Customer Reviews

Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom

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This slender graphic novel interested me for a couple of different reasons: (1) I'm an avid H.P. Lovecraft and comics fan thats always on the lookout for adaptions of the former's work and milieu into the latter form; (2) I'm the father of a 6-year-old girl who's starting to get into comics and graphic novels a bit and who has a fondness for fantasy-themed stories and fantastic creatures.

My verdict: I think this would make for entertaining reading for older pre-teens and for open-minded HPL fans. Younger kids might find it a little TOO scary (and will probably find the vocabulary a bit too advanced as well); dogmatic Cthulhu Mythos enthusiasts will probably suffer a brain aneurysm due to all the "incorrect" Mythos references. I myself found it charming and was pleasantly surprised by the rather dark ending. I probably won't be purchasing a copy for my lovable little monster, but it may be just perfect for yours.

When you mention the name "Lovecraft", many things come to mind, most of them dealing with homages, pastiches, "reinventions" or even the subtle influence of "Lovecraftian" themes in a work. Regardless, it serves as a reminder that while H. P. Lovecraft may not have achieved widespread fame while he lived, his work has endured and influenced countless of writers after him. Anyone decently read in horror or dark fiction knows his name and possesses at least a passing knowledge of his legacy, one that has inspired short stories, novels, poems, role playing games, movies...even an episode of The Real Ghostbusters.

Seriously.

In any case, the world has become saturated with Lovecraft, so when a "new" Lovecraftian creation comes along, it's hard-pressed to stand out from all the rest. Howard Lovecraft & The Frozen Kingdom, written by Bruce Brown, does just that. Serious and tongue-in-cheek at the same time, this new graphic novel published by Arcana introduces us to a young Howard Lovecraft and his misadventures after receiving an early Christmas present from his deranged father - the legendary Necromonicon itself.

Brought to vivid life by Renzo Podesta, this four-chapter graphic novel regales perhaps the first of many adventures wrought by the dread Necromonicon. When young Howard Lovecraft accidentally opens a portal to the frozen kingdom of R'yleh, he's sucked into a world born of an "unholy marriage of fairy tales and nightmares". He's sent on a quest to recover a lost holy book from the awful demon responsible for R'yleh's fate, accompanied by a cheeky - though perhaps untrustworthy - being named Thu Thu Hmong. Howard survives his adventure, and though his asylum-bound father pleads with him to destroy the Necromonicon, he keeps it to himself, reveling in the wonders it may hold in store.

Perhaps The Frozen Kingdom's greatest strength is its willingness to wink at readers regarding Lovecraft's classic aura of doom and hopelessness. While Lovecraft die-hards may be put-off by its light tone, it shows us a NEW vision of Howard Lovecraft: precocious, whimsical, witty - maybe even a bit snotty - and hopeful, relatively untainted by the inevitable burden of "awful, unknowable things".

Howard Lovecraft And The Frozen Kingdom is an original graphic novel, the brainchild of Bruce Brown. We see a fictional story from the early years of the real life H P Lovecraft, as the boy meets his tormented father only to end in a mythical realm of ice and monsters everywhere. This may fool a number of people as being presented as an all-ages/family-friendly book...but it's not.

With the boy Lovecraft as the hero of the tale, much of the story does seem to be a filtered, simplified take on the entire mythos of CTHULHU devised by Lovecraft the author. Brown has broken the mythos down to layman's terms as a gothic fairytale. Don't read me wrong here, Brown has pulled off something with this book that is astounding. Especially with the surprise ending- this book is obviously lovingly researched, lovingly crafted from start to finish. Brown has created the penultimate primer book, to begin readers young and old on the quest of working through the massive and growing catalogue of the real life horror author. Bravo, Bruce, bravo!

I had thought the art looked familiar, the angular and generally dark style used, and it hit me- Podesta also illustrated the fantastic fantasy graphic novel HUM, written by Scott Marcano and released a year or so back elsewhere. His work here has grown, surprisingly- as he seemed to have the skill down before. This is somewhere between Michael Oeming and Roger Langridge, but with gorgeous colors fully painting each and every frame into an entirely new dimension. Pat on the back to ace editor MacPherson for overseeing such a dynamic collaboration of writer and artist. Everything about this book just fits like a glove.

