The Last Day of H.P. Lovecraft

The Last Day of H.P. Lovecraft #1-5

by Romuald Giulivo, Jakub Rebelka (Illustrator), Nicolas Beaujouan (Letterer)

A gothic meditation on legacy and mortality from the world of Lovecraftian horror.

Translated for the first time from the acclaimed French graphic novel, this imaginative blend of fiction and reality reimagines the final hours of the literary icon through a haunting, dreamlike lens.

As Lovecraft confronts the legacy of his life’s triumphs and regrets, his world becomes an otherworldly cathedral of memory and reckoning—filled with cosmic echoes of the mythos he helped shape.

Written by Romuald Giulivo (Le Sourire De Sang) and with breathtaking art by Jakub Rebelka (Origins, Judas), this collection presents the thrilling five-issue limited series in one complete volume.

Collects The Last Day of H.P. Lovecraft #1-5.

Genres: Comics, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels, Horror, Lovecraftian, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2023

Reviews

[Berna Labourdette]

Tuve la hermosa sincronía de terminar los dos tomos de Yo soy Providence: La vida y época de H.P. Lovecraft, mamotretos de pura erudición obsesiva de Joshi sobre Lovecraft, que se enlazó perfecto con este hermoso cómic que leí inmediatamente después, con un dibujo super interesante de Rebelka (de quien había leído un cómic sobre Judas) y apariciones de Houdini, Alan Moore y muchos personajes más, incluyendo la esposa de Lovecraft, Sonia Greene, unidos gracias a Randolph Carter (alter ego de HPL) que visita a Lovecraft en su lecho de muerte.
Muy bueno.

[Piotr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niesamowite ilustracje. Fabuły tak do końca nie ma, to taka ilustrowana dyskusja o życiu i twórczości Lovecrafta, rodzaj polemiki z popularnymi opiniami. Mam wątpliwości, czy ciekawa dla osób mało zainteresowanych Lovecraftem. Dużo smaczków z biografii i twórczości ukrytych w kadrach. Całkiem pomysłowe i efektowne.

[Filip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too weird for my liking.

That was supposed to be the whole review but I'll add this: not sure if it's ironic or hypocritical but it was certainly a *choice* to have a character complain how forever people will only be quoting Lovecraft's racist remark

[Mel (Epic Reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

”For in nothingness, one is liberated at last from the transient and ephemeral, and no desire goes unfulfilled.”
A very surreal experience. Essentially a comic based on the letters and diary entries that Lovecraft wrote on his death bed. The overall tone of this comic is fairly depressing, gothic, and makes many arching statements on existence that Lovecraft expressed in his life.

I really enjoyed it but would be wary to recommend it to just anyone. Not for anyone struggling to decide why we exist or with depression. I’d only recommend this for those with some ‘darkness’ in them who are curious to explore it in a safe and slightly academic way. The art made me think of Dante’s Inferno and the different layers of hell that are traversed. Much of the time ‘in’ Lovecraft’s subconscious has an overall hellish feel and the reds, blacks, dead imagery is exquisite.

A perfect selection for any goth or dead intrigued comic reader. However there is a lot of narrative here unlike most comics. Be prepared to read. The art is really just a compliment to the text in this case (and not vice versa like most comics). Without the text it would not tell any story and the narrative would be lost.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

[Dolly Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

C’était un voyage incroyable.
Rien n’est épargné, ni à nous, ni à HPL. Pas d’idéalisation, pas de projection… De la fiction, oui, mais dans un prolongement maîtrisé.
Et le travail de Jakub Rebelka est a couper le souffle, il colle parfaitement à l’ambiance à la fois fascinante et angoissante.
Quelle claque.

