It's set in the modern day. Kind of. An FBI investigator is working undercover to find a link between very similar murders carried out by totally different people. And he unearths some stuff which man was not meant to know. Then it follows two other investigators, who find out some more stuff man was not meant to know. Or, more specifically, stuff which woman really wasn't meant to know.
Fans of Lovecraft will enjoy all the references - a punk band called the Ulthar Cats for instance, with a female lead singer called Randolph Carter. But it's not just a retread of the old mythos: Moore puts his own distinctive stamp on it. Which, of course, means lots of kinky sex. Not HP's style, but the kinkyness did always peek out from behind the prudishness. There's also a lot of racism addressed here - another allusion to Lovecraft's strange outlook on the world.
It's fairly short this, but certainly worth reading. The section with the Dagon cultists is especially powerful I thought, but not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. I'd like to see Moore do a bit more with this - he knows why Lovecraft is still important to people today, and he also knows how to take it forward and make it something new. Burrows also does a great job with the illustrations: some nice big crazy tableaux, and some nasty pornography. Good job all round!
2 comments:
Is it a graphic novel or a prose story with illustrations?
I'm not sure that Moore should be known for kinky sex btw - I'd say Lost Girls is something of an exception in his oeuvre.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen gets a bit fruity too, but I take your point. Perhaps he's not a massive pervert after all. It is a graphic novel this - I think made up from 6 comics
Post a Comment