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Starry Wisdom #1
The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute To H.P. Lovecraft
Fiction. Science Fiction and Fantasy. Graphic Novel. Contemporary visions of cosmic transformation, mutation and madness--many inspired directly by the life and writings of H.P. Lovecraft, others reflecting his strangely presentient themes in their own bizarre subtexts. Here the primal beings of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stalk a postmodern landscape of social collapse, ethnic cleansing, genetic engineering and nuclear devastation--nightmare prophecies from his ulp pages which have now come chillingly true.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 6, 2020
HPL deserves a better 'tribute' than this piece of rubbish. After decrying that Lovecraft suffers from 'uninspired and talentless imitators' we get a book full of talentless and uninspired imitations. The shame is most of the authors are capable of doing better. It's as if the editor wanted HPL pieces and the writers threw him their worst pieces no one else would accept. The book is obsessed with sex and the cartoons are obscene. 'The Call of Cthulhu' cartoon might have been interesting only the wording was so small and crowded I couldn't decipher it. Another $10 down the toilet.
November 1, 2007
Freaky book, cool and bizarre artwork- some of the stories not th ebest, but gets top stars for atmosphere and execution.
June 16, 2009
Not many comments on here. Thats because whats in this one really is indescribable.
If you hold this book in your hands... BURN THIS AT ONCE!
No, not really. What a waste of a well-written if oddly and transgressively occult collection of works.
Its something akin to Aleister Crowley meets The Old Ones.
Wouldn't want this landing up in a mental hospital. Think of what might happen...
If you hold this book in your hands... BURN THIS AT ONCE!
No, not really. What a waste of a well-written if oddly and transgressively occult collection of works.
Its something akin to Aleister Crowley meets The Old Ones.
Wouldn't want this landing up in a mental hospital. Think of what might happen...
July 21, 2025
I should've stopped to check the names of the authors. all men so you can imagine how incompetent it is.
December 18, 2015
I bought this book in the mid-90's when I saw it in Forbidden Planet in London, primarily because it had a Lovecraft-inspired short story by Alan Moore and I was a fan of both of them.
That story, 'The Courtyard', is by far the best in the collection and more than justifies buying the whole anthology. It is the most ingenious and Intriguing 'new' take on Lovecraftian themes and certainly better written than anything the old man himself ever did.
The highly bigotted main character that other reviewers appear to have found off-putting is obviously a reference to Lovecraft's own racism and certainly not indicative of Alan Moore's political views, as even the most casual look through his other work should make clear.
'The Courtyard' was written as a short story for this collection and works excellently as that, rather than the graphic / comic version based on it which came out a few years later with some regrettably so-so artwork.
The only other piece I enjoyed in the book was a very good graphic version of 'The Call of Cthulhu' by the artist John Coulthart, whose black and white artwork has an 'old', grainy quality that suits the story very well.
The rest of the stories here, for me, ranged from bad to indifferent, with several seeming to have an adolescent preoccupation with trying to be as 'shocking' as possible (an attitude that always conjures an image of 'Rick' from 'The Young Ones' flicking a 'V' sign).
Still, worth it for the Alan Moore story.
That story, 'The Courtyard', is by far the best in the collection and more than justifies buying the whole anthology. It is the most ingenious and Intriguing 'new' take on Lovecraftian themes and certainly better written than anything the old man himself ever did.
The highly bigotted main character that other reviewers appear to have found off-putting is obviously a reference to Lovecraft's own racism and certainly not indicative of Alan Moore's political views, as even the most casual look through his other work should make clear.
'The Courtyard' was written as a short story for this collection and works excellently as that, rather than the graphic / comic version based on it which came out a few years later with some regrettably so-so artwork.
The only other piece I enjoyed in the book was a very good graphic version of 'The Call of Cthulhu' by the artist John Coulthart, whose black and white artwork has an 'old', grainy quality that suits the story very well.
The rest of the stories here, for me, ranged from bad to indifferent, with several seeming to have an adolescent preoccupation with trying to be as 'shocking' as possible (an attitude that always conjures an image of 'Rick' from 'The Young Ones' flicking a 'V' sign).
Still, worth it for the Alan Moore story.
September 5, 2015
This anthology, overall, is IMHO quite horrible. There are so many disgusting sexual references and appearances of excrement that one wonders if it was a requirement for the stories' acceptance for the book... In particular, "Walpurgisnachtmusik" brings to mind the ludicrous over-use of the F-bomb in the first 10 minutes of Tarantino's "From Dusk Till Dawn."
