Most of my fanfiction I'm writing currently involves two of my favorite "fun" things to read (as opposed to 'work' reading!) which are DC comics especially Justice League (I just got back into them with New 52) and the stories by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) and others, popularly known as the "Cthulhu Mythos."

When I started reading them together I began noticing that they were almost diametrical opposites in their philosophies (these kinds of things interest me). For example, Superman and many of the other superheroes represent an optimistic outlook on life (well, except maybe for Batman) - that 'truth, justice, and the American Way' will overcome evil and cruelty as symbolized by the supervillians, and that humankind can rise to their highest potential (as represented by Jor-el's speech in the movies "they only lack the light to show them the way" "they will join you in the sun" et al), which the superheroes emulate for them through their heroic deeds. That's why many people loved these stories for decades.

In contrast, Lovecraft's stories (or the Cthulhu Mythos as they are widely known by since other writers added their own spins) emphasize the total futility of mankind in the face of the vastness and emptiness of the cosmos, that good and evil are only human ideas, that there are REALLY nasty things out there in the universe (the Great Old Ones, Cthulhu being the most famous) and that they don't care about humankind or its wants and needs, and that their intentions are utterly unknowable. Most of Lovecraft's human characters end up either dead or insane as a result of confronting this (it's kind of a standby among Cthulhu Mythos readers, that if the story has a happy ending, it isn't really a good Mythos story! Unless it's a satire) - a lot of this was due to Lovecraft's own strange life (a new 2-volume biography by S.T. Joshi just came out, or you can just read about him on Wikipedia). So this is a very pessimistic genre! To get an idea of just how negative it is, take this opening line from his most famous story, "The Call of Cthulhu":

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

No light there, but very enjoyable to read, if you are into horror fiction or 'dark' stories. Lovecraft is currently undergoing a kind of literary vogue right now so this would be a good time to get into him, if you have not read him before.

A related Mythos to Lovecraft's is what is known as the "Yellow Mythos" which are on a series of short stories collected together as "The King in Yellow" by Robert Chambers, written way back in the 1890s. They are focused on a mysterious and malevolent entity known as the the King in Yellow and the city of Carcosa. Robert Chambers is not well-known today, but he mostly wrote romance stories, of all things (a bit like the Nicholas Sparks of his day), except for these stories, which Lovecraft adopted and then August Derleth, James Blish and lately Joseph S. Pulver. The "King in Yellow" is the antagonist in my latest JL fanfic "The Place Where the Black Stars Hang."

So what happens when if these two collide? Could they ever be compatible? That's kind of what I am getting at in my (admittedly terrible) fanfiction writing. Mythos-type monsters have (sort of) shown up in DC universe before (there is a series called "The Doom that Came to Gotham" which I haven't read because it's not available inexpensively, and a Cthulhu-ish monster made an appearance in a Justice League cartoon but since Hawkgirl was able to bash him with her mace and save the day - happy ending - it doesn't really count). Of course DC borrowed (inappropriately, according to some people) the word 'Arkham' for Arkham Asylum, although it has nothing to do with Lovecraft's Arkham (a town) and the backstory is completely different. A really good genuine crossover story will never appear in print, I think, because 1) No, I don't think they really are compatible since you can't kill/make insane our dear DC heroes and the Old Ones are virtually omniscient and all-powerful, and 2) They could never satisfy everyone, unless it becomes a "What If" scenario or an alternate universe "Elseworlds" story i.e. sad or unhappy ending, as alot of them are! But this is kind of like my creative writing thought experiment - who says you can't try :P

My current crossover stories are (and they go in order, so I would recommend reading them that way) "The Red House", "The Hyades Shall Sing" and "The Place Where the Black Stars Hang."

My other fanfiction interest is in Sapphire & Steel, an old British TV sci-fi series which aired in the late 70s/early 80s. I first started watching Sapphire & Steel after seeing Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous, one of my favorite shows of all time. I hadn't seen her in anything else and seeing Patsy in this weird and scary sci-fi drama was kind of...surreal. Anyway, I really liked the show, hated the cliffhanger at the end of the very last episode! I wished they'd made more episodes, so this is my way of getting it out of my system!

Currently I am on hiatus from S&S and doing the Justice League fanfic, but will return to S&S eventually!

I'm new to this fan fiction writing btw, so any constructive advice is welcome!