Writer: Michael Alan Nelson
Artist: Jean Dzialowski
Publisher: Boom Studios
Price: $3.99
Release Date: February
H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu stories have inspired several generations of writers to pick up where he left of or to reuse concepts and ideas. Given the pulp roots the quality of these second, third and even younger generations can be varied at best. Some of them exhibit signs of serious inbreeding while others sport new and interesting mutations on the sometimes well worn themes. This begs the question, is Fall of Cthulhu a sub-human cultist or the beatific avatar of an Elder God?
In truth the evidence of this issue isn’t actually enough to go on but so far the answer is looking to be somewhere between these extremes. In fact it is possible that it could all be some Crowleyan magic trick that rather than explaining the mysteries of the universe leaves the reader more baffled than before.
The story is presented in the first instance through the use of captioned, painted pictures and expositional monologue. Although this is something of a ‘hoary old device’ it does fit in with the mood of a Lovecraftian pulp style story. The initial protagonist is Abdul Alhazred (writer of the Necronomicon) and the story follows him as he is captured by priests of the Nameless City and punished for having the temerity to write down their secrets.
However a mysterious creature, possibly Nyarlathotep, arrives and intervenes. The story then moves forward in time to the present day and we witness a resurrection of sorts carried out by presumably the same mysterious figure.
The art work, drawn by one of Boom Studios regular artists, Jean Dzialowski, is an effective mixture of fine line drawings which have been over-painted in muted, almost watercolour hues. Panel composition is varied and interesting with larger landscapes over which the narrative is played and tighter more action oriented sequences which contain the right mix of detail and shadow. Overall all the art is more than sufficient to tell the tale while supporting the tone of occult mystery.
Writer Michael Alan Nelson is another Boom! Studios’ regular and based on this issue has a good way with words. There is perhaps too much exposition for my taste and the characters do not get much room to develop in but the balance between showing the reader what is happening and telling them what it all means is well struck making for an engaging and interesting read.
The purpose of this ‘zero th’ issue is to provide potential readers with some context and a potted history of the Cthulhu Mythos and with that goal in mind it is certainly successful although I would be surprised, given the pervasive nature of that Mythos, whether a likely readership would really need or benefit from such an introductory episode.
Overall though I would say that the book is worth checking out and I can only hope that the talent that is glimpsed within #0 blossoms into full flower in subsequent issues.
John Davidson Despite working in IT for the last 20 years and collecting comics for even longer, he is married, has two young daughters and lives in Scotland. Ideally he spends his spare time reading and watching movies, but this is curtailed by the calls of child-rearing and part-time study, not to mention the 'call of the internet'.