H . P . Lovecraft : By Enrique Breccia 2002

One of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century.
Stephen King called Lovecraft "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."

Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island.

His father became acutely psychotic in a Chicago hotel room while on a business trip. He was placed in Butler Hospital, where he remained until his death in 1898.

It is unknown whether the younger Lovecraft was ever aware of the actual nature of his father's illness or its cause (syphilis), although his mother likely was, possibly having even received tincture of arsenic as "preventive medication".

When he was a little boy , his mother , was dressing him as a little girl with female clothes .

Lovecraft was a prodigy, reciting poetry at the age of three and writing complete poems by six.

His grandfather encouraged his reading , and his grandfather also stirred the boy's interest in the weird by telling him his own original tales of Gothic horror.

His mother, on the other hand, worried that these stories would upset the child.
Lovecraft was frequently ill as a child, at least some of which was certainly psychosomatic, although he attributed his various ailments to physical causes only.

Early speculation that he may have been congenitally disabled by syphilis passed on from father to mother to fetus has been ruled out. Due to his sickly condition and his undisciplined, argumentative nature, he barely attended school until he was eight years old, and then was withdrawn after a year.
Beginning in his early life, Lovecraft is believed to have suffered from night terrors,
a rare parasomnia disorder.

He believed himself to be assaulted at night by horrific "night gaunts."

Much of his later work is thought to have been directly inspired by these Terrors.

Lovecraft wrote some fiction as a youth but, from 1908 until 1913, his output was primarily poetry. During that time, he lived a hermit's existence, having almost no contact with anyone but his mother.

In 1919, after suffering from hysteria and depression for a long period of time, Lovecraft's mother was committed to Butler Hospital just like her husband before her.

They remained very close until her death on May 24, 1921, the result of complications from gall bladder surgery. Lovecraft was devastated by the loss.

A few weeks after his mother's death, Lovecraft attended an amateur journalist convention in Boston, Massachusetts, where he met Sonia Greene.
she was of Ukrainian-Jewish ancestry and seven years older than Lovecraft.

They married in 1924, and the couple moved to Brooklyn .

Lovecraft could not find work to support them both, so his wife moved to Cleveland for employment.

Lovecraft lived by himself in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn and came to dislike New York life intensely.

A few years later, Lovecraft and his wife, still living separately, agreed to an amicable divorce, which was never fully completed. He returned to Providence to live with his aunts during their remaining years.

The period after his return to Providence — the last decade of his life — was Lovecraft's most prolific.

In that time he produced almost all of his best-known short stories for the leading pulp publications of the day (primarily Weird Tales), as well as longer efforts, such as The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and At the Mountains of Madness.

He frequently revised work for other authors and did a large amount of ghost-writing, including "The Mound", "Winged Death", and "Under the Pyramids" (also known as "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs") (for Harry Houdini) and "The Diary of Alonzo Typer".

Lovecraft was diagnosed with cancer of the intestine, and he also suffered from Bright's disease and malnutrition . He lived in constant pain until his death on March 15, 1937, in Providence.

CTHULHU

The Cthulhu Mythos, also known as the Lovecraft Mythos, is a shared fictional universe created in the 1920s by H. P. Lovecraft.

The term was coined by Lovecraft's associate August Derleth,(August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist.) and named after Cthulhu, a powerful fictional entity in Lovecraft's stories. It refers to a loose framework formed by common elements (such as places, names, or entities) that appear in more than one tale, adding continuity and depth to the works.

Cthulhu is regarded as the priest of the gods, while Dagon appears to be his subordinate. The lowest tier consists of a race of ocean-dwelling humanoids, the Deep Ones, serving Cthulhu and Dagon, and a pair of extraterrestrial races, the Elder Things (along with their slaves, the shoggoths) and the Mi-go.

Common themes in Lovecraft's fiction are the insignificance of humanity in the universe and the search for knowledge ending in disaster. Humans are often subject to powerful beings and other cosmic forces, but these forces are not so much malevolent as they are indifferent toward humanity.

AZAROTH

Lovecraft's central deities are Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth, both representing opposing cosmic principles. Azathoth, the "blind", "idiotic" ruler of the pantheon, occupies the literal center of the universe, whereas Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth's co-ruler, embodies the infinite, existing in all places and in all times.

YOG - SOTHOTH

Attending Azathoth at his court are the Other Gods, mysterious beings that dance mindlessly around Azathoth's throne in cadence to the piping of a demonic flute, and Nyarlathotep, the avatar and messenger of Azathoth and the Other Gods.

NYARLAHOTEP

Nyarlathotep is the only being that can interact intelligibly with human beings, though he often manifests himself in human form to disguise his true appearance. Despite his ability to interact, he lacks empathy for humanity, seeing humans as toys for his amusement or to serve the will of the gods.

NECRONOMICON

The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in Lovecraft's "The Nameless City". Among other things, the work contains an account of the Old Ones, their history, and the means for summoning them.

Lovecraft approved, believing such common allusions built up "a background of evil verisimilitude." Many readers have believed it to be a real work, with booksellers and librarians receiving many requests for it .

Enrique Breccia

Enrique Breccia, the son of one of the greatest Latino-American artists of all time, Alberto Breccia, drew his first work in 1968, when together with his father he illustrated La Vida del Che, a biography of the famous revolutionary Che Guevara written by Hector German Oesterheld. In 1972 he started his collaboration with the British publishing house Fleetway, drawing the comic book Spy 13 under a pseudonym, and later a series of war stories for the Italian magazine Linus.

His collaboration with writer Carlos Trillo began in 1976 with the comic El Buen Dios, immediately followed by Alvar Mayor, his most famous character with whom he entered the world comic book scene.

In 2002 he drew the graphic novel Lovecraft, about the life of writer H.P. Lovecraft written by Hans Rodionoff, for DC comics' Vertigo imprint. In 2005 he became the head artist for the Vertigo series Swamp Thing, drawing 22 issues till 2007.

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This post is dedicated to my dear friend Nick Lobos .

Γιόγκ - Σοθ'οθ . Ν' Γκαϊ .
Ι' α , Ν ' Γκαϊ ! Μπαγκ Σογγόθ .
Ια . Ν ' Γκαα' Γκαα . Γι'οδκ - Σοθ'οθ .
Νγκτου Ασταλμντ
Αζαροθ . Ια Μπαγκ Σογγόθ .