Comics I Bought: January 2, 2009

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got no new comics. I did get two magazines plus a hard cover collection:

"Back Issue" magazine - 29

"Back Issue" magazine - 31

Hulk: Giant Size

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"H.P. Lovecraft's Haunt of Horror" by Richard Corben

This is the second in a series of "Haunt of Horror" books by Richard Corben. In the first he adapted some short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. This one does the same thing for Lovecraft.

I have never read any of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. I've read plenty of comics and seen plenty of movies that were inspired by his work but have never tracked down any of his writing. I'm not sure why. Everyone else seems to have read him. This book publishes some of his poems and stories along with Corben's adaptations of them. Interesting stuff.

I found this volume much better than the Edgar Allan Poe volume. The Poe volume seemed a little stiff and more like an exercise. Corben is a master storyteller so that is never a problem. I think Lovecraft's short narrative poems lent themselves better to this type of adaptation than Poe's did. If given the choice pick up the Lovecraft volume.

Corben's sense of mood and monsters is on full display here. The stories are all about scary things that go bump in the night and just flipping through the book is creepy. Lots of drawings of scary things and scared people. No one can draw a person scared for their life like Corben can. And people being pulled in different directions. For some reason in this book I noticed he's real good at that too.

Not much more to say about this one. If you're a Corben fan or just want to read some scary stories pick it up.