We've all got to start somewhere...Necronomicon 1.1

There are several sites and blogs out there that have served as my inspiration for starting to write my own, most notably the fantastic Propnomicon, and the now sadly defunct Propping Up the Mythos.
While I've got a few projects I'm working on just now, I thought some other amateur fans of all things Cthulhu might like to see my first attempt at a Necronomicon.

The base was a common or garden hardbound A5 sketch book.  These are great starters, but finding one without perforated pages can be a challenge. 

I wanted to give the impression of a new binding on a much, much older book.  Incidentally, the warping on the back was due to using a microwave oven to dry a 'bloodstain' without thought of what it would do to the glue.  Actually, I quite like the effect, as though something inside is trying to burn its way out - kind of a budget Ark of the Covenant.

The inspiration for the library label came from a template on Propping Up the Mythos.

The page layout was based on a 17th century Book of Common Prayer, i.e. the red lines on the margin.  The text was handwritten, based on Microsoft Word's Symbol font, as I don't read Greek.  Mind you, nor does anyone that's ever perused the prop so far...

One of the problems I've found with any substitution font is that English text still looks like English.  For that reason I broke up some of the words in case of any canny cypher-breakers getting too smug.  As a clue, the frontispiece is a quote from Annie Lennox, who obviously knows something...

This part of the text is a straight lift from the Simon Necronomicon, along with Lovecraft's version of the Elder Sign. 

Knowing that I would later be staining the pages, I wrote/drew with a permanent marker.  While I had read that brown pigment gave an illusion of time-faded ink, I hadn't realised how aggressively it would bleed through the pages.  If I were to do the same again, I would be tempted to use a better grade of paper, or possibly a different approach to the lettering, possibly acrylic ink.  I don't have access to a colour printer at the moment, much less the wherewithal to use natty art programmes - besides, as an old-school technophobic luddite, I quite like the (in)human touch of a handwritten prop.  The downside to this is that you can't make anything in a hurray...

  I hope you've enjoyed this first peek into my slightly mythos-addled mind.  More picture to come later.