[Pi]

W życiu czasem zdarzają się opowieści, które "coś" zmieniają, "gdzieś" trafiają i o "czymś" mówią - o czymś, co nas dotyka. Nie jest ich aż tak dużo i choć czyta się sporo, to trzeba długo czekać na takie wydarzenia. OSTATNI DZIEŃ HOWARDA PHILLIPSA LOVECRAFTA, to komiks, który z wielu powodów znalazł się na mojej krótkiej liści właśnie takich pozycji.
Podstawowym powodem jest przedmiot tejże historii, czyli pisarz wyjątkowy, inny niż wszyscy, cudacznie mroczny, smutno samotny - Samotnik z Providence. Lovecraft chwycił mnie w szpony horroru za sprawą swoich opowiadań i choć doceniam Cthulhu, to zainteresowana jestem bardziej tym, co poza tą mitologią, lub co jest z nią raczej luźno związane. Niemniej wszystko co napisał ten autor inspiruje do dzisiaj filmowców, malarzy i innych pisarzy. Romuald Giulivo skupił się na OSTATNIM DNIU, na dniu sądu, śmierci mistrza gatunku, prekursora "horroru kosmicznego". Zrobił to umiejętnie, trafiał każdym zdaniem, każdym porównaniem, każdym nawiązaniem do lovecraftowskich koszmarów - w samo sedno. Ja uczciwie przyznaję, że pewnie nie zobaczyłam wszystkich odniesień do twórczości Howarda. Scenariusz jest napisany inteligentnie i czuć, że to nie luźne bajanie o znanym pisarzu, ale głębokie przygotowanie tematu.
Kolejną onieśmielająco świetną sprawą jest warstwa artystyczna, wizualna, czyli doskonałe obrazy Jakuba Rebelki, który już zdążył mnie zachwycić swoim talentem w GENEZIE (bardzo polecam i ten komiks). Te ilustracje nie mogły być lepsze! Jeśli kiedykolwiek bym sobie wyobraziła umysł Lovecrafa, to miałby ona kolory i kształty Rebelki. W tych pracach jest cały strach Samotnika, cała jego zgryzota i wiele ukrytych przekazów, odniesień do szalonej interpretacji świata pisarza.
To dzieło posiada niezliczoną ilość smaczków. Zobaczymy tam Kinga. Gaimana, Poego, postacie z życia osobistego Howarda i potwory z jego umysłu. Spektakularnie dobra robota! Muszę też podkreślić, że nie jest to tylko komiks dla "komiksiarzy", ale także dla kochających sztukę i dla tych, których interesuje pisarstwo i pisarski umysł, jak i również dla fanów biografii.
OSTATNI DZIEŃ HOWARDA PHILLIPSA LOVECRAFTA, to opowieść ostateczna, zamykająca wszechświat, ucinająca spekulacje, pokazująca kruchość życia i grozę jego końca. Porównałabym tę historię do wrzącej lawy, która niszczy wszystko na swojej drodze, ale ostatecznie wystygnie a ogromem jej zniszczeń mierzona jest wartość koszmaru zamkniętego w jednym umyśle - samotnym umyśle.
Pięknie wydany komiks, z absolutnie zachwycającymi ilustracjami Jakuba Rebelki i mrocznym, celnym scenariuszem Romualda Giulivo. Namawiam do poznania a dodatkowym bonusem (jakby sama historia, to było mało) jest kartka z grafiką i autografami autorów. Genialne!

z koszmaru życia w koszmar śmierci
Wydawnictwo Kultura Gniewu
egzemplarz recenzencki

[Madd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author (and illustrator!) for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this. Maybe I'm just bad at reviewing comics, but I didn't really have anything to criticize. The art is haunting, and together with the writing it creates a very oppressive feeling, very much like you are running out of time or being hunted - or haunted.

I admit I was skeptical at first. I am a big fan of eldritch horror, but not a big fan of Lovecraft. (I've been slowly slowly working through all of his fiction, and boy is it a slog.) But this is a truly fascinating analysis of him. I've read other works on Lovecraft that have editors notes full of praise, just blatantly omitting his prejudices and how they influenced his work. This does not do that. This tells you directly that he was kind of a piece of shit, very much by todays standards and even kind of by his own. But at the same time, it's offering a more human lens. This is an aspect of him that should not be overlooked, but there was also so much more - pieces lost to time.

What this really does is prompt you to think about authorship and legacy on a wide scale, just through the lens of Lovecraft. Will you put something in the world knowing that someday, when you are dead and gone, people will make up a less-than-whole version of you based on those works? Can you accept that your work - and yourself - will be twisted into unrecognizable shapes? Furthermore, while you are alive; will you let yourself bend to trends and the desires of others, or will you stay true to yourself and your intentions? Will you give up individuality for success? As an aspiring author myself, I really loved it.

