Lovecraft Sketch MWF: The Horror at Martin’s Beach
The Horror at Martin’s Beach is an underrated story. The collaboration of Sonia Greene and HP Lovecraft produced magnificent results, at least in this case: it’s a very suggestive, bizarre tale (although the central motivation of the monster is pretty obvious, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing), and the creature itself is very weird and richly described. Also, you can never have too many underwater horror stories. Even “The Shadow over Innsmouth” is actually set on land, and Cthulhu himself is a land-based creature, although he waits under the sea. But this is Lovecraft’s only story in which something literally PULLS PEOPLE INTO THE WATER AND EATS THEM.
For the creature, I drew on images of anglerfish and other deep-sea fish, since presumably the monster is a product of Earthly evolution, unlike most of Lovecraft’s entities. Perhaps an overgrown pineal gland, or some other portion of the brain responsible for psychic powers, was the actual ‘central eye’ that the scientists identified, and the creature does in fact have two other eyes, but they are small and vestigial. The monster from the Korean movie “The Host” was also an influence.
There’s a new page of The Deadliest P.R. Guy in the World over at King of RPGs! (Well, sorta.)
I drew the creature once. I always thought of it inspired by some of the weird stories Charles Fort and others have found of strange things washing ashore the later disappearing. Harbingers of cataclysmic changes.