Providence, Act 1

On it's own I wouldn't really rate this as five stars, it's in the second volume is where things get really interesting, but with it's companion volumes it is quite spectacular. The story is good, verging on great. The telling is part sequential art and part journal entries, with some overlap of the two (there is some similarity here to the Watchmen books, if you're familiar with those, but the journaling is all done by the protagonist, not "excerpted" from various sources as in Watchmen); it definitely draws you in. You see more than the protagonist does, but only because he isn't that bright and is constantly doubting that he's seen anything strange and explaining it to himself as something he has misunderstood. It mostly follows this character throughout, with very few events depicted which are not immediately related to him. The artwork is very clean, honestly cleaner than feel congruous to the story, but then that sort of fits what with Mr. Black's naiveté. Everything within each panel is rendered to a similar level of detail (characters, backgrounds, etc.), and all in one style and level of realism; the consistency from panel to panel and page to page locked down and disciplined. Evey layout is a 1x4 grid, except for one sequence which is done in a 4x1 grid. I highly recommend this book, but having the companion volumes is a must.

I can confidentially say that this is Alan Moore's most polished, entertaining, and meticulously planned book since From Hell. I was wary of this series at first because the last few attempts that Moore has made at the Lovecraftian tale (The Courtyard, Yuggoth Cultures, Neonomicon) were all very disappointing to me. I felt the ideas in these works were either cliche or very UnLovecraftian; for example, in Neonomicon there are graphic scenes of Lovecraft's Deep Ones committing repeated acts of over the top sexual violence. I think if Lovecraft were alive today to see his creations debased to this, he would be pretty disappointed. Although, Providence has proven to be the next Lovecraft inspired masterpiece that all Lovecraft enthusiasts (like myself), horror fans, or graphic novel fans will enjoy. The amount of research Moore put into the ideas behind this book are evident by the history that is expounded within the texts. The descriptive dialogues between the characters reference everything from the dark underbellies of early 20th century American society, ancient alchemical texts, existential philosophers, archaic religions, scientists, and Freudian/Jungian psychology: all of which are prevalent among Lovecraft's themes of cosmic horror. The wonderful writing is supported with Jacen Burrows' amazing pen stroke and precise digital colorations. Burrows is a perfect choice to help narrate this type of book. Overall, I say this series definitely deserves 5 stars so far, and I hope it will only get better. Providence is the best Lovecraft inspired graphic novel series since Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' acclaimed Fatale and will surely go down in history as one of the best of its kind.

In 1919, Robert Black, a young journalist who wants to be a writer, decides to investigate the “concealed country” inside, or, to use the book’s metaphor, underneath the USA. He gathers material by gathering information on an occult society called the Stella Sapinete and the alchemical text, called in English “The Book of the Wisdom of the Stars.” His journey takes him from New York City to the docks of Salem to an isolated farm in north central Massachusetts. This is a graphic novel and most of it is told in paneled drawings. But the reader is also favored with the contents of Robert Black’s commonplace book: his musings on what he (and the reader) experienced, his feelings, bisexual and otherwise, his dreams, documents he picks up on the way, the most memorable being the parish newsletter of the Church of St. Jude. And, as you must have been waiting for, he includes his ideas for novels and stories. Like so many of us, he has no trouble thinking of great ideas, he just can’t figure how to provide the flesh and bone. He has the most success with an idea about a doughty young investigator following a trail of clues until he uncovers a horror that devours him. He shakes his head in his notes. Of course, the writer and the reader would want the character to continue to the end, but any believable character would turn tail and run the moment he realized where he was headed. The only reason he wouldn’t would be if he was in denial about the weird stuff he was seeing and if he became too invested in solving the mystery to quit. Yes, Robert Black thinks, that would solve his problem. At which point, like most of my fellow readers, I hooted and sneered. Poor little character, who has read Guillot and Robert Chambers but never heard of H.P. Lovecraft. By the time this collection has ended, our hero has encountered one of the master’s few heroes and nine of his vilest villains. He has been in a super-cooled apartment and an underground lair complete with altar and demon and a waterfront full of people who look like fish and a deranged inbred family who talk to an invisible son and nothing has clicked. Robert Black is not a very admirable young man so I have no reservations about watching him stick his head in the mouths of fiends. I do like how the great Alan Moore is making Lovecraft’s universe his own and I do like how he and artist Jacen Burrows are reimagining his people(s).

