Weird Fiction discussion

This topic is started for discussion of December 2021's group read, Providence Compendium by British author Alan Moore. Personally, I'm happy to see Alan Moore still writing. I became acquainted with his work from reading his circa 1990 Swamp Thing series in DC Comics back in about 1990. I was a moderate, not a big, fan.

I enjoyed his Watchmen once they made a movie of it a dozen years ago, and its sequels (appearing in comics form) a few years later. I have to admit to being adverse to Watchmen before the movie. It was its own universe and therefore didn't tie into any other beloved superhero characters. Besides, Moore's world seemed heavy on the drama and light on the superhero to me. Which is the point and its virtue, I later came to realize.

Other of his well-known works, like his V for Vendetta, are a taste I've yet to acquire.

Anyway, this is a new direction for Moore. Pure Weird, it looks like, and paying homage to all its tropes. It's Lovecraftian, has yellow signs, all that stuff, apparently. Can't (but will) wait!

My copy arrived today, tax and shipping included, for $24.09 from Amazon. What a beautiful book! 408 color pages on quality paper for a cover price of $29.99 and an actual sale price more than 20% lower! How can they do that and still make money? Warning: even the briefest glance through and there was nudity. So rated R. If you're a mere 16, please don't even consider getting this book. Looking forward to starting this book with everyone else in 13 more days.

An extra warning since people do that with books now :)

There is nudity and a lot of homosexuality, in fact, more homosexuality than straight sex.

I got my book! After I am done with the exams, I'll dive right into it! Can't wait!

Quirkyreader wrote: "I got the whole run when it was published as individual comics. Sometimes there would be big gaps as to when the current issue came out. It was well worth the wait.

Be prepared for some surprises...."

Yup Quirky, the constant links to HPs works makes the read almost a game of what is that from?

The original comics are worth a lot now I presume, even my collected hardback versions I managed to scrape together can run to the hundreds which was why I was so pleased they put them all together for such a low price.

Finally, made progress on this amazing book. WOW is it cool or what?!

I am through the first two parts. It's a slow but interesting start. I appreciate the recaps at the beginning of each part so that I can know what I might have paid insufficient attention to in my earlier reading. I have read 99 books this year, a personal record. I'll finish this soon, making it my 100th. Yay!

I'm glad you're reading it too, Zina. I thought I might be the only one this month, what with the book's nominator deleting his account last week.

I just finished this and absolutely loved it. It's quite dense but I also appreciated the recaps via the commonplace book entries and found myself going to back to read a few entries once I made it to the final chapter. Really amazing book.

I am glad people are happy they read this book. I finished it this morning and can't say that was entirely my experience. I think I am more demanding of a work in terms of story and plot than most people. Sexual explicitness is also a turnoff for me. I thought this book to a large extent became a historical survey, and by the end gave up on the pretense that it wasn't, a superficial, sensationalistic one at that, of early weird writers and the era they wrote in. There's nothing wrong with doing a historical survey; the topic is of great interest to me. I simply enjoy good fiction more.

I gave the work three stars because I really liked the art, especially in the last issue. I also appreciate the experiment in storytelling, the graphic novel portion answering many plot points but leaving a few questions, and the prose sections more than answering those remaining questions. I've never seen that technique before, but it worked. It would work even better if there was a stronger story being told.

I enjoyed the book quite a bit, I loved the art and all. I think I will give it 4 stars, since it is not much by way of original story but rather is a very crafty pastiche of sorts, an elevated piece of fan fiction. I wonder if it would even make that much sense to anybody not familiar with Lovecraft. Can't say the plot made a terrible amount of sense on its own, but as an unashamed fanfic it's awesome.

I will add to this that it was my first real graphic novel, and I totally loved it. Once again you awesome people suggested something I would likely not stumble onto by myself, and I am super greatful.