3 out of 5

A very interesting concept that I think is more valuable when considered as such – as a concept – than as a comic book.

‘Provenance of Madness’ is three short tales (and a bonus shorter tale) that, in my reading, finds writer Kiyarn inserting themselves as a narrator into various Lovecraft stories. We get sea-bound Cthulhu discoveries; creepy ice kingdoms; Innsmouth fish peoples… and the going-crazy men who are doing the Lovecraft narrative shuffle of trying to figure out the line between sane and insane.

The POV Taghan takes for that is, appropriately, an obsessive one: text litters each page, in sort of cyclical banter each protag has with themselves, questioning what they’ve seen, as the art builds and builds with glimpses – peeks out of windows, or shots as we cast around the ocean or city – until final page reveals. Christian Dibari’s work is absolutely key to the effectiveness of this, as the artist doesn’t avoid showing us the creatures, but knows how to maintain a sense of harried paranoia while doing so; the “reveals” are thus not necessarily just showing the monsters – which are done up with the “established” Lovecraft details – but rather trying to nail the awesomeness felt when finally accepting the unknown. Simon Gough on colors sticks to muddy blues and browns, but the combo works: Dibari leaves room in panels for color highlights, and balances heavy linework on characters with impressionistic backgrounds as needed.

But: is this fun to read? …It’s not uninteresting, as mentioned, but my reply to that is split: I think this is fun when you’re familiar with the source stuff, but it also doesn’t really add anything to the source, and more just plays with a different perspective into those stories; a snapshot from them. And if you’re not a Lovecraft reader, I’m not sure, as neither the characters or tales are developed enough on their own to really be all that grabbing.

Adding value as more of an art book, about half the trade are Lovecraft pinups, and they’re enjoyable to flip through, plus there’s an extra short story in black and white – though much of the same before – and some process pages of Dibari’s.