MONSTERS, MADMEN AND THINGS THAT SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD

Vampires. Mutants. Werewolves. Living slime. Sinister surgeons. Investigators who have just realised they are no longer alone.

Horror needs more than shadows and bloodstains.

It needs something waiting inside them.

Brad McDevitt Stock Art – Horror Collection 8 provides 25 horror-themed TIFF files representing 23 distinct subjects, ready for use by publishers, writers, game designers and Games Masters.

The collection ranges from traditional supernatural creatures and modern monsters to human villains, grotesque mutations, atmospheric scenes and images suited to investigative, medical and technological horror.

Most of the artwork is presented in Brad McDevitt’s distinctive black-and-white style, with colour and greyscale alternatives supplied for selected illustrations.

The artwork may be used in personal and professional projects, subject to the terms of the attached licence.

INSIDE THE COLLECTION

The 25 supplied files are:

• Deformed Vampire

• Evil Businessman

• Ghost Girl

• Grinning Ghoul

• Horror Graffiti

• Living Slime

• Madman

• Madman – greyscale

• Mutant Children

• Penangallen – colour

• Penangallen – greyscale

• Semi-Nude Vampire

• Sinister Spinster

• Sunburnt Vampire

• Techno Daemon

• Tentacular Horror

• The Morgue

• Threatened Investigator

• Vampire Thug

• Vampiress

• Werecrocodile

• Werewolf

• Sinister Surgeon – black and white

• Mutant Catman

• School

That gives you monsters, murderers, victims, investigators, supernatural predators and several scenes suitable for introducing something deeply unpleasant.

VAMPIRES WITHOUT THE POLISH

Not every vampire is an immaculate aristocrat brooding attractively in a velvet-lined drawing room.

Some are deformed.

Some are sunburnt.

Some are thugs.

Some appear to have abandoned any remaining pretence of humanity.

This collection includes:

• Deformed Vampire

• Semi-Nude Vampire

• Sunburnt Vampire

• Vampire Thug

• Vampiress

These illustrations can support:

• Vampire role-playing games

• Urban fantasy

• Gothic horror

• Modern supernatural campaigns

• Monster-hunting adventures

• Bestiaries

• Character portraits

• Faction and antagonist sections

Use them as separate creatures or as members of a single, varied vampire population.

The Deformed Vampire might be an ancient predator, failed transformation or creature physically reshaped by hunger.

The Vampire Thug can bring supernatural menace into a street-level or criminal setting.

The Sunburnt Vampire suggests what happens when immortality encounters insufficient planning.

The Vampiress and Semi-Nude Vampire offer additional options for projects leaning towards gothic, adult or sensual horror.

The artwork provides the visual starting point.

The precise creature, character and explanation remain yours.

GHOSTS, GHOULS AND THE UNQUIET DEAD

The Ghost Girl and Grinning Ghoul offer two very different forms of death refusing to remain properly concluded.

The Ghost Girl can illustrate:

• A haunting

• A supernatural witness

• A lost child

• A recurring apparition

• The central mystery of an investigation

• A spirit tied to a house, object or location

The Grinning Ghoul is considerably less ambiguous.

It can serve as a corpse-eater, underground predator, undead servant or inhabitant of somewhere the characters should not have entered without substantially more ammunition.

A ghost may require understanding.

A ghoul may require violence.

The difficulty lies in discovering which sort of scene the characters have entered before choosing their approach.

MUTANTS AND TRANSFORMATIONS

The collection includes Mutant Children, a Mutant Catman, a Werecrocodile and a Werewolf.

These figures can be used for:

• Body horror

• Genetic experiments

• Supernatural transformations

• Shapeshifter campaigns

• Post-apocalyptic settings

• Urban fantasy

• Science-fiction horror

• Hidden communities

• Creatures produced by curses, disease or irresponsible research

The Mutant Children may be victims, threats or members of a population that has been concealed from the wider world.

The Mutant Catman can represent a transformed human, hybrid creature, experimental subject or species in its own right.

The Werecrocodile and Werewolf provide recognisable shapeshifter material while leaving the details of their origins and behaviour open to the writer.

Perhaps the transformations are inherited.

Perhaps they spread through infection.

Perhaps somebody has learned how to manufacture them.

All three possibilities create trouble.

MADNESS AND HUMAN MONSTERS

Not every horror needs claws, tentacles or supernatural powers.

The Madman, Sinister Spinster, Evil Businessman and Sinister Surgeon offer human or apparently human threats.

The Madman is supplied in both standard and greyscale versions, allowing the same illustration to fit different layouts.

These figures can be used for:

• Slasher scenarios

• Psychological horror

• Crime investigations

• Medical horror

• Conspiracy games

• Cults

• Modern gothic adventures

• Villains whose monstrosity is entirely a matter of choice

The Evil Businessman might be a corrupt executive, criminal financier, cult patron or respectable public figure funding something grotesque behind closed doors.

The Sinister Surgeon can become an unethical doctor, torturer, experimental researcher or medical professional whose definition of treatment has become alarmingly broad.

