This and all images © Todd Klein.

In 1977 I was hired by a small press horror publisher to illustrate a collection of Lovecraftian humor stories gathered and edited by Darrell Schweitzer to be titled, “Eldritch Laughter From Beyond.” I completed all the art, including a wraparound cover and sent it to the publisher, but it vanished mysteriously when the publisher went out of business shortly after, and was probably destroyed. I was able to get photocopies of some of the art before it was mailed, and the best of them are here. If you’ve spent a lot of time on my website, you may have seen these already, but I thought I’d roll them out again for those who haven’t. I no longer know the authors or the story titles. I had fun doing these, but the experience of losing the art, the opportunity to be published, and any payment soured me on doing this sort of thing, and I didn’t do any more. The illustration above sums up how I often felt about doing the art, usually late at night after I’d finished my day job at DC and my freelance lettering for them.

This story was about a chef, clearly, that’s all I know.

If there was ever a “slime rock” genre, this would fit right in.

This one almost doesn’t need a story.

If any ordinary animals could be aligned with the Elder Gods, squirrels would be a good candidate in my book.

This one was just too much fun.

Finally, the only one whose story title I remember, “Xeroxing the Necronomicon.”

It would have been a fun book. Too bad it never happened. I wonder if Darrell Schweitzer still has his manuscript? There’s a scary thought!