Friday Faction: Art by Nohr

Johan Nohr has had an almost unparalleled effect upon the roleplaying home. Together with Pelle Nilsson, he created Mörk Borg, the pitch-black pre-apocalyptic fantasy roleplaying game which brings a Nordic death metal sensibility to the Old School Renaissance, designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. Since its publication in 2019, has gone to become the basis of several other roleplaying games, such Cy-Borg, Pirate Borg, and Death in Space, as well as a host of other supplements, scenarios, fanzines, and other third-party content. It has not only retained its popularity, but become a firm fixture of the Old School Renaissance hobby, even if it does not share the same origins. In particular, Johan Nohr created the look of Mörk Borg, beginning with the distinctive chromium yellow of its cover to the swathes of deep black and neon pink inside. The look and style of Mörk Borg is art punk, inspired by the post-punk rock sophistication that drew on the theory of art.

Art by Nohr, subtitled ‘Drawings and Doodles by Johan Nohr, Made Between 2006 and 2033’ and published by Stockholm Kartell following a successful Kickstarter campaign, is part retrospective, part showcase of the graphic designer and illustrator’s work from before, during, and after Mörk Borg. It is a coffee table artbook, that in truth is dominated by his art for Mörk Borg and other roleplaying games, but there is more than that just here, some it of simple sketches, some of it more. Some of it is simply annotated, most left to speak for itself. From the beginning there is always a jagged edge to Nohr’s style, figures and monsters lurking in the gloom, such as ‘The Skull Crone. Malevolent forest spirit I made up when living in the woods’, the annotation a story in itself, the old woman caught in the shadows of the tall trees, clawed hands reaching out, the skulls piled atop her head hiding her face in their shadows as green flames flicker from their eye sockets. Others seem to stagger at the viewer, whilst other images draw on classic heroic heavy metal fantasy, great horned helmets and mighty weapons, but here the weapons are cracked and stained through use, the helmets keeping the warriors anonymously inhuman. Witches wail and goblins cackle, strange figures stare accusingly at the reader.

‘Barkhäxan’ looks at an earlier collaboration with Pelle Nilsson, a folk horror roleplaying game, a startling simple black and white suggestion of horror and the unknown that contracts sharply with the more widely seen Mörk Borg style. This is widely showcased in the book, with covers and internal illustrations from titles both official and third-party. Some are accompanied by fuller explanations, such as that given for ‘Wickheads’ who have lanterns for heads and who lurk in the dark only for their lights to blaze and blind, before going dark again and striking at the temporarily sightless. They are shown in four images, charting the development of the creatures. For the Mörk Borg there are interesting images of books that have never appeared, such as ‘The End’ which would have depicted the ‘36 Miseries’ which marked the end of the world. The illustrations for third-party both show how popular Mörk Borg has been and act as an illustrated catalogue. The artwork for Cy_Borg is given a similar treatment, but typically less monochrome and more frenetic in its use of colour and energy, but clearly a Mörk Borg-style game.

Nohr changes tack for Into the Odd Remastered with a more subdued style that consists of collages that depict a world of industrial horror and mystery. There is a subtlety to this not seen in the punchiness of the illustrations elsewhere in the book. It is a shame that there is not more of this, both here and in other roleplaying games. ‘Other Projects’ covers a range of promotional posters, album covers, and other roleplaying products. Other sections highlight the other sometimes near illegible typography employed in Mörk Borg, whilst the most fun are the ‘Cardboard Drawings’ that Nohr decorates packages he sends out, whilst the artbook comes to a close with some of the maps he drew for Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days and its predecessor.

Physically, Art by Nohr is an imposing book. All of the artwork is crisply reproduced and it is fantastic to see so much of it presented in double its original size given that its typical format was digest-sized. It also provides an opportunity for the reader to see a lot of art that can only be found on the covers of hard-to-find books and fanzines. Fans of the Old School Renaissance and fans of the artpunk will both enjoy this book, but ultimately Art by Nohr is definitely a book for fans of Johan Nohr and for Mörk Borg, who will appreciate seeing the collection and development of the artpunk style.

—oOo—

Stockholm Kartell will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 30th to Sunday June 1st, 2025.

