Neonomicon

I know some who think Alan Moore has missed his mark lately, but I have to admit, as a fan of Lovecraft since a young teen, I was very pleasantly surprised with this book, both the storyline and great graphics provided by Jacen Burrows. Maybe 'cause it's so damn dark (yet done lightly), ground-breaking and has several dozen Lovecraft references peppering the tale throughout (many characters mentioned, story names, locations, Elder Ones, language and dialogue, similarly-influenced authors and pen pals referred to, etc.), there's nary a page when dear old HPL is absent. And not for the sake of name-dropping either, all the particulars and Mythos minutiae become intertwined pieces of the puzzle presented here. Die-hard Lovecraft purists will find much to loathe, but I found it refreshing, so sue me. All the characters are miscreants and fringe-dwellers here, even (and especially) the F.B.I. agents are marginalized misfits in a world heading down the crapper, even if the Old Ones don't return as promised. Or are here already, or never left, as our concept of time, as it turns out, isn't all we had hoped it to be. It's grand to see new life pumped into Lovecraftian legend, as punk bands in rat-cellar Brooklyn nightclubs take drugs to tap into the Mythos, informants are amphetamine psychotics, female federal agents are treated for sexual addictions, tenement neighbors are schizophrenics and ne'er-do-wells, graffiti murals are dimensional portals and a trip to Salem, Massachusetts involves a new age bookshop that's a cover for satanic sexual swingers in Dagon's watery love-nest. 'Still with me? 'Didn't think so, but wait, there's more. But you'll have to read it to find out. There's much to absorb, appreciate and admire here, layers to peel back, characters to enjoy for being so effed-up, filthy and foul-mouthed profanity, humorous and sarcastic dialogue laced with cultural references as well as an actual ending (however open-ended it may be - a sequel, perhaps?), so I'd heartily recommend this to all Lovecraft aficionados as well as Moore's legion of fans. PS - If you dig this one, like seeing Lovecraft respectfully re-imagined and his Mythos updated properly, you'll also want to check out 'The Strange Adventures of H. P. Lovecraft', 'The Calling - Cthulhu Chronicles', 'Dark Goodbye' volumes 1 + 2, and 'Fall of Cthulhu', volumes 1 through 5. All worth every penny as well as your time. Check it. "Cthulhu Fhtagn R'Lyeh"...

Neonomicon is a graphic novel. I don’t read many graphic novels –I make up my own pictures in my mind to match the words in non-graphic fiction. But I loved comic books when I was a kid and I am aware and appreciative of what a well crafted graphic novel can do. Like this one., Which is excellent. It’s exceedingly well scripted. (Plot and dialogue in a graphic novel are constrained –constricted may be better- by the limit on pages and the large amount of space taken up in the pictures.) The illustrations are superb, realistic, heavy on line but not ignoring shading and contour, and the coloring, dark but bursting into explosions of color in the more psychedelic interludes, is equally effective. Moore wrote story and dialogue, Burrows illustrated, someone named Juanmar colored the drawings. They all deserve praise. The story is a modernization of Lovecraft’s Chulthu mythos. An FBI agent is staking out a neighborhood where a series of brutal ghastly murders have taken place. The killer had no history of violence and only speaks now in a jumble of alien words. He’s hopelessly psychotic. But there are two other recent mass murders and in both cases, killers with same past record –no history of violence—and the same present behavior. There is no apparent connection among the three. The FBI agent is an expert in anomaly theory. He looks for anomalies and tries to fit them into patterns. The only connection seems to be a mysterious drug called aklo and a possible dealer, a man named Johnny Carcosa who hangs out at the Club Zothique. The band there is the Ulthar Cats. They’re beyond punk or Goth, singing songs that starts in freeform descriptions of violence and swerve part way through a (very long) song into a string of alien names which we know (because we’ve read Lovecraft) but the agent doesn’t are names of entities in the Chulthu myth. No one knows how old Johnny is and he wears a veil over the front of his face, covering it from the bridge of his nose down. The agent digs deeper, finds that a similar string of killings and mutilations occurred in the same place in the 1920s. (Think Lovecraft’s time.) He makes contact with Johnny Carcosa and arranges to buy some aklo. Soon, the agent is locked in a cell. He’s killed several people and he too speaks an alien tongue. A new team of agents is sent in to investigate, man and woman, and the story accelerates in tempo and in horror. It ends in an explosion of color and horrific images, with a dire fate in store for all of us. It’s a good recreation of Lovecraft’s twisted world, with one addition. The sexuality that is hinted at but never allowed to enter Lovecraft’s asexual tales is explicit, in text and drawings, in this disturbing story. It works and it’s not intruded gratuitously but if you’re squeamish about such things, you may want to take a pass on this book.