The only reason I don't condemn it entirely is that there are a few good things in here. Most notable is Coulthart's graphical adaptation of "The Call of Cthulhu," an excellent adaptation indeed. Some others stand out- Lumley's "The Night Sea-Maid Went Down" (a reprint, admittedly), Conway's "Black Static" (just ignore the unpleasantness at either end), Webb's "The Sound of a Door Opening," Moore's "The Courtyard" (again, dodge the few unpleasant bits, which seem especially superfluous here), and Mitchell's "Ward 23." Campbell's "Potential" is tolerably good, as well.
In short, if you can buy this book cheap, it's probably worth it; otherwise, give it a pass until you can find it cheap. If nothing else, buy it for the Coulthart segment, the one part that Lovecraft might have truly considered a tribute...
The only reason I don't condemn it entirely is that there are a few good things in here. Most notable is Coulthart's graphical adaptation of "The Call of Cthulhu," an excellent adaptation indeed. Some others stand out- Lumley's "The Night Sea-Maid Went Down" (a reprint, admittedly), Conway's "Black Static" (just ignore the unpleasantness at either end), Webb's "The Sound of a Door Opening," Moore's "The Courtyard" (again, dodge the few unpleasant bits, which seem especially superfluous here), and Mitchell's "Ward 23." Campbell's "Potential" is tolerably good, as well.
In short, if you can buy this book cheap, it's probably worth it; otherwise, give it a pass until you can find it cheap. If nothing else, buy it for the Coulthart segment, the one part that Lovecraft might have truly considered a tribute...
April 26, 2014
Oh man, this book is one of the most 90s things I've ever read. In a good way. Does a great job of steering away from the usual Lovecraftian cliches. The Michael Gira section was probably my favorite.
October 18, 2021
Should really be subtitled "Lovecraft Erotica." Most of the "stories" in here could be summarized as "blood-sperm erupting from mutilated pee pee poo poo." Apparently everyone had the bright idea to subvert famous prude Lovecraft by writing hyper-sexualized, incomprehensible drivel. I had completely no idea what was going on in half of these "stories," if anything actually was happening in them, which I doubt. I guess you can blame the editor: he's the one who chose them, after all (I'd hate to see what didn't make the cut!) and I'm sure at least some of the authors wrote without any awareness of Lovecraft, let alone with thoughts of being placed into a fanzine for the guy. The meaningless nihilist posturing of Maldoror rather than Lovecraft seems to be the major influence here.
The drivel-pieces are so predominant that they leave a bad taste in your mouth, ruining the enjoyment of the nominally "good" stories that actually make any sense and are few and far between anyway. It's also mostly so sexual in a vaguely stupid misogynist way, too, as little acne-smeared virgins boffing into their satanic knickers are prone to be.
BUT there is a completely genius comic adaption of "Call of Cthulhu" by John Coulthart that's worth the price of admission, and really made me love a story I was before always meh about. If I had to surrender to the old adage "a broken star is right twice a day" the other story I'd suggest would be "Walpurgisnachtmusik" by Simon Whitechapel, which is the best of the subversive/fucked-up sexual lot. The earnest occultist appendix essays are also a hoot. But this collection could've been a hundred pages shorter and I'd be perfectly happy.
The drivel-pieces are so predominant that they leave a bad taste in your mouth, ruining the enjoyment of the nominally "good" stories that actually make any sense and are few and far between anyway. It's also mostly so sexual in a vaguely stupid misogynist way, too, as little acne-smeared virgins boffing into their satanic knickers are prone to be.
BUT there is a completely genius comic adaption of "Call of Cthulhu" by John Coulthart that's worth the price of admission, and really made me love a story I was before always meh about. If I had to surrender to the old adage "a broken star is right twice a day" the other story I'd suggest would be "Walpurgisnachtmusik" by Simon Whitechapel, which is the best of the subversive/fucked-up sexual lot. The earnest occultist appendix essays are also a hoot. But this collection could've been a hundred pages shorter and I'd be perfectly happy.
July 15, 2010
A varied assortment of recent (not new) Lovecraftian fiction and essays. When its good its very good. Some of the creepiest wordsmithing I've read. Almost Poe-etic with its cosmic horrifiicness. Some stories didn't do it for me though. Overall the wheat is worth the chaff. Nice illustrations throughout.
November 3, 2012
Brain-expanding, if over pretentious in many cases. But the good stories are worth a look, and the imagery is impressive and often gloriously repellant throughout. If you can find it, this is a worthwhile read for any Lovecraft fan after something more challenging to get their claws into.
April 5, 2015
A very mixed bag, from pretentious garbage to the sublime. The graphic novel version of the 'Call of Cthulhu', the book's centrepiece, is worth the cover price alone, though.
