What a tremendous work contemplating Lovecraft’s mythos, his philosophies, and the rewards of oblivion versus the beliefs of the living. A look back at his life, what was and could have been, and how his failure as a writer would grow into something larger than himself.

This comic blew my mind. I admit that some of it did go over my head a little, having only been acquainted with some of Lovecraft’s works but not his personal history or beliefs, and this work examines both the positive and negative–though leaning more toward the negative, I think.

That’s probably because the Lovecraft here seeks the comfort of oblivion and finds a lot of what makes us human — fear of death, wanting to see loved ones again when we die, the promise of some kind of afterlife–to be pointless. I don’t think that’s the right word to look for, but that’s what popped in my head.

The artwork is beautiful and disturbing. It almost takes on a liquid form and mutates every page, where Lovecraft’s image takes on different styles, yet at the same time, remains consistently himself. There are grotesques blooming in the background even when Lovecraft reunites with his wife while he is on his deathbed.

The constant pressure from the people in Lovecraft’s life–his wife, Harry Houdini, and the people beyond (like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore) urging Lovecraft to seize reality and write the ending of his life himself (or to let others take up his legacy), and talking about the endurance of fiction and the multiple universes it creates–absolutely fascinated me.

I didn’t get everything about this comic–and I don’t mind that–because I’ll be thinking about this months after reading it. Five stars.