Hyperborea: The Tale of Satampra Zeiros (Clark Ashton Smith’s…)

    (Mock Man, 2004)
™ and ©2004 CASiana Literary Enterprises, Inc.

Along with H.P. Lovecraft and Robert A. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith is considered one of the three originators of the compendium of fantasy stories known as the Cthulhu Mythos.  Many of his tales took place in the legendary land of Hyperborea, a land of magic and intrigue now ground to dust beneath the glaciers of Greenland. Writer Jason Thompson is a fan of the mythos, and he decided to adapt one of them into a comic with the permission of the author’s estate. It starts out as a picaresque tale, with the eponymous narrator comically describing how he and his companion decided over a bottle of pomegranate wine to loot the lost city of Commoriom. When they reach this former home of the foul god Tsathogghua, however, things rapidly become serious. Thompson uses large portions of text from the story as dialogue and description, but he doesn’t hesitate to add in or substitute illustrations for the written word at times. The black and white line art appears slightly cartoony at first, but the wealth of detail included in it negates this perception quickly.

— Joe Trela
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