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In April 2020, Blue Fox Comics published Adam Fyda’s The Mountains of Madness graphic novel. The book received a lot of praise, and we asked Adam to explain why he chose to adapt HP Lovecraft’s famous story in this artist interview.
“Vast, empty spaces always worked on my imagination, so this is the most picturesque of Lovecraft’s books for me. Reading this story, I saw pictures: there were huge snow-covered mountains and a small plane, lost in this space. And everything was colorful: drowned in blue reflections of the sky and violets and oranges falling from the low hanging sun. As in Nicholas Roerich’s Himalayan paintings.”
How did you approach the project?
“From the beginning I wanted the comic book to be full of colors, even if a large part of the story takes place in the underground corridors. I wanted to show this Lovecraft’s story in a different way than we usually expect – not as dark images full of terrifying monsters, but more as a story about the lost in a beautiful but alien world. The challenge was to show the era of that time, all the details – like ordinary torches or clothes used during the expeditions to Antarctica, not to mention ships or planes. So I started working on the comic book by collecting a lot of documentation and it took me some time.”
Why build on the story, instead of a simply adapting it?
“First, building on the story wasn’t my first intention. Yet reading the book and thinking about its adaptation, I had ideas in my head for other scenes as well. Such as the mysterious character observing the departure of the expeditionary ships or finding the diary, for example.
Second, I was interested in the climate of horror and the characters’ search for what are the discovered remains, what are they hiding inside? So I decided to change the whole story a little bit. I thought it might be more dramatic and mysterious to tell the tale of the second expedition, where the crew gradually discovers the terrible story of the previous expedition until they have no way back.
Thirdly, there are already 2 adaptations of this story, but they are very literal.”
What editions are available?
If you’re a Lovecraft fan, or indeed just a fan of graphic novels, check out Adam Fyda’s The Mountains of Madness graphic novel – get the fantastic softcover edition, the in digital version or the hardback edition.
Find more about Adam on his website, adamfyda.com.
Simon Birks is co-founder of Blue Fox Comics, along with his wife Marielle. He writes incessantly, and has been known to create the odd website or two.
As well as comics, Simon writes plays, poetry, (award winning) film scripts. He also acts, directs and produces films, too, because why have any spare time…
