If providence allows”– Possibly a pun on Moore’s part, referring in-character to divine providence, and out-of-character to the Providence series. Notably, H. P. Lovecraft himself never completed and published a novel during his lifetime (the closest being The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath), though he planned one or two. fancy metaphor for what I really want to talk about”– Moore here is, perhaps, describing his own creative process. He wants to write about religious and sexual prejudice, but can more easily accomplish that under the guise of a Lovecraft homage. The automat is a now mostly defunct style of fast-food eatery. Meal items were located in slots in the wall, dishes and all, and were paid for using a coin slot. Finally, if you can handle this novel I recommend reading Neonomicon before chapter 12. It bridges the gap between that and chapter 11. Neonomicon dials up the "yikes" factor to 11 in what happens to 1 character (be warned!), and is much weaker of a story overall but it is improved a lot by being fit into the broader story arc of Providence (as prequel-sequel). he sees things very clearly.”– The writing here somewhat merges the “c” and “l”, so that “clearly” can also be read as “dearly”. And Alvarez does see things that way as well. (This was probably accidental, but, as Moore’s influence Brian Eno famously said: “Honour thy accident as your hidden intention.”)

Hearst” is William Randolph Hearst, an American newspaper magnate renowned for his “yellow journalism,” marked by lurid ledes and exaggeration to grab the readers’ attention and sell papers instead of researched or unbiased reporting. First full look at the outside of the Herald building, statue of Minerva and owls with electric eyes and all (mentioned on P17,p1 above.) The building (demolished in 1921) was located at 6th Avenue and Broadway, which today still called Herald Square. The Courtyard also has a guide but it’s in book form. I haven’t bought it or read it but that’s hereThe Bowery is an historic neighborhood in south Manhattan, somewhat associated with urban decline. Alvarez’s W 14th Street residence is not actually in the Bowery, so Posey may be generalizing – stereotyping immigrants as living in undesirable neighborhoods. Covers are drawn significantly before interiors. It’s possible that research by Burrows or others showed that the building in question had not had a fire escape at the time in question. Wikipedia claims that fire escapes were increasingly common “around the turn of the 20th century”. The building on the right, later called an “exit garden” (see P25,p1) is a chamber for committing suicide. The exit garden references the Lethal Chamber in Robert W. Chambers’ story “ The Repairer of Reputations” which is described as follows: At its most basic, the “vision quest” story in Promethea implicitly asserts two metaphysical truths: that the universe is, at its core, a beautiful and good place, and that exploring this universe can lead to ultimate knowledge and peace. After these revelations, Promethea has one more arc to go—a more traditional narrative about a battle between two Prometheas and the end of the world—but these issues are a little dull: it’s hard to build suspense when we already know, on the macro-Heavenly level, that we are all redeemed. Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing, among other amazing projects, gives us Providence, a fresh look at Lovecraft's mythology. Providence, originally released as a 12 issue standalone comic book series by Avatar Press, is finally collected here in a beautiful edition that also includes the artwork for all 12 covers.

Providence is one of Alan Moore’s most ambitious final projects… a full-on deconstruction and metacommentary on the entirety of Lovecraft’s body of work and the subtexts of racism, gynophobia and paranoia. It’s like a kind of Unified Theory of Lovecraft Stories. And the incomparable Jacen Burrows’ precise line art charts all the creepy horror and crawling chaos with unflinching exactness. -Adi Tantimedh Dropping hairpins” is gay slang for dropping hints that one is gay, perhaps as a precursor to flirting. La serie es valiente y cruda y no ahorra en momentos decididamente turbios o directamente explícitos. Algo que en su día le costó no pocas críticas a la editorial. El terror se basa más en lo físico que en lo sobrenatural, algo que sí que estaba presente en “ El Patio” y será el eje central de “ Providence”. No obstante, escenas como la de Carcosa en el mural pintado o la primera aparición de “ la criatura” son pura poesía del horror. Este “ neonomicon” queda entre dos tierras y funciona mejor como pieza suelta que como parte de un todo. Ya que es imposible mirar a la cara a “ Providence” y aguantar el tipo incluso para el propio Moore. La miniserie no baja del notable, esto quede claro, pero la traca final llegaría cuatro años después.The street sign says W. 19th Street. The view is looking south on 5th Avenue at 19th Street, similar to this contemporary Google street view. Visits to the library… the park there, by that little stream… fed from the old reservoir before the library was there” refer to Bryant Park, shown on P1 and annotated there. Moore thereby opens and closes Providence #1 with Bryant Park. There are symbols or letters worked into the design along the bottom of the bookplate that are ambiguous: A? N? +? R? M? F? The world’s most accomplished and bad-tempered artist-writer team will use their most stylistically adventurous outing yet to display the glories of the medium they are leaving; to demonstrate the excitement that attracted them to the field in the first place; and to analyse, critically and entertainingly, the reasons for their departure. The record is Pullman Porter’s Parade, sung by Al Jolson. (Thanks to commenter ccsbn for pointing this out.)