For this illustration I did a “cosmic” background separately – all digitally – and then pasted it as another layer behind the Seven. It was a lot of fun doing the background. I wanted something that emphasized the cosmic in cosmic horror. I initially thought of doing some tentacled horror but decided that that might overpower the humans in front of it. So I chose a Jack Kirbyesque set of planets. Well, Kirbyesque in my mind anyway.

The second figure from the right is Clark Ashton Smith. He’s another author whose work I’ve only read a little of. I read The Charnel God while I was doing illustrations for Ghouls but I don’t remember the specifics of any other Smith stories I might have read. So in between writing this sentence and the previous one I went over to the Seattle Library website and requested Return of the Sorcerer, the only Smith book that they have listed.