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Just Three Panels From The Final Issue Of Alan Moore And Jacen Burrows' Providence Are Enough To Create Nausea

Published Mon, 10 Apr 2017 09:00:23 -0500

The final issue of Alan Moore and Jacen Burrow's "League Of Extraordinary Lovecraft" volume, Providence, was published last week. After the penultimate issue took us on a trip from the early twentieth century the rest of the comic had been set in, and how the infection of Lovecraftianess in modern pop culture had set in, this final issue brings in the other work in this "universe", with the Courtyard and Neonomicon characters playing a part in the birth of… well… something new. And something very old.

As reality reveals its true self, it falls apart relative to the characters at the end of the comic. But the most horrific elements are played with subtlety and suggestion rather than being quite so in your face.

But three panels in particular stuck out for me, and summed up the book's ability to unnerve, while using the comics medium to its fullest. As our cast of characters walk out into this new dreamworld-snapped-back reality, they begin to separate into three pairs. But as they separate, they do something very odd. They gain their own, well, sense of perspective.

This is an impossible scene, reminiscent of the Penrose triangle created by Oscar Reutersvärd or the work of MC Esher. Taking each pair on their own with their background would be fine, but together on one panel is impossible. The eye instead jumps from one to the other to make sense of it. On camera, this would break the illusion. Here, it just unnerves…

I think I have a headache coming on.

Just one of many examples. Providence #12 by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows was published last week by Bleeding Cool's owners Avatar Press. A collection of the second half will be published in June.

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