Customer Reviews

A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft

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A Lovecraft Retrospective is a stunning achievement. I truly do not have adequate skill with words to convey its magnificence. It is the most glorious book in my library. Everything about this books is larger than life, it seems. The dimensions are 16.1 x 12 .6 x 2.3, pages large enough that we may better appreciate in the artists' craftsmanship. Shipping weight was 13.6 lbs, indicating the high quality of the paper used. I do not have any of the special limited editions; my copy is cloth bound with a slip cover and a slip case. The cover is Michael Whelan's brilliant Lovecraft Mythos Diptych from 1980, which also appears in the book as a 4 page fold out. Production qualities are flawless; Centipede Press did not take any shortcuts with this books. Page count is 400. There is no index, well enough, as my copy has no numbering on the pages. Instead, and more usefully, each illustration is shown in the back in a large thumbnail giving the artist, the date of production, the context and the medium. Yes there is some text, including Harlan Ellison's introduction, Bob Price's essay on the Necronomicon and the afterward by Thomas Ligotti. There are some introductions to put the works into context and brief biographies of the artists. The largest part, however, of the pages are devoted to the art. Many paintings are given an entire page, with a generous number of double page pull outs to allow us to revel in the artists' visions. A Lovecraft Retrospective shows the art inspired by Lovecraft ever since the first publication of his works to the present day; the artists use very conceivable medium: ink, oil, acrylic, collage, brass. The incredible beauty of this book beggars my ability to describe it so I will just share some of my favorite things about it. Most of the covers from our favorite books are here. There is a depiction of a Pickman painting by Hannes Bok! Ever since I read Lin Carter's introduction to Beyond the Golden Stair I have longed to see Bok's paintings! If only there were more. I literally became breathless and choked up when I saw the reproduced covers of the Lancer, Beagle and Ballantine issues of Lovecraft's works from the 1970s. These are the books that introduced me to Lovecraft and my own copies crumbled away so very many years ago, read into oblivion. There is a very generous selection of HR Giger's illustrations from the Necronomicon, many as two page fold outs. Keith Evans' 2004 Cthulhu and Dave Carson's Cthonian show what may be done with digital media. Tim White's masterful covers get their due. Gahan Wilson's Wilbur Whately rubs shoulders with Jeff Remmer's Night Gaunt. Bob Eggleton's covers are here in all their glorious colors. Previously I have lamented that John Coulthart's R'lyeh was done an injustice in its previous reproductions. Here we see it as it was meant to be seen, and in full color. It is impossible to choose a favorite; it is impossible to do justice to this book.

I am forever indebted to Centipede Press for A Lovecraft Retrospective. Much inadequate kudos goes to Jerad Walters and Joseph Wrzos, and the entire dedicated team who gave this to us. Some may balk at the price tag ($276.50, heavily discounted at Amazon) but it's only money. If you buy this book you will never regret it. Years from now you won't miss the money and you will have something irreplaceable.

Like the others said before me, words will not convey the sheer volume and quality of this book. I can barely hold this book in my arms, much easier to look at and enjoy on a coffee table hah. Anyway, there is more wonderful Lovecraft-inspired art in this book than you could ever imagine. From the 1930's pulp comic art to current CGI enhanced portraits, this book has it all. It even has pictures of SOTA's Nightmares Of Lovecraft figurines that quickly went out-of-print last year! If the price of this book had been a grand, I would still have bought it. It is a one-of-a-kind item that Lovecraft fans will be talking about from here to oblivion. I can safely say that no Lovecraft fan's collection will be complete without this book. Simply amazing.

I received my hardbound slipcased edition of this last week. Jerad and Co. have done an absolutley amazing job in compiling, editing and reproducing at the highest quality level years and years of Lovecraft-related images. I cannot really add much more to Matthew Carpenter's review - he really covered everything and excellently so. The old paperback covers he alluded to were the same for me - my introduction to Lovecraft - and I was very excited to see them here. This is a one of a kind publishing event well worth the seemingly heavy money, but as was stated my Matthew, in a few years you won't miss the money and you will have a fantastic gem of art and craft that will be irreplaceable. Congratulations to all involved in the production of this piece, may it have a long long life.