Colouring Cthulhu IV

Okay. Remember back in 2017 and that weird thing when colouring books were popular once again. Not just for children, but for adults. Walk into any bookshop and you could find a colouring book on any subject or for any intellectual property you care to name, from the Harry Potter Colouring Book, the Vogue Colouring Book, and The Kew Gardens Exotic Plants Colouring Book to the Lonely Planet Ultimate Travelist Colouring Book, the Day of the Dead Colouring Book, and the Escape to Shakespeare’s World: A Colouring Book Adventure. I gave them as presents, but in all honesty, I had and have no interest in colouring books. Except that Chaosium, Inc. published a colouring book, one inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It being from Chaosium, Inc. and it being inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft piqued my interest enough to want to review it, but the main reason to do so was to see if I could review an actual colouring book. Well, I could, and the result was a review of Call of Cthulhu – The Coloring Book: 28 Eldritch Scenes of Lovecraftian for you to Color. However, it turns out it was not the only Lovecraft-inspired colouring book.

The latest is Color the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. Published by Mythos Monsters, it is the second colouring book by artist Jacob Walker, following on from the earlier The Colouring Book Out of Space: A Lovecraft inspired adult coloring book. It collects some twenty-five illustrations, in turn portraying some of the classics of Lovecraft’s works and others. This includes Cthulhu, Dagon, Nyarlathotep, The King in Yellow, and more, as well as places such as R’lyeh, the Dreamlands, the Mountains of Madness and beyond. These are all presented on single sheets which are perforated for easy removal and can be coloured in using pencils, inks, or marker pens, depending upon the colourer’s choice.

After the classic quote from The Call of Cthulhu, begins with a depiction of the most iconic of Lovecraft’s creations, Cthulhu himself. In ‘Resurrection in R’lyeh’, he pulls himself up out of the sea under the waxing crescent of the moon, amidst the tops of the non-Euclidian spires of the city below. It is not the only depiction of Cthulhu, the other, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, a close-up of the great god. Numerous gods are illustrated, such as ‘Yig, Father of Serpents’ and ‘Ithaqua Hunting’, whilst in ‘The Crawling Chaos’ he appears in Ancient Egypt, perhaps as the Dark Pharoah, perhaps as The Crawling Chaos itself. Of the various species, an Elder Thing perches atop an obelisk, ‘The Mi-Go of Yuggoth’ appears from nowhere, and a horde of unnamed Deep Ones swarming forth as ‘Dagon Lord of the Deep’ looms… There is often a cosmically comic sensibility too, such as in ‘Alhazred’s Book, The Neccronomicon’, where the scholar is being assailed by tentacles that thrust up from the very book he is studying, or another scholar attempts to ‘Dispel the Horror’. In general, Human involvement is limited to the poor unfortunates facing the ‘Shoggoth from the Void’ or a Ghoul poses as ‘Pickman’s Model’.

The style of Jacob Walker’s artwork here is clear and open with clean lines and plenty of space. There is however, a familiarity to many of the poses, the Mythos often to be found atop something and looming forth out of the picture towards the viewer. This is the case whether it is the batrachian inhabitants with ‘The Innsmouth Look’ looking out at the viewer, the ‘Grave Eating Ghoul’ pulling itself from the graveyard, or the ‘Byakhee Sentinel’.

In terms of inspiration, Color the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft draws from Lovecraft’s and others’ fiction to focus upon the gods, the races, the monsters, and more. Barring the aforementioned ‘Pickman’s Model’, there are few if any scenes inspired by or depicted in the fiction. This is very much a monsters of the Mythos colouring book rather than a broader Mythos colouring book. Which is as intended, but it does mean that Color the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft is less useful as a source of inspiration for the Keeper of Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, or as a means to illustrate something in Call of Cthulhu—both advantages held by Chaosium, Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu – The Coloring Book: 28 Eldritch Scenes of Lovecraftian for you to Color. To be fair, Color the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft was not created with either feature drawn in, but any Keeper of Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition expecting them will be disappointed. Of the two, Call of Cthulhu – The Coloring Book: 28 Eldritch Scenes of Lovecraftian for you to Color is definitely the more interesting and has more to say.

Ultimately, that leaves the point of Color the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft—the artwork. Clean and simple, every illustration awaits the one thing we are used to seeing in other depictions of the Mythos, and that is colour. The unfussy style of artwork means that this is easy to apply, whether you are a long-time devotee of the Cthulhu Mythos or a three-year-old being introduced to non-Euclidean artwork in readiness for preschool, whether you want to work subtle changes of colour or bold swathes. Color the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft is then simply okay. The illustrations are decent, and whilst the combination of Cosmic Horror and colouring book is still undeniably weird, it is still just okay.

