Providence 9

Below are annotations for Providence, No. 9 “Outsiders” (40 pages, cover date May 2016, released 1 June 2016)
Writer: Alan Moore, Artist: Jacen Burrows, based on

works of H.P. Lovecraft

>Go to Moore Lovecraft annotations index

Note: Some of this is obvious, but you never know who’s reading and what their exposure is. If there’s anything we missed or got wrong, let us know in comments.

General: In early November 1919, Robert Black arrives at Providence, R.I. to pay a call of Henry Annesley of the Order of the Stella Sapiente. After an excursion to St. John’s Church with young Howard Charles, Black pays a visit to H. P. Lovecraft, who helps Black get situated with some rooms and then the pair visit Lovecraft’s mother at Butler Hospital.

Cover

The house depicted is “The Shunned House” located at 135 Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island – see contemporary street view.
The house appears very briefly on P8,p4 below.

Page 1

The panels are drawn from Black’s point of view, complete with the uncomfortable stares from passers-by. This is to contrast with the viewpoint of Henry Annesley on subsequent pages.

panel 1

The setting is a train interior at Union Station, Providence, Rhode Island. The date is November 14, 1919.
Robert Black’s reflection is in the middle of the train window. His image is ghostly, translucent, in contrast to the people on the platform. This foreshadows visually how he will be treated as an outsider, and how he isn’t necessarily entirely in the same reality as the rest of Providence.
Black seeing his own reflection also contrasts with Henry Annesley’s extra-perceptive glasses. Black sees his reflection dimly, while Annesley sees an invisible world teeming with creatures.
The sign reads “Providence” for Providence, RI. Or, as commenter cent points out, not exactly: “the ID is missing (significantly for Robert, cut off from true familiarity with his own cavernous depths), leaving PROV-ENCE… which is to say, Robert is “en provence”, out in the provinces – and attracting all sorts of unwelcome attention with his big-city attire and demeanor. An outsider, for sure.”

panel 2

Most of the trees are bare, suggesting late fall or early winter.
The setting is Waterman Street at Benefit Street, looking east; compare to contemporary street view.

panel 3

First appearance of Henry Annesley. Annesley was first mentioned in Providence #7 P11,p1, and is Providence‘s analogue for Crawford Tillinghast in Lovecraft’s “From Beyond“. Commenter Vlado points out that, according to “An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia”, Henry Annesley was the name for the protagonist in “From Beyond” in Lovecraft’s first draft of the story.
“Randall” is Randall Carver, from Providence #8.
“Wallace Tillinghast” – see annotations for Providence #8, P1,p1.
The setting is George Street at Brown Street, looking east; compare to contemporary street view.

panel 4

Annesley is wearing old-fashioned, colored spectacles. These are very unusual for the period.
“How has Providence been treating you so far?” is a line that can be read many different ways. (Thanks to commenters Vlado and Whitney.)
- “How has Providence (the city) been treating you (Robert Black) so far?”
- “How has Providence (the philosophical concept) been treating you (Robert Black) so far?” Ironic, since Black doesn’t believe in the concept, yet it is clearly true within his world.
- How has Providence (Alan Moore’s graphic novel) been treating you (Robert Black) so far?”
- How has Providence (this graphic novel) been treating you (the reader!) so far?” Is the book living up to your expectations, now that you’ve read the first two thirds of it, and we are just starting the final third?
The street setting is the same as panel 3 above.

Page 2

panel 1

The full-page panel is from Annesley’s perspective.
The tint of the color shows the world through Annesly’s glasses. This is a reference to Lovecraft’s story “From Beyond,” where the scientist Crawford Tillinghast built a resonator that enhanced human perceptions to the point that they could perceive strange, otherwordly creatures:

Suddenly I myself became possessed of a kind of augmented sight. Over and above the luminous and shadowy chaos arose a picture which, though vague, held the elements of consistency and permanence. It was indeed somewhat familiar, for the unusual part was superimposed upon the usual terrestrial scene much as a cinema view may be thrown upon the painted curtain of a theatre. I saw the attic laboratory, the electrical machine, and the unsightly form of Tillinghast opposite me; but of all the space unoccupied by familiar material objects not one particle was vacant. Indescribable shapes both alive and otherwise were mixed in disgusting disarray, and close to every known thing were whole worlds of alien, unknown entities. It likewise seemed that all the known things entered into the composition of other unknown things, and vice versa. Foremost among the living objects were great inky, jellyish monstrosities which flabbily quivered in harmony with the vibrations from the machine. They were present in loathsome profusion, and I saw to my horror that they overlapped; that they were semi-fluid and capable of passing through one another and through what we know as solids. These things were never still, but seemed ever floating about with some malignant purpose. Sometimes they appeared to devour one another, the attacker launching itself at its victim and instantaneously obliterating the latter from sight.
The appearance of the creatures jives with Lovecraft’s story, but also appear to be at least a slight homage to the film it inspired, From Beyond (1986).
Still from “From Beyond” (1986)
The chapter name “Outsiders” is a reference to H. P. Lovecraft’s famous story “The Outsider“; several critics, such as Michel Houellebecq have characterized Lovecraft himself as an outsider, though Moore postulated just the opposite in his introduction to Leslie Klinger’s The New Annotated Lovecraft. It being a plural is due to many outsider figures in this story: certainly Black, and both Howard and Susie Lovecraft, arguably Annesley and Charles, and, in a different sense of ‘outside’, the purple creatures.
The use of the unusual wording “from beyond the eighteenth century” (emphasis added) is probably a nod to the title of the Lovecraft story. (Thanks to commenter MS for pointing this out.)
“The stranger or intruder, I’m afraid, is just one more thing to mistrust or even fear.” refers to Lovecraft’s xenophobia, which was quite prevalent during that time.
The view is on George Street looking westward toward Magee Street. Compare to contemporary street view. Brown University is on the right; the building to the right of Black is Rhode Island Hall.
Panelwise, the border, normally rough, is here ruler-straight. From Neonomicon (beginning #3 P5,p1) and various instances throughout Providence (beginning #2 P15,p3) the straight panel borders indicate a heightened perception of paranormal activity.

