Providence Compendium

Providence by Alan Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Journalist Robert Black visits the forgotten corners of New England to research a book. What he finds may destroy his mind and his world...

I contributed to the kickstarter for this untold aeons ago. No idea why I let it languish for so long because it was fucking great.

Picking up where Neonomicon left off and threading through it, Alan Moore throws some big ideas around in this about the nature of reality and the nature of fiction, specifically the Cthulhu mythos. Moore reinterprets Lovecraft's works, weaving them into American history. Poor Robert Black, journalist turned scholar, turns over a lot of stones and finds wriggling horrors beneath each one, his grip on sanity gradually become loose.

I don't want to give away too many specifics. The more Lovecraftian fiction you've read, the more you'll get out of this. There are Easter eggs galore and the plot hinges on key Lovecraftian concepts. Alan Moore's writing was great, no surprise. He maintains an undercurrent of unease as Robert Black drives around, talking to people and gradually piecing together what the hell is going on.

Jacen Burrows art was underwhelming at first but it turned out to be very expressive. Burrows was exception at conveying subtle expressions. He can also draw the fuck out of cosmic monsters when the occasion calls for it.

The back cover calls this the Watchmen of horror comics. I don't completely agree with that but it's a damn fine horror comic. Five out of five stars.

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