There are a lot of comics out there, but some stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This,” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we’re spotlighting “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath” by Florentino Florez. This story is worth your time because it’s able to tumble the rough rock of an obscure Lovecraft story into the smooth stone of a heady, reality bending story.
Who’s this by?
The creative team at the head of this are Florentino Florez, the writer, and Guillermo Sanna and Jacques Salomon, the illustrators. Saida Temofonte is on lettering duty. To be honest, there’s not a lot out there on (or by) Florentino Florez in terms of comics. No, really — this seems to be his first big thing. Sanna and Salomon’s work will be more recognizable to the average comic goer. Sanna is a mainstay artist at Marvel who’s worked on New Mutants, Luke Cage, Star Wars: The High Republic, and a few other titles. Salomon has worked on a few titles as well, most notably Boom! Studios’ Magic: the Gathering planeswalker stories. Saida Temofonte is perhaps the most seasoned member of the crew, as her letters have appeared across a variety of DC and independent projects, ranging from Wonder Woman, Batman, Catwoman, Conan, Scooby Doo, Heavy Metal Magazine, and more. While the crew behind “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath” may not be mega stars in the field, they certainly put in the work.
What’s this all about?
“Lovecraft Unknown Kadath is based on an HP Lovecraft novella written in 1926-1927 called The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. The story never made it out of Lovecraft’s drafts while he was alive, but was later published in 1943. As a result, the story as it appears in 1943 is the largely unedited, rough version that Lovecraft penned and then shelved many years earlier. As far as the plot goes, the original story is typical Lovecraftian shlock: Dude feels like he’s a little different, like he’s a little drawn towards the esoteric and strange; that he’s Not Like Other Guys. The next thing you know he’s stumbling over tomes of long forgotten lore and one misstep leads him to the non-Euclidian temple of the gods where his mind gets tattered into a million pieces, and the only thing that remains from his sorry tale is the scratchy field journal that fell out of his interdimensional knapsack (and into the arms of the reader!). Yes, we know we’re taking the piss out of old HP but it’s been a hundred years, the guy is dead (and more importantly, was pretty reprehensible), and there’s no doubt that he paved the way for generations of derivative and inventive artists in the weird fiction genre. So, he can take it.
But we digress. “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath,” the comic version, draws from the source material while excising some of the bloat. The story still follows Randolph Carter, a man who sees amazing things in his dreams. But nothing in his dreams is more amazing than the palace of the gods, which always lays just out of reach. Mr. Carter, however, masters his ability to lucid dream and before you know it, he’s gallivanting across the dreaming universe, travelling worlds with settings and denizens so bizarre that Neil Gaiman on acid would struggle to come up with some of this stuff. As such, “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath” is a pretty linear hero’s quest of a story. Randolph Carter keeps pressing on to the city of the gods, equally aided by allies as he is assailed by foes. Drama, fantasy, and the downright uncanny ensue.
So why should I read this?
What if we told, like we did when we first reviewed this story, that HP Lovecraft was kind of a bad writer? That for all his fantasy and vision, on a sentence to sentence level, a lot of the work just stank? Maybe that’s not the most convincing way to start a “So why should I read this” section, but it’s the truth. However, and this is a big however, that’s the reason why “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath” is so worth your time. Lovecraft’s stories are hit or miss, but his vision of the ineffable and his creative mind (when it wasn’t focused on being racist and xenophobic) creative brilliant worlds. Comics, then, are one of greatest mediums through which to re-imagine and translate his work. “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath” is worth reading because, as prior, it cuts down on the Lovecraftian prose and replaces it with a leaner, meaner, and more direct narrative. Florez gives us the story beats without the chaff, but still leaves enough room for intrigue, mystery, and a sense of the world that leaves readers equal parts in awe, horrified, and tempted for more. This kind of stuff is just fun, pure campfire magic-type content. It’s also clear that the art department on “Lovecraft: Unknown Kadath” had a blast, because some of these set pieces are out of this, the next, and the world after that. Sometimes comics makes us think, sometimes they make feel, and sometimes they do a little bit of each of those, but are mostly a whole lot of fun to look at. It’s for that reason we’re putting “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath” on your radar — because this story is reminder of what comics can be, and what they can achieve. While some readers may find the story straightforward and unassuming, there’s a lot to gain from “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath” if you let yourself step into its vast dream world. The abyss awaits!
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How can I read this?
You can find “Lovecraft Unknown Kadath” #6 anywhere comics are sold when it releases on November 9th, 2022.y?