Page 3

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“Roulet and Colwen” are Etienne Roulet and Japheth Colwen, first mentioned in Providence #2: P12,p1 and p2 respectively.
“Our fraternity” is the Stella Sapiente, or more fully the Worshipful Order of the Stella Sapiente. They are the American coven associated with Liber Stella Sapiente book. See Suydam pamphlet pages at end of Providence #2 for extensive background.
“Brown’s University” is Brown University. Wikipedia says “It is sometimes erroneously supposed that Brown University was “named after” John Brown, whose commercial activity included the transportation of African slaves. In fact, Brown University was named for Nicholas Brown, Jr—philanthropist, founder of the Providence Athenaeum, co-founder of Butler Hospital, and, crucially, an abolitionist.” All three of these linked details resonate with the themes of Providence, of course.
The location is George Street at Brown Street; the 1812 in the fence is visible in this contemporary street view. According to Brown, the numbers on the fence correspond to class years that donated to install the fence in 1903.

panel 2

The creature passes without comment through Black’s head, recalling in “From Beyond” how the creatures were seen “occasionally walking or drifting through my supposedly solid body.”
- There may also be an encoded joke here: The creature is not impeded because Black’s head is is, in some senses “empty”.
“Light from the far violet frequencies and further still.” – Ultraviolet light has a higher frequency (i.e. shorter wavelength) than light in our visible spectrum; as the frequency increases it shifts into x-rays. This is a reference again to “From Beyond” (“You thought ultra-violet was invisible, and so it is—but you can see that and many other invisible things now.”)
“Athol” is Athol, Massachusetts, where Black met the Wheatleys in Providence #4.
“Salem” is Salem, Mass, where Black met Boggs et al. in Providence #3.
Panelwise, the borders are again ruler-straight – see P2 above.

panel 3

“The worst type of inbred trash.” refers to Garland Wheatley’s grandsons having been conceived via incest with his daughter, literally inbred.
“The Boggs project was getting out of hand.” Presumably refers to the “plague” that swept through Salem, suggested to have actually been a massacre by the Deep Ones.
Shadrach Annesley was introduced in Providence #3 P7,p4.
The setting is Benevolent Street looking east toward Brown Street; compare to contemporary street view.

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“So my great… my uncle is still with us, then?” confirms a relation between Henry and Shadrach, though whether Shadrach is his great-uncle or a more distant relation is unclear – though possible, given Shadrach is apparently more than 250 years old.
“We’d, uh, we’d heard there’d been an accident. A lightning-bolt or something.” refers to the events in Lovecraft’s “The Picture in the House,” as reflected in Shadrach Annesley’s story in Providence #3. Given the sort of “accident” that befell Garland Wheatley’s wife (as told in Providence #4), it may have been no accident.
“He was always a man with a tremendous appetite for life” alludes to Shadrach Annesley being a cannibal.
Annesley’s house is at 22 Benevolent Street; compare to contemporary street view. In “From Beyond” it is described as an “ancient, lonely house set back from Benevolent Street.”

Page 4

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“The Babbitt House on Benefit Street” is the house which inspired Lovecraft’s poem “The House” and his short story “The Shunned House.”
“The occult is that which is hidden. Through our science we hope to reveal it” is reminiscent of Lovecraft’s fiction. His early stories were marked by a greater reliance on the occult (which literally means “hidden” in Latin), but, as he progressed, he focused more on science fiction, though never surrendering either. One of the hallmarks of weird fiction is occupying the grey area between the more well-defined genres of fantasy and science fiction.
Diagrams on the wall appear to be studies of some of the creatures visible through Annesley’s specs.

panel 2

“The Kitab” is the Kitab Al-Hikmah Al-Najmiyya or Hali’s Booke of the Wisdom from the Stars in English; Providence‘s analogue of the Necronomicon.
“The Saint Anselm copy” is the copy of Hali’s Booke held at St. Anselm’s college, which Black viewed in Providence #6.

Page 5

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“My own mental condition” again shows that Black is in denial over some of the things he has seen and experienced.
“I lost a loved one recently” refers to Black’s lover Lily, who committed suicide in Providence #1.

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“The Redeemer Prophecy” foretells that a Redeemer will come to “set things right,” as related in Hali’s Booke. It appears that H.P. Lovecraft is the Redeemer, so here Annesley is downplaying the prophecy, apparently misleading Black. The prophecy is first mentioned in Providence #2 P39 (Suydam’s pamphlet page [10]), then explained in Providence #4 (beginning P9,p4) by Garland Wheatley, and then detailed in Hali’s Booke in Providence #6 P34-35.
“Garland Wheatley was obsessed by it.” refers to Wheatley’s attempt to fulfill the prophecy, as told in Providence #4; the Stella Sapiente are hinted at trying to fulfill it in their own manner.

panel 3

“Well, it’s this sense that there’s more to everything than I perceive… not getting the whole picture” is ironic, given Annesley’s current viewpoint of the invisible world around Black, but also perhaps a suggestion that Black knows he has missed out on a great deal of the subtext of things in his journeys so far.
Panelwise, the borders are again ruler-straight – see P2 above.

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“Optics and metaphysics” recalls the proverb “The eyes are the window of the soul.”
“With our view of time, in a sense it’s already fulfilled” recalls Moore’s sense of time as 4-dimensional solid echoed in the Kitab (see Providence #2 P31) and the ending of Neonomicon #4: from outside of time, all the events of time have already happened. In “From Beyond” Tillinghast references non-linear time: “you were afraid of the cosmic truth, you damned coward, but now I’ve got you! […] do you suppose there are really any such things as time and magnitude? Do you fancy there are such things as form or matter? I tell you, I have struck depths that your little brain can’t picture!”
The board between Black and Annesley appears to contain more of the studies of the creatures.

