I’ve been really into monsters lately. You might’ve noticed. I blame it on Doom and the 30+ hours I’ve spent painting every square inch of its gorgeous virtual world with the wet and squishy insides of the myriad demons that have been foolish enough to think they were safe in Hell. By the time they realized their home turf advantage doesn’t apply to the BFG-9000, it was too late. I have an Imp’s death scream as my ringtone now, and that was not easy to get.

The folks at id Software could’ve saved me a lot of time had they made the story mode playable in co-op. That way, I wouldn’t have had to pin the Imp down with a boot to the throat while I struggled to record it before it drowned on its own blood. It was totally worth it.

Anyway, the reason I’m bringing this up is because it relates to the pretty pretty pictures we’re about to soak up with our eye sponges. This wonderful horror art comes from Ramsés Meléndez, an artist who’s exceedingly skilled at creating monsters that are equal parts terrifying and hauntingly beautiful to look at. Also impressive is how they each work on their own, as well as in a group, thanks to Meléndez’s clever use of color.

We see this sort of thing all the time in survival horror, where games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil or Dead Space can feature a variety of monsters that also, usually, need to be identifiable as belonging to each other. Silent Hill has its abstract abominations that tend to be fleshy and confusing to look at, then Dead Space takes the bewildering body horror to the next level with the Necromorphs, and Resident Evil has been coming up with fresh casts of themed baddies for some time (Umbrella’s BOWs, Ganados, Majini, J’avo, etc.).

You can find more of his work in his gallery, and he has a horror blog and a web comic that are also worth checking out.