Waid, BB & Lovecraft (?) on H.P. Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep

H.P. Lovecraft is a world-renowned pulp-era writer best known for his Cthulhu mythos, the otherworldy mythology used as a backdrop in his short stories, poems, and novellas. BOOM! Studios is no stranger to Lovecraft, having published a string of successful Cthulhu-related series, most notably Fall of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Tales. This November, BOOM! will be releasing an adaptation of Lovecraft’s epic poem Nyarlathotep with illustrations by Eisner Award-winner Chuck BB.

Newsrama was recently leaked a transcript of a séance between Chuck BB and BOOM! Editor-in-Chief Mark Waid as they attempted to speak to H.P. Lovecraft in the beyond. And no, this is not a new low. We’ve been much lower than this.

Chuck BB: Hey, Mark! How’s it going?

Mark Waid: All is well.

Chuck: Ummm, that’s good to hear. Why all the candles?

Waid: Chuck, why are you here?

Chuck: You know why.

Waid: Yes, but you need to say it for exposition’s sake.

Chuck: Oh, right. I’m here to talk to you about H.P. Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep, the Lovecraft project I did for BOOM!

Waid: Indeed. Chuck, I’d like you to try something—provided your mind and spirit are willing.

Chuck: Illustrate an ongoing series?

Waid: Funny, but no. I’d like you to consider being interviewed for H.P. Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep by Lovecraft himself.

Chuck: Ummm, Lovecraft has been dead for awhile now.

Waid: True, but by using these candles and incantations, we may be able to channel his spirit from the eternal ether into my body so that Lovecraft can speak to us and our fans one last time.

Chuck: ...

Waid: Dim the lights. That switch. No, not that one. That’s the garbage disposal. That one. Yes. Now, Chuck, for us to achieve spiritual transcendence, you must clear your mind of all thought.

Chuck: You’re way ahead of me on that one.

Waid: Spirits, hear me! We seek truth and enlightenment! Where is the one known in life as Howard Phillips Lovecraft?

[silence]

Waid: Show yourself to us! I implore you in the name of Cthulhu and Dagon, Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth!

[silence]

Waid: Michael Alan Nelson says he channels Lovecraft all the time. I think I took him too literally.

Chuck: (In his best Dr. Doom voice) You were fooled by Michael Alan Nelson. (In his best Chuck BB voice) We didn’t need to have a séance to channel Lovecraft, and you definitely didn’t need to dress in purple robes.

Waid: These aren’t for the séance.

Chuck: Anyway, I get what Nelson is talking about. For Nyarlathotep, I definitely had to channel Lovecraft. For the book, I took his prose poem and put it to illustrations. I had to take these indescribable cosmic ideas and translate them onto the page using what I thought was Lovecraft’s intent with feel and design, and then illustrate in my own style. That was a giant challenge, but once I put myself in Lovecraft’s mindset, I was able to channel his creativity through my work.

Waid: Cool. Were you a fan of his work before this?

Chuck: A Fan? These are my bed time stories!

Waid: These are really beautiful illustrations. Great hardcover package. Well worth the $14.99 price tag.

Chuck: It’s a shame we didn’t get to actually talk to Lovecraft.

Waid: You can wear the robes.

Chuck: Pass.

BOOM! Studios’ H.P. Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep will be a 32 page exquisite hardcover edition with illustrations by Eisner Award-winner Chuck BB. Priced at $14.99 it has a Diamond item order code of SEP083817.