Available at Amazon.com

It makes a lot of sense for a small press like Top Cow, which has a lot of great titles on the market, to put everything together into an art book and showcase some of their best pieces. In The Art of Top Cow preview that I received from the publisher, I got to see thirty images of the more than 300 pages that will appear in the final book. Two of them, unfortunately, were nearly naked images of Sara Pezzini of Witchblade that look more like pinups than gallery images; another is a Top Cow poster that features three of the Top Cow women in all their busty glory. Hopefully those three images are not representative of a large portion of the included art (though certainly part of Top Cow’s target audience will surely appreciate them — just not my part of the market share!). In the preview, some of the pieces are really quite excellent, and I’ll highlight some of them quickly here.

Two images that struck me were, of course, by Stjepan Sejic, whose work on Witchblade I’ve been raving about for several reviews. His cover for Witchblade #116 features Sara and Dani, both in full Witchblade armor, ready to kick some butt. Another of his Witchblade images served as the back cover of the trade paperback, volume 7, and is a great profile of Sara with a broken NYC PD badge behind her. These images use the same hyper-realism that I’ve loved in Sejic’s work in the series, and I’m glad to see it here as well. Some of Sejic’s work also appears in two covers for the series First Born, which appears to be set in the Witchblade universe. Both images feature a full cast of characters ranging from dark to light — many of them somewhat more scantily clad than has been typical in most of the work I’ve noticed of Sejic’s on Witchblade. But the attention to detail and the sense of texture remains excellent, and these pieces are stand-outs among the samples.

Several pieces by David Finch also caught my eye — his style is dramatically different from Sejic’s and from the sort of “typical” super-hero comics style featured in some of the other artwork. With a more painterly flare on what has an almost canvas under-texture, Finch depicts the gritty facial expression of the man I presume is the hero of Universe, alongside a monster from the series. The shading is amazing, as he doesn’t use much in the way of color variety, instead giving the piece an almost sepia tone. Another of Finch’s pieces, this one from Ascention, features a dark-skinned demon with unbelievable muscle definition surrounded by skulls on pikes — the composition is incredibly effective.

David Petersen’s work on a cover variant for Dragon Prince again shows the variety of styles embraced by Top Cow. This image depicts a dragon standing in front of a young boy — we see the child’s back as he looks up at the large dragon, who takes up the majority of the frame. Almost stylized like an illustration from a children’s picture book rather than a comic, it’s a piece of artwork that I’d gladly take out of context and use as computer wallpaper — or an image to hang on the wall. The lack of context doesn’t seem to matter for this piece — it stands beautifully well on its own.

A book like this serves the purpose of trying to get readers interested in other titles by the publisher, and I’d definitely say my interest is piqued. I’d try out Weapon Zero, Arcanum, Dragon Prince, The Necromancer, and Rising Stars (which is represented by a phenomenal cover image with faces in what looks like a nuclear cloud behind a foreground of skeletons) based on the images included in the preview. With another 270-odd pages, I’m sure I’d find other titles I’d want to pick up.

Without seeing the complete book (which I assume is a hardcover and is a coffee-table quality volume) it’s hard to say whether this one is worth purchasing, but it’s definitely something I’d look for in my friendly local comic shop to browse through and see if I’d want to have at home. Since I’m not an art collector, nor a comics collector, it probably would not make the addition to my comic shelf, but I’d love to get a look through the whole thing to see what else Top Cow’s been putting out that I’ve been missing.

Review by Alana Abbott

Available at Amazon.com
Also available at DriveThruHorror.com

Written by Kenneth Hite
Published by Atomic Overmind Press
$8.95, 128 Pages

Have you repeatedly heard references to something called “Cthulhu” and wondered what it was all about? Are you already familiar with “the Big C,” know the signs and the secret handshakes, but are still looking for something to fill the great, gaping wound in your soul? Look no further, dear friends – Cthulhu 101 is good for what ails you!

Published by Atomic Overmind Press (www.atomicovermind.com), Cthulhu 101 is a witty overview of the Cthulhu Mythos, a world of pulp horror monsters from other dimensions and beyond the stars, created in the 1920’s and 30s by Howard Philips Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch and many others. It gleefully celebrates the tremendous influence of Lovecraft and the Mythos on modern-day consciousness. Atomic Overmind Press graciously provided me with a free copy for this review.

