The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2262: Skull #5, 1972

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  When I picked this comic up, I had no idea that it was a collection of adaptations of Lovecraft's tales. Though I'm having a bit of a tough time with old HPL these days, given that his work is just brimming over with disgusting racism, but it's undeniable the influence he's had on writers and artists in the 100 or so years that his work has been in publication. And, in the fifty or so years since this comic was published, the ways we think about, and recognize, racism have become much more sophisticated.

That said, not many of the gross parts of Lovecraft's stories, ideologically speaking, show up in this comic. In fact, they're all pretty excellent adaptations, the Larry Todd "Shadow Out of the Abyss," an adaptation of "The Shadow Out of Time," is definitely the stand out. I've always liked that story. It also turns out that, potentially, the previous issue of this series is the first appearance of Cthulhu in a comic book. That basically immediately shoots it to the top of the hunt list. Always a good feeling.

For those, like myself, who may be wrestling with Lovecraft's racism, here's one way of doing it. I find such attitudes thoroughly repugnant, so when I read one of his stories, because it is undeniable that there is something brilliant and incredible about them, the layer of racism actually ads a level of horror for me. Rather than simply being scared or titillated by the actual events of the story, the added inflection of racism, when it becomes apparent, makes the stories even more horrifying. The excellent Internet critic hbomberguy does some cool stuff with Lovecraft, including talking about being queer and liking HPL's work. In the final analysis, he suggests also that it would thoroughly piss off the old racist to know that we're reading and talking about his work the way we are. And that's what racists deserve.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Links

Check out the rest of hbomberguy's stuff on YouTube.

Unsurprisingly, Lovecraft shows up quite a bit in my writing. Shocking, I know. 

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1690 - 1696: Catching Up

I think for the foreseeable future, I'll be updating when I update.

*sigh*

Being 45 and basically unemployed is probably the most depressing thing that's ever happened to me.

But here are the comics I've read in the last little while.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1689: H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror, October 2011

I'm back, I'm back.

We're buying a house. Did you know that takes of lot of time and work? Me neither.

Though now I do.

I finished off the first volume of Squirrel Girl, and, needless to say, just fucking read it.

Back to Lovecraft/Cthulhu now.

I have a thought. Is the secret of a good Lovecraftian story that there is an undertone of racism in it? Is that the horror that we're reacting to, on some instinctual level? Writers always seem to go back to New England, the earliest of colonial settlements, and to the horrors of the woods around them, as did the forebears of Lovecraft and his ilk. Is there something horrific there about the entrenched, decrepit whiteness of so many of Lovecraft's protagonists. Very likely he was trying to show us the dangers of miscegenation, but perhaps instead, through both his life and work, he was showing us the grim, unspeakable ending that virulent whiteness leads to.

Maybe.

I liked both of the adaptations in here. The title story is more a sequel, I think, or a reimagining, than it is a faithful adaptation, but the second story, "The Hound," uses Lovecraft's words to illustrate some creepy atmosphere pieces by menton3. I unfortunately do not have any more of this series, but I assume it all turns out terribly for the main characters. Not really a Cthulhian story if they get through okay.

"It's loose."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1674: Herbret West #2, November 2008 (Cthuliana Week)

Though I find Herbert West to be one of Lovecraft's least-memorable characters, he seems to be the one that gets continuation after continuation of his adventures. I think it might be because he's the least-Lovecraftian protagonist in all of Lovecraft's tales. The original story was written in a more popular style than most of Lovecraft's works, an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. As a morally-ambiguous anti-hero, West has had numerous films and comics patterned on his original story. This particular version seems to be a reworking of the original tale, but set in the contemporary world. I'm not sure that West's particular brand of mad scientist really translates well to a modern day setting (something his films also suffer from) - he really does need the battlefields of WWI, or the creepy, ancient streets of Arkham in the 20s, otherwise it's completely unbelievable that he'd be able to continue his reanimation experiments. I know we're supposed to suspend our disbelief, but I'm firmly convinced that there are characters who belong in particular periods.

This issue didn't really help me with my Lovecraft conundrum. It adapts one of his stories without really offering any commentary or critique on the man who wrote it - like the films that were based on West's story, this comic focusses on the horror aspects of the story, rather than the social or systemic critique that's often inherent in Lovecraft's tales. Which makes it entertaining, but, honestly, a little vapid. In the glut of zombie-themed stories of contemporary times, you need to do something to make a story stick out.

"I will never forget those terrible events that summer night."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 749: Marvel Premier #6, January 1973

I've begun, this week, to delve back into the mysteries of my dissertation, though it's a slightly altered one than the one I took a break from almost a year ago. I think the comics portion of the work is going to have to be removed, as I simply can't work with the supervisor I'm working with anymore. Which means that the Lovecraft aspects of the work are coming more to the fore. So it's a nice (sort of) coincidence that I came across this comic today. I've had it for a few years now and, somehow, have never got around to reading it. The inside cover notes that it's based on ideas from Robert E. Howard, but there's a remarkable amount of HPL dripping from the sea-drenched shores and gables of the tale.

That said, I couldn't find any of the referenced creatures and deities in my Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, which makes me think it's not quite as complete as it could be. Perhaps that's another project for another time.

I like Doctor Strange and his over-the-top magicalness. His calling out each of the names of his powers is reminiscent (or maybe that's the other way around) of the tradition in anime and manga of naming and shouting an attack before it happens. What this gestures to is perhaps a culture that sees magic and the spiritual as far more a part of life than one does in the Western world. It's a worldview I appreciate a good deal, as, apparently, does Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts. I'd love to follow along with this story, in the hopes that it continues its Howardian/Lovecraftian bent, though I imagine comics this old will be tough to track down. Thank goodness the Calgary Expo is coming up.

To be continued.