Children’s book: Kenneth Hite & Christina Rodriguez: Antarctic Express (Atlas Games, 2009)
Ken Hite’s Antarctic Express sounds like a joke: it’s a children’s picture book version of H.P. Lovecraft’s Antarctic tale At the Mountains of Madness. Surprisingly, it’s pretty good, probably because it feels like it’s been done in all seriousness. I haven’t seen many tales of lingering horror meant for kids, but this book stayes true to Lovecraft’s style while being accessible at the same time.
I didn’t like Christina Rodriguez’s subdued art style when I flipped through the book, but became a convert when I read it properly. It has a wonderful sense of mood and dreamlike nighttime adventure.
The thing I really like in Lovecraft’s version of Antarctica is that the uncaring emptiness of his horror universe ties neatly into the uncaring emptiness of Antarctica’s glaciers. Antarctic Express captures this feeling of vast, cold nothingness surprisingly well in a few atmospheric images.