La Bibliotheque Infernal

Saga of the Swamp Thing – Book One

by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette & John Totleben.

Originally published as Saga of the Swamp Thing #20 –  #27,1983-1984; Published as hardcover collection 2009.

Currently available as: Saga of the Swamp Thing, Book 1

Volume one of Alan Moore’s legendary run on the Swamp  Thing. Taken as a whole, writing with artwork, perhaps the  best horror comic run of all time. Holds up very well, even after all these years. This edition includes #20 which has been omitted from other collections. Highlights include truly stunning art spreads on countless pages, the true evil genesis of the Floronic Man, the truly creepy ‘Monkey King’, and cameos by the Justice League and Etrigan, the rhyming demon.

Rating:

Die Schwarze Spinne (The Black Spider)

by Jeremias Gotthelf, a.k.a. Albert Bitzius (October 4, 1797 – October 22, 1854).

Written 1842.

Currently available as: The Black Spider (Oneworld Classics)

Arachnophobes beware. This little gem of a story (just a little over a hundred pages) comes to us  from  the twisted mind of Swiss novelist (and pastor!) Jeremias Gotthelf. You might think a novel  from a  nineteenth century pastor would be relatively tame. Of course, it would take the twisted mind of a man of god to come up with this formidable piece of fiendish folklore.

If you’ve ever wondered why so many are afraid of spiders, wonder no more. Set in a benevolently bucolic valley and predicated on the christening of children, Gotthelf weaves a tale of good intentions gone wrong; of the consequences when, faced with overwhelming hardship, we take spiritual shortcuts. And in this medieval setting, neither the nefarious knights nor the petty peasantry are spared. When one hard-boiled woman makes a pact with the ‘Green Huntsman’ whose red-feathered cap betrays him as none other than the great deceiver himself, and then reneges on her promise, punishment arrives swiftly. The agent of the devil’s destruction is a big, bold, black, eight-legged Furie of an insect who easily ranks as one of the most menacingly macabre manifestations of maleficence ever imagined. Rife with scenes of both visceral and spiritual horror, from the insect’s human incubator to its uncanny omnipresence, Gotthelf’s masterpiece ranks as a top tale of the genre.

This is one of those tales in which you will recognize the seeds of so much later horror writing, but via Gotthelf’s prose they seem fresh and sinister. Of course, in the end, the peasantry comes to their senses… Or do they?

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The Horror in the Museum

by H.P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald.

Written October 1932. Published July 1933 in Weird Tales, 22, No. 1, 49-68.

Currently available in:

Lovecraft, H.P. & Joshi, S.T. (ed.) 1989. The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions. Arkham House.

Take one part wax museum weirdness, one part mythos madness, one part soporiferous sleep psychology, and one part curious curation. Mix well. The result? An unforgettably disturbing delight for Lovecraftian literati. Imagine, if you will, a crumbling and dilapidated display house where the vaults contain nothing less than life-sized moulds of the diseased and demented denizens of darkest imagination. Here are the likenesses of the eldritch Elder Gods of Lovecraftian lore, and more… And lo! What lurks behind the veil in the ‘Adults Only’ alcove? And in the unbalanced proprietor’s Stygian studio? And, most of all, behind the sinisterly sigilled dungeon door? Surely that shambling susurrus is nothing more than unfounded fantasy – as are the unhinged assertions of the artist’s acquisitory adventures to the ends of the Earth! But you are here because you must know; your curiosity will not be quelled until you take your unceasing inquiry to the utmost limits in your search for nefarious knowledge… Read on, dear reader, read on at your peril…

Rating:

4 skulls out of 5

Let the delving into the Arcane Archives begin!

Welcome to Lucifer’s Library. I am your guide to the corruptive collections, Lucifer’s Librarian. Our delightfully blasphemous blog will examine the historical roots of heinous horror, wicked witchcraft, diabolical demonology, ominous occultism,  and mephistophelian metaphysics. Do you dare to saunter through the sinister satanic stacks? Then follow, fledgling, and feast upon our flagitious fare…