[Ver · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a grim comic but I quite liked it. I learnt a lot about his life due to reminiscence of the past in the story. I didn't know he was a ghost writer for Houdini. The only but great disadvantage is the font in the letters. They are two pages long and after reading I could really feel my eyes hurt. So later I was only scrolling through them, reading what I could easily decipher, trying to make out the sense. It is a pity as these are Lovecraft's original letters and that was a really interesting part.

[Marc-Olivier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très bon. Mais il faut une bonne connaissance de Lovecraft pour bien apprécié.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐️ thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. This was an interesting meditation on death and legacy. I learned a lot about Lovecraft’s personal life. The art was fantastic. While there were a lot of details specific to Lovecraft, it felt very distant and could have been about any infamous person or even a fictional character.

[Palmyre Tombétoile · Rating 5 out of 5]

À mettre entre toutes les mains des amoureux de Lovecraft et son univers. Un récit poignant qui a su m'arracher des larmes. Des illustrations à couper le souffle. La personnalité de Lovecraft a été finement analysée. Son personnage joue son rôle à la perfection. Merci pour ce moment.

[Bart - Komiksy · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Ostatni dzień Howarda Phillipsa Lovecrafta” zaskoczył mnie (pozytywnie) od pierwszych stron. Właściwie to już sama okładka przykuła moją uwagę hipnotyzującym spojrzeniem Lovecrafta sportretowanego przez genialnego Jakuba Rebelkę. Z perspektywy miłośnika mrocznych klimatów oraz początkującego fana twórczości Lovecrafta, muszę przyznać, że Rebelka i Romuald Gulivio stworzyli coś naprawdę wyjątkowego.

Fabuła, jest pełna niepokoju i rozważań natury filozoficznej. Ukazuje ostatni dzień z życia tego legendarnego pisarza, w którym przeszłość, jego wewnętrzne demony oraz fantastyczne wizje i koszmarne sny mieszają się w jeden, niepokojący wir. Gulivio w mistrzowski sposób buduje napięcie, sprawiając, że momentami czujemy się tak, jakbyśmy sami popadali w obłęd, stali na krawędzi życia i śmierci.

Rebelka w swoim charakterystycznym, surowym stylu doskonale oddaje atmosferę grozy i zagubienia. Mocne kolory i kontrasty, zniekształcone postaci i epickie scenerie sprawiają, że komiks jest niezwykle ekspresyjny i porywający. Jest to niewątpliwie hołd dla twórczości Lovecrafta ale również bardzo niezwykła notka biograficzna, która rozlicza autora z jego poglądów, lęków i słabości. To coś na kształt spowiedzi czy też bardziej rachunku sumienia na chwilę przed dokonaniem żywota. Taka formuła dość luźno kojarzy mi się z „Opowieścią wigilijną” Dickensa, przy czym w „Ostatnim dniu…” Lovecraftowi najpewniej tylko przyśniły się wszystkie zjawy i demony a on sam nie ma już czasu na skruchę i nie oczekuje niczego poza ostatecznym końcem i wiecznym zapomnieniem.

Poza naprawdę fascynującymi rysunkami, dużym zaskoczeniem były dla mnie wdrukowane w historię dość obszerne i odręcznie pisane (stylizacja czcionki) listy Lovecrafta. To bardzo mocno podkreśla narrację pierwszoosobową i uatrakcyjnia opowieść, także od strony graficznej. To zdecydowanie jeden z najlepszych komiksów jakie czytałem. 10/10.

[Krzy Pie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nie czytałem jeszcze Lovecrafta, ale trudno nie kojarzyć mitologii, czy motywów jego twórczości. Nawet bez tego dużo satysfakcji dostarczyła mi lektura tego komiksu. Jak się okazuje Lovecraft do ostatnich chwil pisał dziennik z… umierania. I ten komiks publikuje kilka z jego fragmentów (fatalna do odczytania czcionka udająca rękopis to sporo udręki, ale szanuję ten wybór, oryginał to pewnie był dramat dla rozczytujących). Mamy tu rzeczywiście ostatni dzień przykutego do łóżka autora. Jego wycieczki do wewnątrz, rozmowy ze zjawami, imaginarium PIĘKNIE namalowane przez Rebelkę. Pojawia się tu mnóstwo odniesień do jego życia, biografii, korespondencyjnych przyjaciół, twórczości (nawet jeśli tylko procent jej dostrzegam), ale też i szerokiej kultury. Przede wszystkim w formie utartych opinii - przeszłych i pośmiertnych na temat Lovecrafta. Jest więc tak Poe, którego „naśladował”, jak i King, Moore czy Gainman, którzy przyszli po nim. Można się zorientować jak niełatwe życie miał, a przez to jak skomplikowaną miał osobowość. Niepopularne dziś poglądy, ale i też gorzkie przemyślenia na temat życia i śmierci. To też niejednokrotnie polemika z tym wszystkim i jego z nim samym. Warto.