Howard Lovecraft And The Frozen Kingdom is a fun ride of a story, covering seemingly familiar ground and spinning it all into something new and refreshing. I sure hope there is some sort of sequel down the road. This is the kind of book you give to budding readers, budding comic book fans, budding horror fans, and especially Lovecraft fans who thought it's all been done.

I read a lot of Lovecraft way back, and always wondered how he came to have such bizarre and nightmarish ideas. This work posits one amusing scenario (albeit fanciful), that it wasn't fiction but rather a real childhood experience.

Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom is a production of Arcana, just released in 2010. It is a graphic novel, has ~ 94 pages and lists for $12.95. The creative team includes Bruce Brown (story) and Renzo Podesta (art and colors).

If this book is similar to any Lovecraftian comic out there, I guess it is the 2004 book Lovecraft by Hans Rodionoff from Vertigo. In Lovecraft, the title character, as a child, receives a copy of the Necronomicon from his father while visiting him in the asylum. He is then plagued by visions of monsters throughout his life that he places into his ficiton. There is also an echo of the sentiment attached to The Antarctic Express from Kenneth Hite, a yuletide mythos send up.

Minor spoilers may follow, so skip to the end if you don't like that.

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In Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom the beginning is similar, and perhaps more dramatic. Young HPL is taken by his mother to to visit his father in the asylum on Christmas Eve. Howard is told by his father that he has written a terrible book that must be destroyed. Later. HPL's mother gives him a package that contains that same book. Late on Christmas Eve HPL begins to read the book and accidentally evokes a portal, that trasports him into some frozen world where his adventures ensue. He confronts and befriends a Deep One, meets some unexpectedly pleasant denizens of R'lyeh (one named Abdul) and agrees to recover a copy of a mysterious book from Dagon, to help them. Ultimately young Howard retruns to his room and has a book, which by inference will serve as inspiration for many years to come.

Well, I wish I liked this better. First of all, I did not care much for the art. The Lovecraftian monsters were all drawn with verve and were the highlight, even if the Deep One looks more like Cthulhu-spawn or something else, rather than a fish man. For me, the children were not as well drawn as the adults, and were almost bug eyed. I would not have minded so much bu the HPL character appears in just about every panel. If you like the drawings of Howard, you will like Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom a lot more than I did. The plot was pretty thin, but heck, it's only a comic (although why would a Deep One confront Dagon to help a human? And its later petulant behavior seems like a real contrivance.). My biggest problem with the writing is that it started off consistent with it's time, at the turn of the century when Winfeild Lovecraft died. As it went on the language of young Howard became more and more modern, and this was jarringly anachronistic. For example, the creature who Howard befriends is called Spot, after a dog's name. Later Howard says, "Um-Spot. Quick question." or "We're sitting ducks!" These are just a few examples. If this comic was designed as something of a parody on a Christmas story, where a young child is whisked off to the North Pole for adventures, then I guess this is OK. It sure did not strike me as the language precocious HPL would have used. Anyway, the overall effect of the art, the tenuous plot (Dagon telling a child he would "gobble you up", not the greatest dialogue from an ancient god-like entity, and then not doing it), and the deficiency of the dialogue and language left me dissatisfied. I also don't really get the interest in having HPL depicted as a person who knew the 'truth' and revealed it in his fiction. Why not just enjoy the world building he started that we all play in now? Whatever, at least this book offers up an explanation for his inspiration.

My bottom line is I was not as impressed as I wanted to be. Dedicated mythos collectors need a copy, particularly those with interest in comic books. The Deep One may not look like a Deep One to me, but it is a wonderful example of what Mr. Podesta can do, and as such, makes this book a necessary acqusition for fans of Lovecraftian art. The last few pages have some of the best drawings in the whole book. Casual mythos fans can pass it by.