by Mentalrage
Independent publisher Avatar Press founded in the early 90’s has built up quite a reputation both for it’s stable of Bad Girl comics like Pandora, Shi, and a recently rejuvenated Lady Death (via their Boundless imprint), but also more prominently as being the home of numerous creator-owned titles by some of the most high profile names in comics, with Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, David Lapham, and others being given free reign to tell stories with no restrictions. Another name in their cadre of writers is Alan Moore.
Alan Moore is probably amongst the most deified of scribes in the whole comics medium. He generally shuns the mainstream media and only gives interviews when it suits his purpose for publicizing a project of some sort . Whilst he may be best known for high profile works like V For Vendetta and Watchmen, his latest work for Avatar, Neonomicon, comes from another realm entirely.
Brears and Lamper are two FBI agents are tasked with investigating a series of bizarre ritual murders that are somehow connected to the final case of Aldo Sax. Sax, formerly one of the FBI’s top agents, is now languishing in a maximum security facility after being convicted of numerous killings. After a frustrating interview with Sax, where he speaks only in a guttural inhuman tongue, the pair find themselves drawn to a seedy rock club and an occult book shop. Trying to make sense of the bizarre turn of events they find themselves caught up in, nothing prepares them for the sanity shattering truth that lies behind it all.
In a rare interview, Moore spoke with Wired about Neonomicon, and had this to say:
Funnily enough, that is one of the most unpleasant things I have ever written…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.
Neonomicon is probably amongst the most disturbingly misanthropic works you could read and will no doubt take a lot of readers by surprise especially considering that the book itself doesn’t feature an explicit content advisory. Consider yourself warned.
Taking the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft, and adding in all the things that Lovecraft himself only made veiled references to, the “nameless rites” are rendered in disturbing clarity by Burrows refined art. I imagine a good number of readers will share the practically blind Brears’ sense of disbelief after putting in her contacts and seeing with her own eyes the ugly truth for the first time.
Her reaction to this is portrayed in stages as she retreats into her own mind to escape from the horror of it, but then a more begrudging acceptance materializes, influenced by a briefly alluded to past and possibly a manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome.
Burrows has already had plenty of experience in depicting disturbing imagery working on Crossed with Garth Ennis (also from Avatar), but I think in comparison to the constant desensitizing bombardment of atrocities seen in Crossed, his work here is given even more punch due to the relative brevity of things.
Undoubtedly Neonomicon will get dismissed by some out of hand just due to its graphic content, and it will no doubt rile some Lovecraft fans for depicting that which Lovecraft merely suggested. But for all its dark and disturbing glory, Moore is still an excellent writer and his meta-fictional treatment of Lovecraft is impressive. There’s plenty going on beneath the surface, looking at language, how we interpret it, and the perception of reality. One scene involving Johnny Carcosa is a brilliant example of this and would be unachievable in any other medium. Throw in some pitch black humor and a few turned-on-their-heads clichés, along with a brutal gut punch of an ending, which makes you want to read it all over again and Neonomicon stays with you long after you’ve made it to the back cover.
Originally a four-part comic book series, Neonomicon is now available as a single hardcover volume.