The Art of Symbaroum

Artwork and illustrations alone cannot sell a roleplaying game, but whether great art or signature art, it can help sell a roleplaying game. From Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and SkyRealms of Jorune to Legend of the Five Rings and Mouseguard as well as supplements such as The Book of Unremitting Horror and Green and Pleasant Land, the artwork in these roleplaying games supplements do more than illustrate places, people, monsters, and things. They capture the feel and tone of their respective settings, they impart a sense of wonder or of horror, and they entice the reader—or viewer—into wanting to explore their respective settings as described in the accompanying text. One recent roleplaying to be lauded for its consistently evocative artwork is Symbaroum. Originally published by Järnringen, but now published by Free League, and distributed by Modiphius Entertainment, this Swedish roleplaying game takes place on the edge of civilisation and beyond. The civilisation is the young kingdom of Ambria, barely two decades old, it was founded on the ruins of the ancient and long-lost empire of Symbaroum as the refuge for the survivors fleeing north over the mountains from the Kingdom of Alberetor as it fell to an onslaught from the necromantic Dark Lords. The edge is where the barbarian tribes and goblins make their lives, the beyond is the Davokar Forest, an endless tract of thick woodlands into which treasure hunters venture, hoping to learn its secrets, locate long lost ruins of Symbaroum, and perhaps return with treasures of the past that will make them rich.

From the core rulebook and The Copper Crown to the more recent Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden and Karvosti – The Witch Hammer, the Symbaroum line has been greatly praised for its artwork. Whether it is illustrating the majesty and mystery of the forest under the eaves, the dark and desperate nature of life in Thistle Hold—Ambria’s primary frontier town, the magnificence of the Titans, the mountain range which divides Ambria from Alberetor, the great elemental beasts and the Elves of the season that step out of Davokar to attack and menace Thistle Hold, and the characters—the various types that the players will roleplay in the game, what comes across in Symbaroum is its dark and brooding atmosphere, its fear of the unknown, and the fraught nature of life on the frontier. Fully painted by artist Martin Grip, now much of that artwork has been collected in The Art of Symbaroum.

The Art of Symbaroum comes as a handsome cloth-bound square hardback, just eight-and-a-half inches square, its content printed on glossy paper against a rich black background. It contains just four chapters—the numbers subtly matching the runes on the front cover—‘Symbaroum’, ‘Ambria & Davokar’, ‘Creatures’, and ‘Covers’, across which are presented some seventy or so paintings. Images in ‘Symbaroum’ hint at the grandeur and scope of the ruins of the fallen civilisation and the strange threats that linger, such as the noble spiders and their master, the ruthless warlord known as the Spider King. ‘Ambria & Davokar’ takes the reader from the civilisation of as yet unexamined Ambria, via the rude settlement of Thistle Hold with its infamous arena—as detailed in Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden—out under the fecund eaves of the forest. It includes images of the Titans, the mighty mountains that provided an escape route out of fallen Kingdom of Alberetor, as well as those of the stronghold of the High Chieftain—inside and out—which counter any suggestion that the barbarians are uncultured. ‘Creatures’ includes not beasts and monsters, but also persons. Rounding out the seemingly slim volume—at over hundred pages, it is not actually all that slim—is ‘Covers’, which presents the covers used to grace the front of various sourcebooks and supplements for Symbaroum. Of course, they are what attracted us to the game in the first place and so it is good to see them here, free of titles and logos.

Many, but not all of the paintings are accompanied by short pieces of text. These include snatches of poetry and portents as well as anecdotes from treasure hunters and adventurers who have ventured into Davokar and elsewhere. These add a little flavour and complement the artwork without getting in the way of it.

Other artbooks for roleplaying games might have gone large, but the small square format for The Art of Symbaroum actually works in its favour. It works as both an illustrative primer for the setting and as a handy reference at the table when the Game Master wants to show her players what their characters are seeing in game. Here its small size means that it takes up little room at the table or when being handed round. So there is a practicality to the tiny tome. It should not necessarily be consulted freely, for as the blurb on the back cover states, “When journeying through the pages of this book, remember the warnings spoken by the wardens of Davokar: tread carefully and do not disturb the ruins of old, for the darkness of Symbaroum is about to awaken.”

