STOP THE PRESS! Stephen King’s actually good again. Yes, really.
Coming out of nowhere in his last anthology, 2008’s Just After Sunset, N was easily the best story he’s written in years. Despite King claiming rather snobbishly that it’s inspired by Arthur Machen’s Great God Pan, most people will see it as classic HP Lovecraft. This is no bad thing, as HP Lovecraft’s Mythos and it’s tales of ancient unknowable Gods and Monsters slithering under the surface of our reality driving his characters crazy with horror continues to inspire some fantastic stories. And here’s N, as seamless an evolution of Lovecraft’s concepts as you could imagine.
It centres around a psychiatrist treating a new patient, the N of the title, an otherwise ordinary man who is crippled by OCD after an encounter with standing stones in a remote field. If you go to the field, if you see the stones, you set something in motion that will destroy you and could end the world. Madness as something that you can catch, that can work it’s way inside you and possess you. It’s a fantastic idea. To say much more would be criminal, but Kings genius is in how he integrates obsessive compulsive behaviours into a fairly traditional story of a man facing the unknowable. It feels natural and works incredibly well.
Originally adapted in a series of webisodes by Marvel, it’s now available in trade format. The biggest issue with a comic version of anything to do with Lovecraft is that the artist faces an uphill struggle; showing the unshowable. How can you possibly depict something with any success that’s supposed to be able to drive a man insane just by looking at it? However despite one minor misstep, the adaptation nails it and every panel panel drips with atmosphere and dread.
A further bonus is that the adaptation goes even further than the story, adding bookends which gives more history and (doomed) characters. It may not be entirely original, but it’s the best idea Stephen King’s had in years and Marvel’s excellent adaption is an absolute must for fans of horror.
5/5
Hardcover collects issues #1-4 (the complete miniseries)
Webisodes are still available at:
http://www.simonandschuster.com/specials/stephen-king-nishere/
Adventures in Comics 