Self-Made
Hero has just released in the USA another in its series of graphic adaptations
of Lovecraft’s work. This time, I.N.J.
Culbard has adapted and illustrated The
Shadow Out of Time. I had
pre-ordered this at our local purveyor of comics and graphic novels—Vault of
Midnight, a veritable wonderland for material of this kind—and happily, it
arrived a week early. Culbard was the artist who also created the
graphic versions of The Case of Charles
Dexter Ward and At The Mountains of
Madness. The quality and
effectiveness of these earlier publications has been maintained in this latest
offering.
Purists
will note that some miner liberties have been taken with the material, but for
the most part the narrative remains true to the original story. What is impressive in Culbard’s rendition of
both Dexter and Shadow, is that he has been able to visually convey stories that
are intricate and complex. Both involve
an exchange or transference of personality and intellect in a protagonist that
otherwise appears the same throughout the story. (In Dexter
the mental transference involves an evil ancestor; in Shadow it is with an alien scientist.)
Culbard
is also able to augment Lovecraft’s essentially cold and conceptual tales with
human drama and relationships—he humanizes the work, and in my view at least,
improves on the original and completes it.
In The Shadow Out of Time, the
author draws out the themes of personal loss and the struggle to regain a sense
of self and identity--really, control over one's life. Anyone who has experienced, or known someone who has experienced mental health problems will be able to relate to the main character as depicted in Culbard's work.
What makes
this particular story so haunting is the lead character’s loss of 5 years of
his life to nervous collapse and amnesia—while an alien mind seized his body
and used it for its own purposes. Surely
this is a transmutation of author’s own nervous breakdown, after which he
became terribly isolated and reclusive from 1908 to 1913—what Joshi describes
as “a virtual blank in the life of H.P. Lovecraft.”
Self
Made Hero in the UK continues to produce very interesting and high quality adaptations
of both short stories and novellas by H.P. Lovecraft. To date, I have been able to obtain the
following at local bookstores:
The Lovecraft Anthology (volumes 1 and 2)—these contain
pictorial treatments of Lovecraft’s better known short stories.
At The Mountains of Madness
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Shadow Out of Time
Hopefully
we will see Culbard and his colleagues apply their talents to other items in the
Lovecraft canon. I for one would enjoy seeing graphic versions of The Whisperer in Darkness, The Dreams In The Witch-House, and
perhaps even The Dream Quest of Unknown
Kadath.
As I
remarked in an earlier post, if you are already familiar with the stories for
the various adaptations, the graphic renderings will enhance your enjoyment of
them. If you are new to Lovecraft’s
work, this is an entertaining way to introduce yourself to them. (But read the originals, too!)
*****
While at Vault of Midnight I was persuaded by the store clerk to try out Mike Mignola's B.P.R.D. series, which depict the further adventures of several of Hellboy's colleagues at the Bureau. The issue I have is "Hollow Earth and Other Stories". The Lovecraftian influence is very apparent, (as it was in the Hellboy movies), but the stories are highly creative and just a lot of fun. A sense of humor in the face of Lovecraftian monstrosities is very refreshing.
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