This was a solid four stars until the last two episodes, but great books know how to stick the landing, and Moore blew me away with the effacement of the narrator, the montage of HPL's influence through the decades since, and then amazingly, you realise that that influence is much more profound than you first thought — turns out to have changed everything — and suddenly we're all in Lovecraft Country, either changed, or dead. It was the episode-ending commonplace book sections that were holding me back initially, but in fact they're our insight into this most obtuse of narrators. The story is about authors losing control of their stories, of stories writing authors, of humans as mere instruments — like in HPL — but it's also a sumptuous unification or encapsulation of the oeuvre. A compendium of ghastly delights. ( )

Alan Moore brings his tremendous powers and talents to bear on the Cthulhu mythos of H. P. Lovecraft, giving it a hybrid treatment of his pastiche homage to DC Comics' Charlton superheroes in Watchmen and his attention to historical detail and putting-the-pieces-together speculation in From Hell.

But, okay, I have definite mixed feelings.

First up, I just don't get Lovecraftian horror with its nervous young men creeping about, starting at shadows possibly filled with tentacles if you look at them from the right angle. I've hardly read any, and this one requires either an extensive knowledge of the canon or frequent reference to the helpful notes located at factsprovidence.wordpress.com.

Second, I dislike graphic novels that have too much text, and this one has ten sections mostly around 14 pages each of cursive diary entries. Even worse, a good portion of each entry is given over to directly recounting the events one has just viewed in the preceding illustrated. But as the story progresses, they become more fascinating as they provide increasingly meta commentary on the events of the book as well as criticism of horror fiction in general.

Most of the events take place in 1919, but in the closing chapters the decades rush by, through and beyond the events of the preceding series: The Courtyard and Neonomicon. While it is often a chore to get there, the ending is earned and worthwhile.

Many a time in the middle of those giant text pieces, I was tempted to give this two stars, but Jacen Burrows drew the hell out of it, and Alan Moore is the GOAT, so we'll settle on three stars and get this back to the library for the poor soul who has a hold on it after me. ( )