H.P. Lovecraft and Marvel

Geoff Klock's blog currently holds a fascinating entry by Cove West from last fall about the influence of H.P. Lovecraft on comics, specifically, the Marvel universe. In the three part article, West covers the Cthulhuvian aspects of a number of adversaries of the X-Men and other superheroes featured in comics produced by Marvel. The author makes a convincing case for the obvious presence of Lovecraft's ideas and characters. And it's clear that West knows his stuff, judging by the extensive references to specific issues from the Marvel archives.

Most interesting is West's analysis of the progressive development of Lovecraftian references from oblique ones to explicit mentions. In fact, he cites several cases where Cthulhu and other entities created by the Providence author are noted. This is a fine read for anyone who seeks to understand Lovecrafts place in a (thus far) less studied area of pop culture, or for those with an interest in both HPL and the major players in the comic industry.

-Grim Blogger