Recently Planet Lovecraft Magazine reviewed my graphic novel, Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom. Feel free to check out the review below and know that it is available for pre-order at local comic shops everywhere. The diamond order code is:
OCT 09 0688
Check out their review below!
As a Lovecraft aficionado, I take an interest in all things HPL, and when I came across the website of Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom a while back, my curiosity was definitely piqued.
Let me make one thing clear – I consider myself a Lovecraft scholar, but I’m not a Lovecraft purist by any stretch of the imagination. As much as I love The Old Gent’s weird tales, I love even more a contemporary writer that can understand Lovecraft’s intent and then weave their own storylines within the Mythos.
With Arcana’s “Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom”, Bruce Brown has given us a little of both… he spins a yarn that falls half in the “real” world – that is, Lovecraft’s childhood – and half in The Frozen Kingdom, an alternate dimension that brings to mind Randolph Carter’s Dreamlands.
In fact, one of the strengths of HLatFK is that, if you’re an HPL fan, everything feels a little familiar. Brown is obviously a fan himself, and so you feel comfortable letting him steer you through his version of Lovecraft Country. And as he tells his story, we meet characters and creatures and discover clues that will obviously lead young Howard to the writer he becomes and the stories he’s best known for.
The art, by Renzo Podesta, is nothing short of gorgeous, each frame so stuffed with natural motion that it looks like you’re looking at a series of animated cels, colored in muted sepias for Howard’s everyday, real world, and icy blue-greens in the world of the Frozen Kingdom. In fact, more than once I thought to myself, “I want to see this movie!”
Will everyone love this? Probably not. There’s a broad and sometimes jarring child-like humor that runs contrary to the dark images, but I embraced it for what it was – the obvious joy of a writer getting caught up in his characters, and Podesta counters by channeling Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbes) at his best with young Howard and his Cthulhian pet, Spot.
Where so many recent companies have jumped on the Lovecraft bandwagon and turned the Old Ones into just a bunch of creatures to punch, shoot, or blow up, it’s nice to see someone with a genuine love – and knowledge – of the source material step up and show ‘em how it’s done.
Ia!
K.L. Young
Editor, Art Director, Lavatory Cleaner
Planet Lovecraft Magazine
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Planet Lovecraft reviews Arcana's Howard Lovecraft
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Bruce Brown
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Cosmic book news reviews Howard Lovecraft
Also, feel free to check out Cosmic Book News" review of Howard
Lovecraft & The Frozen Kingdom!
Click on the link below!
http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/reviews/hlfk_review
Lovecraft & The Frozen Kingdom!
Click on the link below!
http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/reviews/hlfk_review
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Another Early Review of The Frozen Kingdom
Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom
Publisher: Arcana Studio
Author: Bruce Brown
Artist: Renzo Podesta
It is Christmas Eve and six year old Howard Lovecraft and his mother pay a visit to his father in a sanitarium. The father rambles and keeps telling Howard to destroy the book. What book is he talking about? Has he really gone insane or is there more to this dark picture?
I grew up on comic books—literally—and HP Lovecraft is one of my biggest influences as a writer. I’ve read pretty much everything he’s written and many pastiches of his Cthulhu Mythos. So to me, the idea of taking a six year old Howard Lovecraft and dropping him in the universe we’re used to reading about in his stories was a brilliant idea. What if HP Lovecraft actually experienced some of those worlds and dimensions he wrote about? Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom is nothing less than a breath of fresh air, a labor of love from a writer who obviously knows the source material. Brown pens a fast-paced, often funny, fairy-tale-like story that keeps you glued to the panels. Artist Renzo Podesta paints some amazing splash pages throughout and his panels almost feel like they’re about to leap from the pages. The artwork fit the story like a glove.
