The story is about a team of scientists/military folks investigating an underground system near some remote villages in Mexico where an irregular virus has broken out. In many ways, it's your standard Lovecraft, old gods tale. Unearth is filled with lots of body horror but the story is a little murky and didn't feel completely fresh. That being said, the artwork was great and the story had enough going for it to make me want to read the next volume. What can I say - I'm a sucker for a body horror/old gods story.

Reread: November 2021 - I'm still a sucker for a body horror/old gods story. Re-read to read vol. 2. ( )

Someone else stated that this is your "standard Lovecraftian horror." I'm going to completely disagree with that statement, right up front.

It's definitely horror. And SF. But is it Lovecraftian? Yes. My issue is with the "standard Lovecraftian" tag. It's not your standard take on his particular brand of cosmic horror.

This is dragged straight from a modern point of view, with both the military and scientific research sides getting involved. It's a thoroughly modern take on the mythos, which I truly appreciated. And the monsters were fun, albeit mostly held out at arms' length, so we never really got to understand them much, or see them in action.

But, to be honest, where this collection lost the two stars from me was with the art. All the military grunts looked the same, talked the same, and I truly couldn't tell them apart. And it was a similar, if only slightly better situation with the scientific crew. So, that was one easy star off.

The other star removal came because there were times were I truly didn't know what was happening, nor to whom. The action sequences were somewhat muddled, and, with very little differentiation between the characters in their identical environmental suits, it often dissolved into a bit of a runny mess. So, an A for the Lovecraftian horrors and human perversions, but a D- for the action shots.

Hopefully, with the next collection, the main characters will be out of their suits, and things will make more sense. ( )

Nope no no no no. Could not finish. Too gory and illustrations not that great. I literally ate lunch and just felt like I was going to lose it.