Page 6

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“A rank within our order, like a Tyler in freemasonry.” refers to, in Freemasonry, the “Tyler” or “tiler” is the office of the guard of the outer door, acting as gatekeeper. In this context, it resembles the purpose of Yog-Sothoth in “The Dunwich Horror” (“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth.”)
“Yokel” is a slur for an uneducated country person.
“In 1889 there was an arranged marriage” refers to H.P. Lovecraft’s parents; Winfield Scott Lovecraft married Sarah Susan Phillips on 12 June 1889.
“European monarchs do it all the time.” Monarchy was on the wane after World War I, but arranged marriages were historically common.

panel 2

Small images of the otherworldly creatures are visible through Annesley’s spectacles.
“Our Order-head’s daughter” refers to Stella Sapiente order-head Whipple Van Buren Phillips, H.P. Lovecraft’s maternal grandfather. Phillips appeared in Providence #8, P6,p4 and P10,p2. He had three daughters, one of which was Sarah Susan Phillips.
“A novitiate member whose work involved metals” refers to H.P. Lovecraft’s father, Winfield Scott Lovecraft, who was a travelling salesman for the Gorham Silver Company. W.S. Lovecraft first appeared in a flashback in Providence #5 P13,p3, then in the Stella Sapiente photo shown in Providence #6 P10,p1 and Providence #7 P11,P1.
“Happily, they produced offspring almost immediately.” refers to H.P. Lovecraft was born 20 August 1890, which would put his conception about 8-10 weeks after the marriage took place.
“Sounds almost… dull.” makes the reader wonder if Annesley is feeding Black a careful line of half-truths. Here we have another “layer” – what is the truth? The embittered but darkly fantastic stories of the almost primitive Boggs and Wheatley’s, or Annesley’s prosaic, mundane version? The contrast appears deliberate, echoing Lovecraft’s transition from fantasy to science fiction.

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“By 1889 we had other editions” suggests that the order had either better or more complete translations, or perhaps original editions, and echoing the many editions of the Necronomicon in various expurgated editions and foreign languages. In “The Haunter of the Dark,” the Church of the Starry Wisdom had an admirable occult library – so impressive, in fact, that an entire book has been written about the volumes in its collection: The Starry Wisdom Library.
“We’ve always enjoyed a close relationship with the Catholic Church” is rather odd, as the Catholic church has been traditionally opposed to some fraternal organizations like Freemasonry. On the other hand, anti-Catholic sentiment has often suggested shadowy conspiracies within Catholicism.
First appearance of Howard Charles, Providence‘s analogue of Charles Dexter Ward from Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.”

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Howard Charles’ green tie, and his eagerness to hear about New York, may both be coded signs of his homosexuality.

Page 7

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“A direct descendant of Japheth Colwen” echoes “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” where Ward was a descendant of Joseph Curwen; the Stella Sapiente would be a natural start for genealogical research if this is the case.
Commenter Sithoid points out that Henry Annesley may well be related to Howard Charles. Henry Annesley is a descendant of Shadrach Annesley (P3p3). In “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”, Curwen (Colwyn’s original) marries the daughter of one of his ship captains, named Tillinghast. Given that Henry Annesley is also based on a Lovecraft character named Tillinghast (see note at P1p3), it seems reasonable to suppose that, in the world of Providence, Japheth Colwyn married a daughter of Shadrach Annesley, leading (eventually) to the birth of Howard Charles. Charles is probably unaware of this relationship, though Annesley may well be.

panel 2

The segmented worm moving invisibly through Black and Charles’ crotches suggests the homosexual attraction which is implicit in the subtext between the two.
Panelwise, the borders are again ruler-straight – see P2 above.

panel 3

Picking off a (possibly nonexistent) piece of lint from someone’s clothes is sometimes used an excuse to observe their reaction to your physical closeness, preparatory to more overt flirtation. See also Providence #1, P30, where Black describes Prissy Turner “standing picking pieces of imaginary lint off of my shoulder”.

panel 4

“Did I tell you his name was Howard too?” refers to Howard Phillips Lovecraft, whom Black met last issue. Why does Moore give this character the first name Howard? Possibly to emphasize the links between Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Charles Dexter Ward (the model for Howard Charles). Both are Providence residents, and both are obsessed with antiquarianism, old architecture, and old books. See also note for P8,p2.
“St. John’s Church” is a former Catholic church which served as the inspiration for the Church of the Starry Wisdom in Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark.” This church appears on the cover of Providence #10. The name is also reminiscent of St. John-Divine, from Providence #4.
“It’s been a privilege, Mr. Black.” is, again, Black failing to notice the importance which Stella Sapiente members (former and current) impart to having met him.

Page 8

Japheth Colwen, from Suydam's pamplet in Providence #2 - art by Jacen Burrows — Japheth Colwen, from Suydam’s pamplet in *Providence* #2 – art by Jacen Burrows

panel 1

“You look a little like woodcuts of Colwen I’ve seen” refers to Colwen’s portrait on Suydam’s pamphlet page [5] in Providence #2, P34. In “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” Ward bore an uncanny resemblance to a portrait of his ancestor.
The setting appears to be just outside Annesly’s house (though Black and Charles appear to be walking east when they should probably go west – perhaps they are going to the corner to cross); compare to contemporary street view.

panel 2

“I’ve had a sheltered upbringing. Hardly been outside Rhode Island my whole life” recalls how Ward is considered by many critics to be based in part on Lovecraft himself, who had something of a sheltered upbringing.
The setting appears to be on Benevolent Street looking east toward Benefit Street; compare to contemporary street view.
Panelwise, the borders are again ruler-straight – see P2 above.

panel 3

The location is the corner of Benefit and Benevolent Streets.
“He moved to Providence around the time of the witch-trials” is a detail is borrowed from Curwen’s biography in “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”:

Joseph Curwen, as revealed by the rambling legends embodied in what Ward heard and unearthed, was a very astonishing, enigmatic, and obscurely horrible individual. He had fled from Salem to Providence—that universal haven of the odd, the free, and the dissenting—at the beginning of the great witchcraft panic; being in fear of accusation because of his solitary ways and queer chemical or alchemical experiments.
“Well, as a scientist… or an alchemist… he’d be suspect.” – The pre-science practice of alchemy eventually developed into the scientific discipline of chemistry; presenting alchemy as misunderstood science reflects something of how Lovecraft combined the occult with science fiction – or as Arthur C. Clarke would later put it, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
“H-he worked with Jacques Roulet at Roulet’s house” is perhaps an error, since the house here belonged to Etienne Roulet, who we know Colwen to have worked with. The error may be Moore’s, or may be Charles’, as he has only recently learned some of this information, and may not have all the details clear.
- Commenter keshavkrishnamurty points out that there is some evidence Colwen did work with Jacques Roulet back in Europe:
  
  Suydam’s pamphlet gives a clear hint that Japheth Colwen, who is infamous for not aging, had been present on the Mayflower voyage of 1620 [Issue #2 P39]. Hekeziah Massey was born in 1613 [#2 P36], and Etienne Roulet’s mother was born in 1616 [#2 P35], making Colwen by far the eldest of the three senior Stella Sapiente members. Now, Jacques Roulet was charged with lycanthropy (werewolf-ism) in 1598 and he was alleged to have possessed a copy of the Liber Stella Sapiente from 1498 [#2 P35], [a latin version, possibly] the very incunabula found in the Steeple on Page 10, panel 3. Etienne Roulet is known to have brought Hali’s Booke, the *English* translation of the Latin version [#2 P33]. With all this data about dates given in Suydam’s pamphlet, the only person who could conceivably have associated with Jacques Roulet at the end of the 16th/start of the 17th century and brought the Liber Stella Sapiente to America would have been Japheth Colwen, in 1620.
  
