Fishmen, and their distinctly Lovecraftian cousins The Deep Ones, showcase mankind's weird side. As seen in Creature From the Black Lagoon, Fishmen represent man's fear of the Other invading our neighbourhoods and shagging our wives. But they also represent that greatest of human traits: our desire to fuck everything. Just see The Shape of Water.
Neonomicon, Alan Moore's 4 issue sequel to his 2003 graphic novel The Courtyard, is firmly planted in the former category. And before we go any further, I should probably point out that this entry goes to some very dark places. There's more jet-propelled bodily fluids than that time I brought a water cannon to a bukkake. Simply put, this is H.P. Lovecraft for the exploitation era.
The graphic novel itself is heavily inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft - to the point references to his works, characters, and places are casually dropped in everywhere. Neonomicon focuses on FBI agents Lamper (Mr Cool Black Man Mac Daddy) and Brears (Lady Sex Kitten), who are on the trail of a ritualistic murderer. They visit Aldo Sax, an FBI agent who was after a similar killer but now resides in a loony bin. Aldo flew into a murderous rage after the events of The Courtyard; when he was introduced to a strange language, spoken by the killer and associated with alien planes and primordial horrors. Not unlike how the average British racist reacts whenever they see a Muslim on the bus.
Aldo can only converse in this bizarre unintelligible language, but through his investigation Lamper and Brears are sent on the path to Johnny Carcosa - the mysterious drug dealer responsible for Aldo's current fate. With a name like Johnny Carcosa you just know he's got his bellend pierced and spends his free time trolling for 15-year-old girls on VampireFreaks.com.
Black Mulder and Hetrosexual Scully track Johnny to his apartment in Red Hook, a place which you may remember from that story Lovecraft about how much he disliked immigrants. Johnny escapes into a mural in the wall but, fortunately, he leaves behind weird 'Old Ones sex toys' (this is probably an actual thing, isn't it) and the agents trace this paraphernalia to a shop in Salem. Because it wasn't going to be fucking Honolulu.
The shop owners turn out to be members of The Esoteric Order of Dagon, a cult last seen in Lovecraft's Innsmouth. Deciding to infiltrate the cult, Lamper and Brears go undercover as husband and wife and attend the cult's orgy. I've always felt cults are just swingers' parties for the unrepressed. Unfortunately, for the agents, this is no normal marriage-ruining orgy. It's a sex ritual designed to arouse the attention of the Deep Ones. Lamper is murdered and Brears is repeatedly raped, brutalised, and thrown into a watery cell with a randy Deep One where she is...also raped and brutalised. Boy, is my penis confused.
For much of issue 2 and 3, Neonomicon is pure exploitation territory. The whole set-up is like one of Wes Craven's early films. Like Last House on the Left, parts of Neonomicon are an endurance test in deprived sexual violence. I don't even know if we're supposed to be horrified or reaching for the hand cream. Brears is highly sexualised, spending the entire story either dressed as some teenager's sex fantasy (she's undercover, of course) or simply has her fantastic tits out on display. It's difficult to correlate that exploitative image with the scenes of forced cunnilingus, anal rape, and the Deep One's jizz-covered cock.
All of which is rendered in detail by Jacen Burrows. His style is nothing to write home about, but he adds extra detail on the stuff he deems important. The Deep One is exceptionally detailed. I read somewhere that even Alan Moore was pretty freaked when he finally saw his writing visualised. Burrows is a man who certainly knows how to draw a cumshot. Something for the CV, perhaps. Not that Moore's writing helps matters. Brears actually asks the guy raping her to "please use a rubber".
Of course, what Moore and Burrows are really doing with Neonomicon is sending up Lovecraft. For all the grotesque monsters and sanity-sapping cosmic events in Lovecraft, the one thing he really shied away from was sex. Lovecraft may have been one of my favourite authors, but he was a complete wet lettuce who'd rather write about slimy monsters than get his dick wet. This disgust bled through into his work. Human-monster hybrids are created in 'unspeakable' and 'blasphemous' rituals. Sometimes it's wholly consensual unions, sometimes it's heavily implied forced impregnation. Regardless, the whole physical aspect is sidestepped entirely.
Neonomicon fully embraces all the horrible things that comes with Lovecraft's concepts. Perhaps it goes overboard and demonstrates these ideas with the intensity of the perpetual virgin attempting to brag about his made-up exploits. But it's the meat on the bones of this story, which is fairly paper-thin. And if you can make it to the end of issue 3 and into 4, that's when all the really weird stuff happens. The Deep One lets Brears go when it realises, from her piss, that she's pregnant. And her baby is suggested to be Cthulhu, who's only notable characteristic is that he's several hundred feet tall.
Forget a hotdog down a corridor situation: CERN will be able to use her snatch as a particle collider.
Enjoyed this piece? Then leave a comment and share it about. Also, follow Iron on Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter to stay up to date. Stalker.
Comments
Post a Comment