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Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H.P. Lovecraft
The book covers Lovecraft's entire life from birth to his untimely and painful death.
Since his death in 1937, H. P. Lovecraft and his works have become an overwhelming part of popular culture. His creation, Cthulhu, has appeared in films, cartoons, video games, music and virtually all other parts of popular media. However, although many may know Lovecraft’s creations, few people know the details of his extraordinary life. SOME NOTES ON A NON-ENTITY: THE LIFE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT is a graphic novel biography of this enigmatic and legendary writer.
Based on years of research into the primary sources regarding Lovecraft’s life, this graphic novel spans Lovecraft’s youth to his later years. Episodes covered include his odd relationship with an overpowering mother; his brief sojourn in New York City and disastrous marriage; the creation of his most amazing tales; and his physically painful decline to an eventual death while considering himself a complete and utter failure.
SOME NOTES ON A NON-ENTITY is a 120+ page graphic novel written by SAM GAFFORD and illustrated by JASON ECKHARDT. Gafford is a weird literature scholar who has written about Lovecraft for several critical magazines and is a founding organizer of the NecronomiCON convention which celebrates Lovecraft’s life and work. Eckhardt is an award winner artist who has received great acclaim for his covers for such publishers as Necronomicon Press, Hippocampus Press and others. Recently, his work has been featured in the highly reviewed ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT by Leslie Klinger. Together, these two respected creators have developed what will be considered THE graphic novel biography of the man who has been hailed as second only to Poe as America’s most important writer of weird literature.
Since his death in 1937, H. P. Lovecraft and his works have become an overwhelming part of popular culture. His creation, Cthulhu, has appeared in films, cartoons, video games, music and virtually all other parts of popular media. However, although many may know Lovecraft’s creations, few people know the details of his extraordinary life. SOME NOTES ON A NON-ENTITY: THE LIFE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT is a graphic novel biography of this enigmatic and legendary writer.
Based on years of research into the primary sources regarding Lovecraft’s life, this graphic novel spans Lovecraft’s youth to his later years. Episodes covered include his odd relationship with an overpowering mother; his brief sojourn in New York City and disastrous marriage; the creation of his most amazing tales; and his physically painful decline to an eventual death while considering himself a complete and utter failure.
SOME NOTES ON A NON-ENTITY is a 120+ page graphic novel written by SAM GAFFORD and illustrated by JASON ECKHARDT. Gafford is a weird literature scholar who has written about Lovecraft for several critical magazines and is a founding organizer of the NecronomiCON convention which celebrates Lovecraft’s life and work. Eckhardt is an award winner artist who has received great acclaim for his covers for such publishers as Necronomicon Press, Hippocampus Press and others. Recently, his work has been featured in the highly reviewed ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT by Leslie Klinger. Together, these two respected creators have developed what will be considered THE graphic novel biography of the man who has been hailed as second only to Poe as America’s most important writer of weird literature.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 28, 2022
Really enjoyed this! An interesting read about the life of HP Lovecraft.
December 13, 2018
First and foremost, SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY is a very solid graphic novel, as entertaining to the eye and mind as any of the fictional accounts of Lovecraft's life. It is also a fairly accurate and informative biography, which puts it in rare territory alongside works like Maus.
Graphic representations of the life of H. P. Lovecraft are relatively rare, and none have ever attempted to broach the entirety of his life, usually focusing on one or two aspects of it. Text biographies are much more common, but most are relatively poor - either sensational pop-biographies that sacrifice detail and accuracy in favour of pushing a caricature of Lovecraft, or scholarly and ponderous works like S. T. Joshi's I Am Providence, which offers a wealth of detail but is a bit too dry for casual readers. Gafford and Eckhardt have succeeded at the relatively difficult task of presenting an accurate and readable account of Lovecraft's life.
One of the saving graces of the book is the fact that it IS a graphic novel, and thus where in a pop biography the occasional literary excursion to depict some of the images and characters from Lovecraft's fiction is often annoying and out-of-place, here such artistic jaunts work smoothly within the framework of the comic, the occasional breaks of fantastic Mountains of Madness or Dreamlands serving as a welcome visual reprieve from long narrative passages and talking heads. A large part of the success also probably comes from the nature of the presentation: Lovecraft comes on stage to narrate the details of his life, as they are depicted on the page; the conceit allows Gafford to change a third-person narrative into a first-person account, and enables him to more directly use quotes from Lovecraft's poetry and letters to good effect, coming as they do from his literary doppelganger's mouth.
