Neonomicon

Neonomicon is a graphic novel. I don’t read many graphic novels –I make up my own pictures in my mind to match the words in non-graphic fiction. But I loved comic books when I was a kid and I am aware and appreciative of what a well crafted graphic novel can do. Like this one., Which is excellent. It’s exceedingly well scripted. (Plot and dialogue in a graphic novel are constrained –constricted may be better- by the limit on pages and the large amount of space taken up in the pictures.) The illustrations are superb, realistic, heavy on line but not ignoring shading and contour, and the coloring, dark but bursting into explosions of color in the more psychedelic interludes, is equally effective. Moore wrote story and dialogue, Burrows illustrated, someone named Juanmar colored the drawings. They all deserve praise.The story is a modernization of Lovecraft’s Chulthu mythos. An FBI agent is staking out a neighborhood where a series of brutal ghastly murders have taken place. The killer had no history of violence and only speaks now in a jumble of alien words. He’s hopelessly psychotic. But there are two other recent mass murders and in both cases, killers with same past record –no history of violence—and the same present behavior. There is no apparent connection among the three. The FBI agent is an expert in anomaly theory. He looks for anomalies and tries to fit them into patterns. The only connection seems to be a mysterious drug called aklo and a possible dealer, a man named Johnny Carcosa who hangs out at the Club Zothique. The band there is the Ulthar Cats. They’re beyond punk or Goth, singing songs that starts in freeform descriptions of violence and swerve part way through a (very long) song into a string of alien names which we know (because we’ve read Lovecraft) but the agent doesn’t are names of entities in the Chulthu myth. No one knows how old Johnny is and he wears a veil over the front of his face, covering it from the bridge of his nose down. The agent digs deeper, finds that a similar string of killings and mutilations occurred in the same place in the 1920s. (Think Lovecraft’s time.) He makes contact with Johnny Carcosa and arranges to buy some aklo. Soon, the agent is locked in a cell. He’s killed several people and he too speaks an alien tongue. A new team of agents is sent in to investigate, man and woman, and the story accelerates in tempo and in horror. It ends in an explosion of color and horrific images, with a dire fate in store for all of us.It’s a good recreation of Lovecraft’s twisted world, with one addition. The sexuality that is hinted at but never allowed to enter Lovecraft’s asexual tales is explicit, in text and drawings, in this disturbing story. It works and it’s not intruded gratuitously but if you’re squeamish about such things, you may want to take a pass on this book.

I know some who think Alan Moore has missed his mark lately, but I have to admit, as a fan of Lovecraft since a young teen, I was very pleasantly surprised with this book, both the storyline and great graphics provided by Jacen Burrows. Maybe 'cause it's so damn dark (yet done lightly), ground-breaking and has several dozen Lovecraft references peppering the tale throughout (many characters mentioned, story names, locations, Elder Ones, language and dialogue, similarly-influenced authors and pen pals referred to, etc.), there's nary a page when dear old HPL is absent. And not for the sake of name-dropping either, all the particulars and Mythos minutiae become intertwined pieces of the puzzle presented here. Die-hard Lovecraft purists will find much to loathe, but I found it refreshing, so sue me.All the characters are miscreants and fringe-dwellers here, even (and especially) the F.B.I. agents are marginalized misfits in a world heading down the crapper, even if the Old Ones don't return as promised. Or are here already, or never left, as our concept of time, as it turns out, isn't all we had hoped it to be. It's grand to see new life pumped into Lovecraftian legend, as punk bands in rat-cellar Brooklyn nightclubs take drugs to tap into the Mythos, informants are amphetamine psychotics, female federal agents are treated for sexual addictions, tenement neighbors are schizophrenics and ne'er-do-wells, graffiti murals are dimensional portals and a trip to Salem, Massachusetts involves a new age bookshop that's a cover for satanic sexual swingers in Dagon's watery love-nest. 'Still with me? 'Didn't think so, but wait, there's more. But you'll have to read it to find out.There's much to absorb, appreciate and admire here, layers to peel back, characters to enjoy for being so effed-up, filthy and foul-mouthed profanity, humorous and sarcastic dialogue laced with cultural references as well as an actual ending (however open-ended it may be - a sequel, perhaps?), so I'd heartily recommend this to all Lovecraft aficionados as well as Moore's legion of fans.PS - If you dig this one, like seeing Lovecraft respectfully re-imagined and his Mythos updated properly, you'll also want to check out 'The Strange Adventures of H. P. Lovecraft', 'The Calling - Cthulhu Chronicles', 'Dark Goodbye' volumes 1 + 2, and 'Fall of Cthulhu', volumes 1 through 5. All worth every penny as well as your time. Check it."Cthulhu Fhtagn R'Lyeh"...

Overall the story is pretty straightforward, and sometimes rushed, but interesting nevertheless. It explains Lovecraft's reason for writing his stories, blends in some esoteric history, has secret society elements, and gives clues on what the nature of reality may truly be. To top it off we find that there may be people among us with supernatural destinies that affect the outcome of our world. It's an easy read, and may not be too mysterious despite what I wrote above, but it keeps your attention and makes you want to find out what's going to happen. Yes, the rape scene is offensive, yet somehow it plays directly into the fate of the main character, and because of it being part of "the bigger plan", explains how the character in the story seems to handle it so well; her role in the fate of our world becomes "activated" by the events. I understand the arguments for some of the faults in the writing, but overall the execution of the story makes sense. I think it's worth checking out if you have any interest in reading it.