Review by Frank Plowright
Given the digital wizardry available to the comic creators of the 21st century there has surely never been a better time to adapt a horror story in which an unearthly and unknown colour plays a part. Tanabe makes the most of the opportunity on the few colour pages available to him, yet this is otherwise a black and white adaptation.
As is frequently the case with H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, they’re narrated by a person never named, a curious everyman who just relates what happens to them or what they see and hear. In this case it’s a surveyor working on a planned reservoir in Arkham in Massachusetts, pre-warned to ignore the ravings of local farmer Ammi Pearce. Pearce was present fifty years earlier when a meteor fell on his neighbour’s farm. Local scientists took samples and tested it, yet were confounded by behaviour contradicting all known science. It begins a series of tragic circumstances that blight the community.
Tanabe’s adaptations of Lovecraft’s work adhere closely to the original stories, using as much of the core text as possible, which could hamper a lesser talent because Lovecraft loved words. Tanabe, though, takes it in his stride, cultivating via illustration his own version of the tension Lovecraft’s writing thrives on. Tanabe’s immaculately drawn cast exchange odd looks with pained expressions, gaze at mysterious surfaces and look lost as uncanny circumstances take them over. The strange achievement is that in isolation Tanabe’s illustrations of unnaturally large wildlife or weird plant life have a beauty, as does his countryside. It suffers slightly, though, for attempting to portray a shimmering phosphorescent light in monochrome.
At its heart The Colour Out of Space is a relatively simple story, with cause and effect known, but more so than much of Lovecraft’s other material there’s a human core. Through no fault of their own and through no predictable atmospheric condition their lives and livelihoods diminish to nothing. It’s the why that remains out of reach.
For all the humanity, this is a slim story, but it’s well adapted for maintaining the intended tone.