[Mateusz Staniszewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powiedzieć, że to arcydzieło to jak powiedzieć nic. Niepokój towarzyszący przy czytaniu i oglądaniu tej opowieści graficznej przenika do najdalszych zakamarków podświadomości potęgując to doświadczenie. Absolutny must have i pozycja, która powinna znajdować się na waszej półce (a jak nie na niej to przynajmniej w głowie).

Omnia risus et omnia pulvis et omnia nihil.

[Juliette Dantes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une esthétique dinguissime... mais je n'ai pas été emportée par l'histoire loufoques froide. Très déçue car les dessins sont époustouflants.

[Wciągam Książki Nosem · Rating 3 out of 5]

o, Boziu, jak mnie to umęczyło! Jednak rzecz fanowska. 3 gwiazdka za przepiękne ekspresjonistyczne rysunki Rebelki.

[Yang Ma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Niestety -1 za okropny dobór czcionki do fragmentów pamiętnikowo/korespondencyjnych.
Poza tym, naprawdę olśniewający koloryt, chapeau bas, Jakub Rebelka, embrace the void!

[Yoshiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

POPKULTUROWY KOCIOŁEK: Album przedstawia ostatnie godziny życia H.P. Lovecrafta, chorego i wyniszczonego przez raka, leżącego w szpitalnym łóżku w Providence. Towarzyszy mu fikcyjny alter ego – Randolph Carter, który staje się przewodnikiem w halucynacyjnej podróży przez wspomnienia, lęki i refleksje pisarza. Podczas tych ostatnich godzin Lovecraft konfrontuje się z duchami przeszłości, oraz z postaciami, które dopiero ukształtują przyszłość literatury grozy. To bolesna i halucynacyjna wiwisekcja artysty, który umiera w przekonaniu o własnej porażce, nieświadomy nadchodzącej, pośmiertnej sławy.

Ostatni dzień Howarda Phillipsa Lovecrafta to owoc współpracy francuskiego scenarzysty Romualda Giulivo i polskiego wizjonera kreski Jakuba Rebelki. Zdecydowanie nie jest to komiks, który się czyta i się o nim zapomina. Jest to z kolei dzieło, które zanurza nas w gęstym sosie melancholii, strachu i metafizycznego niepokoju, po wyjściu z którego przez dłuższy czas w naszym umyśle krążą kadry tego tytułu.

Pozycja w naprawdę dobry i ciekawy sposób łączy biograficzny realizm z oniryczną, halucynacyjną narracją. Giulivo odważnie mierzy się z ikoną literatury grozy, tworząc opowieść, która jest zarówno hołdem, jak i refleksją nad człowiekiem stojącym u kresu życia. Jego narracja nie ogranicza się jednak tylko do chronologicznego przedstawienia ostatnich godzin pisarza. Historia jest w dużej mierze introspektywna, pełna retrospekcji i metafizycznych dygresji, które pozwalają czytelnikowi zanurzyć się w psychice H.P. Lovecrafta.

Fabuła albumu nie jest tu linearna. Autor stosuje tu rozwiązanie, w którym przeszłość, teraźniejszość i wyobrażenia splatają się ze sobą. Autor nie unika przy tym kontrowersji z życia Lovecrafta, takich jak jego rasizm i antysemityzm, przedstawiając je w kontekście historycznym.

Jednym z atutów albumu jest również jego zdolność do balansowania między grozą a refleksją. Lovecraft jako postać jest przedstawiony nie tylko jako mistrz horroru, ale również jako człowiek pełen wątpliwości i lęków, świadomy własnych ograniczeń i niedoskonałości. Wątki psychologiczne przenikają się tu z elementami fantastyki, tworząc złożoną strukturę, a momenty halucynacji kontrastują z melancholijną codziennością umierającego pisarza.

