In THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, PART 1, available from Blue Fox Comics now, is a near faithful adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s original story with the added twist of using Lovecraft’s likeness as the main character. When Robert Olmstead investigates Innsmouth, a strange town with bizarre residents, he finds its citizens have a very ancient and monstrous lineage.
The Details
- Written By: Simon Birks
- Art By: R.H. Stewart
- Letters By: Lyndon White
- Cover Art By: R.H. Stewart
- Cover Price: $12.32
- Release Date: Available Now
Was It Good?
For Lovecraft fans, this is an excellent start to the seminal story. The tone, the look (especially of the Innsmouth residents), the feel, and the mood hit all the right notes.
The art is a sketchbook style that adds to the feel of antiquity, but admittedly, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Robert Olmstead is a cash-strapped man on his way from Newburyport to Arkham, Massachusetts in July 1927. Without enough money for a train ticket, the cashier at the ticket office recommends he take the bus. However, she feels obliged to tell him the bus gets to Arkham by passing through Innsmouth — a strange town with strange people who make strange noises in the middle of the night.
Intrigued by the cashier’s description and with time to kill before the bus arrives, Olmstead visits first the library then the museum in Newburyport to learn more about Innsmouth. The information he gathers yields more questions than answers about the strange people of Innsmouth.
When the bus arrives the next morning in Newburyport, Olmstead is shocked by the grotesque deformity of the bus driver and the rancid fish smell on the bus. when the bus departs, Olmstead is the sole passenger, which gives him time to reflect on the scenery with distraction.
As the bus pulls into Innsmouth for its usual route, Olmstead notices the people bear similar deformities to the bus driver –scaly skin with a greenish tint, large, round, wet eyes, and a hunched posture. The art excellently portrays the people as some sort of hybrid human/sea monster. The renderings are just inhuman enough to quickly accept something is off about the townspeople but not so far off that you couldn’t imagine they couldn’t exist in reality.
The buildings of Innsmouth are run down and shabby, almost as if the town had been abandoned by the people still living in it. Olmstead leaves the bus during the stop and wanders around the town to see what he can find. In one shop window, he notices some jewelry similar to the artifacts he saw in the Newburyport museum.
Without spoiling the ending of this first installment (in case you don’t already know the story), there’s more than one crown similar to the one in Newburyport museum, Innsmouth doesn’t like strangers, and it’s always safer to look up when you enter a strange room.
Bonus Backup Story: “The Cats of Ulthar”
As a special treat, there’s a comic rendition of the classic tale about a family in the woods who have a fondness for killing the family cats that stray onto their property. When they kill the wrong cat from the family of a visiting carnival, dark magic is invoked for all the local felines to take their revenge.
The backup has a different art style than the main story as it’s more in keeping with typical comics, but it still holds the same air of creepiness and dread. It’s a great bonus of classic Lovecraft.
Final Thoughts
THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, PART 1, available from Blue Fox Comics now, creates a stylish, atmospheric, and faithful adaptation of the classic Lovecraft story. Adding the bonus tale as a backup makes this first part graphic novel a worthy entry to a Lovecraft library.
Score: 7.5/10
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