Primal: From the Cradle to the Grave

by Clive Barker, Erik Saltzgaber

Marking the first time best-selling horror novelist Clive Barker has
written specifically for the comics medium, Primal: From the Cradle to the Grave is a chilling story about the Riven, extra-dimensional beings who live on human fear.

Genres: Horror, Comics

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1992

About the author

Clive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. Educated at Dovedale Primary School and Quarry Bank High School, he studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University and his picture now hangs in the entrance hallway to the Philosophy Department. It was in Liverpool in 1975 that he met his first partner, John Gregson, with whom he lived until 1986. Barker's second long-term relationship, with photographer David Armstrong, ended in 2009.

In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is presented "to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for any of those communities". While Barker is critical of organized religion, he has stated that he is a believer in both God and the afterlife, and that the Bible influences his work.

Fans have noticed of late that Barker's voice has become gravelly and coarse. He says in a December 2008 online interview that this is due to polyps in his throat which were so severe that a doctor told him he was taking in ten percent of the air he was supposed to have been getting. He has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his resultant voice is an improvement over how it was prior to the surgeries. He said he did not have cancer and has given up cigars. On August 27, 2010, Barker underwent surgery yet again to remove new polyp growths from his throat. In early February 2012 Barker fell into a coma after a dentist visit led to blood poisoning. Barker remained in a coma for eleven days but eventually came out of it. Fans were notified on his Twitter page about some of the experience and that Barker was recovering after the ordeal, but left with many strange visions.

Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories.

Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his films have received mixed receptions. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld (aka Transmutations – 1985) and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou. Displeased by how his material was handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed (Cabal), which was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which received major critical acclaim.

Barker is a prolific visual artist working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books. His paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early Nineties, as well on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996), as well as on the second printing of the original UK publications of his Books of Blood series.

A longtime comics fan, Barker achieved his dream of publishing his own superhero books when Marvel Comics launched the Razorline imprint in 1993. Based on detailed premises, titles and lead characters he created specifically for this, the four interrelated titles — set outside the Marvel universe — were Ectokid,

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Primal: From the Cradle to the Grave is just the sort of madness you would expect from the mind of Clive Barker. The story follows Professor Ferrell, an anthropologist at McLauren University whose request to use human remains held at the university museum for his research has been denied. Not because the university has a problem with his studies, but rather because the Department of Paleontology cam generate more funding through their use of the ancient skeletons while Ferrell's work merely generates academic interest. Since only one of those can be used to pay the bills . . . .

But Ferrell feels his research is too important to be brushed off so easily, so he contacts DARPA, offering to cook them up a brand new weapon in exchange for funding. The Department of Defense being what it is, there's a general all too happy to bring Ferrell in and give him the money and subjects he needs to uncover everything he wants to know about fear. True fear. The sort of primal fear human beings have forgotten over the millennia.

A fear brought by The Riven.

* * * * *

This is an awesome collaboration between writers Clive Barker, Daniel G. Chichester (who wrote Marvel's Daredevil from 1991 to 1995), and Erik Saltzgaber (a long-time collaborator of Barker's, who did writing work on the comic book incarnations of Weaveworld and Hellraiser), and artist John Van Fleet (perhaps best known for the artwork he produced for White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop RPG). Like much of Barker's fiction, it deals with an ordinary person obsessively digging up secrets that were buried for a good reason, and paying a price for that pursuit of knowledge and power.

There's only one problem...the story's incomplete. This is just part one.

Part two was printed in individual comic issues, just titled Primal #1 and 2, put out by Dark Horse Comics in 1992. They feature the same writing team but John Van Fleet was replaced by Lionel Talaro. I never envy an artist being brought in to do different art for the same book, because invariably that artist will be compared to the original and found wanting. Talaro's watercolors aren't a match for Van Fleet's surreal depictions of a reality that felt just a degree or two off from normal, but they're still fine works. They weren't collected into a TPB though, so you have to hunt them down on their own.

Unfortunately, they don't bring any resolution to the story. Primal #2 just stops, having introduced a whole host of new questions without tying up any of the loose ends opened in From the Cradle to the Grave.

There never was any part 3 to follow, and thus no answers as to the fate of numerous main characters now that the ruinous Riven has been unleashed upon the world. That's a shame. It's not like Barker to leave things unfinished like that in his short stories, which leads me to wonder if perhaps this was the germ of an idea which Barker had, then gave to Chickhester and Saltzgaber to expand upon and this was all the title's sales would support.

The premises of the book are well worth exploring. It's just a shame everyone involved either stopped caring or never got the chance to finish. This would have made a great entry in another Books of Blood -style novella compilation. A pity we'll never find out what happens next.

[Devero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Onestamente, non ho mai letto nulla di Clive Baker prima. Conosco solo di fama l'autore e probabilmente questa è la lettura sbagliata con cui iniziare da lui. Dal punto di vista grafico il fumetto non è da buttare, i disegni di questo mr. Saltzgaber hanno qualcosa di evocativo, a tratti. La colorazione secondo me non aiuta, avrebbe reso meglio in bianco e nero.
Non posso dire di aver compreso fino in fondo la storia ma credo che questo sia colpa mia.
Comunque 2 stelle, non di più. E non mi ha fatto certo venire la vogglia di leggere altre opere di Baker.

[Uroš Novaković · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very difficult and confusing to read. Half the time I wasn't sure who is talking to who and what exactly is going on. Especially in the early part of the volume. The second half is a bit easier to digest though.

The art style is okay I suppose. Better than what I've seen #1 and #2 look like at least.

Overall I found this a bit too dull. If I wasn't a Clive Barker fan I'd have dropped this long before page 10 even.

[ComicNerdSam · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bit obtuse and confusing. I do like it a lot though for the tone, which is intensely oppressive. I also love the central concept, which I think is pretty well executed. Gave me the creeps a few times, always a good thing.

[Sylvester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primal unleashes the greatest human fear, themselves. This short story is not for everyone but it was thoughtful.