As it stands, the pieces collected in this edition are self indulgent and do little more than pat the writers on their collective backs while at the same time provide a minute or two of light reading. An example of the prose is Shikhar Dixit's "Lost Places." In it, the characters Witkin and Clifton find one of those hidden monsters that lurk in every neighborhood and in our nightmares. The attempt, I think, was to create a study about the inner journeys one must take, and the inner demons one must face. Humans have found most of the "monsters" on this earth, and so the last, great frontier on this planet is ourselves. Good stuff, and good for Dixit for showing spatial and temporal connections (i.e. right place, right time) are not the only connections that humans use. At the same time, the story is linear without a correspondingly linear character growth.

Man gets phone call, man meets friend at diner, man goes and finds monster with friend. This internal journey that is literally traveled in this world of the Cthulhu does not make itself evident on the page. The main character travels no distance in terms of personal growth, and his disinterest in facing the monster says nothing about him. Sure, it says he is disinterested in facing his monsters. Such a character makes for a poor main protagonist, through whom the reader is supposed to learn something new.

Also at issue is the voice of the work, which focuses too much on sounding like a horror story rather than being a horror story. In this example scene, the main character talks with his friend who will accompany him to the depths.

"He drops his face into charcoal-layered hands, shoulders heaving. Snot seeps from between his fingers. Muffled and mournful, 'There's no way out of this one, man.'"

To contrast the weakness of the writing is the quality of the illustrations by Melissa Goldberg, Jarno Lahti, Bethalynne Bajema, and Elvi Athan. Each illustration carries an intimacy that pulls the viewer. In one illustration, "Lost," by Jarno Lahti, there is the text "Lost in a Dark World" that hangs over the picture of a man with empty eyes, but with a hopeful face that stares at nothing. At the bottom half of the picture is a hawk or a falcon in full flight, its wings spread to their fullest distance. Under the bird are a number of bare trees. There is a simple desperation in the face, while the dark shading of the piece underscores the 'Dark World" aspect of the text. At the same time, the bird flying over the confines of the forest either speaks to the dreams of the face or maybe the internal life of the person that soars high above the mundane life of this world.

I do wish that the illustrations were in color. The shading of each does a great deal to create depth and even a third dimensional quality. ("The Gate" by Bethalynne Bajema is a good example). Color would only add to the experience, though it might not outweigh the costs of printing. Also of interest, one wonders if this realm of horror might be best expressed by the strong imagery present in the illustrations, rather than the campy writing of the prose. Cthulhu Sex is supposed to be about "Blood, Sex, and Tentacles." You write a story that works with those requirements. It's a tall order.