYONE!

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=166054

...and William Murphy (author of those great cheesy "destroyer" books)...S. King has written a bunch of mythos stories...all of the Salem's Lot stuff is tied into the Cthonic struggle, as well as numerous references to the old ones, etc.
Surtesy was a great short story...that whole book is wonderful. If you like the offbeat Cthulhu stories, you might want to try to find:
Resume with Monsters
small house publication, but worth it's weight in gold!

As I mentioned about 10 posts back , you can read all of HPL's stories for free on the web at http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/, if you want to change that... of course, you might lose some sanity as a result...
Thanks, I'm reading now!

Yes I recall enjoying Resume with Monsters, even though I don't recall much of the story, really. My memory...not so good. I also have ADD when it comes to reading, so I can understand how some people might find the slow start to most of Lovecraft stories a bit much. I think for me the rococco writing style was just as fascinating as the story, so that kept me going through most of his stories. The first HPL story I read was Rats in the Walls and if anyone wants to introduce themselves or others to HPL that is the tale I would recommend. I liked HPL so much I got into the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game and started a band devoted to him! Which springboarded my art career.
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/20882378/

Toren, all I can say is WHOA!:shock: That's a freakin' wicked piece of art!!!



Also I just saw this and I'm telling EVERYONE!

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=166054
again WHOA!!!

...and William Murphy (author of those great cheesy "destroyer" books)...S. King has written a bunch of mythos stories...all of the Salem's Lot stuff is tied into the Cthonic struggle, as well as numerous references to the old ones, etc.
Surtesy was a great short story...that whole book is wonderful. If you like the offbeat Cthulhu stories, you might want to try to find:
Resume with Monsters
small house publication, but worth it's weight in gold!

I haven't heard of that book, although I have ordered the Cthulhu 2000 off Amazon, it sounds quite good. But yeah, the Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos book is some fine readin'!

Graeme

Toren, all I can say is WHOA!:shock: That's a freakin' wicked piece of art!!!

Thanks! There's a few more Mythosian illos on my gallery page
http://torenatkinson.deviantart.com/gallery/
including some other cephalopodesque monsters.

Thanks! There's a few more Mythosian illos on my gallery page
http://torenatkinson.deviantart.com/gallery/
including some other cephalopodesque monsters.

Cool stuff... I particularly like the "suprise for an elf"
http://www.deviantart.com/view/20883023/
and "Where the Great Old Ones Are" http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/20882194/

Almost forgot Roger Zelasney's A Night in the Lonesome October. Any book that forces to root for jack the ripper and the wolfman to save the world and told fro the perspective of jack's dog........ The Gahan Wilson illustrations alone are worth the cover price.

Toren, those are some pretty killer illustrations! It's kinda inspired me to slap some pics together, but I'd be too embarassed to put them on Deviantart... everyone's too good on that!

Graeme