by Pamela Auditore
Anyone familiar with Spike TV Scream Award Winner and New York Times Bestselling Artist/Writer Ben Templesmith’s work knows he is profoundly influenced by HP Lovecraft. Even a cursorary glance at his art makes this apparent. Lovecraft’s influence is most directly on display in Templesmith’s most recent graphic novel Squidder. A tale of a one time warrior doing battle and eluding the common place acolytes who’ve accepted the Dark Cephlopod Gods as their own.
But now, the marriage is official!
Templesmith will be tackling Lovecraft himself, the horror master who has influenced creators for nearly a century, including Mike Mignola, Nic Pizzolatto (“True Detective”) and GRR Martin.
In an e-mail yesterday, Templesmith, announced he is temporarily forgoing a sequel to Squidder, for an adaption of HP Lovecraft’s “DAGON.” “A proto-Chuthullu story,” as the Kickstarter page calls it.
As Templesmith tells it:
“‘DAGON’ is the first Lovecraft story I ever read… and is just oozing in mood and fear [sic]…so I figured I’d turn the visuals it gives me in to a deluxe graphic novella. I finally get to handle some of the unspeakable horrors of Lovecraft, especially because it’s the 125th anniversary of his birth.”
Templesmith also says he will be working on Fell, and is in talks with Warren Ellis for more issues of Wormwood.
Craig Engler, co-creator/writer/co-executive producer of Syfy’sZ Nation is kickstarting a new comic based on HP Lovecraft; it’s already funded but it’s definitely in the spirit of the season.
“Halloween week is the perfect time to launch ‘Lovecraft: The Blasphemously Large First Issue,’ the start of a new series we’re working on that completely reinvents H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos,” Engler said. “The story is set in the present day and recasts Lovecraft as the world’s foremost alchemist and a magician who guards a secret library of forbidden knowledge, which includes books like the Necronomicon.”
Engler (Z Nation, Zombie Apocalypse) is writing the story with pencils and inks by Daniel Govar (DC, Marvel), colors by Matheus Lopes (Image, Dark Horse, IDW) and a special limited-edition cover by red hot artist Lewis LaRosa (Valiant). The first issue will be 48 pages long, including 6 pages of Lovecraft pinups by some fantastic guest artists:
Brian Hurtt (The Sixth Gun),
Dennis Calero (X-Men: Noir)
John Bivens (Dark Engine)
Lukas Ketner (Witch Doctor)
Richard Luong (Cthulhu Wars)
Jamie Tanner (The Dark Well)
The Kickstarter will also feature a special green foil variant cover that’s only being offered during the 28 day campaign.
English artist INJ Culbard has become the resident HP Lovecraft expert at SelfMadeHero with several of his adaptations of Lovecraft (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Shadow Out of Time and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath) turning into bestsellers for the Brit Literary Comics house. Well, it seems his next book is one that greatly influenced Lovecraft—and Stephen King, and Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Raymond Chandler and True Detective—namely The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. The 1895 short story collection centers around a sinister play called “The King in Yellow” and this title character, as well as Carcosa were used in Season 1 of True Detective, and gave the cult book a new life.
Now Culbard, an expert in the unsettling, will adapt the original into a 144-page GN, also called The King in Yellow
and also to be published by SelfMadeHero.
Culbard revealed the book and cover in a tweet
Via Robot 6
I guess this is why he left Gotham By Midnight. Looks intriguing.
Hey Chris, sorry to say I had a contract & I was only ever on Gotham By Midnight for 5 issues, which was an honour and a pleasure to work with Ray. After that who knows but no, this project is not why I left anything. It is simply my next project.
-B
@Ben – Thanks for the response! I wish you were on for more than just 5 issues, but it seems I get to sign up for a passion project of yours! So it’s all good. Thanks for responding.