Z punktu widzenia odbiorcy, album wymaga jednak cierpliwości. Momentami narracja może wydawać się dość rozwlekła i przytłaczająca. Giulivo, jako literat, momentami trochę bowiem przesadza z tekstem. Są tu fragmenty, gdzie monologi Lovecrafta stają się nieco rozwlekłe, a ich filozoficzny ciężar może być trudny do udźwignięcia przy jednej lekturze....

https://popkulturowykociolek.pl/ostat...

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and BOOM! Studios for an advance copy of this graphic novel that is a fantastical retelling of the life of a writer who failed at much in life, family, friends, careers, who was driven as much by fear of the other, fear of emotions, and fear of the outside, and yet created works that still scare, still amaze, and still influence much of the world today.

H. P. Lovecraft was far beyond a complicated man. No on really understood him, not the women in his life, his family, even the many writers and others he freely corresponded with over his short life. Lovecraft had a gift for stealing defeat from the hands of victory, either through his own fears, his own prejudices, or even just plain bad luck. He was not a nice man, a zealot of fixed ideas on race, on women, but a man whose life was to say the least difficult. Love was a foreign entity to Lovecraft, a lurker on the threshold that never crossed, though he was married. Even in death he was alone, waiting to find the answer to that final question of what waits for us all. Though in the case of Lovecraft, it was probably phantasmagorical, and sad. The Last Day of H.P. Lovecraft is written by Romuald Giulivo, illustrated by Jakub Rebelka and is an imagining of the moments that Lovecraft had between life and death, looking back at mistakes, looking towards the future he would never see, and maybe even a reckoning of those evils that filled his soul, and yet gave his stories so much power.

The graphic novel begins in March, the year of 1937 with the last moments of a man, thought to be a writer, dying of cancer. A cancer that spread as the patient, Howard Phillips Lovecraft had a fear of doctors. Not the least of his fears. His possessions are a few notebooks and a lot of what could be considered trash literature, soon to be ashes in an incinerator. A man waits to see the patient who is in a coma. Randolph Carter is his name, the same name as a character in Lovecraft's novels. A man whose newspapers talk about a future that Lovecraft will never see. Lovecraft begins to look back at his life, meeting with his wife, whose fear of women, hatred of New York and all the immigrants around him, made his marriage fail. Edgar Allan Poe, another man with many burdens discusses writing with him. Strange creatures watch as Lovecraft walks the Dreamlands, tying to make sense of it all, before the end comes. Trying to see if the observations made in life, his writings, his letters, will survive his death, or be forgotten.

A fascinating and odd biography and imagining of the end of a life of a man with many demons, many bad ideas, but a talent to make creepy stories. I forget who young Lovecraft was when he died, only 46, never growing to be a terrible old man that he could have been. The story is interesting hitting on the good things and many, many bad things about Loveraft, his racism, misogyny, and his incredible amount of fears. It is amazing that time did not forget him, though considered a weirdo, Lovecraft did correspond with many, who kept the flame of his writing and ideas alive. Though sometimes one wonders why. The art is amazing. Really extraordinary, spooky, surreal, and at sometimes ghastly. A compliment to the story, and in many ways doing a lot of heavy lifting for the words.
A real beautiful work about a man who seemed miserable in many ways, dying alone, in fear that his work would be forgotten. The art really is exceptional and makes for a very interesting reading experience. An eldritch tale of life, looking back, and what is to come.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

A graphic novel biography that tells us very little about Lovecraft, and a lot about exposition. For we've long been aware of the issues where Character A tells Character B what A and B both know, in order to tell us the reader instead. Here A tells B what A and B both know as if they're talking of private intimacies and are not telling us the reader anything. When they are. And it's a really cringe style.

Here's Lovecraft's dead wife – "Imagine if we had not spent our honeymoon rewriting that short story you had promised to Houdini but instead had done what spouses are supposed to do in such situations." (Worry not, dead Houdini turns up in the next chapter.) I mean, such content can of course find its way into the biopic-on-page of a famous personage, but the whole thing feels like the last verbiage of characters wallowing around in the Styx, responding to their memories of each other. Yes, this is in translation, but it's not like people speak – even when they're dead.