'Providence' sees Alan Moore offering a new interpretation of the work of H.P Lovecraft, with the central conceit being that Lovecraft's stories were themselves fictionalised versions of 'real' events. The story follows a journalist called Robert Black - in essence an analogue for Lovecraft himself - as he travels around seeking inspiration for a novel he plans to write concerning a hidden side to America, along the way encountering characters who will be familiar to Lovecraft fans (the four issues collected here riff off the stories 'Cool Air', 'The Horror at Red Hook', 'The Shadow over Innsmouth', and 'The Dunwich Horror'). As such, whilst I'm sure it will still work as a pleasantly creepy horror story without any background knowledge, to really get the most out of this series and pick up all the allusions, I would strongly recommend readers are familiar with Lovecraft's work before they tackle this (there's also an excellent annotations site to pick up on all the detail at [...] ) Moore has done a great job re-stitching Lovecraft's varied stories into a connected whole, and he tackles Lovecraft's fears of race and sex head-on, by making Robert a closet Jewish homosexual. Beautifully crafted stuff, as you'd expect, with Moore showing he is still a master of the comic form, rich in allusions and packed with detail - whilst the strip is expanded by the addition of prose pages featuring Black's journal, exposing him as wilfully ignorant of his own slide into horror. Be aware that this is only the first third of the story, so don't expect anything in the way of a conclusion, but this is a cracking start. It's also been touted as a prequel to 'Neonomicon', and there are some subtle throwbacks to that story, but they are slight enough that it's not required reading to enjoy this.

Que se puede decir de una historia escrita por Alan Moore, el mejor escritor de cómics sin lugar a dudas. Aunque se nota que fue concebida como un gran arco de 12 números, se siente el corton en la historia, a esperar el volumen 2 y 3. El cómic no viene retractilado así que se puede rayar la portada que es brillante con algún otro producto cuidado con eso.

Moore meets Lovecraft on a highly researched book set in the heart of the Prohibition and the women's voting rights. Very dense, mixed with personal journals, excerps from cult pamphlets and The King In Yellow. Also, great art by Jacen Burrows. It's a book that is hard to put down and although it is a very pleasant read, one need to take his/her time to digest it and think it over. It is much more reminiscent of the european comic book than the standard american comic magazine. The presentation reminded me of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but the story is much more creepy, almost disturbing.

Dieses Werk erinnert an Thomas Manns "Der Zauberberg" und Günther Grass' "Ein weites Feld". Es ist eine künstlerische Durchdringung der Zeit und des Werkes von H. P. Lovecraft. Um es vollends verstehen und genießen zu können müsste man das Gesamtwerk Lovecrafts, einschließlich seiner Briefe, dessen Biographie und am besten noch die Werke Robert W. Chambers Buch "The King in Yellow" und das Werk von C. G. Jung kennen. Und das sind nur die Referenzen, die mir aufgefallen sind. Man wünschte sich eine kritische Gesamtausgabe, die in einem Appendix all die Anspielungen und Verweise aufarbeiten würde. Vom Storytelling ist es die Geschichte des Reporter Robert Black, der im Rahmen seiner Recherchen auf zahlreiche Figuren aus Lovecrafts Geschichten zu Interviews trifft, deren Namen zum Teil abgeändert sind (aus "Dr. West" wurde z. B. "Dr. North", aus dem Maler "Pickman" "Mr. Pitman") und deren Hintergrundgeschichte er nicht kennt; im Lauf der Recherche wird der Reporter mehr und mehr in den Cthulhu-Mythos hineingezogen. Ich fand das Buch großartig, bin mir aber bewusst, dass ich es bei weitem nicht voll verstanden habe. Dafür fehlt mir der kulturgeschichtliche und psychologische Unterbau.

Excellent service. product was delivered as described, on time and safely. Recommended.