The first two chapters cover basic background on Cthulhu and H.P. Lovecraft, respectively. Next is a rundown of the Cthulhu Mythos, including many of the beasties most commonly occurring in fiction.

This section will be the most useful to those new to the Mythos. Lovecraft was extremely found of obscure adjectives – rugose and squamous both come to mind – and there is a section in this book — for those of us with more pedestrian vocabularies — specifically devoted to defining those more commonly utilized. Go ahead, look them up; I’ll wait.

After that, things get really interesting for those already familiar with rapid sanity loss. The next chapter covers appearances by the Big C in a wide variety of media. Hite cites examples of Cthulhu’s insidious influence; comics, films, music, television, games, and even toys. This is followed up by a series of useful lists recommending seven books to read to follow up on this new-found, sanity-blasting knowledge, a handy one-page guide helpful in determining which fiction collections is a good fit for the reader, and finally, wrapping up with a list of ten interesting websites to check out for more information.

Despite years of an enthusiastic, personal interest in the Cthulhu Mythos, this reviewer learned a great deal from this book, especially about Cthulhu as referenced in comics and music. The book is missing a few things — for example, Skull Comics, published in the early 70s, contains a number of excellent treatments of Mythos-related short stories — but in all fairness, Cthulhu’s and Lovecraft’s influence on modern horror have been so profound and far-reaching in Western culture that it’s difficult to imagine anyone cataloging it all completely.

At 125 pages, Cthulhu 101 is a slim volume, but at only $8.95, it’s also packed with value. The compact nature of Cthulhu 101 makes it easy to carry around for those late-night sojourns into the realm of the macrbre. One small quibble: in several places, the first line of text in a paragraph appears to have no spaces between words (pages 86 and 91, for instance) made more obvious by the normally-space line beneath it. Probably this is a layout issue related to packing lots of stuff in a limited amount of space; it’s hardly a major problem, but I found it distracting. Still, it wasn’t distracting enough to prevent me from reading the entire book twice. In one day.

Hite’s acidic wit is on full display in Cthulhu 101; his sarcastic humor and pop-culture references on everything under the sun (and on some things that would be best to not see the light of day) drew laugh-out-loud reactions from this reviewer. It’s clear from the start that Hite takes great joy in his subject, a joy that is both and infectious. Couple all that with the cartoony art style of the book’s illustrator, Drew Pocza, top it off with a foreword by John Kovalic, and you have a handbook to understanding Cthulhu that no self-respecting dilettante would be driven mad without.

Review by Bill Bodden

Available at DriveThruComics.com

DragonArt: How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures.
By Jessica “NeonDragon” Peffer.
2009 PDF Version (Advance Review Copy)
130 Pages.

Since my day-job is that of an illustrator I have a lot of “How to Draw…” books. Some of my favorites are Impact Books. Mechanicka (Doug Chang), John Howe: Fantasy Art Workshop and Bold Visions, the Digital Painting Bible by Gary Tonge. Impact has a good lineup of art books available. Some better than others: I thought the art in Fantastic Realms was horrid, and in general I’m not a fan of the heavily stylized Manga-style art (artbooks). For people in to the Manga style, Impact certainly has it covered.

DragonArt is geared for the young adult reader/ artist. That’s ok. Just because it is a “young adult” book doesn’t mean an adult like me couldn’t get good use of it. Actually I find some of the young adult art books do a wonderful job at breaking things down in a manner anyone can understand. Trust me, while I love my more adult Doug Chang/ Mechanika…it’s far FAR more complicated. The young adult books aren’t “for dummies” but they certainly can work that way which is awesome.If you have ever read/ used How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (which as an illustrator it has a permanent place on my reference shelf. It’s where I started back in the 80’s) some bits will look familiar.

DragonArt covers all the nuts and bolts of basic critter illustration from what is functionally a stick figure, to basic shapes like cylinders/ tubes, boxes, etc. It gets in to anatomy in comparison to real animals (which is crucial in “selling” the image to viewers) as well as perspective and scale. Basic shading (stippling, hatching, cross-hatching, etc) as well as Ink and Color are touched on.

Not only is the basic “western dragon” covered from almost every angle, but so are other varieties. A sizeable portion is given to “other fantasy creatures” such as gargoyles, gryphons, pegasi and unicorns, etc. All of the foundations used previously apply here as well…stick figures, shapes, detailing, pencils, ink, and color.

