We-view Wednesday – Loving Lovecraft?

“There are my Poe pieces and my Dunsany pieces, but alas, where are my Lovecraft pieces.” -H. P. Lovecraft

Let me start by writing that I have no real experience with the writing or the life of H. P. Lovecraft but when I saw the cover of this comic book my first reaction was, “Wow! This cover has a feel to it, similar to Jeff Vandermeer’s Ambergris from the book City of Saints and Madmen.” The similar feeling must have had something to do with the octopus creature with multiple amber eyes emerging from the subsisting typewriter to embrace the thin man, framing the cover.

From the beginning Lovecraft is portrayed as a tortured soul. He is down on his luck, perpetually late, and in the midst of writer’s block while attempting to irk out a living sending short stories to Weird Tales magazine for one half penny per word.

While Lovecraft wanders around Providence, after being rejected by “his girl,” he is attacked leaving him bloodied and badly beaten. Early the next morning, while the girl Lovecraft loves is “celebrating” her engagement to the most eligible bachelor and the sailors who robbed him are having their own celebrations with prostitutes on their ship, Lovecraft stares at a blank sheet of paper in his typewriter trying to hurdle over the writer’s block. He wakes from a vivid dream of something horrific entity ripping the sailors apart and typing on his paper. What is produced is all gibberish or is it?

While this (loose?) biography takes place in the roaring 20s, it would have been easy to fill it with lavish settings of flappers, speak-easies, and smoking, but there was only one 2-page spread showing this jive. Mac Carter was able to hold my attention with consistent storytelling and by creating a foundation for subsequent issues in this 4 issue run. I especially enjoyed the inner dialogue of the main character and that dialogue is very useful in getting to know the deepest recesses of this man’s dark mind.

If you have read my reviews in the past, you would know that I am attracted by art work and after seeing the cover (Adam Byrne), I was a bit disappointed with the art inside by Tony Salmons. The inside art appears messy—with characters’ facial features besmirched by dark lines and deep shading leaving the expressions nondescript and muddy.

This comic book is worth the 499¢ (that is the way the price is displayed on the cover) but before the next issue, I would like to read about the life of H. P. Lovecraft to see if this comic book closely mirrors his actual life and if MacCarter has done his homework on this topic. Or on second though, I might just enjoy what the series has to offer instead of coming in with preconceived notions.

I give this comic book 3 PRADAs for the potential it has.