Puzzle Description:

On a lark I picked up The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft. Frankly, I thought it was kind of ridiculous. And then I read that Lovecraft actually believed there were demonic creatures of a species between human and animal who crawled out of the jungle and would destroy our society: black people! This, of course, was the 1920's when there was a huge Klan resurgence and movies like "Birth of a Nation" were showing black people slumping around like Gollum. I don't think I'll be reading any more Lovecraft, but it was interesting.

#1: Jota (jota) on Mar 31, 2021

I'm so impressed that the two of us read so different genres, I will be scared of what you read, what I read is so real and scary, that I couldn't read fantasy and scary. Reality is as much as I can take. But I loved the puzzle. Thanks!

Lovecraft's books can get racist sometimes.
Did you see the HBO series Lovecraft Country?
It was pretty good - about people fighting racism.
I don't recall anything race related in the Reanimator film trilogy - it was done up to be a horror/dark comedy.

I suspect that folks making films of HP's books are able to leave the racism behind since in most situations it is not integral to the story's plot.

They tried to fight against some of that racism in Lovecraft Country. The book is terrific; the TV adaptation gets rather more political, but lots of people like that. :)

Cool trivia: Matt Ruff, the author of Lovecraft Country, was in the same high school homeroom as me. I haven't read Lovecraft Country yet, but will someday. I did read his book "Sewer, Gas & Electric" almost twenty years ago, and I remember liking it, but I don't remember what it was about anymore. :-S

Wow. I've read lots of SF, but not Lovecraft.
As for this one... Batopus? Octobat? The top looks like a bat, the bottom, an octopus. I guess Octobat is better; it keeps the octo- for multiple legs.
Good puzzle. Tricky, difficult, good image.

CB - The image is a Cthulhu. (Says Valerie, who has not read it, but who had friends in college who went around wearing "University of Cthulhu" shirts.)

Valerie, yeah, I read the previous comments. But *before* I read them, I saw Octobat. Still looks llke an octobat to me.

You guys are clearly more into this genre than I am. But I had heard of Cthulhu, more as a joke than as a monster. But it was fun to draw. Thanks for the comments.

Valerie, he's not "a" Cthulhu. That's his name, and he's the only one.

That's cool, that you knew Matt Ruff. I liked the book much better than the series, personally. :)

Wow! Very impressive image and a tough, tough puzzle. No guessing though.

Now Facebook keeps showing me ads for a stained glass cthluhu suncatcher. Weird!

Kristen -- I don't think I would exactly say that I knew Matt Ruff. Despite being in the same homeroom, we didn't hang out together or really even ever have conversations. We just kind of existed in the same general area, going about our separate business.

Well, you conceivably could have said "Hi, Matt!" and he could have answered "Hi, Valerie!" :)

I'm with CB. It's an Octobat named Cthulhu.

Belita, I always look forward to solving your puzzles. Great images but also very solvable - not too hard or too easy. This one is no different. Thanks for creating them!!

Sometime after I wrote #4 I did read Lovecraft Country. It was more violent than my low tolerance for violence could handle, but I persevered anyway. Not really my thing, but there were some memorable parts that were good. For whatever that's worth.

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