Overall it’s a fun book with a wealth of good info for new as well as experienced illustrators who are interested in drawing fantasy critters. It definitely has a place on my shelf. The writing is solid and clear. Layout nice and crisp. Artwork is also good.

This isn’t Todd Lockwood-style illustration…it’s not that sort of book. I say the word “Basic” here a lot and it applies. This is a basic book geared for the young adult and beginner artist…and as such it does a perfect job at nailing down the subject matter in a clear, concise manner.

Overall I give it 5 stars out of 5.

Review by Jeff Preston

Available at DriveThruHorror.com

Howard Phillips Lovecraft is one of the few authors of the horror genre who has been dissected rather thoroughly (Edgar Allen Poe being another). Kenneth Hite, who’s made much of his living as both a critic and a Lovecraft enthusiast, has a few things to say on the subject, and they make for very interesting reading. Tour de Lovecraft — the Tales is an engaging breakdown of all 51 of Lovecraft’s mature prose fiction, from 1917’s The Tomb to Lovecraft’s last work, the Haunter of the Dark from late 1935.

This is not a book of literary criticism, as I first assumed, but rather criticism of literary criticism. Hite takes pains to offer quotes and examples of criticism from a number of noted Lovecraft scholars, and offers his own opinions that don’t always mesh with those notions. In effect, the book breaks Lovecraft’s work down into what might be considered Hite’s Top-10 list of Lovecraft’s work. Hite spends time analyzing Lovecraft’s most effective tales, ranking them in very loose terms by whether the story is effective and by its relevance compared to HPL’s body of work. Each bit of analysis runs from a half-page (In the Vault) to a full five-plus pages (The Dunwich Horror) of bite-sized renderings.

Hite’s analysis follows Howard Phillips Lovecraft from his early career through his most productive and most imaginative periods — the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lovecraft’s strength lies in his tremendous imagination; his wordiness is often off-putting to the dilettante reader, and his rather ineffectual protagonists tend to find ill-favor with fans of action tales. The true power of Lovecraft lies in imagining things that aren’t, or things that shouldn’t be, but are. During Lovecraft’s time, the Romantics held sway over popular philosophy, with the idea that humanity had a place in the universe, and that place was, if not THE center, then darn close to it. Lovecraft came along and with his stories shattered that illusion. Lovecraft’s cosmic sense of horror revolves around themes of decay and dilution of the pure; he was well-known for his racist sentiments, which, while certainly more generally accepted during his lifetime, still haunt us to this day. Horror of the alien, always one of the most paralyzing fears of humankind, is Lovecraft’s bread and butter.

Hite’s conclusions are that Lovecraft was an author of arguably unprecedented genius, but who also lacked a strong business sense. Had he been able to have his better work collected into an anthology during his lifetime, he may have fared better in the world of Serious Literature. As things stand today, nearly seventy-two years after his death, he remains a beloved author of hair-raising tales, his works most often discovered by adolescent boys and recalled fondly for decades after. He also stands as the inspiration for many luminaries in the horror and weird fiction fields today. That Lovecraft has had a tremendous effect on the world of fiction is beyond doubt; HPL is listed as an influence by such literary luminaries as Stephen King, China Mieville, and Tim Powers, among many others. His work spawned one of the top role-playing games produced to date — a game that shares its title with Lovecraft’s most influential and well-known work: Call of Cthulhu. Lovecraft’s writing has also been the source material for a large number of feature-length films, as well as episodic television programs such as Night Gallery and Tales from the Dark Side, some of which are quite solid adaptations.

Tour de Lovecraft is a book I would recommend for anyone wanting to learn more about the man many consider to be the father of the modern horror tale. It does belabor a point or two, and Ken delights in using big words that may confound those without a dictionary at hand, but overall this book provides a great deal of insight, not only into the man and his work but to how both have been viewed by critics and scholars to the present day. For the serious Lovecraft aficionado, Tour de Lovecraft – the Tales is a must-have.

Review by Bill Bodden

Available at Amazon.com

Introduction

I own all of the Del Rey collections: The Coming of Conan, the Bloody Crown of Conan, the Conquering Sword of Conan, Bran Mak Morn: the Last King, Kull: Exile of Atlantis, The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, Crimson Shadows,and Grim Lands. I eagerly look forward to the day when they finally release collections of his western stories, and would love to own collections of his letters (though I currently don’t).

