As I mentioned yesterday, I really love Jason Eckhardt’s work on the Lovecraft Country sourcebooks for Call of Cthulhu, particularly the desolate townscapes in Escape from Innsmouth. Right around the same time that came out, Necronomicon Press released Brian Stableford’s The Innsmouth Heritage (1992), also illustrated by Eckhardt. It gave the artist a chance to restore the fishing town to some of its glory, after a fashion.

The story is an interesting one, which sees Innsmouth under redevelopment. A geneticist and a historian discuss the town and hash out a plausible theory for the “taint” and all the legends around the town. We readers, think we know the truth, but Stableford does a good job of subverting expectations back and forth. It’s a solid story and was a key component for ’90s Stu figuring out how to read Lovecraft in different ways.

Eckhardt contributes to that in a visual way, twinning his decayed Innsmouth with this revived one, even if our clearest view of it is on the cover. What a job though! It captures a sense of a seaside tourist town while also maintaining a sense of the sinister in the distorted reflections.