Eckhardt's art deserves especial praise here: while he has published many drawings on Lovecraftian subjects over his career, the breadth of style and expression in SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY is a cut above what anyone might have expected, and those familiar with the people and places involved will appreciate the considerable care that has gone into photo-references of the historical persons and places within. It's an attention to detail that is echoed in Sam Gafford's text, although the pace is kept lively - this is a work that could easily have been twice as long, and yet have become less accessible.
It is no exaggeration to say that SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY is the single best biographical graphic novel on H. P. Lovecraft; it is a better popular biography of Lovecraft than any work currently available in trade paperback. Experts may find a few points to quibble on - Gafford chooses to discreetly pass over giving the full name of Lovecraft's cat, for example, or the nature of his father's fatal illness - but there are no gross errors, nor any real attempt to hide inconvenient truths. The illustrations add much to the text - the picture of a young Lovecraft looking at the medical diagram of a uterus while explaining his sex education at an early age is as memorable as the full-page splashes devoted to Arthur Machen, New York City, etc. The result is a treat for fans, and an accessible start to Lovecraft's life for everyone else.
Graphic representations of the life of H. P. Lovecraft are relatively rare, and none have ever attempted to broach the entirety of his life, usually focusing on one or two aspects of it. Text biographies are much more common, but most are relatively poor - either sensational pop-biographies that sacrifice detail and accuracy in favour of pushing a caricature of Lovecraft, or scholarly and ponderous works like S. T. Joshi's I Am Providence, which offers a wealth of detail but is a bit too dry for casual readers. Gafford and Eckhardt have succeeded at the relatively difficult task of presenting an accurate and readable account of Lovecraft's life.
One of the saving graces of the book is the fact that it IS a graphic novel, and thus where in a pop biography the occasional literary excursion to depict some of the images and characters from Lovecraft's fiction is often annoying and out-of-place, here such artistic jaunts work smoothly within the framework of the comic, the occasional breaks of fantastic Mountains of Madness or Dreamlands serving as a welcome visual reprieve from long narrative passages and talking heads. A large part of the success also probably comes from the nature of the presentation: Lovecraft comes on stage to narrate the details of his life, as they are depicted on the page; the conceit allows Gafford to change a third-person narrative into a first-person account, and enables him to more directly use quotes from Lovecraft's poetry and letters to good effect, coming as they do from his literary doppelganger's mouth.
Eckhardt's art deserves especial praise here: while he has published many drawings on Lovecraftian subjects over his career, the breadth of style and expression in SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY is a cut above what anyone might have expected, and those familiar with the people and places involved will appreciate the considerable care that has gone into photo-references of the historical persons and places within. It's an attention to detail that is echoed in Sam Gafford's text, although the pace is kept lively - this is a work that could easily have been twice as long, and yet have become less accessible.
It is no exaggeration to say that SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY is the single best biographical graphic novel on H. P. Lovecraft; it is a better popular biography of Lovecraft than any work currently available in trade paperback. Experts may find a few points to quibble on - Gafford chooses to discreetly pass over giving the full name of Lovecraft's cat, for example, or the nature of his father's fatal illness - but there are no gross errors, nor any real attempt to hide inconvenient truths. The illustrations add much to the text - the picture of a young Lovecraft looking at the medical diagram of a uterus while explaining his sex education at an early age is as memorable as the full-page splashes devoted to Arthur Machen, New York City, etc. The result is a treat for fans, and an accessible start to Lovecraft's life for everyone else.
October 1, 2017
I've been reading Lovecraft lately and I wanted to know a little bit more about his life than what's in his Wikipedia bio, but didn't want to read a whole huge book about him. This graphic novel version turned out to be perfect! It covers his writing career in parallel with what was happening in his life, and while it does provide considerably more detail than Wikipedia, it's brief enough to be very accessible for a non-obsessed Lovecraft reader like me. The art is suitably gloomy, but also detailed and expressive, adding emotional nuance to the biographical facts. In all a very enjoyable and completely painless way to learn more about Lovecraft!
December 13, 2018
This is a really enjoyable graphic re-telling of Lovecraft’s life. There’s no new biographical information herein, but Jason Eckhardt’s black-and-white pen work is perfect for the subject at hand, and the narrative framing device of a lecture by Lovecraft is quite effective.
February 22, 2020
Probably closer to 4 stars if you are Lovecraft fanatic; as someone with just passing familiarity this is a well-told biography (with some nice stylistic flourishes) that falters a bit by not straying to far off the beaten track to be interesting in terms of story.
August 11, 2024
Es una autobiografía de Lovecrafto, no hay nada más que decir.
August 25, 2022
Beautifully written, beautifully illustrated. An absolute joy to read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews