Ghost of a flea: Arkham Asylum

July 13, 2004

Arkham Asylum

I was always pleased that the Batman universe included an homage to H.P. Lovecraft. Certainly, an hospital for insane super-criminals is made all the more sinister when its name echoes that of my favourite fictional town. According to Wikipedia the link is more direct than I had suspected. Bob Kane was a Lovecraft fan and met the man himself.

H.P. Lovecraft met Bob Kane, Batman's co-creator, in 1935 on a train. The young Kane told Lovecraft that he loved how he wrote his stories and told him about a vigilante that had literally gone insane with vengeance over something that cannot be destroyed: the essence of evil itself. Kane was so grateful for being able to meet Lovecraft only two years before his death that he created Arkham Asylum as a means of paying tribute to his hero.

Now all I need is Batman vs. Cthulhu. The answer, btw, is Cthulhu. Obviously.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at July 13, 2004 08:30 AM

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Comments

I rather suspect it was something like this...

Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge at July 14, 2004 08:16 AM