A Hellhound / Black Dog Cryptid It’s fun drawing cryptids and beasts again! There are so many Black dogs with red eyes in folklore around the world! -KP
[ID: A digital painting of a black dog with glowing white eyes, standing in profile, with its head turned to look at the viewer. The dog is standing in an old cemetery, with cracked and eroded tombstones all around it. Billowing clouds of pale green fog surround the dog and tombstones, and small green lights float around them, illuminating the scene.]
Think I might start posting more of my WIPs here. This one here is my Webcomic’s final. The finished final probably won’t be posted for a good while until all the other finished assignments are posted here.
I’m really excited for the finished version of this as it’s requirement is doing something experimental with your comic and I’m doing animation! (I actually have animations churned out, but I didn’t want to deal with my computer processing them tonight for this WIP ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
If you could travel through time and visit places from all different eras of history, there are some places that would be lovely to visit and others that you’d definitely want to avoid. 17th century English prisons definitely fall into the latter category.
These institutions were notorious for their horrible living conditions, so it comes as no surprise that one of worst of these prisons, Newgate Prison, spawned some really dark folktales.
TheBlack Dog of Newgate is a spectre that supposedly haunted this building. He was a very large wild dog, with ‘saucer-like’ eyes that shone like lamps, and carried iron chains around his neck. Illustrations of this creature from the 17th century sometimes depict the creature with snakes coming out of his head, like Medusa, but this might be an artistic choice and not intended to be taken literally.
In the 17th century, a man named Luke Hutton published a pamphlet about this creature, claiming that the story was told to him by a strange, very thin man. This booklet is written like the author is trying to warn the reader about this dangerous supernatural creature, yet it does contain a disclaimer that the story is most likely fiction, with the remark that in reality there is only one black dog in the prison, and it is a statue. I wonder if the monster was originally intended as a metaphor for the harsh treatment of the inmates that the prison was so infamous for?
In any case, the black dog nevertheless gained a position among the local folktales and cryptids. I have seen claims that the story of the monster actually predates the booklet I mentioned, but there doesn’t seem to be a source on this statement, or any source older than the pamphlet.
The story goes like this: a peculiar man was (correctly) accused of sorcery and sentenced to a cell in the Newgate prison complex. Unfortunately for him, this happened during a time of great famine. During an uprising, some starving inmates overpowered him and, because the guards did not care enough about the prisoners to interfere, managed to kill the man and eat his corpse. But with his dying breath, the sorcerer cast a powerful curse on his assailants.
After he was slain and eaten, a large black dog was sometimes seen on the prison grounds. This monster was assumed by some to be the spirit of the victim, and it stalked the prison at night. The creature was formidable and hunted down all the inmates who were responsible for the sorcerer’s death, gruesomely killing every single one of them until none were left.
Though the prison was demolished over a century ago, there is still an urban legend about a shapeless black shadow that roams the Amen Court area.
Sources: Hutton, L., 1638, The discovery of a London monster, called, the blacke dogg of New-gate profitable for all readers to take heed by, London. Which you can read here. (Andthis internet page for that last part about the urban legend) (Source for both images: Luke Hutton, 1638)
* WHY DO YOU RESIST ME? BE A GOOD LITTLE DOG AND ACCEPT YOUR FATE, ACCEPT ME… *
The sickening voice thundered in her head again and she thrashed and howl. She clutched at her necklace, a holy symbol of her faith and even though it burned her hand as she held it, the hot white light of it helped her to resist the call. Regardless of her attempts to resist the oppression of the demonic force, her body had begun to succumb to the corruption. hair and spiked protrusions gave her once soft and charming form a bestial look, and her features were slowly becoming more canine the longer this went on.
She had come into the forest on Halloween night to prove a point. It didn’t matter if a forest was supposedly cursed, or if people thought there was a portal to hell somewhere in the woods. As long as you had faith you would be fine. Now as the unseen entity cackled inside of her head she thought of the others who had gone missing, the others who were soon to be her pack mates if she couldn’t contest this demon.
* STRUGGLE ALL YOU LIKE DOG, YOU WILL FALL BEFORE ME AS SO MANY ALREADY HAVE. THE SUN IS SETTING AND YOUR TIME IS NIGH, GIVE IN! *
She almost let out a canine howl as her spine twisted and pushed into a whip like tail that grew heavy spikes at the end. Her nose was completely changed and she could smell the sulfurous odor of brimstone on the wind. Her head throbbed as to massive horns burst free from either side of her head, pushing her nos thin and pointed ear to the top of her head. Suddenly the demon attacked with one last rush of power and she dug her hands into the earth and clenched her jaw. Hair covered most of her body and thick bony spines pierced the length of her back along her spine. The demon shouted obscenities and curses while demanding she obey his will and become on of his hellhounds.
Just as her eyes turned black she managed to assert her will one last time. The talisman at her neck was blindingly bright and she felt the force within her get ripped asunder and it’s ashes blow away on the breeze as it howled in defeat. The howling wind echoed through the woods mournfully and the girl collapsed the the earth with ragged breaths.
—————–
The following day she would awaken to find that while she had bested the demon, faith alone was not enough to remove the corruption that had tainted her form. She was trapped somewhere between a human and one of the hounds of hell. If she was to ever find a way to become human again she would certainly have to pit herself against the forces of evil…
Some people hold a grudge until their dying day. For fire mages who delve into the forbidden arts of necromancy, their grudges last even longer than that. A hellhound is an embodiment of rage and hatred that typically manifests when a necromancer uses fire magic to extend their personal vendetta beyond their own life. For the first few years after its master’s death, the hellhound will focus on the specific object of its master’s ire. This could include harassing a particular kind of people, or viciously guarding a territory or treasure. Over time, the specific purpose of the hellhound will become unfocused, and it will simply lash out in anger at any being who gets too close. When this happens, hellhounds will often congregate in exceptionally hot, dry areas like lava tubes and active volcanos.
(Thanks to Matt Holmberg @orwin-dm for permission to use the art)
Following an old Goretober prompt for Inktober2020. It’s gonna be a busy month for me so I’m doing one prompt a week and considering everything else a bonus. (Twitter)
![bestiarium:The Black Dog of Newgate [English folktales]If you could travel through time and visit pl](https://64.media.tumblr.com/956d5bd7110e0d8973c68f0a154943cf/9fdae68e98310b6e-39/s500x750/8bbb8e74ed0645156ab7ed8eebcf008eefc5953c.jpg "bestiarium:The Black Dog of Newgate [English folktales]If you could travel through time and visit pl")
![bestiarium:The Black Dog of Newgate [English folktales]If you could travel through time and visit pl](https://64.media.tumblr.com/74794baf66a081cc3c032ff07407b61d/9fdae68e98310b6e-17/s1280x1920/a49a4f18f10f107b7bc3f6a8e145ffba1b6778f0.jpg "bestiarium:The Black Dog of Newgate [English folktales]If you could travel through time and visit pl")
