In this post I’ll examine Elder Thing depictions done in different media and styles.
This is an Elder Thing stripped down its basic elements: starfish head, wings, cucumber body, five tentacle legs. I’m guessing it’s a petroglyph painted on some exposed shale rock, which since has been desecrated by bird poop.
The creator of the Lovecraft-oriented Propnomicon website has showcased a mouth-watering selection of DIY props, sculptures, and other ephemera related to At the Mountains of Madness and the RPG game Call of Cthulhu. This sculpture from George Gourogiannis that might have been chiseled off the wall of the Elder Things’ city by the explorers and sent home in a crate.
The slitted aperture (as per Lovecraft) in the center of the creature’s star-shaped head looks more like an eye here. But there’s a reason for that: the increased sense of horror! Which I’ll get to later.
A series of Elder Things done in illuminated manuscript, Medieval woodcut, and Haeckel engraving style, spanning the centuries.
Haeckel was the naturalist whose depictions of echinoderms likely inspired Lovecraft to come up with the Elder Things in the first place.
An Elder Thing in the decorative style of Russian artist Erté. Very elegant.
An Elder Thing sew-on patch from the Monsterologist website.
Arkham Bazaar offers Lovecraft merchandise for sale, including this lovely enameled Elder Thing pin.
This 1960s-inspired Necronomicon pop-up book has to be the trippiest thing I’ve seen so far. Scenes from five of Lovecraft’s tales are depicted in psychedelic day-glo colors, including this Ratfink-inspired Elder Thing in a tableau from At the Mountains of Madness (with a cameo from Kurt Russell who wandered out of the set from The Thing)