The story is almost magical in a Lovecraftian kind of way (if that makes any sense). Lovecraft aficionados will feel they are on familiar territory here with a brief glimpse of the origins of R’yleh, mentions of the Jinn, talk of waking the slumbering one, and even a few panels with Dagon. Author Bruce Brown writes a compelling tale rooted in reality yet very surreal and filled with fantasy. The young Howard is already ahead of his time at the tender age of six in the way he speaks; I guess it can be attributed to the fact that he might very well have been a child prodigy. He has a good sense of humor and is even cocky at times. Aided by his sidekick¬— Thu Thu Hmong who Lovecraft renames Spot because it’s easier to remember—young Howard embarks on a journey filled with danger to recover a lost book. Saying more would ruin the fun.
Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom is a graphic novel for all ages. It’s the kind of story you read in one sitting and that you will most likely re-read many more times. Lovecraft enthusiasts will love the original yarn Bruce Brown has spun with this one. I’m not sure if mainstream readers with no knowledge of Lovecraft or the Cthulhu Mythos will enjoy it as much, but comic book readers will surely appreciate this fresh take on one of genre fiction’s most beloved writers. It’d be great to witness more adventures of young Howard to see what happened later on to turn him into a recluse because he’s everything but in this tale. Bring on book two, I say! This little gem of a book comes highly recommended!
Alan Draven,
Author of Bitternest and Vengeance Is Mine
Publisher: Arcana Studio
Author: Bruce Brown
Artist: Renzo Podesta
It is Christmas Eve and six year old Howard Lovecraft and his mother pay a visit to his father in a sanitarium. The father rambles and keeps telling Howard to destroy the book. What book is he talking about? Has he really gone insane or is there more to this dark picture?
I grew up on comic books—literally—and HP Lovecraft is one of my biggest influences as a writer. I’ve read pretty much everything he’s written and many pastiches of his Cthulhu Mythos. So to me, the idea of taking a six year old Howard Lovecraft and dropping him in the universe we’re used to reading about in his stories was a brilliant idea. What if HP Lovecraft actually experienced some of those worlds and dimensions he wrote about? Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom is nothing less than a breath of fresh air, a labor of love from a writer who obviously knows the source material. Brown pens a fast-paced, often funny, fairy-tale-like story that keeps you glued to the panels. Artist Renzo Podesta paints some amazing splash pages throughout and his panels almost feel like they’re about to leap from the pages. The artwork fit the story like a glove.
The story is almost magical in a Lovecraftian kind of way (if that makes any sense). Lovecraft aficionados will feel they are on familiar territory here with a brief glimpse of the origins of R’yleh, mentions of the Jinn, talk of waking the slumbering one, and even a few panels with Dagon. Author Bruce Brown writes a compelling tale rooted in reality yet very surreal and filled with fantasy. The young Howard is already ahead of his time at the tender age of six in the way he speaks; I guess it can be attributed to the fact that he might very well have been a child prodigy. He has a good sense of humor and is even cocky at times. Aided by his sidekick¬— Thu Thu Hmong who Lovecraft renames Spot because it’s easier to remember—young Howard embarks on a journey filled with danger to recover a lost book. Saying more would ruin the fun.
Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom is a graphic novel for all ages. It’s the kind of story you read in one sitting and that you will most likely re-read many more times. Lovecraft enthusiasts will love the original yarn Bruce Brown has spun with this one. I’m not sure if mainstream readers with no knowledge of Lovecraft or the Cthulhu Mythos will enjoy it as much, but comic book readers will surely appreciate this fresh take on one of genre fiction’s most beloved writers. It’d be great to witness more adventures of young Howard to see what happened later on to turn him into a recluse because he’s everything but in this tale. Bring on book two, I say! This little gem of a book comes highly recommended!
Alan Draven,
Author of Bitternest and Vengeance Is Mine
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tsathoggua
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Bruce Brown
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tsathoggua
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Bruce Brown
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Definitely do! Just got another great review from sheneverslept.com! You can also order this book on amazon even though they haven't posted the cover up on it yet.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_0_12? ... ward+lovec
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_0_12? ... ward+lovec