Overall the story is pretty straightforward, and sometimes rushed, but interesting nevertheless. It explains Lovecraft's reason for writing his stories, blends in some esoteric history, has secret society elements, and gives clues on what the nature of reality may truly be. To top it off we find that there may be people among us with supernatural destinies that affect the outcome of our world. It's an easy read, and may not be too mysterious despite what I wrote above, but it keeps your attention and makes you want to find out what's going to happen. Yes, the rape scene is offensive, yet somehow it plays directly into the fate of the main character, and because of it being part of "the bigger plan", explains how the character in the story seems to handle it so well; her role in the fate of our world becomes "activated" by the events. I understand the arguments for some of the faults in the writing, but overall the execution of the story makes sense. I think it's worth checking out if you have any interest in reading it.

This work brilliantly continued the mythos canon, reinterpreting the trational material in modern context while remaining true to the spirit of HPL's original work. It unites various themes that in HPL's writings were often separate story chains. Alan Moore illustrates some of the Pan dimensional concepts that form the framework of the Lovecraft cosmology with great skill in Neonomicon. The catalysing effect that the Ur syntax has upon human consciousness connecting it to its primordial & multidimensional unity has precedent as can be seen in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key," "Dreams in the Witch house," & a number of ither stories in which the "magic" of the mythos is likened to an advanced alien physics that mankind can only begin to grasp through superstition & pseudo religious devotion. Moore presents the language as a multidimensional construct just as the Old ones themself are, & conjectures to what effect this would have upon a human, which only perceive themselves as singular disconnected beings, but, as is shown in the prison scene towards the end of Neonomicon, & as well in the canonical Silver key work, each individual is in actuality an aspect of a higher being projected through diverse lenses of temporal curves, & spatial angles. This multidimensionsality furthermore exists "beyond space & time," or to use a more modern term: within "spherical time," in which all events occur simultaneously, but the finite perception only is what divides it into experential moments that can be more easily focused upon & lived as singular points. Moore explains this higher dimesional perception as the "Plateau of Leng," not a location, but as an unfolding of consciousness from finite to more lamniscatesque fullness. Utilizing an avatar of Nylarthotep as the catalysing agent reveals Moore to be a true mythos fan. The crawling chaos being the force which on the 3rd dimensional plane insinuates the corrupting presence of the Old Ones into the static dream of the material realm keeping the lloigor from realizing its greater nature. The erotic horror is a more modern graphic representation of the understated Victorian sexual themes found in many of HPL's works, such as Shub-Niggurath which as a progenitor-genetrix that accomplished its spawning through, among others, humans. The revelation at the end is an excellent interpretation of how spherical time is misunderstood by the human, or "glaaki" state of finiteness, in the higher dimensional perception the mythos can be understood through a dream logic which relies upon a more amorphic state not so strictly defined as the rationality required by the physical body whose urges & frail dependence Victorian society loathed. The Victorian influence of hatred of the physical body is also shown in how the female protagonist is treated by the cultists, meat to be used for indulgence of base desires & ultimately disposed of when done with. Moreover it serves to shock the reader through horrifying visual imagery to make the reader vulnerable to the revelation presented in the culminating scene. Neonomicon connected various mythos story themes well, & masterfully explained concepts left vague in the original writings without losing the horrific mood.

I have quite a few of Alan Moore's graphic novels, and this is my favorite. It is a mobius strip type story, and the way Alan reveals the plot makes for a very interesting read. And the art is incredible. The graphic novel is so vivid it is very much like watching the movies of David Cronenberg. There are some very strong connections between Neonomicon and Videodrome. It also reminded me quite a bit of the movie In The Mouth of Madness. The lisping lead character rendered on the cover wearing a veil is a unique creation. Many of the subplots like the female FBI agents peccadilloes and her interaction with her partner add volumes to the story. When they discuss a certain matter, and she explains it was because she hated them, there is such a sense of truth it is chilling. Yes, the nudity, the sex, like in the movie Videodrome are very disturbing. This is not a book you leave laying around where anyone could pick it up; some people would be offended in the extreme. But there is a reason for all of it, and the story makes a small group of humans seem almost monstrous in their perversion, and the monster (it is vicious), is given very maternal, loving nuances culminating in great personal sacrifice to its character. And the story is wrapped around the myth and legend of H.P. Lovecraft, his life, works and his fans.

Writer Alan Moore and artist Jacen Burrows present a harrowing tale inspired by the writings of HP Lovecraft. This edition contains "The Courtyard" and also "Neonomicon" so you get the whole story up to this point. There's another volume called "Providence" that hasn't been released yet. In "The Courtyard" and "Neonomicon" Moore and Burrows accentuate the horror by setting it in very prosaic circumstances; a detective investigating a drug called Aklo and in "Neonomicon" a pair of FBI agents picking up the trail of the same investigations. Needless to say that what these seekers of truth discover is far beyond what they expected. HP Lovecraft wrote stories in which Man and his existence with it's aspirations and horrors were utterly irrelevant in the cosmic scheme of things. His stories offered little, if any, hope of redemption or salvation. Lovecraft was not author of happy or even hopeful endings. In "Neonomicon" Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows follow the same themes of pervasive evil, ancient forces of unimaginable horror and doomed seekers of knowledge. If you enjoyed "In The Mouth Of Madness" or "Dagon" then "Neonomicon" is certainly for you. If you like your horror to contain some hope for a better tomorrow or at the very least a chance for a hopeful ending I'd say this comic isn't for you. If like me you're both a fan of Lovecraft and of works inspired by his writings then you'll find "Neonomicon" to be a good read but not exactly mindless escapism either.

