Japanese demons, or yokai, invade the personal space of this very aghast male bather.
Category: Horror
Oct 21
Worldbuilding Wednesday 10/21/20: Halloween
xxxxCostumes 2020
Many people would agree that it’s been a terrible year. Usually such a year would generate some cleverly epic Halloween costumes, but there’s nowhere to show them off, except virtually. And that’s not a lot of fun. Still, if you’re up for it, here are some randomly generated ideas. (And check out costumes for …
Oct 12
Untold Horror
I really have to wonder what stories these Japanese illustrations are telling. First, someone in a caped costume meant to depict a skeletal ape menaces miniature children standing in teacups. Then, a cyclops lady with a flying, detachable head spews freezing breath at a stage magician and a teenage boy. Anyone have a clue?
Sep 30
Tash the Inexorable
Tash is the antithesis of Aslan the lion. In The Last Battle he’s the principal god of Calormen, a horrid epitome of an ancient Middle Eastern deity who receives sacrificial victims in bizarre and novel ways, like being tied up inside a brass bull which is heated by a wood-burning fire from below. He’s cut …
Sep 03
All Things Charn (Part I)
Charn is my favorite Lewisian creation … more than Aslan, more than Narnia itself. No other place in fantasy embodies such grandeur, sinisterness, and decadence … which is quite the accomplishment, as Lewis only gives hints of it. Jadis herself says, in a reflective moment: I have stood here when the whole air was full …
Jun 29
Louis Wain’s Aslan
This artist’s depiction of Aslan, with its eerie staring eyes, shares a disturbing similarity to the cat pictures of popular Victorian English artist Louis Wain. Wain is often cited in psychology textbooks as a classic case of how schizophrenia alters the afflicted’s sense of reality.
May 27
The Mask is the Thing.
To mask or not to mask? In this time of Coronavirus, it is clearly to mask. Which has generated a richness of memes. You may be thinking, these images aren’t so horrible, are they? True. But that is exactly why they are horrible. Because they make us laugh.
