Jaime Collado

Poe & Phillips is a graphic novel from Arcana Studio. The production team includes writer Jaime Collado, artist Miguel Hernandez-Cedillo, colors Raul Manriquez and Guillermo Relagado, and letters Shawn DePasquale. I am unfamiliar with any of the previous work of these artists. List price is $14.95 for a 96 page book. Production quality is OK but I am disappointed in the perfect paperback binding as after one reading some of the pages in my issue became unglued.

Based on the premise, this book seems like a lot of fun, although it has nothing to do with anything historically correct or even plausible. Poe and HPL are living in London where they investigate eldritch goings on to help out the British government. There is a heavy steam punk influence with the location in Victorian London and the use of dirigibles. I'm fine with all that. It's the story that is disjointed, incoherent and repetetive. Apparently a Roman general attempted to conquer Britannia for himself but when he died, his army mysteriously died with him. He may come back to reclaim the earth at the service of his dread god. Nothing makes much sense and the story seems to recur, with some events occurring over and over in small variations. Other than the cachet of their names there is no reason to have either Poe or HPL appear in the story. I actually preferred the short extra content story at the end. Mr.Cedillo's art is more than acceptable, although did not approach the best examples of Lovecraftian comic art. I particularly liked the depiction of the transdimensional alien Yabbaht. The actual drawings of HPL are pretty good, particularly compared to Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom. I guess the writer likes these two characters because the possibility of a sequel or more new stories in left open.

If you like Cthulhu mythos comics, there is a tangential appeal here, what with a transdimensional god-like alien. Fans of HPL as a character are likely to find Poe & Phillips more appealing. Otherwise, if you want a high value graphic novel I have to suggest you look elsewhere. Among all the HPL as a character comics, my favorite is The Strange Adventures of HP Lovecraft by Mac Carter. Also, my copy of that one did not fall apart.… (altro)