Virgil Finlay's Astral Bodies Rising, Dedicated to A. Merritt, 1937

Two luminous male figures ascend through a stormy, cloud-wreathed void, their nude bodies crackling with jagged lightning-like energy as they levitate above a landscape of razor-sharp obsidian spires. The atmosphere is electric and otherworldly — half cosmic transcendence, half supernatural terror. Created as a personal tribute to fantasy author A. Merritt, this piece showcases Finlay's signature stipple-dot mastery, rendering ethereal radiance and deep shadow with extraordinary precision in black and white ink.