  While it is by no means certain that the book seen on P10,p3 is the same copy Jacques Roulet possessed, Occam’s Razor does tend to suggest it.

panel 4

“Nowadays it’s mostly called the Babbitt House, after the people living there.” refers to 135 Benefit Street, the titular “The Shunned House“; see contemporary street view. In 1919, the Babbits were living in 135 Benefit Street. Lovecraft’s aunt and mother lived there very briefly in 1919 as well.

Page 9

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“Lamb Street” no longer exists in present day Providence, RI. Per the Providence end pages map, it was located west of Benefit Street between Church and Star Streets.
“Mosshassuck” is the Mosshassuck River, which runs parallel to Benefit Street, a couple blocks west.
“Captivating” is Black flirting.

panel 2

The Mosshassuck River is on the right, as they cross the bridge. The railing resembles that of the present day Smith Street Bridge.

panel 3

This view does not really correspond to any present day route along Providence’s rivers, though it could perhaps be the historic Cove Basin at the location of the present day Rhode Island State House.

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The “Moses Brown School” is a private Providence college preparatory school.
“I thought that was real exciting” and “With the uniforms and everything? I’ll bet” again, again appears to be plausibly-deniable flirtation on, at least, Black’s part.
“If I’d passed my medical” follows on what Black said in Providence #8, P7,p3 he was rejected for enlistment during World War I for unstated medical reasons.
“Saint John’s Church” was initially mentioned P7,p4 above – see P10,p1 below for description.
This panel sets up a page-turn reveal.

Page 10

St. John's Church. Image via Flickr user Will Hart — St. John’s Church. Image via Flickr user Will Hart

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“some of the Italian people from Ruttenberg and Mount Pleasan” – Commenter Sithoid notes that “Rutenburg (sic, per map in the comics) and Mount Pleasant are districts in Providence. According to Wikipedia, Mount Pleasant as well as Federal Hill were the local “Little Italy””. The area labeled Rutenberg in the frontispiece map is now called Olneyville, while the area marked on the frontispiece map as Olneyville is now called Hartford.
“The Stella Sapiente were given space in the steeple for their meetings” recalls the use of the steeple by the Church of the Starry Wisdom in “The Haunter of the Dark.”
“Right to the church’s biblical foundation, he says” could possibly refer to the Redeemer prophecy as an analogue to the Christian messiah, as told in the gospels of the New Testament and the person of Jesus Christ. Critics, particularly Donald Burleson in Disturbing the Universe and Robert M. Price have noted the parallels between “The Dunwich Horror” and the conception, life, and death of Jesus (deliberate, as “The Dunwich Horror” was based in part on Arthur Machen’s “The Great God Pan”); Moore also drew a deliberate parallel between the events of Neonomicon and the Annunciation of Mary.
“Like the Freemasons claiming ancient origins” refers to how Freemasons assert that their order goes back to the construction of the First Temple in Jerusalem.
The church is Saint John’s Roman Catholic Church, on Atwells Avenue in Federal Hill in Providence, RI. The church building is now demolished; the site is today Saint John’s Park. The church was Lovecraft’s inspiration for the Starry Wisdom church in “The Haunter of the Dark”

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Entering the church through a gap in the fence recalls “The Haunter of the Dark“: “The fence had no opening near the steps, but around on the north side were some missing bars.”

Page 11

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“Held each other tight or something?” is Black still being deliberately suggestive.

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“Just old books” are the Stella Sapiente’s “other editions” and occult library. These are described in “The Haunter of the Dark“:

“Blake found a rotting desk and ceiling-high shelves of mildewed, disintegrating books. Here for the first time he received a positive shock of objective horror, for the titles of those books told him much. They were the black, forbidden things which most sane people have never even heard of, or have heard of only in furtive, timorous whispers; the banned and dreaded repositories of equivocal secrets and immemorial formulae which have trickled down the stream of time from the days of man’s youth, and the dim, fabulous days before man was. He had himself read many of them—a Latin version of the abhorred Necronomicon, the sinister Liber Ivonis, the infamous Cultes des Goules of Comte d’Erlette, the Unaussprechlichen Kulten of von Junzt, and old Ludvig Prinn’s hellish De Vermis Mysteriis. But there were others he had known merely by reputation or not at all—the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the Book of Dzyan, and a crumbling volume in wholly unidentifiable characters yet with certain symbols and diagrams shudderingly recognisable to the occult student.”
The “stone from Manchester” – see p12,p1 below.

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“The Stella Sapiente’s inner head. It’s secret chief.” references how many fraternal organizations, particularly occult ones, had an “inner” and an “outer” order – sometimes, multiple orders; each level of initiation brought a member deeper into the mysteries. Many occult orders like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn based their initiations on the degrees of Freemasonry. Organizations like the Golden Dawn and Theosophy also claimed authority to found their lodges and practice their rituals by permission – just as Freemasonry lodges traditionally had done. The Golden Dawn claimed authority from the Rosicrucians (later shown to be fraudulent), while other occultists – such as H. P. Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy – claimed authority from the “secret chiefs,” transcendent spiritual authorities.

Page 12

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The red object is the “Shining Trapezohedron” from “The Haunter of the Dark.” This is the “The Colour out of Space” meteorite that the Stella Sapiente “drew down” – glimpsed in Providence #5 P13,p4. Lovecraft did not connect “Colour” and “Haunter“; Moore and Burrows have. (Regarding the object’s shape – see P13,p4 below.)

panel 2

“Meteorite that hit the farmland I saw” refers to the events of Providence #5 P12-15.
“Do you feel the atmosphere?” implies that the room is charged, as was the orgone chamber in Neonomicon (starting #2 P16,p1) and alluded to when Black visits the site in Providence #3 P15,p1.