I guess you could say that as a writer I hold the man in high esteem.

I always felt it a tragedy that he was taken (or took himself) from the world at the age of 30, when he was just starting to really crest. Anyone who has read his collections, in which the stories are included in publication order, can see his writing improve as he goes along. Who knows what he could’ve accomplished had he managed to write the western novel he always wanted to write?

In any case, I always wondered about Howard’s life. I knew he had an unhealthy attachment to his mother, and I knew that he killed himself after discovering she would never recover from a TB-induced coma. But what about him? What kind of man was he? Was he reclusive like Lovecraft? Was he a drunk like Poe? A bohemian like Byron?

Then, several years back, I stumbled upon a film called The Whole Wide World, starring Vincent D’Onofrio…as Robert E. Howard. I loved the film, but was left hanging due to a few odd choices made by the filmmakers (who do a very poor job of separating Cross Plains from Brownwood). Thus, when I found out it was based on an actual memoir by the one woman who knew him better than anyone in the world (save perhaps his mother), I had to read the book.

Bless my fiancee, who pays attention, and for Christmas last year I received a copy of One Who Walked Alone. Robert E. Howard: the Final Years. My last year of school interfered with my reading a bit, but the book has now at last been devoured.

The Review

Throughout the work, Price does not pull punches, either with Howard or herself. She had the perfect opportunity to edit and excise the text to make herself appear more…I suppose “blameless” is the best word, though that’s not proper, either. What I mean is, Price does not make herself appear perfect. She doesn’t turn herself into what we gamers like to call a “Mary Sue.” Indeed, she presents herself as a not entirely likable person. As a youth, Price was extremely shallow and caught up in all the conformity and appearance upkeep of the 1930’s small town southwest. She is an individual clearly at war with herself, deeply loving, respecting, and admiring the clearly roguish Howard, but unable to embrace those feelings for fear of the social consequences such an embrace would create. At first, I didn’t like the woman very much at all.

But as I read, I came to deeply respect her willingness to show her warts in the interest of telling a complete story.

As for Howard, in this book we get a very clear portrait of a deeply conflicted and complicated man, a man far out of his time, and one wrestling with hard emotional problems that, in the 1930’s, were not nearly as easy to diagnose and treat as they are now. Anyone with any experience or knowledge of psychology can see the clear signs of severe bipolar disorder in Howard, and can see his downward spiral towards the end of his life. It is, in a word, heartbreaking. This man was a genius, a brilliant writer, and a true artist, but was utterly consumed by brooding moods that forced upon him a fatalistic outlook on the world. There are times in the book where, even though we know how this story ends, we still root for Price to say something different, to do something different, in hopes that this time, maybe, it’ll come out for the better. This is a nonfiction book that makes us forget we’re reading a story with a set outcome.

Bob Howard was a man who felt deeply and overwhelmingly. He was, like his seminal character Conan, a man of great melancholy and great mirth. He was not possessed of an Oedipal sexual desire for his mother, but was attached to her as the one person in the world who he felt understood him as a person and a writer. If anything, Howard’s love for his mother was akin to that of a child who would be lost without their parent. Some of the Freudian mold would certainly declare that this unto itself makes it an Oedipal relationship; I disagree, but then I’ve never given Freud much credence. I prefer Jung. In any case, I’ll leave it to Price to describe Howard’s opinion of his supposed “Oedipal” relationship:

“I could dismiss his words and remember Bob’s dislike of Freud. Bob insisted a clean relationship should not be damned with a dirty slur” (311).

What Howard did feel, however, was that he owed his mother everything for bringing him into the world, for supporting his writing unswervingly despite a society that shunned and frowned at men who made their living sitting in front of a typewriter rather than doing “Good, honest work.” And yes, he unfortunately came to feel that caring for his mother was all he had to live for.

Bob Howard was also a deeply spiritual man. He was unsure about organized religion, about what kind of God he worshiped, though he leaned heavily towards his Catholic roots. He took his own life, considered by Christians the worst of all sins, but prayed for forgiveness up until the moment he pulled the trigger.

Bob Howard was a paragon of contradiction and a study in paradox.