First, sorry my english isn't very good (i'm spanish and i'm improving my english). I have the slipcase edition and I like very much the most of images. It's easy for a spanish man (or woman) to understand the text. And the organization of the images is very good: the early years, the middle art and finally the modern art. I have the cover image in the monitor of my computer, this complete image is very impressive. But I was interested in the John Coulthart art (I have his "Haunter of the Dark and other grotesque visions" and his Coulthart Calendar), the images of his Old Ones are in black and white (His Old Ones are coloured in the John Coulthart Calendar, but it's not a problem). Finally I think that this book is a collectionist book, the best book of lovecraftian art.

Much of what I'd like to say has already been said by those who have reviewed the book before me. Suffice to say that this book brings to life the images that might have been contained in Lovecraft's mind when he wrote those wonderful stories. Gibbering demons and gargoyles, nameless creatures too hideous to describe and of course, grotesque monsters from outer space - they're all here in their full glory. As Ellison said in the intro, if only HP could have lived to see this magnificent tribute.

This is a retrospective indeed. It displays most art that was around during Lovecraft's lifetime, and then it also has background information for the artist, and how they related to Lovecraft's work. It also is one of the biggest books ever to see print... This book is so big you will be looking for places to store it in your bookshelf...

My son wanted this for Christmas. I was very pleased with the book and the vendor. The book is spectacular!

This giant, eldritch tome is simply the best book I have ever seen relating to Lovecraft-inspired art. I have been a fan of H.P.L. for years and have been looking for a book like this for a long time. The book is huge and heavy, a true coffee table book. Hundreds of pages of amazing art from fantastic artists, many of which are fantastic fold out pieces. Each page is high quality, as is the cover, binding, and everything else. Many, many pages of essays discussing artists and the artwork itself. Any person who is a fan of Lovecraft will not be disappointed with this book.

My main setback for buying this book was the unbelievable price of $400 for what I considered was nothing more than a very big Lovecraft fanart book.

I was so terribly mistaken.

One year later, in the moment I saw this book in discount, I decided to let go of my avarice and just buy the damn thing.
I have never seen a book this big (and heavy) in my life, and every page has no wasted space whatsoever. All the art is divided by time and by artist, and there's a brief description of the context before each gallery. This enhances the experience immensely, with small explanations of different technique methods, Lovecraft's popularity in such time and even interpretations of the different artworks. Finally, there is a visual index at the end of the book, with author, year, technique and place of appearance, and after that we still get a small biography of each author.

As for the artwork itself, the styles are widely varied. I will admit that I'm not very fond of some of the pieces, but they are completely necessary to see how the Lovecraftian cult evolved towards time, and I will not dare question their quality, these pieces were meticulously hand-picked, and this shows automatically even while casually scanning the book. Stunning, surreal and original, no matter how much you look for this quantity of artwork on the internet, the sheer size of the book and the printing quality cannot be outdone.

If you've ever visualized a Lovecraft story, get this book, for you're getting not only your perception of Lovecraftian horror, but the perception of dozens of other fans.

If you are reading this review then like me you are probably having thoughts somewhat along the lines of "HPL is awesome, and I love the premise of this book but geez it's pretty expensive. Is it worth it?" The short answer: Yes. Totally. Absolutely. In terms of the art contained within it is not only amazingly comprehensive but just so well reproduced. All the images are large and crisp, with many pages opening to fold outs to more fully display the creations. All of the art is identified in the back index via thumbnail style pictures so the images are not spoilt by writing overtop them. Of course not all of the images are awesome, but this is art after all and subject to the readers personal taste. The wheat far outweighs the chaff for mine. All of the classic and most iconic Lovecraftian images are there along with many new to me and some real discoveries. If there is a complaint (and the irony to Lovecraft fans will not be lost I'm sure) it is that there are quite a few typos and misspellings in the small text sections but in a book all about images this is a minor sin. Do yourself a favour and buy this book. It is worth it.