Providence #3

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The Reviving of Cadavers” is a reference to Lovecraft’s “Herbert West—Reanimator” and similar stories, including perhaps the reanimated “y’m-bhi” of “The Mound.”

Dime novels were a popular form of literary entertainment in the United States in the late 1800s, and were the immediate precursors to the pulp magazines. I didn't know what to expect from this except that it would be pretty twisted. I was not disappointed. This is not a graphic novel compendium for kids-- it deserves just about every trigger warning one could need. Moore transgresses many taboos in re-inventing and synthesizing Lovecraft's (and his broader circle's) ideas from a modern, very very dark perspective. And in the process he takes a cold hard look at himself, and fandom, and its dark sides. This is a farewell critique of himself as well as an incredibly meticulously researched homage to Lovecraft et al.Ghoulish,”“[inducing] goose-bumps” and “a real stiff” are all apt descriptions for the eerie Dr. Muñoz in “Cool Air”. As with a number of things in Providence, there is ambiguity with double meanings. Goose bumps could be from cold air, or the eerieness of an animated corpse. A real stiff could be a dead person, or someone live who’s really dull. Oddly, Charles is wearing a plain band on his left middle finger, perhaps to emphasize he is unmarried. Commenter David Milne points out that “Book of the Wisdom of the Stars” sounds like The Starry Wisdom, the name of the Lovecraft-inspired compilation where Alan Moore’s story The Courtyard first appeared. That book title referenced a fictional cult of worshipers of Nyarlathotep, the “Church of Starry Wisdom” which appears in Lovecraft’s story “The Haunter of the Dark.” More generally, the title would also apply to real-world Arabic works of astrology like the Picatrix, which may have inspired Lovecraft’s Necronomicon. Panel 4 reproduces the view of the suicide chamber shown on P5, panels 2-4. The light shows that it is later in the day. The white butterfly (or moth) that flew past on P5, is now dead on the ground on the left, apparently a victim of the deadly gases from the chamber. After completing Dossier in 2007, Moore turned to three major projects: Jerusalem, a million-word prose novel to be published in spring 2016, more League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books, and Neonomicon (2010) and Providence (2015- ), two comic-book contributions to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Moore’s interest in Lovecraft, however, predates the mid-2000s. In 1994, Moore wrote “The Courtyard,” a Mythos prose short story published in the anthology A Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft (1995). A two-issue comics adaptation of “The Courtyard” followed in 2003 from Avatar Press.

Es de sobra conocida la anécdota de que fueron las deuda con hacienda las que llevaron a Alan Moore a aceptar la escritura de esta miniserie. Un trabajo que si bien es manifiestamente inferior en todos los sentidos a “ Providence”, establece las semillas de este particular – y enfermizo– universo. El propio Moore hablando sobre la génesis del proyecto dijo “ aunque lo tomé para pagar la factura de impuestos, siempre me aseguraré de intentar que sea la mejor historia posible”. Algo que es palpable desde la primera escena de este “ Neonomicon”. Una apertura que nos presenta a los agentes Gordon Lamper y Merril Brears visitando a Aldo Sax– protagonista de “El Patio”– quien se encuentra encerrado en una institución para enfermos mentales. The cold, Alverez’ illness, and the ammonia-fueled cooling system are further references to Lovecraft’s “Cool Air.”It’s probably just faithfulness to the original text, but Burrows’ Alvarez bears some resemblance to Bernie Wrightston’s Muñoz in the 1975 adaptation of “Cool Air” published in Eerie #62. That book sent everybody crazy”– A popular misconception of the Cthulhu Mythos is that the books send the readers mad; an idea fostered by pasticheurs and especially the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, where because of the Sanity mechanics reading Mythos tomes will render your character temporarily or permanently insane. It also describes Chambers’ eponymous play The King in Yellow referenced in the story collection of the same name. The play induces madness in those who read it. Butcher’s tweet nicely summarizes a common way that Moore is currently discussed in fannish circles: as a crazy old man (with his theories about magic and language trotted out as Exhibit A of his nuttiness) whose diatribes about creators’ rights and the limitations of the superhero genre are a buzzkill. Why the Hell isn’t Moore excited about an HBO version of Watchmen like the rest of us? In our media-soaked, synergized culture, fans expect their desires and pleasures to be immediately fulfilled, and are enraged that Moore doesn’t deliver what they want. And Moore keeps working on the fringes of the comics industry, writing odd (and strikingly ambitious) stories about Prospero and Lovecraft, writing his epitaph, writing comics that will last. The record is Pullman Porter’s Parade, sung by Al Jolson. (Thanks to commenter ccsbn for pointing this out.)

De l’Isle Adam” is Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, a French symbolist writer whose collection Contes cruels (1883) gave name to an entire genre of horror fiction. Commenter Mr Nobody points out that Alvarez’s statement “Life does not trouble me” is certainly true, since he is technically not alive.

Alan Moore's Showcase of True Horror

For many years it was believed a joke to be, a fiction.”– Again, Moore is re-fictionalizing the Cthulhu Mythos – instead of the King in Yellow, the Sous le Monde; instead of Dr. Muñoz, Dr. Alvarez; instead of the Al Azif, the Kitab Al-Hikmah Al-Najmiyya and so on. Commenter Jordan points out that we open with Lily on a bridge — and in HPL’s The Haunter of the Dark, there is a character named “Lillibridge”. And so we arrive at Providence, which is, at least so far, a prequel to The Courtyard and Neonomicon, set in the same fictional world. There are numerous connections between all three works. The domed cities of The Courtyard and Neonomicon, for instance, are explained in Providence as a defense against dangerous meteorites, following an 1882 crash in Manchester, New Hampshire that brought a pestilence to the land. Moore and Burrows’ meteorite is borrowed directly from Lovecraft’s short story “The Colour Out of Space” (1927), and in Providence Moore assembles the major Lovecraft characters, locales, and plots into a single coherent narrative. By re-envisioning both Lovecraft and his own earlier contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos, Moore creates a network of allusions that supports all the events of Providence’s plot. It’s possible to read and understand Providence without a familiarity with Lovecraft, The Courtyard, and Neonomicon, but I wouldn’t want to.