Monday 4 April 2011

Books: Alan Moore's The Courtyard

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Alan Moore's The Courtyard
Written by Antony Johnston
Art by Jacen Burrows

2003




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

Based on a short prose story written by Alan Moore (featured in the collection The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H. P. Lovecraft which also features tales from Grant Morrison, J. G. Ballard and William S. Burroughs - available now from Islington Libraries...) The Courtyard is a creepy, tense, foreboding short comic novella full to bursting with Lovecraft references (including the nasty racial hang-ups) and deranged ideas about reality and language. With the unsettling artwork of Jacen Burrows (who also did the artwork for Garth Ennis' Crossed) this is pitch-perfect horror full of lots of sticky Lovecraftain themes that all push the limit of what the human brain can hope to cope with or even comprehend. It's pretty short - but also weirdly fantastic and completely blood chilling: best read late at night in bed when your mind is at it's weakest and the darkness is ready to creep inside. Just don't forget to breathe.

Worth knowing: it's followed by a sequel ("Neonomicon") written completely by Alan Moore which is also very much excellent.

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Further reading: NeonomiconCrossed, Locke & Key, Swamp Thing, Aetheric Mechanics, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King's N.

Profiles: Alan Moore.

All comments welcome.

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