By Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Since everything in the universe is getting the 3-D treatment, it’s no surprise that Cthulhu will be joining the 3-D bandwagon. Wired reports that vintage sci-fi novels will be re-issued with pulpy 3-D covers. On the list: Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle and The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales by H.P. Lovecraft, all of which will appear in April 2011.
A press release issued by Vintage Classics says the company “is delighted to bring together the grandfathers of the genre in this highly desirable and collectible series. 3-D glasses will be included with each novel.” Suzanne Dean, Creative Director of the Random House Group, says: “The Sci-Fi project, with all its B-movie connotations, was the perfect match. Creating a 3-D image relies on the position of the red to the blue tones. Yellow and black stay on the same plane when looking through the glasses. This information was crucial to creating covers that looked attractive in 2-D, but then had the added value of becoming interactive when you put the glasses on.”
While it is nice to know the Great Old One will be almost touchable, I wonder about the logic behind making Cthulhu 3-D. With all those weird and twisted non-eucledian angles, it may result in a bizarre final product. There is also the little-known fact that Cthulhu, like most cephalopods, is colour-blind. This means he won’t be able to see the cover. And may eat us in his fury.