I primarily got this because I was in the mood for a “dark” Alan Moore story. This story is dark - which I liked a lot. It is VERY sexually explicit - almost needlessly - which I felt did not add to the story. It’s has a good story that held my interest, but the story seemed very rushed in the end and some things felt unresolved (or poorly explained). For that, I knocked off a star. That was a shame too because it had a tremendous amount of potential. I knocked off the other star due to the extreme sexual content. I understand sex was an important part of the story, but it just didn’t need to be THAT explicit. If you like Alan Moore you will likely not be shocked by the content. You will also like the darkness of the story. The Cthulhu / Lovecraft story was unique and good. I just felt the ending - although not bad - could have just been written a little better.

Two quick points. This is a book of 176 pages and less than 10 pages depict, in most cases non-explicitly, sexual activity. Boy, has that upset and seriously warped the sensibilities of some reviewers here. Second: This is not a work of fiction by H.P. Lovecraft, so to decry that it departs from the Man from Providence's writings is simply bizarre. Moore and Burrows are using the concepts and mythos of Lovecraft, but telling their own unique story. They are not attempting an adaptation of any existing material. You can love it and be chilled by it, as I was, but to critique it because it differs from Lovecraft is absurd, and in my opinion, an unfair judgement. This is a dark and seriously twisted story but I never thought it was in any way exploitative or a cynical cash grab, as some here state.

Une bonne interprétation de Alan Moore de ce qui fait l'essence du mythe de Cthulhu ; mais là où la menace Lovecraftienne trouvait son origine chez l'autre, l'étranger, "l'envahisseur" venu d'autres dimensions (thématique classique dans l'entre-deux guerres, assez sulfureuse de nos jours), Moore joue excellemment bien avec l'origine même du "mal", mettant en exergue cet aspect "raciste" des récits Lovecraftiennes et réussissant en même temps à brouiller les pistes. Sans trahir l'essence même du mythe (dans lequel la plupart des personnages sont condamnés à la folie et à l'horreur de part leur "héritage" personnel, familial ou génétique), Moore renouvelle avec talent cette thématique, dans un final très très intéressant et délicieusement étonnant. Niveau horreur, gore, et autres joyeusetés "indicibles", on n'échappe pas à certaines maladresses visuelles et graphiques (il est toujours difficile de donner trait à l'indicible, justement), mais globalement les auteurs s'en sortent pas mal. La narration est classique, efficace, linéaire ; les personnages sont bien écrits mais restent assez basiques. L'horreur, la terreur, et l'épouvante psychologique sont par contre particulièrement réussies car Moore aborde un aspect rarement traité dans le Mythe de Cthulhu : la sexualité. Ses aspects "orgiaques". Le viol. Et là, ça devient parfois un peu casse-gueule... A ce titre, c'est parfois difficile à lire, et ça laisse - volontairement, on le comprend - une impression de malaise... A ne pas mettre entre toutes les mains, donc. Pour faire bref, ce n'est pas un chef d’œuvre, mais une très belle variation sur le Mythe.

This volume includes the short story "The Courtyard" and its sequel. The Courtyard is brilliant and disturbing. A visit to the Lovecraftian Mythos without falling in the usual cliches. This story is worth 5 or more stars, by itself alone. It has lingered on my mind for weeks, and I felt compelled to re read it over again. It is totally unforgettable The sequel is a good story. Nothing remarkable. although it attempts to push the limits of what is acceptable with some graphically explicit adult material, it lacks the surprise factor of the Courtyard and is very predictable, with an ending expected as a 80s horror movie. It is not bad, but just not good enough. If I was to rate it alone I would give it 3 stars. I felt I should weight both reviews and give the whole story 4 stars, yet that would not be fair for The Courtyard, which alone is worth the price of the book.

Parece que la fuente de inagotable inspiración de Alan Moore que nos dió tantas buenas historias en los 80, está llegando a su fin... y que el sigue rascando el fondo del fango. Decepcionante... no recomendado para fanáticos de Alan Moore o superhéroes. Los amantes de H.P. Lovecraft podrán disfrutarlo un poco más...

まさに現代のH,P.ラグクラフトの世界！リアルなイラストで綴られる現代のクトゥルー神話です。アンダーグラウンドな雰囲気とそこに蠢く邪神の影が見事に表現されています！ラグクラフチィアン必見です！

Para quem conhece a abordagem de From Hell e Promethea, a mistura entre ficção e ocultismo vai fazer mais sentido. Os temas são pesados. É uma história de terror assustadora. Quem pesquisar as referências a Kenneth Grant e se aprofundar, pode acabar tendo sua vida mudada para sempre. A arte de de Jacen Burrows e as cores de Juanmar são fenomenais. É daqui para Providence.