"The Nightmare Factory: Volume 2" Graphic Novel Reviewed

Thomas Ligotti's second graphic novel depicting stories originally bound together in his collection The Nightmare Factory is a well rounded delight. Good art, faithful storytelling, and a smooth transition to comic form constitutes this latest comic. While many (including myself) gave the first volume a positive review, it wasn't without problems. Fortunately, The Nightmare Factory, Vol. 2 is a marked improvement over its predecessor in almost every way.

Artistic clarity and style, alongside Ligotti's own commentary introducing each tale has sharpened to magnificent heights. Fox Atomic's new formula for this volume jolted my interest from the outset, and kept it rolling along to the point where I finished the entire thing in one sitting. The selection of stories for this edition may have something to do with the higher quality, or it may just be better all around planning, writing, and drawing. Whatever the case, it cannot be said any of the Ligotti adaptions in this book are close to bad. There is still difficulty in trying to evaluate the whole thing by lumping individual stories together, however, so as with the first graphic novel, I will evaluate the qualities of each tale separately. Like the first volume, there are four Ligotti stories translated into comic form here:

• "Gas Station Carnivals:" This weird piece about a magical curse by the owner of a decrepit cabaret and the cursee's bizarre memories of second-rate carnivals adjoined to rural gas stations gets things off to an appropriately Ligottian start. The art in this adaption successfully transports the author's sense of loathing, fear, and wonder at the mysterious carnivals that may or may not lay somewhere in the recesses of his memory. Best of all, it preserves Ligotti's imaginative literary path that allows the reader to arrive at a multitude of conclusions and writhe with many reactions. While the artist, Vasilis Lolos, adeptly depicts the unusual atmosphere of the run down oil festivals, he also leaves out ridiculous liberties a lesser talent could easily have taken with this one. One of the few stylistic surprises, which ends up complementing the piece quite well, is the artistic depiction of the Showman. With the back of his coat perpetually turned to the entranced viewer--exhibiting a criss-cross of black and white, and clearly suggestive of skeletal features--the death symbolism of the Showman resonates sharply here. And it works.
• "The Clown Puppet:" This short comic, like its text counterpart, is a refined mixture of fright and frustrating humor. Ligotti's introduction to the story is an impressive existential revelation: we are meat nonsense. Witty and horrifyingly truthful as always, Thomas Ligott appears at his most thoughtful here. The style chosen for this tale by Bill Sienkiewicz is the most ambitious and the most surreal by far when comparing all four stories. The sometimes choppy, almost retro look of the piece works well for conveying the outrage experienced by the narrator, and loudly echoes the phrase "scribbles of a mentally deranged epileptic." However, it fails as a steady conductor of mood, and occasionally wears on the reader as an overdose of hazy surrealism. Fortunately, Sienkiewicz's talent at showing off the central horror--namely the mysterious clown puppet responsible for the main character's nightmarish visitations--is crystal clear and does justice to the senseless creature's wicked appearance. The story's neon BEEF-PORK-GOAT sign might trumpet a host of irritating notions to sensitive minds, but this bold translation of "The Clown Puppet" to visual art does not.
• "The Chymist:" It feels like this short story has always begged to be made into a comic. Of the four tales, it easily has the most content suitable for a comic: a mad scientist, a wonder drug, and a buxom lass. Artist Toby Cypress indeed adapts all of these elements, but manages to include a very sharp sense of horror as well. The story's chymist, as a deranged scientist, plays out well in fairly lighthearted images true to the comic spirit. However, the shadowy city district where most of the story takes place adequately conveys a sense of illness reflected in every crumbling building and shrieking hobo. Best of all, "The Chymist" comic remains very true to the style of Ligotti--suggesting rather than outright showing the supreme horror. The comic's climax with the unforgettable command "Bloom" leaves the appalling fate of Rosie up to the imagination--exactly the way it should be.
• "The Sect of the Idiot:" This tale of cosmic loneliness drawn by Nick Stakal rounds out the graphic novel. It's a slower paced work, but that owes more to the original story than to the comic adaption. And it actually functions quite well being placed at the end--easing the reader out of Ligotti's outre fantasy world and back into a reality now made far more questionable. Stakal's clear love of dark, cool hues complements this piece marvelously. The hypnotic dream cult referenced in the story is bathed in just enough light to underscore its monstrous explanation in text. Like "The Chymist," Stakal effectively preserves the Ligottian technique of suggestiveness. You will not see the robed creatures nor the main character's transformation in clear, open light. But what you do see is horrid and deformed enough. As well as Lovecraftian, a double delight for well read weird admirers, since this tale is Thomas Ligotti's only other story (the first being "The Last Feast of Harlequin," depicted in the previous graphic novel) that seems to have been forged deep in the mold of H.P. Lovecraft. Most importantly, the story's ethereal nightmare air of sacred mystery is not only preserved, but drips from the colored panels of this comic.

Overall, this latest Ligotti graphic novel is stupendous. Since the stories are independent and bear no real relation to the others in the first comic book, it might even be the best visual introduction to Thomas Ligotti's work yet. For about a mere $18 you can gain admission to a carnival of oddities that won't stop haunting your head after the graphic novel has been closed. One of the most painful and attractive features of Ligotti is that his weird fiction unmistakably echoes some nasty little philosophical truth about this world. Thankfully, this graphic novel has done this attitude flawless justice with its imaginative and faithful dedication to grotesquely visualizing the Thomas Ligotti worldview.

-Grim Blogger