Indie Squid Kid

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #2 (April, 1994)

If there was one threat that Mike Mignola’s paranormal (literally!) investigator is best equipped to fight, it would be…Nazi cyborg gorillas. If there were two things, it would be Nazi cyborg gorillas and giant tentacle monsters! Yes, Hellboy always seems right at home giving the big red smack down to our suckery friends. Granted, these betentacled creatures usually want to eat Hellboy, and the world, in that order, so I guess you really can’t blame him.

The comic depicted above (written and drawn by Mignola, of course) is the second issue of the original Hellboy mini-series. I won’t go into the plot here (Wikipedia has a concise synopsis), but the tentacle monster in question is Sadu-Hem, one of the 369 Ogdru Hem—spawn of the demonic Ogdru Jahad, who lie imprisoned in the heart of the abyss waiting for the day when they will devour the Earth. As you might surmise, Sadu-Hem is one of the bad guys.

Hellboy goes on to battle many foes, with and without tentacles, and his ongoing story is still being published by Dark Horse Comics. Hellboy vs. tentacles is a popular theme of Hellboy fan art, such as the awesome image below by Nick Derington (via Flickr).

"Hellboy vs. Tentacles" by Nick Derington

At some point after posting about my first Gama-Go squid shirt, I realized that I need to blog about their current selection before they are discontinued!

Here we have San Francisco’s Sutro Tower being attached by enormous tentacles…or is it being lovingly caressed? With a squid is there any way to tell the difference?

The shirt is $28 and available in both olive and black.

Buy it from Gama-Go (while you still can!)

The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival promotes the works of H.P. Lovecraft, literary horror, and weird tales through the cinematic adaptations by professional and amateur filmmakers. The festival was founded in 1995 by Andrew Migliore in the hope that H.P. Lovecraft would be rightly recognized as a master of gothic horror and his work more faithfully adapted to film and television.

If you live anywhere near Portland, OR (Natalie, I’m looking in your direction) and are a fan of things that go Bloop in the night, this is the event for you!

www.HPLFilmFestival.com

The Brave and the Bold #24 (July, 1959)

The first incarnation of DC Comics’ The Brave and the Bold ran for 200 issues from 1955-1983. Originally it was an anthology series featuring adventure tales set in ages past and starring characters like the Silent Knight, the Golden Gladiator, and this guy—the Viking Prince. Issue 24, which featured two Viking Prince stories, would be the last to follow the original swashbuckling format. The title’s next 25 issues were used to test out new characters and concepts (such as a little team called the Justice League of America, which debuted in Brave and the Bold #28), and after that it featured a rotating roster of superhero team-ups.

So back to issue #24, the cover (drawn by comics legend Joe Kubert) depicts Jon, aka the Viking Prince, and his wife Asa struggling against a giant cephalopod of indeterminate identity. Considering that the Viking Prince stories were set in 10th century Scandinavia, I think it’s safe to describe this monster as a Kraken. I don’t know if this is a scene from one of the stories in the issue or if it was created just for the cover…it can be difficult to track down detailed information on these old comics.

The Viking Prince still shows up every now and then in modern DC continuity, most recently in the 2008 mini-series The War That Time Forgot.

Sighted by Chris Butler (via cult youth., via BuzzFeed)

Dragon*Con has been over for nearly a week, which is plenty of time for the Internet to help me find all (well, nearly) the cephalopod-themed costumes from this year’s menagerie of the weird. Enjoy.

photo by vladeb

Davy Jones ( Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest) from the Dragon*Con parade.

photo by Hueyatl

Netherworld squid monster.

photo by sarberry

Ursula the Sea Witch from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

photo by Clockwork_Dandy

The Fruity Oaty Bar commercial from Joss Whedon’s Serenity come to life!

photo by TheKingInYellow

MINDstyle’s “Stephen Le Podd” con exclusives.

photo by Sarcasm-hime

Cthulhu bustle!

photo by sudrin

Victorian cecaelia!

photo by Petrona09

It’s this guy! He’s back!

Like I said yesterday, Dragon*Con is this weekend, and I am rather bummed not to be in attendance this year. The con is more than just a science-fiction or comic book convention, it is a chaotic multi-media/multi-genre extravaganza celebrating every corner of geeky popular culture. Here is but a small tentacled taste of Dragon*Con from the past few years. All photos are from my Flickr account, unless otherwise noted.

Doctor Octopus (Dragon*Con 2008)

Stygian Depths booth (Dragon*Con 2008)

"Doctor Cthulhu" (Dragon*Con 2008)

Photo by Foenix

Cthulhu and Ichigo (Dragon*Con 2007)

Photo by Futuregirl_LeahRiley

"tentacle monster" (Dragon*Con 2005)

Andrew Bell’s morbid classic “Never Look Back” has been recreated as a vinyl toy! The figure, which comes packaged with two swappable sets of eyes and tentacle accessories, is available for $25 at www.deadzebra.com (although it is currently sold out) and wherever designer toys are sold.

Man, what a crappy day. I nearly forgot it was T-shirt Tuesday!

This shirt—which is a good visual approximation of what my brain feels like tonight—is the aptly-named “Squidplosion” by SquidFire, an online apparel company that I promise we’ve not seen the last of here. This post is also the debut of the “T-shirts I don’t own” tag. You know, just in case…

Buy it on Squidfire.com ($25 USD)

For our final Cthulhu Week post, we have an amazing My Little Pony mod by Finnish artist Mari Kasurinen. Check her out on deviantArt for more fabulous custom ponies. (Via io9)