A new piece of fan art combines the cute world of Nintendo's Pokémon and the cosmic horror of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.
Created by artist Pigboom and posted to Reddit by a fan, the image sees Snorlax transformed into a creepy but still adorable cosmic abomination. This version of Snorlax shares many characteristics with The Sleeper of R'lyeh, Cthulhu, including dragon-like wings and a beard made of tentacles. In the background, there appears to be a summoning symbol.
This isn't the first time Pigboom has transformed a Pokémon into a monstrosity. Images of Lovecraftian versions of Bulbasaur and Pikachu that feature many tentacles and disconcerting eyes can be found on the artist's official website. Other examples of Pigboom's unique art style include a fusion of the Kool-Aid Man and Marvel's Venom and another of Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head and Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira.
American author H. P. Lovecraft lived from August 1890 to March 1987, publishing his short stories and other writing predominantly in pulp magazines like Weird Tales. Some of his most recognizable works include The Shadow Over Innsmouth, At the Mountains of Madness, The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulhu. While he died in relative obscurity, his work spawned one of the largest and most influential fictional shared universes in the horror genre. Recent examples of Lovecraftian narratives include the retro shooter video game Forgive Me Father, the podcast The Magnus Archives and William Eubank's film Underwater.
Pokémon is one of nerd culture's most popular and prominent multimedia franchises and encompasses several anime series, films, manga, video games and a trading card game. The first video games Pocket Monsters: Red and Green (later rebranded Pokémon Red and Blue) were released for the original Game Boy in February 1996, and the newest game, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, is scheduled to launch exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on Jan. 28.
The franchise has inspired a wealth of fan-made content over the years. Beyond the Lovecraftian Snorlax, other recent examples include a piece of mash-up fan art that transports Geralt and Ciri from Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher into the world of Pokémon, LEGO-sculptures of Charizard, Venusaur and Blastoise and a picture that reimagines Scizor as Marvel's Iron Man.
A t-shirt with Pigboom's Lovecraftian Snorlax can be purchased on the artist's website, and various entries in the Pokémon franchise, like Pokémon: Indigo League, Pokémon Journeys: The Series and Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, are available to stream on Netflix.
Source: Reddit
