Atlas Games must have had some success with their two previous issues, Where the Deep Ones Are and The Antarctic Express, because Kenneth Hite has come up with another mash up of a children's classic and an HPL mythos story. This time it's Norman Bridwell's series, Clifford the Big Red Dog that gets the tentacle treatment. Most kids end up reading one or a dozen of Bridwell's books about Emily Elizabeth and her beloved pet. Mr. Hite has taken this series and superimposed it on Wilbur Whateley and the Dunwich Horror.

Art is by Andy Hopp, who produced the monsters in Where the Deep Ones Are. Once again he has done a superb job, consciously mimicking the style of Clifford while making the creature delightfully his own. CLiffourd is creepy and cute at the same time. As for the story, well, there's not much of one, just like there is never much of a story in the Clifford books. Actually compared to the first two in the Mini-Mythos series, Cliffourd has text that is even more thin. On the other hand anyone inclined at all to buy Cliffourd won't give a rip about that.

My misgivings are pretty much the same as for all of these. This is not a book for children, it's a book for mythos geeks and collectors, or fanciers of Lovecraftian art. The cost for a book with about 30 pages of pictures and text seems pretty extreme. As long as they sell well I'm sure Atlas Games will continue making these books and I will continue to collect them. They can keep using Andy Hopp all the time as far as I'm concerned. I idly wonder if they used the name Cliffourd to avoid pesky legal proceedings. ( )