(delayed) review for 022509

If not for the trivial fact that I had read scanlated versions of the entire series over a year ago, I would be excited that volume 8 of MPD-Psycho was released last week. Cthulu Tales #12 is out, but I admittedly have no idea what is going on in that series anymore, so I won't feign any knowledge about who did what with the who or what burst out of Professor So-and-so's wherever back at that place where I killed that thing that time. I like Boom! Studios, I really do, but I can never make any sense of what is happening in their library of Lovecraft-inspired series, since I'm lucky to make it to the shop on New Release days anymore. I did happen to spy the lovely cover Erik Jones did to Hack Slash #20, which is pictured above, and makes me glad some people can still draw art of beautiful and blood-soaked girls for covers and get them published. Some Hellboy bits came out, but I'm sure that's old news by now. Wild Hunt and BPRD Something Or Other, if I recall the stack at home. It's just sad that the straining economy has to hit people in the smallest of ways. I have to make serious considerations on which comics to buy each week, if I get to buy any at all, often picking an old standby rather than something new and unexplored, which I loathe doing. I miss the days where I used to be able to leave the store ever week weighed down with new books and old.

The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft #1

Image is set to release the intriguing-looking "The Strange Tales of H. P. Lovecraft" this April. TSAHPL (which sounds like the profane name of one of the lesser-mentioned Elder Gods) is a color mini-series set in four parts, starring the writer Lovecraft himself as the lead character, rather than simply the minor background reference that he was used for so often in his stories. Cursed by the Necronomicon itself, he quickly finds himself battling, through type, tooth, and nail, the vile and abhorrent hellspawn creatures that his nightmares let loose into the world. The story supposedly reads more like a classic pulp horror novel than a simple retelling of his already-published work, putting a new twist on his life and the lives of the monsters that he helped to bring into the literary world. A short preview of the comic was released over the last SDCC in 2008 and the wait for the new tale has been patiently anticipated by fans of the cosmic horror genre since then, myself included.

The creators of TSAHPL, Mac Carter, Jeff Blitz, and Adam Byrne, maintain a modest and delightfully named blog called Yog Bloggoth, full of more than a handful of preview images and a pre-release trailer for the comic itself. The Strange Tales of H. P. Lovecraft is set for release on April 8th, 2009.