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A review by otterno11
The Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 1 by John Reppion, Mark Stafford, Dan Lockwood, D'Israeli, Alice Duke, David Hine, Leigh Gallagher, I.N.J. Culbard, Shane Ivan Oakley, Leah Moore, Rob Davis, Ian Edginton, H.P. Lovecraft, David Hartman
2.0
Note: This is a review for both the Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 1 and Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 2.
In these anthologies, various comic writers and artists adapt a few dozen of H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous tales to a graphic format, to me, mostly ineffectually. While a few feature intriguing art styles, most cannot approach the atmosphere or creepiness of the original stories filtered through the reader’s own imagination and thus feel rushed and fragmented.
Due to the verbose nature and detached style of Lovecraft’s writing, I feel that it is extremely difficult to adapt his work into a visual format, one that really succeeds as an adaption, and I have yet to see a truly satisfying comic interpretation of a Lovecraft story. Relying on slowly building atmosphere and describing “indescribable” horrors, his tales do not lend themselves to be rendered in images aside from one’s own imagination. It may be part of the limited space the editors and artists had to work with, but many feel slightly trite, with little of the eerie feelings cultivated through Lovecraft’s wordcraft.
The most successful were, I feel, were "Dagon," adapted by Dan Lockwood and illustrated by Alice Duke in Volume One, and "Pickman's Model," adapted by Jamie Delano and illustrated by Steve Pugh in Volume Two. Each of these used evocative art with an understated, close interpretation of the original stories to make them effective takes on the tales. Both of these stories are quite short, however.
In these anthologies, various comic writers and artists adapt a few dozen of H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous tales to a graphic format, to me, mostly ineffectually. While a few feature intriguing art styles, most cannot approach the atmosphere or creepiness of the original stories filtered through the reader’s own imagination and thus feel rushed and fragmented.
Due to the verbose nature and detached style of Lovecraft’s writing, I feel that it is extremely difficult to adapt his work into a visual format, one that really succeeds as an adaption, and I have yet to see a truly satisfying comic interpretation of a Lovecraft story. Relying on slowly building atmosphere and describing “indescribable” horrors, his tales do not lend themselves to be rendered in images aside from one’s own imagination. It may be part of the limited space the editors and artists had to work with, but many feel slightly trite, with little of the eerie feelings cultivated through Lovecraft’s wordcraft.
The most successful were, I feel, were "Dagon," adapted by Dan Lockwood and illustrated by Alice Duke in Volume One, and "Pickman's Model," adapted by Jamie Delano and illustrated by Steve Pugh in Volume Two. Each of these used evocative art with an understated, close interpretation of the original stories to make them effective takes on the tales. Both of these stories are quite short, however.