With the publication of Alan Moore and Jacen Barrow's Providence (Avatar) I thought I'd revisit their four-part Neonomicon. So it was packed along with Providence #1 for a trip to my parents.
I remember picking Neonomicon up the first time round, just casting my eye across shelves and spotting a familiar sounding name. I hadn't known it was coming out, I had grown tired of constantly checking preview sites and news feeds. In fact, aside from my standing order, every week there might be a surprise awaiting at Ok Comics.
[Not a spoiler alert- one paragraph] Every one at Ok Comics is good for recommendations and suggestions based on one's buying habits. If you're in Leeds I'd certainly recommend saying hello to Jared, Oliver and the other staff (who I've not remembered their names yet, sorry). If you're popping along to Thornton's Arcade, Hepworth's next door.
I am a fan of Moore though more of a fan of H P Lovecraft. I am a big fan of homages, references, intercontextualisation, and linkages. Lovecraft gets mentioned a lot in other publications, each week there are visual and text mentions to his work in 2000ad. I spent time reading through comics like Neonomicon and Providence to take in the stories and the mountains of references and visual clues.
Another comic book I've bought was Nonplayer. Issue two has pages full of allusions to other media. Spirited Away, Tintin, Futurama, these were some of the first references I noticed, there were hundreds more. Nonplayer is an interesting book, escapism from the one world to another that is no less dangerous and unreliable. A.I. appears to be the danger in the Nonplayer world, though human error and nature are probably more the threat.
Why do we like stories? Why do we go to insurmountable mountains and impassable highways? I read most of my comic books in the garden at my parents' house and bright sunshine. I am far removed from the settings of the stories I read, yet they have something to say about my life. They probably say something about your life too, though maybe not the same things.
Unless you're finding yourself kept awake by Cthulhu's knocking too...
Ok Comics,
Thorton's Arcade, Leeds
No comments:
Post a Comment