This is an excellent comic adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s story about the haunted New England coastline. Robert Ormstead, on his way to Arkham from Newburyport, takes a bus into Innsmouth. His aim is to study local architecture along the way. Innsmouth is a town people avoid. Robert aims to spend a night there before traveling on. He finds Innsmouth has many secrets. The tension escalates nicely as the forces at play in Innsmouth are revealed. Robert struggles to keep his sanity and his life as he discovers the history of Innsmouth. The conclusion is satisfying and sharp.
Simon Birks has adapted the story with care and detail. The sense of creeping dread is well set up. The difference between the daytime version of the town ads the nighttime version is made clear. The inhabitants move from odd to strange to terrifying at just the right pace. There is a sense of inevitability that the story needs. Robert has no way to escape and finding somewhere safe is hard work.
RH Stewarts art is a pleasure to read. It is detailed and gives the cast the context they need. The population of Innsmouth are suitably mixed, there are enough ordinary looking people to take the edge off the unusual. The town drawn in detail, it gives the story a solid physical context which heightens the tension as the ugly truth emerges. The cast, when necessary, are expressive and menacing. The muted colors create an atmosphere, bringing out the emotional context to the story without ever pressing it on the reader.
The letters and sound effects by Lyndon White are superb. The conversations are easy to read and allow the story to flow. The sound effects are paced and placed exactly as needed to support the increasing tension of the story.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth succeeds as a story because while Innsmouth is presented as an odd place, the depth of the strangeness is carefully revealed. The explanation for the development of Innsmouth is satisfying, grounded in understandable human action. The way the consequences unfold is superbly done.
