Books: Neonomicon

________________________________________________________________________________

Neonomicon
Written by Alan Moore
Art by Jacen Burrows
2011




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

I'm gonna start with an Alan Moore quote from a Wired Interview (link below) that sums up (in the best way) what to expect: "With Neonomicon, because I was in a very misanthropic state due to all the problems we had been having, I probably wasn’t at my most cheery. So Neonomicon is very black, and I’m only using “black” to describe it because there isn’t a darker color."

Consider that your due warning.

The history: In 1994 Alan Moore wrote a short little (but nasty) prose story called The Courtyard for an anthology The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H. P. Lovecraft: set in the year 2004 (which I mention so you don't get confused by the small little science-fiction touches) it took as many Lovecraftian elements and references as it could [1] - and mixed them into a dark cocktail of horror, evil and madness. In 2003 this story was then adapted in into a short 2-issue comic by Antony Johnston (who did the scripting) and Jacen Burrows (who did the art): both of which are very worth reading and both as scary as hell.

Then - in 2010 - following a series of disputes with DC Comics (which you can read in his own words: here) which provided the "misanthropic state" mentioned above and needing money to pay a tax bill (hey - at least you can't say he isn't forthcoming) Moore decided to write a sequel - only this time instead of writing it in prose he decided to team up with the Jacen Burrows (the artist of The Courtyard) and make it directly into a comic. And thus we have: Neonomicon.

For those of you that don't catch the H.P. Lovecraft reference in the title - I would recommend getting yourself acquainted with a book of his short stories before you delve into this comic: your experience will be all the richer for it - and if you don't know the difference between these guys or this thing then some important stuff is going to pass you by (not to mention a massively inappropriate joke in #3). A grounding in some Lovecraft is also important to make sure that you get what exactly Neonomicon is up to: namely telling a modern-day Lovecraftian tale that doesn't shy away from the more unpalatable racist elements and also seeks to uncensor things which have only been previously referred to as "blasphemous rituals." There's another element too (that kicks in around the halfway point) that attempts to debunk Lovecraft and the horror that lies beneath his stories. For anyone that's read Swamp Thing or Promethea (particularly Promethea) the message that comes across won't be much of a surprise - but it does have the effect of lessening the horrific elements in play. But that's the trouble with Alan Moore - he's way too restless to stick to telling a straight ahead horror story - when he can deconstruct it and then put the elements back together in fresh new ways (which is what happens in #4). And it's interesting how the horror lurches through the book from the visceral level all the way to something much more intellectual...

My best guess - based on past conversations with members of the Comic Forum and seeing the way that various people have reacted on the internet - is that this is going to be a fairly divisive book and one that is going to inspire a hell of a lot of extreme reactions. Just to be clear one final time: there is a lot in Neonomicon that is incredibly unpleasant - and indeed one of the few other books that it resembles is Garth Ennis' Crossed (also drawn by Jacen Burrows who it seems is dedicated to the horror genre like no other comic book artist I'm currently aware of).  

This collection contains both The Courtyard and Neonomicon. The Courtyard is worth reading here rather than in it's original form seeing how they've added colour - which adds a whole other grisly dimension.

...................................................................................................................................................
[1] See here for a full list.

...................................................................................................................................................
Links: Comics Comics Review #2, Mindless Ones Article: The Mashless Ones on Neonomicon #2, Alan Moore LiveJounal: Happy Neo Year: It's Neonomicon #2, Bleeding Cool: Rereading And Translating Neonomicon #3, Alan Moore LiveJournal: Neonomicon #3: Aagluh Luhng-Wujj, Multiversity Comics Review #4, Comic Book Grrrl Review, Dork Forty Review, A Lay of the Land Review, Mindless Ones Article: The Neonomicon ReReviewed via Swamp Thing, Comics Comics Comic-Book Club, Bleeding Cool: Neonomicon Vs Watchmensch, Imaginary Stories Article, Bleeding Cool Interview with Jacen Burrows, Wired Interview with Alan Moore, The Skinny Interview with Alan Moore, Alan Moore Acceptance Speech for the Bram Stoker Awards.

Further reading: Alan Moore's The Courtyard, Crossed, The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, Cradlegrave, Locke & Key, Swamp Thing, No Hero, From Hell, Promethea, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century .

Profiles: Alan Moore.

All comments welcome.