Lovecraft Is Missing

Lovecraft Is Missing is a Web Comic by Larry Latham, with a simple premise: it is the autumn of 1926, and horror author H. P. Lovecraft is not where he's supposed to be. His friend-by-post and fellow writing enthusiast Orwin Battler has traveled from Oklahoma to see him; occult expert Father Jackey is after missing pages from a rare book most recently in Lovecraft's possession; University librarian Nan Mercy is after the book pages as well as personal revenge against Lovecraft's probable kidnappers.

True to the work of the inspiration himself, determination is their least useful and most counterproductive asset.

Alas, the strip suffered Author Existence Failure in November 2014. The site only exists now in the Wayback Machine.

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Tropes used in Lovecraft Is Missing include:

• Ascended Fanboy: Orwin Battler, pulp writer who finds himself in another pulp writer's universe.
• Badass Bookworm: Nan Mercy.
• Badass Normal: Nan, Orwin, and Father Jackey.
• Badass Preacher: Father Jackey, if there's no actual Church Militant involved. Orwin and Nan's inquiry revealed that the local Catholic diocese has never heard of him.
• Bedlam House: Morrowbie-Jukes Asylum and Sanatorium.
• Black Magic
• Body Horror: Eeep.
• Body Snatcher
• Cosmic Horror Story
• Crazy Prepared: Father Jackey again.
• Cthulhu Mythos
• Cult / Religion of Evil: Lots and lots of Cthulhu cults and other assorted Cosmic Horror worship.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Done for period detail and to evoke Lovecraft's Unfortunate Implications.
• Eldritch Abomination: Besides the assorted Cthulhu statues, which are figuring more prominently into the plot (surprise of surprises), Dr. Kartophilus is probably one.
• Evil Is Visceral
• Evil Matriarch: Nan's mother.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Lovecraft is missing.
• Fan Disservice: Naked women. Yeahhh. . .
• Genre Savvy: Orwin, occasionally. Feels like he's in one of his own stories and will critique villains' lines.
• Groin Attack: Nan is quite effective at this.
• Historical Domain Character: Lovecraft himself.
• Human Sacrifice
• Humanoid Abomination: Tom and Dr. Kartophilus' freaky butler, Heeg.
  • Also that . . . thing that tried to kill Nan and Orwin in "Tentacles."
    • That was also Heeg.
• New Age: On the surface, Aletheia appears to be a bunch of harmless flakes who believe in things like past lives as Atlantean princesses.
• Not Himself: A passing familiarity with Lovecraft's work will convey his phobia of marine life. So what's he doing recommending a seafood dish?
• Path of Inspiration: Aletheia.
• Scenery Gorn: Some beautifully illustrated slums.
• Shout-Out: Lots, especially to Lovecraft's own work.
  • Also Robert E. Howard and Charlotte Perkins Gilman/Gaston Le Roux.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: Nan and Father Jackey both specialize in these.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Tough Luck, Oklahoma is revealed to have its very Cthulhu cult that meets secretly in an old barn.
• Wham! Episode: "Tentacles", when things start to get messy.