January 17, 2016
couple of good ones but mostly r/NoSleep
July 19, 2025
Reading "The Courtyard" by Alan Moore, a title recommended in The Thrill of Repulsion (2016) by William Burns.
"The Courtyard" starts out in an urban pseudo-hipster diction similar to James Woods mocking Paul Auster. After all, this is a crime/mystery:
I turn. By the front of the stage where the tired hippy light show is vomiting crayola puddles across the remains of the audience, someone is standing. Hispanic; flamboyantly dressed; seventeen. Joey screams in my ear: ‘His name’s Johnny Carcosa.’
Johnny Anything and I already loathe this tale.
But the mystery element and the Red Hook, Brooklyn setting in a topsy turvy reality are arresting.
The narrator agent is trying to find common elements in three murder suspects. He suspects dealer Johnny Carcosa has a drug that motivated the killers.
How wrong he is.
Aklo is not a drug.
A pinwheel of nautillus fronds is dissolved into sparks by my vitreous humour as huge old grammatical structures collapse into place. Aklo isn’t a drug. There’s no drug with mind-altering properties halfway as powerful.
Aklo’s a language.
Ur-syntax; the primal vocabulary giving form to those pre-conscious orderings wrung from a hot incoherence of stars, from our birthmuds pooled in the grandmother lagoon; a stark, limited palette of earliest notions, lost colours, forgotten intensities.
The narrator has been priding himself as a master of secret patters, but Aklo is that faculty on god setting.
Jay
19 July 2025
"The Courtyard" starts out in an urban pseudo-hipster diction similar to James Woods mocking Paul Auster. After all, this is a crime/mystery:
I turn. By the front of the stage where the tired hippy light show is vomiting crayola puddles across the remains of the audience, someone is standing. Hispanic; flamboyantly dressed; seventeen. Joey screams in my ear: ‘His name’s Johnny Carcosa.’
Johnny Anything and I already loathe this tale.
But the mystery element and the Red Hook, Brooklyn setting in a topsy turvy reality are arresting.
The narrator agent is trying to find common elements in three murder suspects. He suspects dealer Johnny Carcosa has a drug that motivated the killers.
How wrong he is.
Aklo is not a drug.
A pinwheel of nautillus fronds is dissolved into sparks by my vitreous humour as huge old grammatical structures collapse into place. Aklo isn’t a drug. There’s no drug with mind-altering properties halfway as powerful.
Aklo’s a language.
Ur-syntax; the primal vocabulary giving form to those pre-conscious orderings wrung from a hot incoherence of stars, from our birthmuds pooled in the grandmother lagoon; a stark, limited palette of earliest notions, lost colours, forgotten intensities.
The narrator has been priding himself as a master of secret patters, but Aklo is that faculty on god setting.
Jay
19 July 2025
April 7, 2021
The fine collection of fiction inspired by H.P Lovecraft that runs from direct references to extremely experimental. Each story presents a unique take on the Lovecraftian world view rather than the form although most hint at cosmic horror, leaving in all the violence and illustrating the nameless rights that take place which he often left up to the readers imagination
August 29, 2022
Transgressive in a literarily interesting way rather than just for cheap shock value, The Starry Wisdom was both the most highbrow and most extreme and shocking Cthulhu Mythos anthology ever on its original release in the mid-1990s, putting August Derleth-imitating packages of mediocre pastiches to shame. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...
July 28, 2018
This is a great tribute collection, teetering on the edge between classical tributes written entirely in the vein of Lovecraft, and experimental prose that carries on Lovecraft’s mythos into bold new entryways. Lots of great stuff in here.
February 13, 2019
Alan Moore, Simon Whitechapel, Grant Morrison (when he was still brilliant), William Burroughs, JG Ballard... How can it fail? It doesn't.
November 23, 2020
Well-known writers take some attempts as adding to the Cthulhu Mythos, with drastically uneven levels of success.
Read
October 23, 2023DNF’d. Not sure Alan Moore or Grant Morrison have ever read a Lovecraft story and they should both stick to comics. Wasn’t a fan of their prose here.
February 3, 2020
A collection of stories inspired by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. Some were entertaining, some were a bit too much on the "cosmic" side for me. A good collection for Lovecraft fans. I enjoy Lovecraft but am not a super fan so I found myself getting bored with the the similarities in the stories.
Want to read
March 9, 2010Libro que evidentemente puse como to-read porque sale Moore en la lista de autores. Después habrá que ver qué tiene y si alguna vez se editó en castellano, que es lo que suelo hacer.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews