SPOTLIGHT: Get Your Tentacles on ELDRITCH

If I had to sell you on the Lovecraftian bounty that is Eldritch by Aaron Alexovich & Drew Rausch in a single image, it'd be this one: 

Okay, I'm cheating a little. Because of the words there. But this is what greets you when you start reading Eldritch #1, the final contest winner for the now defunct Zuda comics imprint (or imdigital, one supposes). But this is not the story of one evolutionary thinker's temporal transgressions. Because this image of Darwin in a bathysphere is actually part of a murky sleeve tattoo emblazoned on the flesh of one Anya Sodczek, champion of SCIENCE. 

But every champion of SCIENCE needs her detractors, and such a proponent for the opposing ARCANE forces shares Anya's blood. Enter Owen Sobczek, little brother and teenage occultist. And enter Owen, a vile and many-tentacled horror has done! Thus it is up to Anya to step it up in this escalating cataclysm of sibling rivalry. 

 

The first two issues of Eldritch are packed with demonically inventive ideas and wildly expressive cartooning. I'm reminded of the balls-to-the-wall excess of Johonen's Vasquez's work on Invader Zim and especially his earlier comics projects like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. This kind of energy is channeled unabashed through the herky jerky behavior of its characters to the equal-parts funny and disturbing moments of suburban horror. 

If you have a skittering baby phobia, you may need to skip issue #2. But don't. Because it's pretty terrific. 

You can get your tentacles around the first two issues on Graphicly right now. And they're both just $0.99 each. Highly recommended. 

Comments

  1. Paul, do you have a bridge to sell me?  Because I’m in.  This looks like a fun read and may have to be my first digital comic purchase…

  2. I’m a big Lovecraft fan but I think depicting his style of horror takes something away from it. The sickening images it conjures in your mind (mine at any rate) just cannot be replicated (well…maybe Del Toro will have some luck). Hmm just looked it up and it appears At the Mountains of Madness is no more 🙁

  3. This sound incredible. I’m on these as soon as I get a free minute.

  4. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    @boosebaster  Understood. If it makes any difference, this is played for dark comedy and not flat out horror. Check out the previews and it may be a lot of fun. 

  5. Somehow I didn’t cotton on that there were previews on the page, will take a look.

  6. Umm, this reader kinda sucks if you’re on an iPad. Would be cool if the same previews were on the graphically app.