At The Mountains Of Madness: A Graphic Novel (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
We've been liking the Lovecraft Anthology graphic novels. Hit or miss as the art styles might be, the diversity has been interesting.At the Mountains of Madness is not an anthology but a single tale, and the style of its artwork is IMHO too childish for the subject matter. Lovecraft is not Herge; the discovery of the Antarctic archaeological record of the Elder Race should not be drawn in the style of Tintin.But really, the way a picture tells a 1,000 words, a graphic novel almost invites an over-rapid pace of reading, letting much of what's on the page affect you subliminally in your peripheral vision rather than expecting you to pore over every detail in every corner of every frame. And a tale like this one needs to unfold gradually, with the details savoured. The original prose might be excessively purple, but it sets the reader a pace compatible with the content. A graphic treatment -- or this one at least -- doesn't really do it. It has been a couple decades since I last read the original of this, but my favorite thinsg from that version were (1) the history of these beings and (2) that fact that I found it "not scary" while reading it, but then really scary later, when I was trying to go to sleep.This graphic novel version does a really good job of capturing the creeping sense of wrongness in the original, but a lot of the history is (of necessity) lost. It was like watching a good movie adaptation of a book... it hits the high points of the story and even adds something new at times, but I could feel the loss of something, too. The graphics do a great job of capturing the scale of everything... but not as good as my imagination did when it had to rely on just the words.I really enjoyed this version and recommended it for anyone who hasn't read the original (or, better, hasn't read it in a long time), but if you have the time and inclination, read Lovecraft's text itself instead.
What do You think about At The Mountains Of Madness: A Graphic Novel (2010)?
The art is very good, but I couldn't help but find the story painfully dull.
—optimusgrimes
explores the vasty deeps of: space, the arctic, AND the primordial ocean.
—Dilove
Great visual translation of one of the best Lovecraft stories.
—jess