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Liber Stella Sapiente is, as Black mentions, the original Latin edition which was translated into English as Hali’s Booke. The book’s history is detailed in Suydam’s pamphlet in Providence #2. This echoes “The Haunter of the Dark” where Blake finds “a Latin version of the abhorred Necronomicon” in the church.
“This can’t be real…” – For one theory of where this volume originated, see notes to P8,p3.
“Cornholing” is slang for anal sex, supposedly taken from the use of a dried corn cob to perform the function later filled by toilet paper.
- “Cornhole” is also, as commenters Karl Hiller, Greenaum, and Paul point out, a children’s game involving beanbags. Howard is communicating his gayness in a way that can be easily explained away if Black turned out to be homophobic.

Page 13

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“I haven’t done this in so long…” refers to Black not having had sex (from his perspective) since his tryst at the hotel in Athol, described in the Commonplace Book in Providence #4.

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“Does everything look blue?” is a reference to the “blewness of the air” described in orgone-charged spaces in Providence #2 P37 (Pamphlet page [8]) and Neonomicon #2 P23,p2.
“I can see things in the stone.” recalls “The Haunter of the Dark“: “Before he realised it, he was looking at the stone again, and letting its curious influence call up a nebulous pageantry in his mind.”

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The stone appears to be modeled on a “5-3 trapezohedron“. (Thanks to commenters Greenaum and MS for pointing this out.)
Panelwise, the borders are again ruler-straight – see P2 above.

Page 14

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Many homosexuals felt the need to move to more liberal environments, as a conservative hometown prevented them from exploring or fulfilling their sexual needs.
In 1919, Lovecraft lived with his elder aunt at 598 Angell Street.

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“Benefit” and “Meeting Street” are actual Providence Streets and good directions to the Lovecraft home, but they also, perhaps coincidentally, seem to describe Charles having been happy to have met with Black.
“I-if people thought I was queer, they’d stick me in Butler Hospital.” refers to how homosexuality was treated as a mental illness at the time. Butler Hospital is the sanitarium where both of Lovecraft’s parents died.
The site appears to be this three-arch doorway on 199 Benefit Street (at Angell Street); see contemporary street view.

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This site appears to be the intersection of Angell Street and Benefit Street; see contemporary street view. Black and Charles have parted quite a ways from Lovecrafts home, perhaps to protect themselves from any perception of their homosexuality.

Page 15

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First appearance of Annie Gamwell, Lovecraft’s younger aunt.

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“He’s an invalid. Has been since he was small.” echoes biographers accounts that Lovecraft was coddled by his mother and aunts, and the idea was impressed upon him that he was an invalid with nervous ailments – which he sometimes expressed in his letters to friends. After his mother’s death, Lovecraft overcame his more psychosomatic ailments.

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Lovecraft’s Registration Card

“Why, he only went and tried to join the army! His poor mother, that’s my sister Susie, she soon put a stop to that.” corresponds to Lovecraft’s biography. Just after the United States joined World War I, Lovecraft attempted to enlist in the Rhode Island National Guard, and was accepted. However, his mother enlisted the family physician to have the enlistment annulled, and Lovecraft was deemed unfit for service. For further details, see the essay H. P. Lovecraft and the Great War.
“‘course, she’s in hospital with nerves herself now.” corresponds to how Sarah Susan “Susie” Phillips suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalized on 13 March 1919.
“It’s a family complaint.” references Lovecraft’s assertion that nervous ailments ran through his family.

panel 4

This panel sets up a page-turn reveal.

Page 16

panel 1

“Robertus” demonstrates Lovecraft’s tendency to give nicknames to friends; a Latin ending to Black’s first name would be very much in character.
“Young granddaughter” references how Lovecraft liked to style himself as an old man, and often referred to his aunts as his granddaughters.
Lovecraft is wearing an older style of collar – probably one of those belonging to his father, as was his habit.
The small metal object on the table next to the window is probably a pocket telescope, as Lovecraft was an amateur astronomer who enjoyed such things and owned several.

panel 2

Lovecraft stood 5’10”; Black, by indication, is perhaps an inch or so shorter.
“Glass of milk” references a story told by Rheinhart Kleiner regarding visiting Lovecraft, where “‘I noticed that at every hour or so his mother appeared in the doorway with a glass of milk, and Lovecraft forthwith drank it.” (Lovecraft disliked milk.)
“Grandfather Theobold” is one of Lovecraft’s pseudonyms.
“Swell boig” is a New York accent pronunciation of “Swell ‘berg,” Lovecraft had an affection for lapsing into slang and New York dialects.

panel 3

“Ruinously expensive” refers to how, living most of his life in genteel poverty, Lovecraft was known to be very cost-conscious.

Page 17

The general statements of his biography as given here are essentially identical to those given by Lovecraft in his letters to friends, and accurate except where noted.

panel 1

Plutarch and Herodotus are well-known Classical writers, especially Plutarch’s Lives and Herodotus’ Histories. Lovecraft was a Classicist with a good grounding in such literature. More on Lovecraft’s library can be found in S.T. Joshi’s book: Lovecraft’s Library.
“Whipple Phillips” is Whipple Van Buren Phillips, H.P. Lovecraft’s maternal grandfather. Phillips has been mentioned as “Buren” starting in Providence #3 P11,p3 and appeared in Black’s dream in Providence #8 P10,p2. Moore has made it more difficult for Black (and readers) to make this connection, by referring to him differently: “Whipple Phillips” here, “Buren” elsewhere.
“After father’s death, he provided for mother and I.” recaps actual events. H.P. Lovecraft’s father, Winfield Scott Lovecraft, died in 1898; Whipple Phillips continued to support the family with his business until his death in 1904.

panel 2

“when I was five years old” – Commenter Sithoid points out that H. P. Lovecraft was almost eight years old when his father died. It is not clear whether this is an error, or Lovecraft deliberately rewriting his own past.
“From fatigue aggravated by his employment as a salesman.” Winfield Scott Lovecraft actually suffered hallucinations, followed by paralysis, believed to have been brought on by syphilis. H. P. Lovecraft was apparently not aware of his father’s illness, or at least never mentioned it in his letters. For further details, see “The Shadow of Syphilis” in Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos.
While H. P. Lovecraft never went inside Butler Hospital, he would infrequently visit his mother on the grounds.

panel 3

“Old uns” echoes Lovecraft’s “Great Old Ones” or “Elder Things” – the group of alien monsters including Cthulhu.

panel 4

“A prominent freemason” refers to how, in real life, Whipple Van Buren Phillips was a freemason, and founded the Ionic Lodge No. 28 in Greene, Rhode Island in 1870. In the George Hay Necronomicon, writer Colin Wilson used this fact to spin a suggestion that Phillips had been the source of the Necronomicon manuscript which inspired Lovecraft’s fiction, which Moore appears to be riffing on.
Aunt bringing milk – see P16,p2 above

Page 18

panel 1

Lovecraft and his aunt would later relocate to 66 College Street. The house was presumably also where Robert Blake stayed in “The Haunter of the Dark“: “the upper floor of a venerable dwelling in a grassy court off College Street—on the crest of the great eastward hill near the Brown University campus…”

panel 2

The location is indeed 598 Angell Street; compare to contemporary street view.
Note the black cat – little more than a shadow – off to the left; Lovecraft was inordinately fond of cats. A black cat appears in nearly every issue of Providence and Neonomicon.

Lovecraft's birth home at 454 Angell Street. Photo via hplovecraft.com — Lovecraft’s birth home at 454 Angell Street. Photo via hplovecraft.com

panel 3

454 Angell Street is the house where Lovecraft was born, and his boyhood home, until the death of Whipple Phillips forced his family to downsize. The house was torn down; see contemporary street view.
“Zobo Kazoo” references a letter to August Derleth dated 31 December 1930, Lovecraft wrote:

When, at the age of 11, I was a member of the Blackstone Military Band, (whose youthful members were all virtuosi on what was called the ‘zobo’–a brass horn with a membrane at one end, which would transform humming int a delightfully brassy impressiveness!) my almost unique ability to keep time was rewarded by my promotion to the past drummer. (Selected Letters 3.246)

panel 4

“Strive to capture certain local atmospheres” refers to Lovecraft’s writing reflecting a New England regionalism.
Lovecraft was experimenting with several different styles in 1919; after “Sweet Ermengarde” he chose to explore weird fiction rather than comedy.

Page 19

panel 1

Black read “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” in Providence #8.
“My physiological frailty prevented me from doing so.” – Lovecraft suffered a nervous breakdown and subsequently failed to graduate high school, and never attended college.
The location is the intersection of College and Prospect Streets; compare to contemporary street view.

panel 2

First appearance of Mrs. Willets, presumably based on Alice Sheppard, a high-school German teacher and the downstairs tenant who rented the upstairs room at 66 College Street to Lovecraft and Annie Gamwell in 1933. In “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” 10 Barnes St. (a future Lovecraft address) was occupied by a Dr. Marinus Bicknell Willett.

panel 3

panel 4

“This western prospect of Federal Hill and the lower town is remarkable.” – When Lovecraft moved into the house in 1933, this would be where he would place his desk.

Page 20

panels 1-4

These form a zoom sequence. The focus is Saint John’s Roman Catholic Church – see P10,p1 above.

panel 2

“Unlettered autodidact” refers to Lovecraft not having attended college.

panel 3

“Horological” refers to horology – the art or science of measuring time.
“My meanderings are often nocturnal” reference’s Lovecraft’s life; he had difficulty keeping regular hours, and often was up late and night, and would walk for miles.

panel 4

The woman appears to be Johnny Carcosa’s mother, in the steeple of St. John’s Church on Federal Hill. This suggests that the “secret chief” of the Stella Sapiente might be Nyarlathotep – whom Johnny Carcosa claims to be an avatar of in Neonomicon. Nyarlathotep was the eponymous “Haunter of the Dark” tied to the Shining Trapezohedron in Lovecraft’s story of the same name.
Carcosa’s mother, presumed to be a very minor character thus far, appeared very briefly in The Courtyard, Neonomicon #1 P22,p1, as well as Providence #2 P3,p4 and #8 P23,p2.

Page 21

panel 1

panel 2

“On which the cold does not indispose me” refers to one of Lovecraft’s real ailments: a severe physical reaction to cold, resulting in swelling extremities and great loss of bodily strength.
“Remission” again, refers to Lovecraft’s boyhood illnesses believed to be largely psychosomatic, or the result of overbearing parenting.
The location is the corner of Prospect and Waterman Streets; see contemporary street view.

panel 3

Commenter Pat Conolly points out: ““I have been feeling somewhat improved these last several months, though I’m deuced if I know why.”
That is, ever since his mother was no longer living with him.”

panel 4

“She’d apparently reported seeing hideous creatures…although not to me.” refers to Susie Lovecraft’s mental breakdown, generally believed to have been caused by looming disaster caused by the family’s precarious financial state.
These buildings are similar to some on Angell Street near Brown University (compare to this and this), and the fence is similar to ones along Brown University, but the view does not seem to correspond to any present day location.

Page 22

panel 1

The location appears to be the corner of Angell Street and Butler Avenue; see contemporary street view.

panel 2

Lovecraft’s birth year “1889” is mentioned here and earlier on P6,p1 above. His father’s work with metal was mentioned P6,p2 and P22,p1. Moore has deliberately placed these references at either end of the issue to make it difficult for the reader (and Black) to make the connection that both Henry Annesley and H.P. Lovecraft are talking about the same person; that H.P. Lovecraft is the redeemer.
The “Seekonk” is the Seekonk River.
“Blackstone Park” is an actual Providence RI park along the Seekonk, just south of Butler Hospital.
“The Munroe brothers” are Chester and Harold, Lovecraft’s boyhood friends.
The view is similar to this one into off of Irving Avenue (which veers off Butler Avenue just before Grotto Street.)

panel 3

“Were you aware that it is from the Emperor Nero’s grotto, decorated with fauns and chimeras, that we derive the word ‘grotesque’?” – Nero’s grotto, the Domus Aurea, was uncovered by accident in the 15th century, and the grottesche frescos of chimeric creatures was influential in the Italian Renaissance. The remembrance may come from an account by Lovecraft’s wife that Susie Lovecraft found her son “hideous” and “grotesque.” (see: Howard Phillips Lovecraft, or The Sex Life of a Gentleman).
As H.P. Lovecraft mentions in this panel, the site is the corner of Grotto Avenue and Lincoln Avenue; see contemporary street view.

panel 4

“Mr. Slaader” is Joe Slater or Slaader from “Beyond the Wall of Sleep.”
“Oh, you should read Dagon. That’s certainly sending a shudder through amateurdom” refers to Lovecraft’s story “Dagon” which was published in the amateur journal The Vagrant in November 1919.
From internet research, there is no clear evidence of an entrance to Butler Hospital at the east end of Lincoln Avenue, though this connection seems to be indicated on the Providence end-pages map of Providence.

Page 23

Historic postcard of Butler Hospital. Image via Providence Public Library

panel 1

“Paralysis?” was a result of paresis (partial nerve-related paralysis), a symptom of neurosyphilis.
The building is the actual Butler Hospital, as it appeared at the time – see postcard image.

panel 2

“His toil for Gorham’s the silversmiths” refers to Lovecraft’s father a travelling salesman for the Gorham Silver Company (noted in annotations for P6,p2 above.) As noted (P17,p2 above), unknown to Lovecraft, the actual cause was syphilis.
Commenter That Fuzzy Bastard points out “I suspect that the nurse’s line, “Why Mr. Lovecraft, are we here to visit young Miss Susan again?” is meant to imply that Howard is fudging when he claims his visits are infrequent. Both the “again” and the immediate recognition implies that he’s well known to the staff.”

panels 2 and 4

These form a fixed-camera sequence.

Page 24

panel 1

First appearance of Susan Lovecraft.
P24,p1 through P25,p4 form a fixed-camera sequence.
Black is clearly paying attention to the Lovecrafts’ conversation. From panel 2 through P25, p1 his eyes and ear are prominent. His gaze is depicted as averted, but on the 2-dimensional picture plane it is directly toward the Lovecrafts.
- Commenter Pat Conolly suggests another view: “I suspect that Black isn’t actually hearing the words in the conversation, that we can barely make out. He could just be reacting to the body language.”

panel 2

“My young daughter!” is Lovecraft’s affectionate term for his mother.
“Do you think you can redeem yourself?” refers to Howard’s role as the Redeemer of the Stella Sapiente’s redeemer prophecy (explained in annotations for P5,p2 above.)

panel 3

“Are you another Englishman?” is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft’s father, Winfield Scott Lovecraft, who though born in the United States had an English accent like his father.
“You are hideous.” refers to how, apparently, Susie Lovecraft actually described her son as such.

panel 4

“Their monster” presumably refers to the Stella Sapiente’s monster.
“When he got you on me, his head was a ball of light!” is decidedly parallel to the conception of Wilfred Wheatley and his brother in Providence #4, suggesting Howard was conceived during a similar ritual. The he/you/me/his are confused, as is Susie calling Howard Winfield in the following panel. Could they be Winfield/HPL/Susie/Winfield? or perhaps Whipple Phillips/Winfield/Susie/Winfield?
- Commenter samthielman points out another resonance, with Providence #6 p.30: “Here were there men made in a foreign way, so they did not seem like men at all, but more like unto things that grow on stones beneath the ocean, although monstrous big and with a great air of intelligence and purpose, and their heads were stars.” Later, same page: “…men whose heads were stars…”
“I was given no choice…” puts the lie to Annesley’s claim (P6,p2) that it was “All perfectly consensual”.
Black’s eye widens and brow furrows, indicating surprise or recognition. The line of glasses becomes formally perfectly horizontal. He might have made the connection between the Lovecrafts and the Wheatleys, though he does not mention this moment in his Commonplace Book.

Page 25

panel 1

“Flappers and wrigglers […] I can smell their sweat on you.” has at least a double meaning. Flappers were a name for the ‘loose’ young women of the Gilded Age. To wriggle could refer to dancing and/or sexualized persons, or to insects. As Susie Lovecraft states these, given P26 below, they might mean the invisible creatures she sees. Most biographers assume her husband Winfield Lovecraft contracted syphilis from prostitutes; Moore had previously addressed this idea in the short “Recognition.”
“Go away Winfield” indicates that Susie Lovecraft is confusing H.P. Lovecraft with his father Winfield Lovecraft.

panels 2-3

“You’ve excited them! They’re all around you” and “They’re in your mouth! They’re swimming in your heart!” refers to the invisible creatures harmlessly moving through “normal” matter (shown P26 below). Commenter Sithoid points out that this also refers to Winfield’s lies and infidelities.

panel 4

“Is he the one stirring them up?” suggests that Black, as the Herald, is agitating the invisible creatures by his very presence. Alternately “them” could refer to Black stirring up the Stella Sapiente.
“I believe she once whitened her skin with arsenic when that was the fashion among her set” references, while there is no evidence of this, the common belief that Susie Lovecraft whitened her skin with an arsenic concoction when she was younger.
- This also ties in with the Redeemer prophecy from Hali’s Booke (Providence #6, P34): “His Mother shall be white as chalcedony”.
“The smaller house” is at 598 Angell Street, shown P18,p2 above.

Page 26

panel 1

“When my animal preoccupations were at their regrettable pinnacle.” references how H. P. Lovecraft reported that his strongest sexual desires occurred before he was 19 years old, and thereafter diminished.
The image is from Susie Lovecraft’s point of view. She can – without Annesley’s spectacles – perceive the invisible creatures. The creatures do indeed seem to be swarming around Black (and perhaps H.P. Lovecraft) perhaps suggesting his (or their) capacity as a kind of catalyst. The Tillinghast Resonator in “From Beyond” was said to stimulate “unrecognised sense-organs that exist in us as atrophied or rudimentary vestiges” – which either Susie Lovecraft either has developed more fully, or have been stimulated to such degree by her experiences; this suggests that Annesley’s research is further derivative of Hali’s Booke.
Where most of the invisible creatures shown have resembled microscopic creatures and sea creatures, a few on this page may be noteworthy:
– Just beyond Susan’s left hand, the creature is reminiscent of having a “squid-head with writhing feelers” as described in “The Call of Cthulhu.”
– Through Susan’s right hand, the creature has the 5-pointed radial symmetry of the starfish-head creatures in At the Mountains of Madness.
– To some extent the invisible creatures resemble disease microorganisms, like the syphilis that H.P. Lovecraft’s father (and possibly H.P. Lovecraft’s mother) suffered from.
Panelwise, the panel borders are ruler straight, indicating paranormal perception. See P2 above.

Page 27

Commonplace Book – October 31

“Vendome [Hotel]” in Boston – see Providence #8 P9,p3.
“Randall [Carter]” – see Providence 7-8.
“[Lord] Dunsany” – see Providence #8 P7,p2 and Page 18+.
“The Vagrant” was an actual amateur press publication where Lovecraft’s “Dagon” was first published in November 1919.
Black’s Halloween walk is somewhat reminiscent of Lovecraft’s poem Hallowe’en in a Suburb.
“Standard spooks” references the way Lovecraft’s artificial mythology is different from the familiar ghosts, werewolves, and vampires which populated pulp horror fiction at the time.