Even more intriguing, for writers, are the conversations about writing that Novalyne and Bob have. Their relationship begins with her seeking his help on writing, and he spends a great deal of time during their relationship discussing the subject. He talks about his method, how he works, what he thinks one needs to do to get published and make a career of the craft. But he also says time and again that it’s not his place to declare the One True Way. He gives advice, but just as quickly marks it as potentially worthless, because every writer must find their own way. And in these long speeches about writing, he includes a lot of great information, insight, and advice. I think this book should stand with Stephen King’s On Writing as a seminal work on the craft of fiction.

I can find no real fault in this book. It’s true that at times Price’s writing seems unsure and somewhat amateurish, but one has to remember that at least early on, she was an inexperienced writer. And watching her writing grow as the story progresses is alone worth the cover price, as is watching her grow and change as a human being–one argument she has with Howard that, decades later, she wins. Howard did not believe people could change, but there is no doubt that he changed Novalyne Price in a deep and fundamental way.

One Who Walked Alone is an absolutely brilliant book, and any fan or admirer of Robert E. Howard is cheating him or herself if they do not give this one a read.

Review by Jason Vey

Available at Amazon.com

As a Wisconsin native I’ve heard more than a few local legends and campfire tales about haunted locations throughout the state. I’ve always had an interest in haunted houses and picked up the Road Guide for more information on some of the interesting stories I’ve heard.

The Road Guide is well written and it shows that some research went into each of the locations featured throughout each chapter. A typical entry will feature a photo of the location, brief driving directions, a bit of ghost lore (i.e. what sort of ghostly activity is rumored to haunt the place), some local history and lastly, details about the investigation into the haunting. Not every entry follows this exact format; some of them have section switched around a bit or include extra notes on the topic. Generally, however, the book is easy to read and the information is offered in a useful format.

There are over 90 locations detailed in this book. Plenty enough to keep any “ghost hunter” interested for some time. I’ve been to the Sheeley House (page 45) in Chippewa Falls many times over the years. There are a couple of other locations detailed in the book that I’ve either been to or at least heard stories about and it is quite interesting reading the details of the author’s investigation into the haunting.

One of the great things about this book is the mix of historical locations with new sites that have only recently started to gain a reputation for being haunted. Throughout the book you’ll find some great information on the culture and history of Wisconsin. By reading the history of Little Bohemia in Manitowash you’ll discover that John Dillinger and his gang managed to escape capture after a brief shoot-out. The Grand Opera House in Oshkosh certainly has plenty of history, dating back to 1883.

The authors are precise in their investigations and do not embellish their findings. They mention when they do not experience anything paranormal at locations and detail conversations with local residents. They are also quite helpful with notes on private property (do not trespass) and changes that have occurred to locations such as new construction.

The Road Guide is a light read with plenty of useful information. It certainly could have used another round of editing before publication however. The mix of typos and other errors are not enough to ruin the work, but they do occasionally make an entry more difficult to understand. Still, this book is a useful tool for anyone interested in studying the “ghost lore” of Wisconsin and can be a great guide to some of the state’s more interesting locations.

Available at Amazon.com

The ultimate A to A of fantastic beings from myth and magic.

Written by John and Caitlin Matthews

Whether you’re a gamer, a fiction writer, or you enjoy the fantasy genre, sometimes there are resources available that gather together everything you’re looking for in one place. The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures is one such book.

Spanning worldwide myths, this well-researched encyclopedia has monsters from A Bao a Qu to the creature called “Zu.” Like most well-respected reference works, there is a series of essays in the introduction, as well as at its conclusion. The copy I picked up from Barnes & Noble was in hardcover, and is a hefty book at over 650 pages of dense material covering unusual creatures I had never heard of to “common” monsters like the zombie.

Unlike other research materials, there is a definite and intentional desire in this work for you, as the reader, to easily reference and understand where the origin of these “creatures” began, from both a location and a mythological perspective. I found the stylistic entries to be exceptionally useful; creatures are cross-referenced throughout the work by being “bolded,” and their multiple names are included as separate entries.

Let’s look at an example of an entry, so you can see what I’m referring to:

Erqigdlit A group of blood-drinking monsters in the legends and traditions of the people of Greenland and Baffin Island. Among the Inuit people of Labrador and the Hudson Bay coastline of Canada they are considered the most fearsome and terrifying monsters of which they have knowledge. They are also known as the Adlet.

