Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom by Bruce Brown

Essentially, the series is a kind of HP Lovecraft meets Calvin and Hobbes mashup, and if that sounds weird, it’s meant to, and it mostly works. In the stories, Howard is assisted by his non-human companion which he names “Spot” – Spot is actually Cthulhu, an ancient deity (and the one Lovecraft creation that an entire cottage industry has grown up around) whose memories and identity were revealed as being hidden by magic in the first book. The Howard Lovecraft stories certainly make an attempt to do just that, with varying degrees of success. In my review of the animated movie, I also made it clear that I’m something of a Lovecraft devotee and I tend to frown upon the pop culture that has grown up and around the man’s work – but I’m always willing to give something a try, especially if it tries to do something new and different. To those who don’t know the name, Lovecraft is widely recognized as one of the most influential horror writers of all time – a trip to Wikipedia will tell you all you need to know. Lovecraft, and the protagonist is himself a fictionalized version of Lovecraft. The conceit here is that the stories are inspired by the works of H.P. The stories surround a young boy named Howard Lovecraft, and his adventures in three different realms, during which he must overcome the forces of darkness to save and restore a kingdom to save his family from doom to save his father from ancient evil forces. The movie is an adaptation of the first of three comic book stories, each published in three issues by Canadian publishing company Arcana Studio, and created and written by Bruce Brown, with art by Renzo Podesta ( The Frozen Kingdom) and Thomas Boatwright ( The Undersea Kingdom, The Kingdom of Madness). I won’t recap the failings, but I did promise to seek out the original work. A couple of weeks ago, I watched the animated children’s movie Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom, and wrote a fair, but deservedly negative, review. Cinematic versions can omit or combine characters and situations, sometimes adding new ones for the sake of brevity, and with the right talent, these changes can work for the better – not not always, and not often. When it comes to movies from books, I can say that I prefer Kubrick’s The Shining to King’s, for example, but overall the richer experience is provided by the original. Conventional wisdom favours the original over the adapted work, but of course that isn’t always the case.

It’s always interesting comparing an adaptation to source material.

Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom by Bruce Brown