The Thing On the Doorstep #5 // Review
It’s the middle of the night. There’s a knock on the door. Then another. And another. It’s a very specific rhythm that Daniel Upton recognizes. Suddenly Daniel is quite awake and quite disturbed. He’s going to have to rush down the stairs. There’s no question that the individual in question is Edward. And there’s no question that Edward is in trouble. He’s about to find out just how MUCH trouble in The Thing On the Doorstep #5. Writer Simon Birks concludes his adaptation of the story by H.P. Lovecraft in a series that is wrapped-up by artist Willi Roberts.
Daniel rushes to the door wide-eyed and opens it. There’s a ragged figure waiting there in a fedora and an overcoat. Daniel has no idea what it is that he’s looking at. It might be human. It might be something else. Whatever it is, it’s reaching out to him with a sheet of paper that’s skewered on a pencil. All it can seem to say is, “glub.” So it seems natural for Daniel to read the letter that’s being extended to him. There’s quite a lot written on the sheet. And it’s all written by the hand of Edward.
Birks has done well with a story that is largely considered to be one of Lovecraft’s least accomplished tales. The challenge lies in capturing the more social ends of a story that really DOES have its heart in the more emotional end of psychological horror. Birks has done a good enough job in selling Daniel as an appealing and empathic character. There’s real concern that seems to reach out off the page with an earnest hand. Birks has a strong grasp of the emotional center of the story. It’s very strong stuff straight through from beginning to end.
It’s all so very, very dark. The visuals engage in the kind of haunted shadows that brings the story to life on the page. Under the pen of Roberts, Daniel’s emotional darkness feels quite vivid on the page. The architectural renderings in the background and the overall visual appeal of the a shadowy 1930s atmosphere does much to engage the visual end of the story. Roberts may have exaggerated a few emotional moments on the page, but for the most part, it all feels distinctly interesting as it tumbles and twists its way across the page.
It’s been an interesting journey with Lovecraft, Birks and Roberts. There’s a deep darkness that mixes between the heavy darkness of the art and the deeper emotional nature of a story that can be all to easily lost in the intellectual end of a largely dry text-based Lovercraftian story. What can feel more than a bit flat in text-based narrative format DOES have a chance to come alive in a more visual medium and this is precisely with Birks and Roberts have managed to do with their five-issue mini-series. It’s sharp stuff that works better in comic book form than it does in its original format.
