EDITOR’S NOTE: Samuel Araya previously explored his process for illustrating The King in Yellow in “The Darkening of Materials,” “No Mask,” “But Stranger Still,” and “The Tatters of the King.”
When I designed the Yellow Sign for this edition of The King in Yellow, I wanted to create something new and even contradictory to the text. (This dissonance certainly will only enrich the readers experience!) I especially wanted to create a symbol different from the standard version that has been popularized by role-playing games.
King-deities are traditionally solar deities, and my favorite solar deity is Khepri, the dung beetle from Egypt who carried not a dung ball but the sun across the sky. While researching beetles, I found myself fascinated by Lucanus cervus, a stag beetle family. The stag is also present as a symbol in countless traditions, my favorite being Cailleach, the goddess of death of the Caledonians (according to J.G. McKay). The maws of the beetle are distorted so they trace a circle around a dot, the alchemical symbol of the sun.
Finally, bonus track, the stag horns are a nice tie to True Detective, the series that reminded me how much I loved The King in Yellow.
You can pre-order the deluxe, illustrated and annotated edition of “The King in Yellow” via @arc_dream_publishing #art #darkart #Lovecraft #KinginYellow #painting #illustration #samaraya
Please subscribe to my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/c9RV5X
Samuel Araya
Ascencion, 2018