He guessed.

The lesson from this is that Mrs Lovecraft found Lovecraft to be a boring racist, Houdini found Lovecraft to be a racist who disliked New York (cf wikipedia's "he was enthralled by New York City"), and… well, I gave up after that. The art is fine, with its reduced palette – either black and white and red, or black and white and blue, or black and white and beige. But it's the way the story handles the wilfully-dying author, who speaks in a voice as removed from his writing style as an elephant is from a nightingale. His last day – when he didn't seem to mind carking it – could well have been interesting, but bringing in someone who is reading about tragedies fifty years post-Lovecraft (that have even less to do with things than said elephant), and having dead people yack to him about how he was racist (yawn) certainly doesn't encourage us to think about or read the man.

And ultimately I don't know if this wants us to read him – he was a white supremacist, after all, which this seems to think was unique to him. That said, it seems a lot more interested in the idea that he didn't mind returning to the worry-free state of the womb, after everything. That could have been interesting, but certainly not with the clumsiness of this author's approach. Whether this is telling us we should be reading Lovecraft or not, it left me saying we shouldn't bother trying to read this. One and a half generous stars.

[Brian Shevory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to BOOM! Studios and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of the beguiling story of The Last Day of H.P. Lovecraft by Romuald Giulivo with artwork by Jakub Rebelka. As a huge fan of Lovecraft’s stories who has struggled with his disgusting and racist beliefs, I was interested in this story from just the title alone. The imagery and artwork throughout the book is haunting and bleak with some incredibly blood-soaked red pages, while others are a kind of washed out brown, creating a morose and sullen tone similar to Lovecraft’s work and general outlook on humanity. While the story is rooted in Lovecraft’s own life, it also functions as almost like a Christmas Carol story where Lovecraft is visited by ghosts of the past, present, and future on the final day of his life, as he lays dying of cancer in a hospital. It was fascinating to see aspects of Lovecraft’s life in this story as he is visited by his wife, Houdini (who he served as a ghost-writer), and Randolph Carter, the character who was like Lovecraft’s alter ego in his stories. Lovecraft is confronted with some of his egregious behavior and an opportunity to recant and reject his racism and abject views of humanity, yet he remains stubborn in his ways. We as readers are reminded of the horrible views and ideas that Lovecraft held and left to question his place in horror and literature in general. Was he really a misunderstood genius whose inventive tales and horrible worlds were precursors of the moderns horrors we face, or was he really just an awful and awkward person whose limitations and oddities were representative of his racism and white supremacy? Giulivo’s writing and Rebelka’s art make the case that Lovecraft was a horrible person who happened to create horrible and frightening worlds and characters. At one point in his near-death hallucinations, Lovecraft encounters a subway full of ghouls who have tagged the car with graffiti that says “Cthulhu for President”, more indication about the kinds of views that Lovecraft’s writing might represent. Lovecraft seems unmoved and unconcerned about how his future influence will be viewed. Immediately after this encounter, Lovecraft visits a future where he encounters Stephen King, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman as a triumvirate of future writers who promise to help revise his reputation. This part was a little unclear to me, and I wasn’t exactly sure if Giulivo was suggesting that these writers covered up Lovecraft’s horribleness and championed him despite his racism or what. However, they advocate for Lovecraft to write his final life story, maybe offering him another opportunity to change his ways before death.
I really enjoyed this comic, even though it is bleak and tells the story of a horrible person, whose racism and hatred is often overlooked. If anything, I think Giulivo’s research and writing into Lovecraft’s life presents him in a harsher light, often focusing more on his shortcomings and failings over his accomplishments. We also see how he died alone and rather unknown, and it wasn’t until much later that Lovecraft’s reputation as an inventive horror writer was known. The Last Day of H.P. Lovecraft uses a classic trope to challenge our views of a horror writer who was also a horrible person. It not only uses the facts of Lovecraft’s life to challenge our thinking about his work, but it also uses stark, terrifying and cosmic imagery to dampen the mood and create a tale of terror and dread, fitting into a Lovecraftian genre. Highly recommended!

[Kristina Butke · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a tremendous work contemplating Lovecraft's mythos, his philosophies, and the rewards of oblivion versus the beliefs of the living. A look back at his life, what was and could have been, and how his failure as a writer would grow into something larger than himself.

