Tying a necktie has never been a task that has come easy to man. It takes a lot of practice — practice that most men are not willing to dedicate themselves to, often looking to a talented friend to help them out.

But who needs to know how to tie the boring old traditional tie? College Humor has put together a helpful guide for some new and innovative ways to set yourself up for a fancy night on the town. One of which is a homage to the feared H.P. Lovecraft beast, Cthulhu.

You can check out this guide to your very own Cthulhu tie by clicking over to the other side, and head on over to the above link for even more fun tie ideas!

One of the countless movie projects that Guillermo del Toro has wanted to direct is an adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft horror title, but many obstacles have stood in its way.

At San Diego Comic-Con 2010 this past weekend, we found out that del Toro was writing and producing Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, and we got a little taste of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which he’s also writing and producing. The thing we did not find out was what he would actually be directing next, which he promised would be a horror and we would know soon enough.

According to reports from Deadline, that movie will indeed be Lovecraft’s 1931 novel, At the Mountains of Madness…finally!

Waiting in my inbox this morning was an email from BOOM! Studios titled “IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN!”

Hmm…

I opened it to find what appears to be a teaser image for a new BOOM! comic book. Check it out here at right (click for larger full view).

As you can see from the red and black teaser image here, it merely states “IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN!” and that whatever this title is, it’s coming to BOOM! Studios in July 2010.

Cthulhu is a reference to the entity in the H.P. Lovecraft universe, one of the Great Old Ones in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythology. I’m not sure of the exact translation of the phrase, but “fhtagn” is one of the words in a chant in the short story The Call of Cthulhu. The chant from the story means “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

I’ve been meaning to post about this for nearly a month now, because it was such a cool find, and luckily, it’s not time-sensitive, so here’s the deal…

The good folks over at Tor posted I, Cthulhu, author Neil Gaiman‘s humorous take on Lovecraft, for your reading pleasure.

The short story — with an actually very lengthy full title I, Cthulhu, or, What’s A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9′ S, Longitude 126° 43′ W) — was published in 1986 and has been posted on the author’s blog for quite some time, but Tor has included some new illustrations by Brian Elig to accompany the tale. And I absolutely love these illustrations (especially the inclusion of shoggoth’s bowl).

I, Cthulhu is supposed to be H.P. Lovecraft‘s Cthulhu dictating its autobiography to the human slave, Whateley. In this story, we learn much about the mysterious Great Old One’s ancient origins, including information on its parents. Be sure to pay close attention to the surprise reveal at the end you definitely won’t see coming.