Above all though, The Art of Symbaroum is a lovely art book, full of evocative, brooding, beautiful artwork. The paintings of Martin Grip do not just showcase the setting of Symbaroum, they are a part of Symbaroum, and it is a delight that the publishers should recognise this by releasing The Art of Symbaroum.

Colouring Cthulhu

Okay. The year is 2017 and the weird thing is that colouring books are popular once again. Not just for children, but for adults. Walk into any bookshop and you can find a colouring book on any subject or for any intellectual property you care to name, from the Harry Potter Colouring Book, the Vogue Colouring Book, and The Kew Gardens Exotic Plants Colouring Book to the Lonely Planet Ultimate Travelist Colouring Book, the Day of the Dead Colouring Book, and the Escape to Shakespeare's World: A Colouring Book Adventure. I have given them as presents, but in all honesty, I have no interest in colouring books. Except that Chaosium, Inc. has published a colouring book and it is inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Not just because of that, but also because I want to see if I can review something like a colouring book.

Call of Cthulhu – The Coloring Book: 28 Eldritch Scenes of Lovecraftian for you to Color comes with almost thirty line drawings taken from the tales of cosmic horror told in both H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction and the setting described in various supplements for the roleplaying game, Call of Cthulhu. In their way, these scenes are all iconic moments caught as line drawings. Thus we see Randolph Carter encountering the guide before ascending higher into the cosmos from ‘Through the Gates of the Silver Key’; the madness of the dimension just a little to the side found in ‘From Beyond’; and the Norwegian, Johansen ramming the yacht, the Alert, into the great horror from R’lyeh in ‘The Call of Cthulhu’. The scenes taken from the various Call of Cthulhu RPG come mainly from the game’s iconic campaigns. These include a depiction of the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep, being worshipped under the Bent Pyramid from Masks of Nyarlathotep; the investigators flying over the unknown mountains in the Antarctic in Beyond the Mountains of Madness; and the appearance of Jeremy from Fungi from Yuggoth (more recently released as Day of the Beast); and more.

In all cases, these are done as double page spreads, the main piece of art on the right hand page, while on the left there is a quote from the inspiration and a secondary piece of art. So accompanying the Alert ramming into Great Cthulhu is a quotation from the short story, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, and a depiction of the famed idol that New Orleans police detective John Raymond Legrasse asked to be identified in 1908 by an archaeological society. While the illustration from Fungi from Yuggoth depicts Jeremy flowing up from the well that is his home, the quote on the left is a letter from Baron Hauptman to his Jeremy’s father. The illustration on the left is of the street where Jeremy and his mother resides. Unfortunately, the left-hand illustrations inspired by the Call of Cthulhu campaigns are not quite as effective as those inspired by the fiction.

Of course just as you would want it, the artwork in Call of Cthulhu – The Coloring Book is striking—striking because it lacks the one thing that we have come to expect in Lovecraftian artwork after years of seeing art on-line and the various card and board games. Colour. Which if you want it, you will have to supply yourself, and that is a challenge in itself. A lot of the artwork—drawn by Andrey Fetisov—is so rich in detail that it would take hours to fill in each separate part of the horrifying thing until it is done, and this without using any shading or black tones. Let alone the fact that your colouring in might not do the artwork justice… (Fortunately, being exclusively available from Chaosium directly also means being supplied with the PDF, so download, print, and practice all you want—or have another go! Or perhaps introduce your three year old to non-euclidean artwork in readiness for preschool.) 

At the same time, this means that each of the pieces of art works as an illustration without colour and just as effectively. The lack of colour means the viewer having to supply use his imagination to supply the colour—that is, before the crayons—and so these pieces work as props or illustrations or Handouts when running Call of Cthulhu. Which begs the question, will there be colouring in books for each of the Call of Cthulhu campaigns? And if so, would they not be great handouts? (Whilst also harking back to the illustration booklets of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules like S1 Tomb of Horrors or S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks?)

Had not Chaosium been kind enough to supply it to review, I might have dismissed Call of Cthulhu – The Coloring Book. On one level it is a frippery, frivolous and ornamental, but on another level, the artwork is fantastic, it does illustrate the Mythos, and it acknowledges the contribution of the Call of Cthulhu RPG to the Mythos and thus to horror. Whether you are merely going to look at it, splash colour over it, or use it as a visual aid, the Call of Cthulhu – The Coloring Book: 28 Eldritch Scenes of Lovecraftian for you to Color delightfully combines whimsical nostalgic format with cosmic horror—and that is as weird a combination as you might ever hope for.