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Hear the tolling of the bells -
Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people - ah, the people -
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone -
They are neither man nor woman -
They are neither brute nor human -
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells -
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells -
Bells, bells, bells -
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Wow. That was awesome.

I've always loved the original Edgar Allen Poe poem (in particular, I always liked the version set to music by Phil Ochs)... There is an almost Eldritch brilliance to that rewrite, though, far beyond the amusement a good filk usually merits. Genuinely inspired.

In regards to the strip itself, am I alone (well, with Maria) in not knowing that ghouls had hooves? I don't recall ever hearing that one before.

So... Nazi ghouls. Controlled by or in league with the Shan. And poor Hook was finally starting to get over that morose attitude...

Well, these seem based off of Lovecraft's stuff, not suprising considering how much Mytho's stuff is in the comic. I dunno if the hooves were a lovecraft original or based on some older ghoul myth or not. Different cultures have almost as many types of ghouls as they do ghosts.

Bushipunk wrote: In regards to the strip itself, am I alone (well, with Maria) in not knowing that ghouls had hooves? I don't recall ever hearing that one before.

It's standard for HPL ghouls, who were described as having canine features, hooves, rubbery skin, and a moldy odor (the salient stories are "Pickman's Model" and "Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath"). Further, ghoul originates from the Arabic ghul, a type of demon that feeds on the dead and was said to have bestial features (and possibly shapeshifting abilities, but that's a pretty common trait for most Arabian beasties).

Of course, I've never been a big fan of the canine face, much prefering the rotting corpse image (sort of like in Delta Green). The hooves, however, I decided to keep. I might decide that this is an intermediary stage, and that much older ghouls begin to evince the more animalistic facial features.

So yeah. That's the Strange Daze ghoul. Not dead, but only sort of alive, corrupted and twisted by the Azathoth Contagion. And a natural(?) predator for the undead ...

Mirober wrote:

Bushipunk wrote: In regards to the strip itself, am I alone (well, with Maria) in not knowing that ghouls had hooves? I don't recall ever hearing that one before.

It's standard for HPL ghouls, who were described as having canine features, hooves, rubbery skin, and a moldy odor (the salient stories are "Pickman's Model" and "Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath").

Huh. "Kadath" is one of my favourite stories, can't believe I spaced on that aspect of the ghoul's description.

Mirober wrote: Of course, I've never been a big fan of the canine face, much prefering the rotting corpse image (sort of like in Delta Green). The hooves, however, I decided to keep. I might decide that this is an intermediary stage, and that much older ghouls begin to evince the more animalistic facial features.

So we should plan on seeing quite a few more of them, then. Splendid!

Oddly enough, ghouls were one of the only... non-actively-malevolent races in HPL's writings. Sure, they ate dead things, but they weren't -necessarily- horrible evil things. Unless you counted 'slowly turning you into one of them' as an evil act...

...of course, flipping back to arabian myth (that I think also included the hooves, though I could be misremembering), the ghuls were pretty evil. And given the way these guys are acting, I think that we can be pretty sure that these guys? Evil.

Poor Hook. He finally becomes a mortal undead, and is promptly faced by things that eat undead for dinner!

Lovecraft ghouls eh? Where's the meeping and glibbering?

Facial expressions are really getting good.

Pickman and his friends
Eat too much cholesterol.
Are there vegan ghouls?

clem wrote:Lovecraft ghouls eh? Where's the meeping and glibbering?

These ghouls have not yet been exposed to the full glory of Allfather Azathoth; thus, they are not gibbering madmen (madthings?).

Facial expressions are really getting good.

Pickman and his friends
Eat too much cholesterol.
Are there vegan ghouls?

Well, there are ghouls who only eat vegans ... that count?

Ghouls who eat vegans?
I'll show them that, like ketchup,
Ghouls are vegetables!

Azathoth Contagion eh? I wasn't aware the Elder Things had branched into virii.
Those digitigrade legs are HUGE! Must be a size 22 hoof.

That means he's the bull, or "alpha", ghoul. They get the neat hats.