The Luck in the Head (A VG Graphic Novel) [Paperback]

John Harrison (Author), Ian Miller (Author), Carol Kemp (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 1996

This eerie and visually arresting tale is set in the grotesque city of Uroconium, where Ardwick Crome dreams of a strange ritual from his childhood. The women of his village pursue a "lamb"; to eat a pie made from its head is considered good luck. But in his dream, the living animal itself is offered to Ardwick Crome, and the gift's significance makes it too dangerous to accept...

In that city and at that age of the world, it would have been safer for Crome to seek the source of his dream within his heart. Instead he went out and searched for it in Uroconium.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse; 1st edition (January 2, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878574469
• ISBN-13: 978-1878574466
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,651,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Luck in the Head, July 18, 2001

By 

Alex Parsons (Newcastle, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Luck in the Head (A VG Graphic Novel) (Paperback)

However successful this short story is in its text form, Luck in the Head becomes a visual masterpiece with some of Ian Miller's most outrageous illustrations and interpretations of the city's horror and vacancy as well as Chrome's loneliness and confusion. Ian Miller bombards his audience with crude depictions as well as intricate ones, all depending on the atmosphere he is trying to set. Very Successful Graphic Novel.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ill-judged adaptation, January 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Luck in the Head (A VG Graphic Novel) (Paperback)

This graphic novel is an adaptation of the immeasurably-more-subtle story of the same name to be found in Harrison's collection "Viriconium Nights". The artist has focussed on the violence of the story, leaving out the extraordinarily subtle relationship between character, philosophy and landscape which is Harrison's trademark. Forget this, and take the real trip: get "Viriconium Nights" and "In Viriconium" (called "The Floating Gods" in the US, but the British edition is better) instead.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and Surreal, September 19, 2003

By 

Leigh Blackmore "Leigh" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Luck in the Head (A VG Graphic Novel) (Paperback)

As in all the work of M John Harrison, there is more going on in THE LUCK IN THE HEAD than meets the eye. Part of his metafictional world of Viriconium (a city that changes its name as well as its character in connected stories in his VIRICONIUM fantasies), this tale is brilliantly and darkly brought to visual life by the incredible draughtsmanship of Ian Miller. It is the story of a failed assassination attempt on the life of Mammy Vooley, the bizarre goddess-ruler-thing of Uroconium (as the city is called this time). Too bizarre for some, this will be relished by lovers of Lautreamont, delvers in the arcane, and fans of Harrison's often-oblique but always haunting fictions.