New Ligottian Art in 2009

The re-publication of Thomas Ligotti's Teatro Grottesco and My Work Is Not Yet Done in cheap paperback has surely exposed his work to a wider audience. In what may be the first faint glimmers of evidence, a small, but noticeable increase in Ligottian fan art has touched the web in recent months. It's entirely possible that images like the following may have been created by long time Ligotti readers. However, it's less likely, as almost all of them are inspired by the tales that comprise the reissued paperbacks.


Not surprisingly, many of these images come from deviantart.com, the web's enduring hub for all manner of amateur fan art. "The Visitation" is a short comic by robinboywonder. Clearly inspired by Ligotti's tale "The Clown Puppet," it gives a fairly lighthearted and original interpretation of the eponymous entity responsible for the narrator's "visitations." The swirling seen through the window seemingly represents a Ligottian void of chaos, but is also reminiscent of the mystery outside Erich Zann's apartment in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann."


Tobythulhu has put his digital skills to good use in this illustration of Frank Dominio, the tormented hero of Ligotti's novella My Work Is Not Yet Done. This stylish impression is definitely a look at Dominio after he has taken on the supernatural and spectral powers of retribution granted to him by forces he only comes to understand later. Tobythulhu must be applauded for his faithful depiction of Ligotti's character--right down to the amber tinted glasses and dark suit. The artist's digital manipulation is also vaguely similar to the illustrations Harry O. Morris did for Ligotti early in his literary career.


Crescent23's gallery includes a few photographs of desolate architecture underscored by quotes from "This Degenerate Little Town." As imaged photos of Ligotti's metaphysical dreamscape,
they are quite effective. Several other pictures of mouldering ruins from the degenerate little town, along with other bleak sights apparently captured in Eastern Europe, are posted at the gallery.


Okay, these last two aren't really fan art in the same sense as the previous works. They are illustrations of Thomas Ligotti's story "Nethescurial," graciously provided by the artist Markku Metso on his Drawer blog. The story appears to have been translated and reprinted in a February, 2009, issue of the Finnish speculative fiction journal "Tahtivaeltaja." It nearly goes without saying that these beautiful drawings wonderfully capture the themes of this Ligotti story.

-Grim Blogger