Neonomicon #3 – Review

By: Alan Moore (writer), Jacen Burrows (art), Juanmar (colors) & William Christensen (editor)

The Story: After a horrible scene to end the last issue, what will become of Agent Brears who had been kidnapped by some Lovecraftian cult and offered up as a sex toy to some water monster/god-thing.

What’s Good: It is pretty hard to get an emotional rise out of me.  I’ve consumed enough media in my life that it is really hard to make me get skeeved out or horrified by fictional subject matter, but the ending of Neonomicon #2 where our heroine, Agent Brears, was kidnapped and gang raped by some weird Lovecraft-inspired cult in a bizarre underground bath/grotto before being offered up as a sex toy to some monster from the deep really freaked me out.  It was “freaked out in a good way”, but it was one of those rare comics that stuck with me as I plowed through my 60+ long pull list for a few months since the last issue came out.  What would happen to Brears?

If anything, the last issue steeled your emotions for what was to come in this issue.  What happens is still horrid and you just cannot imagine being stuck in a situation as terrible as where Brears finds herself in this issue: locked in the grotto with a randy sea monster for days on end.  The whole thing is just vile and no punches are pulled in depicting the horror that she endures.  But, no one normal wants to read rape-comics and Alan Moore understands this, so he ends this comic with [SPOILERS] Brears and the monster forming some kind of bond and the monster taking her (willingly) out into the ocean and (we would assume) his lair.  I really can’t wait to see what happens next.

As all of this is going on, we see that the FBI is looking high and low for their missing agents.  And, between these scenes and a hallucination that Brears has, we see Moore noodling with the concept that there is truth in Lovecraft and even if he didn’t appreciate it as he wrote his works, he was channeling something bigger into his writings.  Lovecraft fans will have a field day with this, I am sure.

If Moore is pitching this story, Burrows is the one knocking the visuals out of the park.  It isn’t so much that you look at the page and say, “Wow, that is nice art.”  This is more of a triumph of storytelling in terms of what to show and what not to show or when things should be revealed to the reader.  It is just nice to see creators using the medium of comics to its fullest extent.

The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft #1 – Review

By Mac Carter (Story), Tony Salmons (Pencils & Inks), and Adam Byrne (Colors)

The Story: Writer H.P. Lovecraft has got a bad case of heartache and a worse case of writer’s block. Odd for a man who’s mind is loaded all sorts of macabre things. But a string of events changes things and soon Lovecraft is thinking about his masterwork…

What’s Good: Mac Carter does a wonderful job creating just the right tone for a story about the life of the famous horror author. The dialogue effectively captures the liveliness of the 1920’s (as does most of the stylized artwork), while Lovecraft’s inner monologues manage to be melancholy, sinister, and frustrated all at the same time. Carter makes you feel for the brooding writer, doing a really impressive job of writing the monologues in a way that reflects the style of Lovecraft’s works.

The story itself is off to a good start, though it’s a bit too early to tell whether things will successfully and satisfyingly play out in only four issues. Enough happens in chapter one to hook the reader, but it’s mostly all set up. That said, it’s some pretty solid set up.

What’s Not So Good: The artwork by Tony Salmons and Adam Byrne is really hit or miss throughout the book. And it proves to be frustrating because when the visuals work, they work really well. For every few scenes that do an admirable job of capturing the story and the setting, there is one that looks off in some way. Either the coloring is far too dark and muddy or the action is delivered in a confusing manner.

Conclusion: The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft is off to a promising start. The writing delivers in a big way and, if the visuals can do an effective job of playing catch up, I think the mini-series could deliver in a big way. I recommend it for fans of the author and fans of supernatural stories in general.

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny

Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft #1 (of 3) – Review

Richard Corben (writer, artist)

This is the beginning of the second Haunt of Horror mini-series (the first featured the tales of Edgar Alan Poe) by Richard Corben for Marvel’s Max line. It’s an attractive package with a heavy cardstock cover and featuring some gorgeous black and white art (with gray wash-tones). The collection contains three stories: Dagon, based on a Lovecraft short story, The Scar (after Lovecraft’s Recognition) and A Memory, both based on poems. As a nice touch is the text of the original source material which is included after each story; they serve as a story divider.

The typical features of Lovecraft’s milieu are well represented here: The unmentionable, ancient creeping horrors in remote corners of the globe that drive the mind from rational thought to madness. As a true Lovecraft aficionado, I tend to look at this work with a more critical eye. The more general comics reader can enjoy this work as either an intro to Lovecraft or as an appreciation of the work of Richard Corben – one of the true legends still working in the field.

In The Scar, Corben makes great use of the black and white printing and proves himself a master of light and shadow. A torch plays a significant role in the story and the stark contrast of torchlight highlighting facial features against black backgrounds is beautifully rendered throughout the story – a joy to behold if you like that sort of thing. At the risk of sounding silly, I’ll admit that A Memory is almost entirely worth it just for the rendering of the gloves on the second page of the story. Go ahead, take a look, and tell me they don’t look plush; you’re in the hand of a master craftsman here.

While The Memory involves more blood and guts than the other two stories it’s a more understated use of gore. It’s there but it doesn’t overpower. The focus is on the emotional content as revealed through the facial features of the characters involved. All in all a very effective story with a bit of a twist ending not unlike an old Marvel monster story.

I enjoyed this issue a good deal. Lately I’ve been into the old black and white magazines, like Creepy and Eerie that weren’t quite my cup of tea when I was younger. This comic very much has the feel of those books, and I do believe Corben did work for those titles back in the 70’s. While I regret missing the Haunt of Horror series dedicated to Poe I will be looking to pick it up in trade. And I am definitely looking forward to the next issue of this three part miniseries. (Grade: A)

– Arthur Cooke