A Year of Cthulhu

As a fan of the Cthulhu Mythos and someone who enjoys related media, I thought I’d share my Lovecraft highlights of 2018. Plus would be interested to know yours?

Of note is that this image (by Andree Wallin, below) was the top voted ‘cthulhu’ post on Reddit in 2018!

Cthulhu! By Andree Wallin, source here

So starting with games (of course) it was a good year for fellow cultists. This was reflected in a great article in Bloody Disgusting about the new crop Cthulhu of games for 2018/9. By now 2 of the 3 have launched and the other is due March 2019. One of those was Focus Home Interactive’s Call of Cthulhu (in the Steam sale now!):

The other was our own Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics (also in the Steam sale now…)

We’d been working away for over a year on Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics and I’m super proud of the work the team did! (There’s a 3 part podcast on the game here)

While we’re on the subject of video games, I feel important to note the great Cultist Simulator (grab it in the Steam sale! We’d backed it on Kickstarter!, good article on it here) and the excellent Darkest Dungeon added the ‘Color of Madness‘ DLC. Oh and an honourable mention for Delta Green’s The Labyrinth which also backed on Kickstarter and am really looking forward to getting!

Jumping on to film. The will-he-won’t-he discussion of Guillermo Del Toro finally making ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ was alive in 2018;

Del Toro, too, has always been open to the possibility that the movie could come back, given his years-long passion for making this work. The Oscars are silly, but their utility is giving creators the momentum they need to bring their more niche ideas to live. Pumping $150 million into this story, brought to life by one of the best directors around — come on, that’s a much better use of cash than King Arthur: The Last Sword.

Agree totally and we’re long overdue a Hollywood version of Lovecraft’s work, especially given how culturally huge it has become! Indeed, I wrote an article arguing a similar point earlier in the year:

Lovecraft himself would never know the success and cultural impact this or any of his other works would have. When he died in 1937 he would only know that his works had reached a limited audience, never having made enough from his works to make a living as a writer. Yet over 90 years since he set out the plot of The Call of Cthulhu, the idea, themes, and the eponymous creature has finally reached the mainstream. The majority of us have heard of “The Call of Cthulhu” in one form or another.

But there was good news – The Color out of Space film is moving forward, to be directed by the director of the excellent cult 90s hit ‘Hardware’. Very hopeful about that! However one of my favourite films of 2018 of any genre was Annihilation – which was totally excellent. I wanted to see it at the cinema but it went direct to Netflix here, which was great as I’ve watched it 3 times now. The connection to the Mythos is that the overall concept is loosely themed to The Color Out of Space. Watching the film got me into the original novel’s work and I read all the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer this year too. Books and the film totally recommended.

To other general media, links, art and things….

Part two of the excellent ‘Mon Dieu Cthulhu!‘ series of books came out this year. It’s a rollicking good read and I really enjoyed it. (For transparency I should note, the writer John Houlihan, was also a writer on Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics) – but if you enjoy the Sharpe’s TV series (I did) and like the Cthulhu Mythos (I do) then you’ll enjoy this.

So to end, a quick list of other notable mythos/Cthulhu/Lovecraftian things from 2018…

• Sad news that Vale Stafford, founder of Chaosium, passed away.
• Reddit’s great thread on Ask a Historian – Where did HP Lovecraft come up with the idea of Cthulhu? It doesn’t look like anything in ancient Greek or Roman mythology so did he have another origin for it?
• Great image of a Shoggoth I loved, also from Reddit.
• “Nyarlathotep is now facing one of the greatest threats in Its presidency so far. ” Just read it and enjoy.
• The amazing people at H.P.Podcraft have been doing stunning work all 2019. I’m a backer on Patreon and it’s worth every penny.
• Journal of Lovecraftian Science Volume Three was successfully funded on Kickstarter!
• Lovecraft trying to get a part-time job to make ends meet is the most verbose, honest, intellectual, rambling and OTT to get a job ever… Enjoy.

And finally, anyone else see the corrupted Easter egg in Aquaman?

Hope to see you on the other side in 2019! (Please do subscribe here to stay in the cult!)