TALKING TO MICHAEL ALAN NELSON: THE FALL OF CTHULU

**MattBrady** · 12-12-2006, 12:28 PM

by Shaun Manning

Having already bloodied his hands writing for the Cthulhu Tales anthologies, Michael Alan Nelson will soon be subsumed in Lovecraftian horror full-time. Fall of Cthulhu, an ongoing series penned by Nelson and illustrated by Jean-Jacques Dzialowski, premieres in January with a #0 prelude issue and kicks off properly from there in February’s #1. We had a chance to chat with the writer about the new series, quirky grad students, and small-town horror.

Newsarama: How did you land the gig writing Fall of Cthulhu?

Michael Alan Nelson: Ross approached me with the idea of doing and ongoing series in the Cthulhu mythos and asked if it was something I'd be interested in doing. I don't think I even let him finish the sentence before saying "yes."

NRAMA: What sort of world do we find ourselves in at the start of the series?

MAN: Well, the series begins with issue #1 but there is a #0 issue that comes out before. We get a little bit of a history lesson in the #0 issue since it starts off in Damascus during the last days Abdul Alhazred, author of the Al Azif (Necronomicon) and ends in the present day somewhere in the middle of a peat bog in Europe. The #0 issue helps set the stage for the first arc in the series. That begins in Arkham, present day. Arkham has become a sleepy little college town, home of Miskatonic University. The town's history of weirdness and paranormal activity has been dormant for nearly forty years and tales of past atrocities have evolved into urban legend, nothing more. By page three, that starts to change.

NRAMA: Did you have any real-life towns or colleges in mind for your vision of Arkham and MU? Looking around at some of Miskatonic's "online presence" it reminds me a bit of where I went to school...

MAN: Nothing specific. I went to a pretty small state college but it wasn't as small as what I envision MU to be. But every university has their share of ghost stories: haunted halls, murderous fraternities, local cemeteries known for hosting ritual sacrifices. Miskatonic University just has a much more colorful history than most.

NRAMA: Can you give any hints about early developments in the series, maybe the debut of Cthulhu himself?

MAN: The first arc (#1 through #5) is about discovery, learning what's going on and why. Our protagonist, Cy Morgan, has quite a few questions following the opening event in issue #1, but the answers he finds are confusing, even contradictory to what he's learned up to that point. And the more he learns, the more bizarre and dangerous his world becomes. As for Cthulhu himself making an appearance, that you'll have to wait and see. But I can say that FoC most definitely has some non-human characters.

NRAMA: What kind of person is Cy? A cynic, a student, a professor, an athlete? Something other?

MAN: Cy is your typical grad student. He's passionate about his studies but still loves to play basketball on weekends, maybe even a little Xbox now and then. That is, when he isn't helping his fiancée with her doctoral thesis. To Cy, the world is very simple and he knows his place in it. Go to school, meet a girl, get a degree, get married. His existence is pretty mundane, but he kind of likes it that way. Though he has only been in Arkham for a few years, he likes its small-town feel and its "quirkiness."

NRAMA: Yeah, quirky’s great until people start disappearing. So what kind of tales do you find terrifying?

MAN: The ones that catch me off guard and feeling vulnerable. To me the most horrifying stories aren't the ones that are filled with gore and violence, but the ones that make you feel helpless. There's nothing more frightening than realizing that bad things are going to happen and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop them.

NRAMA: I agree completely. Finally, then, what are some of your top picks in horror stories, in any medium?

MAN: Off the top of my head I would say Exorcist 3, Audition and The Blair Witch. I know a lot of people who thought The Blair Witch wasn't scary at all, but it really did a number on me. I grew up near woods like that and there was always the fear of getting lost. Not to mention that I've been to an abandoned house out in the middle of nowhere. It's creepy as hell. So that movie really tapped into something.

skeletorjr · 12-12-2006, 12:53 PM

From that interview and those images, this comic looks more 'Lovecraftian' than anything I've seen outside of Lovecraft himself. This looks fantastic. And finally I find someone who was as scared as I was by Exorcist 3!!!! When that white thing with the clippers comes after the nurse in the hallway--HOLY. CRAP.

Ravengregory · 12-12-2006, 01:01 PM

looking forward to it

KyleCowstar · 12-12-2006, 01:35 PM

I'll pick this up. I'm writing a paper on Shadow Over Innsmouth right now.

Squashua · 12-12-2006, 02:12 PM

I'll be getting this.

Delta Ass · 12-12-2006, 05:19 PM

Oh cmon. It's obviously supposed to be spelled Cthulhu.

Blackbeard · 12-12-2006, 08:24 PM

I'm a huge Lovecraft fan, so this one's a no-brainer.

I'm definitely in.

TheToileteer · 12-12-2006, 10:34 PM

And since Arabic is a bit more familiar now than in Lovecraft's day, can't we call the mad Arab by a more grammatically plausible name?

"Abdul" is really "'Abd al-_____" ("Slave of _____") and is customarily followed by the name of God (Allah, hence "Abdullah") or one of his attributes (e.g. Rahim, "mercy," hence "Abdul-Rahim.") 'Abd al al-Hazrat" has two "the"s instead of one, so we should drop one, giving us "'Abd al-Hazrat."

Incidentally Hazrat means "Presence" and is used as a title for imams, e.g. Hazrat 'Ali (implying that the mad Arab is a Shiite?). But it could also refer to God, I think.