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Historical Lovecraft: Tales of Horror Through Time

Edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles

Innsmouth Free Press 2011

ISBN: 978-0-9866864-0-5

$14.99 USD/$16.99 CAN

There are many who believe that you cannot teach an Elder God new tricks, and that Mythos fiction has nothing new to offer; this anthology is elegant proof that they are mistaken. Spanning the globe and penetrating layers from the 20th century to the Late Neolithic, Historical Lovecraft is a highly original literary exercise, an archaeological excavation of the Abyss. The collection offers twenty-six tales in a variety of exotic settings, and each story gives the reader a vivid glimpse of cosmic horror through the eyes of a different culture. The cumulative effect is extraordinary, and represents an important leap forward in weird fiction.

What strikes me most about this collection is the way it exposes and probes the greatest weakness of Lovecraft’s literary corpus: the original author’s relentlessly white, middle-class, Anglo-Saxon and male worldview. The contributors to this volume, both male and female, come from many nations and professions; a field archaeologist in Jerusalem writes one story, a legal advisor for the European Space Agency and an officer worker from Indonesia write others. The viewpoint characters of the fiction are even more widely scattered. A priestess of the Moche culture stands beside Hilde Ansgardóttir, one of the early Norse settlers of Greenland. The mysterious deaths of Antarctic explorer Roald Amundsen and Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov both become entwined with cosmic horror. There are stories featuring the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and Enheduanna, the first named author in human history—but equally compelling are stories written about Japanese peasants, Texas oil workers, or an African child.

This collection is the first full-length anthology offered by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles, the dynamic editorial team at Innsmouth Magazine. Predictably, the good taste and hard work that they have poured into every issue of their Mythos fiction journal continue to shine through in their first published anthology. Historical Lovecraft stands head and shoulders above many competing publications for the consistent quality of its content. Although this almost completely new material is written by relative unknowns, each story is well-crafted and offers something new in its choice of viewpoint and historical moment. Some tales are translated into English for the first time from Spanish and French, a frequent grace note of Innsmouth publications. Beautifully designed and well-printed on crème paper, the trade paperback as an object also upholds a welcome standard of quality at a reasonable price.

In short, this is one of the most interesting forays into Lovecraft Country of 2011. The international influence of Lovecraft’s work, so easily visible in the Lovecraft film festivals of the last decade, is at last rebounding back to American shores in print. The ideas and images that Lovecraft introduced to the literature of the 20th century were designed to grapple with the existential crisis of the modern age, and that crisis was not confined to the English-speaking west. Lovecraft strikes a chord that rings true around the world, and authors from Europe, Asia and Malaysia, Mexico and South America are all turning to confront a very modern horror of the same eternal, universal and implacable forces: God and Death, the Stars and the Sea.

—Arinn Dembo

The Lovecraft Anthology Volume 1

Edited by Dan Lockwood

I was delighted when Weird Tales editor Marvin Kaye handed me The Lovecraft Anthology, Volume I. I accepted this graphic collection of stories adapted from those by master of the macabre H. P. Lovecraft with eager anticipation. Let’s face it, a graphic novel, or anthology in this case, is nothing but a comic book on steroids. And who doesn’t like reading comics? Of course, I’ve been a fan from way back, avidly absorbing DC and Marvel classics, thrilling to Will Eisner and EC reprints, flirting with Robert Crumb, and assaulting my eyes and funny bone with Mad, Cracked, Plop! and their ilk. I’d ingested years of splendid and varied art, speech balloons and narrative rectangles, and would be able to scrutinize with a practiced eye. Add to that my penchant for the incomparable stories of H. P. Lovecraft, here no doubt whittled down to a few scant lines, and I faced the possibility of being a harsher critic than propriety might dictate. Happily, such was not necessary.

This finely-produced, perfect-bound edition is published by Self Made Hero in London, which has used good quality paper and bold printing to make this trade-size book a real standout, suitable for display on bookshelves and coffee tables. Editor Dan Lockwood has brought together an impressive array of well-established authors and illustrators in the comic/graphic novel genre to bring Lovecraft’s stories to colorful, grisly life. Although, as with all anthologies, I prefer some of the stories to others, the selection makes a good first volume, and a suitable introduction to the unearthly, often gruesome conjurations that define Lovecraft’s writings. A fan of HPL, I am forced to admit that I haven’t read the originals in quite a while, so although familiar with the stories, characters and situations, I was able to view these adaptations as complete new entities, and not just as a comparison to the original author’s works. Any adaptation, virtually by definition, is bound to be diluted to some degree. Sometimes in comparing to the original this degradation is insurmountable. (Isn’t the book almost always said to have been better than the movie?) Taking a several thousand word story and slashing it down to fit in a few pages of boxes and ovals, while still keeping the heart and soul (twisted though they may be) of the story intact has got to be tough. Each of the volume’s six adapters, including Lockwood, who penned three of the seven tales himself, have managed to do just that. Each adaptation manages admirably to retain the flavor and pervasive creepiness of the original, and stands as a compelling narrative in its own right. At times I did find myself rescanning a frame or two, or flipping back a page to see if I might have missed something, but overall the reconstructions are comprehensible and flow well. Common wisdom tells us that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and in these abridged accounts the contribution of the artwork to that end cannot be denied.

Each of the seven artists who contribute their creative vision have imaginatively rendered the background, and often foreground, for the text. Every story is illustrated in its own distinctive style, often utilizing specific color palletes. The variety of illustration techniques makes for an exciting and visually sumptuous feast for the eyes. Many are detailed and “realistic”, while others are more fanciful. All are slightly disturbing in what they portray, in several cases actually pretty gross, which is as it should be, given the bizarre and disturbing subject matter. Personal preference dictated that some styles appealed to me more than others, but in each case the technique and text were appropriately matched, and represent the finest in genre art. I was particularly impressed in several stories by the illustrator’s ability to create inspired visual images when nothing particularly graphic was suggested by the text, or where the story was left to unfold through pictures alone, rather than words.

Picture book layout is often an overlooked specialty, so vital to the success of a publication of this type, so kudos go to Andy Huckle, who is credited for both the layout and lettering. The layout of the book varies nicely, some stories with boxed panels neatly organized against a white background in the traditional way, some with panels or against full-size illustrations that bleed off the page. Various fonts are used for the easy-to-read lettering, and are boxed in solid white, or sometimes transparent panels which allow the underlying art to show through, or are left unfettered and superimposed directly onto the images in black or white as required.

Considering anything Lovecraftian as a “light read” is perhaps a contradiction in terms, however that is how I would classify this (and possibly any) graphic compendium. I enjoyed reading The Lovecraft Anthology Volume 1, and I think that any fan of macabre, otherworldly scenarios, stunning illustrations, and yes, even the unexpurgated writings of H. P. Lovecraft, will feel the same. I await Volume 2 with anticipation.

—Jon Koons