If this reference book could be improved, I would recommend the inclusion of a world map to cross-reference mythic locations – especially since my geography isn’t as good as what it used to be. I also found the packaging of this book to be quite amusing; this is not a reference work of fiction rather, this is a well-researched compendium of creatures, fairies, monsters, and other mythic gods and goddesses that have taken the form of an animal or hybrid. Published by Barnes & Noble this is one of those “overlooked” reference guides because, in my opinion, the title, the cover art, and its “occult” categorization do not represent the accuracy and the time it took to create this book that is only “magical” because it covers mythic creatures.

Of the other reference guides out there, I would highly recommend The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures; this is not a guide of how to summon, attract the attention of, or tame a magical creature like many works within the occult section claim to do. Instead, this is a thorough work (complete with a full bibliography) that spans global myth from African to East Asian and South American, shedding light on the beliefs and fears that unify us all. The book is not filled with pictures, so you’ll have to use your imagination if you want to see what the Peri look like or if, when you come across the Fei Lian, you’ll treat this commander of winds with kindness.

Great for writers and game designers, I’ve never come across a more thorough and massive work detailing creatures so rare you may not recognize them. There are two, other books in the series entitled, The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells and The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft. If either of those two books are as down-to-earth and fact-filled as this one, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy either one to add substance to my fantasy stories.

Available at Amazon.com

Written by Joseph Vargo and Joseph Iorillo

Illustrated by Joseph Vargo

This book is a complement to the The Gothic Tarot from Monolith Graphics. For those of you who research the occult for your writing or own interest, this compendium has everything you need to get the most out of this unusual deck.

Having read quite a few “compendiums” and “how-to” guides, some take a very emotionally-filled and visual approach, to tap into and encourage your belief in this form of divination. For me, I am attracted to a more pragmatic approach because I primarily use or research these tools for my writing. In my opinion, neither method is “bad” or “good” for, like all books, it depends upon what you want to get out of it.

I feel that this Gothic Tarot Compendium is really somewhere in the middle. Two essays at the beginning of the book were nice to see, for it removes some of the common myths surrounding the tarot and brings us back to reality.

The use of the Tarot as a means to predict a person’s future began in the late 1700s, when the occultist Jean-Baptiste Alliette, also known as Etteilla, published a collection of divinatory meanings for Tarot cards, as well as ordinary playing cards.

Like much of our common mythological and magical beliefs today, most tropes originate from the Victorian era and the Tarot is not an exception. Highly romanticized by occultists of the age, Vargo and Ioriollo include the claims that the Tarot deck originated from Egypt and politely dispel those myths, citing that “There is no definitive archaeological evidence that ties the Tarot to ancient Egypt, nor is there evidence for any of the other theories that subsequently emerged regarding the Tarot’s origin.” In this way, Vargo and Ioriollo set the tone for the rest (and majority) of the compendium, setting the stage for a work that demands respect whether you’re a casual reader like myself, or a series student of this Art.

Illustrated by Vargo in his signature style, full color plates are devoted to each and every card in the deck. For each entry, a two-line synopsis of the card is at the top of the page, with a full divinatory meaning following in both bolded and expanded text. The third part of the entry is, to me, the most fascinating portion, for it describes in full detail every aspect of many of the cards from an artist’s perspective. Many Tarot card readers believe in creating a connection with the cards and, with as unusual as this deck is, the full descriptions give great explanations of the choice behind Vargo’s images and unique style to help connect the reader with the images in order to tap into his (or her) intuition.

At the end of the book, Vargo and Ioriollo offer a few tarot card “spreads” with instructions on how to read them. I felt that the spreads were good layouts, appropriate to the theme of the cards. There wasn’t a lot of commentary about the cards “entertainment value” or “warnings” related to actual readings and, for that reason, I feel that this Compendium is really for more serious Tarot card readers or for researchers like myself. Truthfully, though, not many guidebooks do; to take a light-hearted approach to such a dark-themed set would be a discredit to the artist and creator of The Gothic Tarot.

Whether or not you own the set, The Gothic Tarot Compendium can be purchased as a stand-alone work. With as unusual as this set is, I recommend the Compendium so you can truly appreciate Vargo’s works of art.

Visit MonolithGraphics.com for more information on the Gothic Tarot and other works.