Hector wants that hot bod, but not exactly for the reasons Robert assumes. But what is actually happening is of course Hector trying to get some time alone with Robert so he can kill and then reanimate him. On the surface, this is all talk about keeping gay love on the down-low, various romantic difficulties, appreciating the male body, and the surreptitious scheduling of a hook-up date. My favorite comic bits: ostensibly homoerotic banter between Hector North (a proto Herbert West, the Re-Animator), Hector's lover, and Robert Black, the bisexual hero of Providence.

What never got old were the bland explanations delivered with a straight face by supporting characters, or even more often, thought up by the incredibly naive protagonist himself, to gloss over or explain away the extremely bizarre and horrific experiences going on around him at every turn.

For such a work of horror, I smiled and laughed frequently at the wit on display. Moore's sense of humor is mercurial, at times quite broad and at other times so subtle, so dry. for much of the tale, the tone is disarmingly light. Real life impacted my reading life in an unnervingly fitting way.ĭespite there being so much going on in this story, including much that is completely horrific (Moore even manages to one-up his ghastly rape scene in Neonomicon with an even more disturbing rape in Providence), despite the incredible density of the narrative, and the surplus of references and easter eggs, and the brilliant, challlenging art. Personal Bonus: slowly reading and then even more slowly rereading this from the period of last Halloween through the election, then an eerily quiet and lonesome Christmas, and finally the insurrectionist invasion of the Capitol, all of course taking place during a crazy pandemic. I thought he more than succeeded in reaching both goals. (differing from the Native American/Indian mythology that came before) and the encapsulation and deconstruction of what constitutes the American Character. This is an ambitious undertaking: the author's goals include both the repositioning of the Lovecraft mythos as the first genuinely American mythology of the U.S.A.

I read the box set put out by Avatar, not this French version of the series.Īlan Moore revisits his Neonomicon with a massive prequel and sequel.

Neonomicon and providence