Customer Reviews

Kolchak: The Night Stalker - The Lovecraftian Horror

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow, Kolchak's The Lovecraftian Horror is finally available. I ordered this book back in November 2006. Well, as we all know, publication dates for small presses can be rather fluid. From the outset I'll let you know my biases: I've never been a Kolchak fan at all except for the old TV series from a decade or so ago. I am, however, a CJ Henderson fan all the way, and a bigger fan of mythos fiction, which is why I ordered the book.

Some housekeeping: The puplisher is Moonstone. List price was $12.95 (I wonder if it was a limited print run; apparently you can no longer order direct from Amazon like I did). Fortunately the Amazon page has links to vendors who are selling copies. Total page count was 96, all text and pictures. And what art work! The illustrations are by Jaime Calderon and he did a terrific job. I never read a Kolchak book before; it isn't quite a graphic novel (code word for comic book), more a profusely illustrated novella/novellette/longish short story. Each page has a full color large illustration. The Deep Ones on page 73 were very good but pride of place goes to the magnificent rampaging Cthulhu on page 71. There was one notable typographical error. The text was duplicated on p24/25. This was easy enough to spot and didn't interfere with my enjoyment at all. Some might also notice that there is a character who is a major in Naval Intelligence, when he should have been a lieutenant commander.

CJ Henderson has impeccable Lovecraftian credentials. His forte is occult noire detectives, for example his Tales of Inspector Legrasse from Mythos Books. No surprise, Kolchak and Henderson are a perfect match. I do not know if he has written any other Kolchak books. Briefly, Kolchak gets involved when police are called to investigate a corpse found washed up on a California beach, and it turns out to be more icthyoid than human (great picture on page 15, Mr. Calderon!). Nosing around where he shouldn't, Kolchak uncovers more about the Lovecraftian mythos and the Cthulhu cult than is good for anyone's sanity. Mr. Henderson's truly in his literary element here. Hardboiled dialogue is second nature to him and he can pen an action sequence as well as anyone. The prose sparkles and the plot rushes along effortlessly, with a conclusion that will satisfy Lovecraftians and Kolchakians alike. CJ Henderson aficianados will note the tie in of the plot to events in The Tales Of Inspector Legrasse and to the Teddy London novel, The Things That Are Not There.

I found this book to be very entertaining, a diversion well worth seeking out if you can find a copy. You can pleasantly while away a few hours with it. There is nothing not to like! After all, you need something to read while we wait for High Seas Cthulhu!

A well written story and great artwork. Someone should have proofread better, though, because part of a paragraph was reprinted in the middle of the next. Also, be warned, my luck was no better than the previous reviewer. This book will self-destruct after one reading.

This is an excellent work of story telling and artwork. For me, it was spoiled by the poor printing process because the book literally fell apart on first reading. I will not purchase another book produced by this same printer.

Like a lot of the publisher's (Moonstone Books) efforts, this is above average work that suffers from poor proof reading. In addition to the duplicate prose section mentioned in the other reviews, there are several typographical errors but, also, there are a few critical pages where the art simply doesn't match the accompanying text. Specifically, when the creature that the story revolves around washes up on shore, the text describes his appearance as understated and questionable as to whether the figure is a humanoid sea creature or simply a bloated decomposed human being. The artwork, on the other hand, shows what is clearly a "black lagoon" type creature that is without a question not a normal human. The effect is jarring and, to me, not really acceptable for a proofread, complete work.

However,I doubt very much that this will matter to the Kolchak fans that have had to suffer with a dearth of new Night Stalker material over the years: here they will find a satisfying story that manages to mimic the feel of the classic show while also expanding the threat level to something greater than a 70s weekly tv budget could allow.