The Thing on the Doorstep #1 // Review
Arkham Sanatorium. 1933. There’s a gentleman who is signing-in to meet one of the residents. The door opens to a padded cell with a smiling figure on the other side. The visitor produces a gun, announces a desire for vengeance and shoots the inmate in the face. Thus begins The Thing on the Doorstep--a Lovecraftian horror story adapted from the original short story by Simon Birks with art by Willi Roberts. It’s a promising opening for an engaging early 20th century horror story that engages the page as well as the mind. It’s not very often that a horror comic manages that feat.
The gentleman with the gun goes by the name of Daniel Upton. “I avenge ye, Edward Derby!” (That’s what he said when he pulled the trigger as the guard looked-on in horror.) Upton met Derby back in 1899 at an exhibit for Selected Work of the Macabre. A few years later they meet at a reading of Edgar Allan Poe poetry. Three years ater that, Derby’s reading a book that appears to be The Necronomicon in a library looked after by a woman who ends-up in Arkham Sanatorium years later. This is the least of Derby’s concerns. He will come to attend Miskatonic University...
Birks has done an admirable job of adapting a dry, intellectual-based horror story from 1937 into a contemporary retro-horror comic book. The lives of two friends rush across the page in quick, little bursts of drama and intrigue as the horroe begins to settl-in around the edges of a story that debuted in Weird Tales nearly 90 years ago. The intrigue feels fresh and engaging as Birks casts light through the old text from odd angles in a graphically-driven horror serial. There’s great potential here.
Roberts approache the page with a fairly straightforward adaptation of the script. With Lovecraft as the basis for the story, there must have been great desire to do strange things with the framing and overall coposition of the page, but Roberts has resisted skewed angles and excessive shadow in favor of something much more approachable. There’s a strong sense of gravity about Roberts’ rednderings that keep the narrative quite well-anchored. It’s all a very strong. The detail on the drama eels very period-authentic in many ways. Nothing is exaggerated to any great degree. There’s a grand sense of composure about Roberts’ work.
Lovecraft’s racism is always a problem, though not so much in The Thing on the Doorstep as it is in other works. Still--it IS nice to see Upton depicted as an African-American man in this particular adaptation. Lovecraft’s work remains powerfully influential in modern horror even if the guy was an appallingly racist individual. It’s nice to see his one of his stories presented in a way that would make him uncomfortable. Upton is generally an admirable and relatable Lovecraftian hero. The original author would have likely been upset to see him depicted as a black man. It’s cool that the man’s work can outlive and evolve beyond his prejudices while still being true to the original vision of the story.
