Anyone who knows anything about geek culture knows the recent uptick in Cthulhu’s popularity. Crazy squid-face has been making the rounds on tshirts, in games, on playing cards, and pretty much anything you can think of. Enter Littlest Lovecraft, a really cool idea between Tro Rex & Eyona Bella to publish illustrated books with an H.P. Lovecraft influence. I was happy to receive a free PDF review copy of their first book: The Call of Cthulhu. I’m a sucker for picture books, especially books as pretty to look at as this one.
First off, this book is decidedly Lovecraftian. I don’t recommend it if you don’t like horror. The book stays true to the Cthulhu mythos and the illustrations may be frightening to younger children.
The book is fairly long as well for a picture book. There’s fairly long chunks of text per page. This would probably ideally work for a high elementary or pre-teen. And, of course, adults who love pictures.
And the pictures are really the shinning star in this book. They’re beautiful, colorful and tell the story well. The style feels very horror without losing the kidish element to them. They’re all hand drawn and illustrated.
The writing is fun with a very light rhyme scheme to it. Adapting a short story into an illustrated picture book is a huge task to undertake, but the characters, events and feel of the original story by H.P. Lovecraft are all there.
If you love all things Cthulhu OR don’t know anything about Cthulhu’s backstory – this is the perfect book for you. If you’re a parent who loves scaring your kids to death… um… you’re weird and will probably like this book too.
The book was a successful Kickstarter Project and, from what I’ve seen on Facebook, the advanced printed copies are looking FANTASTIC. You’ll want to order your own copy ASAP.
Find out more: http://littlestlovecraft.com
Order your own copy: http://littlestlovecraft.com/orders
Friend them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LittlestLovecraft