MY WEEK IN COMICS - - - for the week ending Sunda, JULY 05 2026
#241 - #245 = THE LAST DAY OF H.P. LOVECRAFT by Romuald Giulivo and Jakub Rebelka (Boom! Studios, October 2025 - March 2026)
Synopsis on the Goodreads website: A gothic meditation on legacy and mortality from the world of Lovecraftian horror.
Translated for the first time from the acclaimed French graphic novel, this imaginative blend of fiction and reality reimagines the final hours of the literary icon through a haunting, dreamlike lens.
As Lovecraft confronts the legacy of his life’s triumphs and regrets, his world becomes an otherworldly cathedral of memory and reckoning—filled with cosmic echoes of the mythos he helped shape.
While I'm a fan of the fictional writings of H.P. Lovecraft, I'm not a fan of the person - - in the same way that I'm a fan of Neil Gaiman's writing but not a fan of Gaiman. Lovecraft was not a good person, very racist, very opinionated, failed at marriage, and led a troubled life. Yet, his pulp writings were highly imaginative and influenced so many other writers that he deserves recognition for that.
This graphic novel homage to Lovecraft and insight into his work and life does not try to sugar coat his failings, and instead, incorporates them into the story. I believe the story by Giulivo is inspired and based upon some letters that Lovecraft wrote on his deathbed. He was a prolific letter-writer. Most of the issues contain the text of letters - to fellow pulp author Robert E. Howard, Lovecraft's mother, and his reader base.
Dying of cancer, Lovecraft is visited in his hospital room by a creepy-looking Randolph Carter (a fictional Lovecraft character) who engages him in discussion regarding his life, philosophy, the dream world and the afterlife. Other visitors include his ex-wife Sonia, Harry Houdini, and even the fictional god Nyarlathotep, which leads Lovecraft to explore an opening into an alternate universe. Whether Lovecraft is truly experiencing this or just having hallucinations or death dreams is never specified, helping to maintain the overall eerie feeling when reading this series. The art by Rebelka enhances the mysterious and disturbing effects - - it makes everything seem weird.
He meets some of the cosmic horror authors who were inspired by him, and in one dream-like sequence he meets a trio of contemporary authors who offer to help him write the story of his life. These writers aren't identified but from Rebelka's depiction it's not hard to see Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore.
Eventually Lovecraft finds his way out of the dreamscapes and back to his hospital room for his final day. Since Lovecraft's reactions to the conversations, invitations, and visions he has been shown is mostly indifferent - - I wonder what is the point that Giulivo is trying to make? All I can think of is that he wanted to pay tribute to Lovecraft, and this was his vehicle.
I'd only recommend this to fans of Lovecraft mythos who are curious to read this. For me, it contains no new revelations and hasn't done anything to change my opinions regarding Lovecraft the person and Lovecraft the author. THREE STARS.
#246 - #250 = BURIED LONG, LONG AGO #1 - #5 by Anthony Cleveland and Alex Cormack (Mad Cave Studios, 2025)
The story is inspired by a true case of a female serial killer in the last decade of the 19th Century (1884-1908). However, it’s not necessary to be familiar with the history of Belle Gunness to read this story, based on those murders. It’s a fictional re-telling of the dark history of Belle Gunness, who, if she killed as many suitors/potential husbands as depicted in this story - then I’m surprised that her name doesn’t come up more often in true crime documentaries, podcasts, etc.
The opening of Issue #1, which relates a fairy tale as told by the oldest daughter to her two younger sisters during a train trip to their new home in Indiana, is a brilliant set-up for the horror to follow. It foreshadows the establishment of a mindset of dread among the three former town girls (Chicago) who are disturbed by the differences of country life on a rural farm in La Pointe, Indiana. Pigs, chickens, a bloody slaughterhouse where the animals are butchered and sold, and a strange lurking pair of eyes seen in the dark and through the windows. What is happening outside the farmhouse is as traumatizing as what is happening inside.
That fairy tale told on the train detailed an ogre witch who disguised herself and lured victims into a hollow. It ends with a knight being devoured, only bones remaining, and the witch never captured despite a manhunt. It haunts the younger sisters and makes them nervous in their new setting on the property owned by their new stepfather. The opening issue ends with a brutal murder (deemed an accident) and a cover-up by a domineering mother (coincidentally named Belle Gunness) and backed-up by a fearful older daughter.
There are two things that make this stand out and demand to be noticed:
One: Rather than focus on the dreadful and evil Belle, writer Cleveland tells the story from the perspective of her three daughters. What they have to witness, endure, and obey the sinister whims of their cruel mother are traumatizing and have a profound effect on each of them as the story progresses.
Two: In addition to some truly wicked embellishments that Cleveland and Cormack add to spice the story - - Cleveland introduces a supernatural element and ties it into the main story. In earlier days, the farmhouse was a brothel and the land around it became the domineering matron’s burial ground for unwanted babies. Now, the presence of an equally demonic and aggressive woman who also buries victims in the ground revives the sleeping creature that is comprised of the ghosts of buried victims.
In the final issues, things really get out of control in a fiery climax. I’m sure that Cleveland took many liberties with the actual history of Belle Gunness and the story is better for it.
Cormack’s art is simply great, so good at creating nervous images, revealing scenes, and fearful body language that I would gladly read this without text boxes or dialogue - - just for the art.. However, the script is taut and succinctly effective. You can tell that writer Anthony Delaware is into the story, and it shows. I’ve followed the work of artist Alex Cormack for some time, and this ranks with his best efforts.
This series maintained the excellence and promise of the debut issue throughout the five-issue run, and deserves a FIVE-STAR rating.
