BOOK REVIEW: THE LOVECRAFT ANTHOLOGY VOL 1

The Lovecraft Anthology: v. 1 by H.P. Lovecraft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second graphic adaptation of Lovecraft material I have read from SELFMADE HERO press. The first At the Mountains of Madness was a classy production but possibly suffered from an over-respect for the material. This anthology, containing seven stories from as many illustrators, is much more fun, But the stories themselves are more fun, more lurid, more outrageous than the ponderous and self-important At the Mountains of Madness.

Here are Lovecraft classics such as "The Dunwich Horror," "The Shadow Over Insmouth," "The Call of Cthulhu," and four others. (Am I the only person who has to check the spelling on "Cthulhu" every time I type it?) There is much slithery horror to be had in these stories, and the artists relish it. Nor do the hold back when depicting the New England version of hillbillies that populate the dismal wastelands from Connecticut to Maine. Lovecraft and Erskine Caldwell may seem an unlikely pair, but I have to come to think that Lovecraft does for Yankee psychic depravity what Caldwell did for sexual depravity in the South.

A second volume is due within the year.


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