Panel Vision - Mnemovore

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Let’s talk about Vertigo Comics.  Established in 1993, Vertigo was intended to be a mature readers imprint for DC Comics as a way to capitalize on the growing adult comic reading marketing.  It’s had ups and downs in its history but, by in large, it has been an enormous success spawning numerous best-sellers and massively popular works that have been adapted into several mediums such as Hellblazer, Fables, Preacher, Lucifer, V for Vendetta, and iZombie.  One of the imprint’s major focuses has turned out to be horror, mainly because that was the easiest genre to turn into R-rated comics back during the ‘90s. 

Since then they’ve consistently put out of some of the most frightening and well-considered horror comics in the medium.  One such miniseries has stuck with me since I read it and now that Channel Zero: No-End House has started hitting on a lot of similar plot points it’s the perfect time to dust off this old chestnut: let’s talk about Mnemovore. 

Published in the curious Vertigo wasteland that was 2005, Mnemovore comes to us from writers Hans Rodionoff and Ray Fawkes.  Both men have worked within the medium though Rodionoff also boasts a cavalcade of screenwriting credits, including the Manthing movie.  Most of his career has been made writing Lovecraftian horror and while I wouldn’t say that’s exactly the case with Mnemovore it’s certainly Lovecraft adjacent.  Fawkes is much more grounded in the world of comics, writing several series as part of DC Rebirth and for Marvel.  The third co-creator is artist and inker Mike Huddleston with Jeremy Cox and Jared Fletcher rounding out the creators on coloring and lettering duty respectively. 

The story revolves around Kaley Markowic, a pro-snowboarded from Colorado who suffers fairly traumatic brain damage after a bad wipeout.  She ends up with some pretty severe memory loss, retaining the essentials but having lost all memory of her previous loss.  As she continues to try and piece her old life back together she becomes convinced that something is stalking the corners of her world, a thing that devours memories until there’s nothing left of the minds it feeds on.  It turns out she’s right and slowly more and more people in her life start forgetting they ever knew her.  Naturally, it turns out Kaley was more right than she knew and something is devouring people’s minds in Boulder, the titular Mnemovore or “eater of memories.” 

That’s a really solid premise for a horror story and it easily cuts out the obvious questions about calling in the authorities or even other people for help.  It essentially weaponizes the disbelief that informs a lot of horror story supporting characters into the very monster itself.  The more the Mnemovore takes from Kaley, the more isolated she becomes and no one believes her because no one remembers she ever existed.  It also puts Kaley on the back foot as without her family and boyfriend to lean on she has no idea who else in her life to reach out to- because she can’t remember her life. 

There’s also a parallel plot about an advertising producer named Mike Neville who becomes sort of an acolyte to the Mnemovore.  If you’re hoping for an explanation of the creature his part of the comic is about as close as they get, suggesting that in an age glutted with data it’s logical for something that consumes information to emerge- a natural predator for the information age.  This is about the closest the comic ever really gets to the Lovecraftian on a conceptual level as the Mnemovore itself is more bestial than anything else. 

Overall the comic skirts most of the clear Lovecraft comparisons- there’s very little to do with man’s unimportance in the universe or vast, looming ancient gods entering our reality through odd angles.  Even tonally it’s more narrative driven than Lovecraft’s mood pieces.  It’s got a mood that’s halfway between an urban legend and a waking nightmare, with a distinctly foreign sense to its environmental vision of fear. 

It ditches the classical American settings of secluded wilderness for urban single-family homes and a vast, decaying care home for the finale.  Between the tech-phobia that informs the Mnemovore’s suggested origin and the setting, it feels like a very Canadian horror story in the vein of Videodrome or maybe even British ala The Citadel or The Magnus Archives. 

Where Mnemovore does embrace a more Lovecraftian aesthetic is in the monster design itself.  Mike Huddleston realizes the creature excellently as a blend of a cephalopod with a kind of fungal rot.  There’s an oozing, inkiness to the creature that’s pretty sickening and very off-putting, the way it exists as both this deadly tentacle beast but also a kind of living darkness.  Huddleston does a superb job on the inking and use of shadow overall, with a lot of scenes emphasizing the encroaching darkness as Kaley’s world gets smaller and smaller.  

Jeremy Cox matches this with a great, washed-out color palette that supports the very cold aesthetic of the book.  It’s a comic that doesn’t leave you room for comfort or a place to relax- everywhere feels unfamiliar and uninviting.  Even the familiar scenes of rows family homes separated by chain link fence feels eerie and empty, like a world that’s been hollowed out of all warmth and happiness. 

Jared Fletcher also gets to shine on the lettering as Mnemovore uses a lot of very unconventional tricks in this arena.  Because it’s a book all about memory loss one of their best tricks is using a fade to white on the text to create the sense of half-remembered conversations and words that are already being forgotten.  It also works to create a visual version of that silent, ringing in the ears that action films like to use these days.  

There’s a lot of clever speech bubble and text used in the comic on the whole actually, like how the Mnemovore eventually starts communicating using remembered phrases presented on unattached text balloons.  It does a good job keeping the creature as a creature as I think the balloon stems from its razor-sharp mouth might’ve undercut the menace a tad. 

I should say that there is one part of the story that, while not exactly offensive or anything is kind of off-putting and certainly uncomfortable.  Kaley ends up encountering someone from her previous life named Ethan who claims they used to date and the two eventually hook up.  As you might expect, it turns out Ethan and Kaley were never together and he was just a “nice guy” who’d always lusted after her from a zone of friendship.  Ethan gets his ass kicked for this betrayal and, to be sure, nobody survives this story unscathed, it’s just something to be aware of before going in as Kaley is forced to rely on him during the climax, though not too terribly much. 

I’m not sure Mnemovore will change anyone’s life but it’s definitely a great little horror comic to seek out if that’s your bag.  It’s unlike a lot of American horror stories, even the more psychedelic, and cerebral ones.  It’s got a way of really getting under your skin and sticking with you, to the point I hadn’t reread this book in 10 years but still remembered all the most unsettling moments.  It cuts right to the heart of how vulnerable the human mind really is and the most primal fear that informs so much of our existence- that one day everyone will forget us, even ourselves. 

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