This comic blew my mind. I admit that some of it did go over my head a little, having only been acquainted with some of Lovecraft's works but not his personal history or beliefs, and this work examines both the positive and negative--though leaning more toward the negative, I think.

That's probably because the Lovecraft here seeks the comfort of oblivion and finds a lot of what makes us human -- fear of death, wanting to see loved ones again when we die, the promise of some kind of afterlife--to be pointless. I don't think that's the right word to look for, but that's what popped in my head.

The artwork is beautiful and disturbing. It almost takes on a liquid form and mutates every page, where Lovecraft's image takes on different styles, yet at the same time, remains consistently himself. There are grotesques blooming in the background even when Lovecraft reunites with his wife while he is on his deathbed.

The constant pressure from the people in Lovecraft's life--his wife, Harry Houdini--and the people beyond (like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore) urging Lovecraft to seize reality and write the ending of his life himself, and talking about the endurance of fiction and the multiple universes it creates--absolutely fascinated me.

I didn't get everything about this comic--and I don't mind that--because I'll be thinking about this months after reading it.

[Luca Ruocco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edito in Italia da saldaPress, anche in questo volume fatti biografici si mescolano con creazioni e personaggi letterari, formando un racconto profondo e spaventoso, che poggia solidamente su un lavoro grafico graffiante e moderno.

Scritta da Romuald Giulivo, la storia si sviluppa all’interno di una stanza di ospedale, dove Lovecraft è ricoverato senza alcuna speranza di guarigione. L’atmosfera d’attesa è colorata per la maggior parte del tempo da un rosso dominante, che si accende anche negli occhi del protagonista, quando si perde nelle sue visioni e i protagonisti della sua vita passata si mescolano a quelli inventati nei suoi scritti.

Attraverso le apparizioni di questi “fantasmi”, Lovecraft ha modo di fare i conti, in punto di morte, con gli aspetti più oscuri del suo carattere: i visitatori non si fanno scrupoli nel sottolineare le sue tendenze xenofobe, la sua incapacità a donarsi all’interno di una relazione amorosa e ancora l’ossessione per la scrittura e la mancata realizzazione, la poca cura verso sé stesso che lo portò a sottovalutare i problemi digestivi che lo condussero alla morte.

Jacub Rebelka, che firma tavole, colori e le illustrazioni contenute fra gli extra finali, hanno una componente visiva davvero forte e d’impatto, che ricerca il realismo senza però legarsi forzatamente al vero, tantomeno a un appeal scontato o standardizzato, che lascia traspirare in ogni vignetta l’orrore psicologico di un autore da tempo smarrito all’interno della sua stessa fantasia.

[Continua qui: https://www.ingenerecinema.com/2025/0... ]

[eden · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I was reading, this struck me as a sort of anti-Divine Comedy — a Diabolical Tragedy, if you will — with a smattering of (anti)Christmas Carol thrown in.

As he languishes on the threshold of death, Howard Lovecraft is visited by visions of various personages, some living, some dead, some yet to be, some of his own fictional creation. They come bearing accusations, temptations, pontifications, desecrations. Can Lovecraft withstand them? Does he want to?

The art is effective and evocative and too horrific to call beautiful. The artist’s style is perfect for the subject matter. (The one graphic failure, I think, is the font used in the epistolary portions, which is hard to read.) The story is surreal, anachronistic, ahistorical. Someone looking for a straightforward account of Lovecraft’s final hours will be disappointed, but fans of his work and those interested in the idea of him will find this rather absorbing. I have never read Lovecraft and had essentially no notion of his biography before reading this, and it was still interesting to me, though I’m not sure how fair it is to him as a writer or person or how accurately it depicts his views.


*ARC provided by NetGalley*

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haunting and colorful images are the star of this graphic novel collection recounting the last day of Lovecraft's life, as he lies dying in a hospital ward in 1937 of intestinal cancer. Doped up on enough morphine to kill an elephant, Lovecraft hallucinates meetings with important figures in his life, including Randolph Carter, his wife Renee, Harry Houdini, Nyarlathotep, and of course his circle of friends. The graphic novel pounds home the idea that Lovecraft was a piece of shit as a human for his racist, bigoted views of immigrants, Jews, and blacks. But at the same time, Lovecraft's deep flaws are viewed with an almost sympathetic brush, as his mental illness is clearly revealed.