The Sinister Spinster might be a neighbour, recluse, occult practitioner, murderer or apparently harmless person at the centre of a much larger mystery.

The filename suggests a mood.

The artwork does not dictate the character.

SLIME, TENTACLES AND STRANGER THINGS

The Living Slime, Tentacular Horror and Techno Daemon push the collection towards stranger territory.

The Living Slime can be used as:

• An escaped experiment

• An alien organism

• A supernatural infestation

• A sewer-dwelling creature

• A biological weapon

• Something growing beneath a hospital, laboratory or school

The Tentacular Horror offers a creature for cosmic horror, fantasy, science fiction or any scenario requiring an organism whose anatomy discourages close examination.

The Techno Daemon can support:

• Cyber-horror

• Possessed machinery

• Science-fantasy

• Artificial intelligence

• Demonic technology

• Occult experiments involving computers

• Campaigns where the distinction between magic and machinery has broken down

These pieces are especially useful when a project needs something that does not belong neatly within a familiar category.

The unknown is frightening.

The partly recognisable is often worse.

THE PENANGALLEN

The collection includes colour and greyscale versions of an illustration named Penangallen in the supplied files.

The image can be used for a flying, disembodied or visceral supernatural creature, particularly in adventures drawing upon Southeast Asian horror and folklore.

It may serve as:

• A nocturnal predator

• A curse

• A transformed human

• A hidden supernatural threat

• The focus of an occult investigation

• A creature stalking an isolated community

The two versions provide additional flexibility for colour and black-and-white publication.

Use the supplied filename, rename the creature for your own setting or adapt the image to something entirely new.

SCENES OF HORROR

The collection is not limited to portraits and isolated monsters.

The Morgue, Threatened Investigator, School and Horror Graffiti provide broader scenes and atmospheric material.

THE MORGUE

A morgue can be:

• A crime scene

• The location of an autopsy

• The beginning of an undead outbreak

• A place where evidence has vanished

• Somewhere a body has been misidentified

• The last place anybody saw the night attendant

The dead are supposed to remain quiet.

That expectation is the foundation of a great many horror stories.

THREATENED INVESTIGATOR

The Threatened Investigator offers an immediate image of danger closing in upon somebody who has discovered too much.

Use it for:

• Detective horror

• Paranormal investigations

• Chapter openings

• Player handouts

• Conspiracy scenarios

• The moment when research becomes personal

Investigators frequently begin by looking for monsters.

The successful monsters notice.

SCHOOL

The School illustration can support institutional horror, supernatural investigations or stories in which an ordinary educational setting has become dangerous.

It might accompany:

• A haunting

• Missing children

• A cult operating within an institution

• A violent incident

• An outbreak

• A conspiracy

• Something hidden beneath an apparently ordinary building

The artwork supplies the location and mood.

What happened there remains for you to decide.

HORROR GRAFFITI

Horror Graffiti can be used as:

• A chapter heading

• An urban-horror image

• A warning left by a victim

• A cult symbol

• Evidence discovered during an investigation

• The sign that somebody has already been here

Graffiti may be vandalism.

It may be a message.

It may be the only warning the characters receive.

PROFESSIONAL ART FOR INDEPENDENT CREATORS

Commissioned artwork remains the best way to obtain precisely the illustration a project requires.

It is also expensive.

Independent publishers must divide limited budgets between writing, editing, layout, promotion, printing and the unfashionable ambition of being paid for their work.

Stock art provides a practical alternative.

This collection can help you:

• Illustrate monsters and villains

• Break up dense pages of text

• Establish a consistent horror atmosphere

• Complete adventures and sourcebooks

• Add impact to chapter openings

• Create investigative handouts

• Populate bestiaries and antagonist sections

• Build a reusable library for future projects

• Reserve commission funds for essential bespoke artwork

• Replace those accusing boxes marked ART GOES HERE

Use one illustration to complete a short scenario or draw upon the full collection across a larger book.

A good picture fills a space.

A better picture suggests what ought to happen next.

25 FILES, 23 SUBJECTS

The collection contains 25 TIFF files representing 23 distinct subjects.

Two subjects are supplied in alternate versions:

• Madman: standard and greyscale

• Penangallen: colour and greyscale

The remaining files are distinct illustrations covering:

• Vampires

• Ghosts and ghouls

• Werecreatures

• Mutants

• Human villains

• Medical horror

• Investigative scenes

• Technological and tentacular monsters

• Atmospheric locations

This distinction means the collection contains 25 usable files, rather than claiming 25 entirely different subjects.

READ THE LICENCE

The artwork is supplied for personal and professional use under the terms of the attached licence.

Read the licence before publication and ensure that your intended use, alterations and attribution comply with its requirements.

Some pieces may also appear in other Brad McDevitt collections where they suit more than one genre. Horror naturally overlaps with fantasy, science fiction, modern gaming and urban fantasy.

You can explore the complete Brad McDevitt Stock Art range.

The morgue is occupied.

The investigator is cornered.

Something is moving inside the walls.

Your manuscript still needs pictures.

Solve the manageable problem first.