Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths


Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths is a three-issue comic book miniseries presenting work written by comics writer Alan Moore, based on the writings of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was published by Avatar Press in 2003.

Background

After Dave Mitchell of Oneiros Books asked Alan Moore to contribute to The Starry Wisdom, a collection of new writings inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Moore came up with the idea to do an entire book, to be called Yuggoth Cultures, based on Lovecraft's Fungi From Yuggoth cycle of poems. Unfortunately, Moore lost the only copies of most of the pieces he had written for the book in a London taxi cab. Moore submitted a short story entitled "The Courtyard" as his entry for The Starry Wisdom, but suspended work on Yuggoth Cultures. "So the project went 'on hold,'...I kind of shoved it in the back of a drawer and forgot about it," he told Avatar editor-in-chief William Christensen in an interview included in Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths No. 3. The two other surviving pieces from Yuggoth Cultures, the poems "Recognition" and "Zaman's Hill," were included in the 1995 book Dust: A Creation Books Reader.
Avatar's 2003 anthology miniseries Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths presented Antony Johnston's comics adaptation of "Recognition" and "Zaman's Hill" as well as two of Alan Moore's songs, "Litvinoff's Book" and "Me and Dorothy Parker", the never-before-seen "Nightjar," and reprints of many of Alan Moore's short comics.

Publication

The series was published as a 3-part black and white monthly comic:

Issue #1 (September 2003)

  • "Zaman's Hill"
  • "Nightjar"
  • Nightjar first draft script by Alan Moore
  • A letter from Alan Moore to Bryan Talbot outlining the creation of Nightjar
  • Nightjar commentary by Bryan Talbot

Issue No. 2 (October 2003)

  • "Litvinoff's Book"
  • "Cold Snap"
  • "Itchy Peterson: Just Born Lucky I Guess"
  • "The Nativity on Ice"
  • "Recognition"

Issue No. 3. Published November 2003

  • "Leviticus"
  • "I Keep Coming Back"
  • "Me and Dorothy Parker"
  • "The Story Behind the Stories" – An interview with Alan Moore about the Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths by William Christensen, edited by Antony Johnston
Alan Moore's The Courtyard was originally scheduled for appearances in this collection but was turned into its own separate series.

Collected editions

The three issue miniseries and more were collected into a trade paperback, Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths, containing
  • Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths #1–3
  • "Magic Is Afoot"
  • "Rolling Commentary"
  • Alan Moore Interview
  • Yuggoth Creatures #1–3
  • "Shadows Over Lovecraft"
  • Yuggoth Creatures Annotated, Volumes 1–3

Spin-offs

''Nightjar''

The Nightjar story was spun off into a four-part mini-series written by Johnston with art by Max Fiumara, plus a one-shot entitled Nightjar: Hollow Bones. The basis was the story as seen in Yuggoth Cultures #1 with some additional notes from Bryan Talbot, but the bulk of the story was created by Johnston.

''Yuggoth Creatures''

Johnston would later produce more work in the Cthulhu Mythos, for Avatar, under the title Yuggoth Creatures. All three issues are included in the collected Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths.

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