What is not so clearly revealed, however, are a number of personal letters that are reproduced in the novel. Unfortunately, the letters are depicted as white text on cream paper, which completely obliterated my ability to read them, and thus I lost a significant enjoyment of the book.

For fans of Lovecraft, pick this up.

[Sekarima · Rating 2 out of 5]

2

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I'm not sure what to make of this one. I'm familiar enough with Lovecraft's works to know what he's about and spot the references scattered here, but I don't know why a fanfiction of himself would be necessary. Not that I'm opposed to such idea - Dante's Divine Comedy is one of my favorites, although that is a bit different as it's self-written fanfic... I suppose I could buy into the idea; his fictional characters begging him to rewrite reality, but the ending simply didn't pay off. I understood why, and I still didn't like it. It also spent too long on his racism - he was racist, we all know that, we know it's bad, and I don't think he'd be remorseful. If anything, having read the intensity of it in his works, even in modern times he would double down in response to "being cancelled" instead of what occurred in this story.

I liked the illustrations and the sketches at the end of the book. So eerie.

[ruvzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.7

I love the artstyle, the graphics were horrendous(in a good way). It creeped me out (maybe I'm too soft), I loved it! I felt the suspense creeping in and the gut-wrenching pain of a change that no one accepts you have gone through. The artist is commendable and has managed to capture the very essence of the writing, it further enhanced my reading enjoyment.

I am not very well-versed with famous authors, so this was a very informative book as well. I genuinely love how it allowed me to get interested,as well as, interested in an author I had never heard of before. The guilt, the self-doubt and overall, the horror of everything. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Lastly, I love the colour scheme!! It is so entrancing!

Thank you to NetGalley, BOOM!Studios and Romuald Giulivo for granting me the opportunity to review a free copy of this wonderufl book!💙

[Jennifer T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The artwork of this definitely has a Lovecraft vibe and was well done. I liked the overall story of telling Lovecraft’s sad childhood that formed the dark mind behind the creator of the Cthulhu mythos and many other dark stories. However this was a bit too long and could have been edited a bit better. I did not know he’d been married or was friends with Houdini, I appreciated the author addressing his blatant racism.

Recommend to horror buffs and Lovecraft fans everywhere.

**Thanks to the author and BOOM! Studios for the e-arc I received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.**

[Marcy Lewis Glover · Rating 3 out of 5]

***ARC from NetGalley***

An alternative title for this graphic novel could be H.P. Lovecraft's A Christmas Carol.

As the title tells the reader, this story takes place in the final hours of H.P.'s life as he is dying in a hospital, alone. It reads like a fever dream. Drawn in angry slashes and hues of red throughout most of the novel, the reader "watches" H.P. be visited by different people from his life and the world of literature, from the past, present and the future. H.P. is forced to acknowledge his faults and flaws but is unable to accept or see that his work will have a lasting impact long after he is gone, which is the underlying theme of the entire story.

This is a translation from the original French version.

[Waldkauzz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following Howard P. Lovecraft's dying hours, we accompany him in a series of feverish dream-like scenes where he is confronted with his life, accomplishments and failures, his relationships, and, of course, his upcoming death escorted by real as well as fictional companions.

The art is absolutely breathtaking and this comic's highlight. Even if this is not per se a lovecraftian story in essence, the art definitely provokes such a dreadful and tense atmosphere.
In this biographical-esk story, the horror writer himself becomes a fictionalized version of himself and fans of his writing may enjoy plentiful references to his novels and may even recognize future inspired writers in side characters.

Personally, I fear I may not be the ideal audience, even if I am familiar with some of his works. I eventually became irritated by the graphic novel's bloated writing and thought at some point it just kept recursively repeating itself in themes and content.
In addition, I felt it to be sometimes unauthentic, because the main character is, after all, just a fictional idealized version of the real person meant to function in this thought experiment. This bothered me less, but imaging this same scenario with authors I'm more familiar with (for example, imagine J.K. Rowling being visited by her character Harry Potter, famous people, and reminiscing about her stance on gender) gives me the ick a bit.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for an ARC for an honest review.