Page 28

Commonplace Book – October 31 continued

“Reassuring in their choice of horrors” is reminiscent of an observation made several times by different people, perhaps most affectionately by David Schow in “Monster Movies.” Famous monsters are like familiar old friends to horror aficionados, their habits and appetites well known, their appearances fixed in film or print. Lovecraft’s novel horrors, by contrast, emphasized the “fear of the unknown,” as detailed in his Supernatural Horror in Literature.
“Stoker’s Dracula” is the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
“Enough to drive an ordinary person into absolute and irrecoverable insanity” is a play at the common understanding of Lovecraft’s fiction, though most of his protagonists do not actually end up in the insane asylum at the end.

Page 29

Commonplace Book – October 31 continued

The discussion of immigrant mythologies forming an American mythos is reminiscent of themes explored in Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods.
“Einstein” is scientist Albert Einstein. Lovecraft was highly influenced by Einstein’s ideas of relativity, which undermined regular notions of time and space.
“[Marcel] Duchamp’s nude descending a staircase” is a famous painting that relates to Moore-Lovecraft notions of time – see annotations where it was mentioned in Providence #2 P27.
The Gods of Pegāna is Lord Dunsany’s seminal work, detailing his own artificial mythology, which inspired the formation of Lovecraft’s own.

Page 30

Commonplace Book – November 10

“A fantastically obscure old book, in French, concerning legends of the South Pacific Islands” is possibly Providence’s analogue to Cultes des Goules or the Livre d’Eibon, Mythos tomes created by his friends Frank Belknap Long and Clark Ashton Smith, respectively. The South Pacific is, of course, where Lovecraft placed R’lyeh, and where Captain Marsh learned to contact the Deep Ones in “The Shadow over Innsmouth.”
Commenter Chad Cloman points out that “Black assigns a gender to Lily, using the pronoun “she”. In earlier issues, he used variations of “they””.
“Some kind of grotesque aquatic deity or spirit” is possibly a reference to Father Dagon or Mother Hydra in Lovecraft’s mythology; the creature Rhan-Tegoth of “The Horror in the Museum” was also specified as sitting on a throne.
“The strange crown” refers to “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” The members of the Marsh family had gold jewelry and artifacts from their trade, including a tiara that the protagonist Robert Olmstead views:

The longer I looked, the more the thing fascinated me; and in this fascination there was a curiously disturbing element hardly to be classified or accounted for. At first I decided that it was the queer other-worldly quality of the art which made me uneasy. All other art objects I had ever seen either belonged to some known racial or national stream, or else were consciously modernistic defiances of every recognised stream. This tiara was neither. It clearly belonged to some settled technique of infinite maturity and perfection, yet that technique was utterly remote from any—Eastern or Western, ancient or modern—which I had ever heard of or seen exemplified. It was as if the workmanship were that of another planet.
- Commenter Pat Conolly reminds us that we may have seen such a “crown” back in Providence #3, P9,p4.
“Mr. Boggs” and “Mr. Hillman” are two of the Deep One hybrids in Providence #3.

Page 31

Commonplace Book – November 10 continued

“Fine stylistic points” is reminiscent of Lovecraft, well-known among his correspondents for detailed discussion of writing, providing much advice and encouragement to young writers, as Carver does here, and reviews of their work.
“Origins of so-called ‘magic’ may lie in the advent of language and writing” is a concept Moore has played with in other works, such as in this interview, and there is some historical basis for it, as explored by Owen Davies in Grimoires: A History of Magic Books. One of Lovecraft and his contemporary’s innovations in this regard was in an interlocking system of fictional grimoires, some with extensive publishing histories given. The idea of writing as an act of unconscious sorcery reflects later developments in chaos magick.
“the Bible, Torah and Koran” are the Christian Bible, the Jewish Torah (Old Testament), and Islamic Quran or Koran. These are the major holy texts of the “Peoples of the Book.” Many individuals have taken these as actual occult texts, reciting passages from them to achieve healing, exorcism, or other effect, and seeking hidden information in the texts, as well as “lost” or “hidden” books.
“Guillot” – Claude Guillot, author of Sous le Monde, see Providence #1.
“Chambers” – Robert W. Chambers, author of The King in Yellow, see Providence #1.
“Hali”- Khalid Ibn Yazid, author of Hali’s Booke, see Suydam pamphlet in Providence #2.
“Whether by employing magic or by other less contentious means, it seems that words and books, demonstrably, can change our world by changing our perception of it; can precipitate it to another state entirely” is a statement that can be read on several levels. As a fictional character subject to Moore’s script, it is a literal truth for Robert Black. For the reader of the comic, reading something can absolutely change their perception of things. Likewise, the whole of issue #9 (and arguably all of Providence) deals with the question of perception, with what Black both sees and does not see, and what the comic reader sees and does not see. This may also be a subtle reference at Grant Morrison, who famously wrote the series The Invisibles as a magickal symbol.

Page 32

Commonplace Book – November 10

November 13

“Taliesin” is a legendary Welsh bard.
“Twilight Odyssey” is Randall Carver’s short story, see Providence #8 P7 and P30.
“Officer O’Brien” – See Providence #7 P1,p1.
“Governor Coolidge” is Calvin Coolidge, later president of the United States.
“an implication that O’Brien had jumped ship” – As we know from Providence #7 (P26,p4), O’Brien has not jumped ship, but has been eaten by ghouls.

Page 33

Commonplace Book – November 13 continued

“familial responsibilities around your neck that were simply too much to handle anymore” – Moore writes of another character in such a predicament in Voice of the Fire, chapter eleven, “I Travel in Suspenders”.

November 14

“Transported by an H. G. Wells device into an earlier time” is a reference to “The Time Machine” by H. G. Wells. Moore repurposed Wells’ time-traveler in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story “Allan and the Sundered Veil.”
“Not quite a Connecticut Yankee in the court of King Arthur” refers to Mark Twain’s novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Twain’s novel involves the transmigration of souls through time, and can be seen as a forebear of “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” which also features time travel of a sort.
“A man by the name of Tillinghast” – See Providence #8, P1.

Page 34