"The Rats in the Walls"

Cross-Reference:
| "A Gothic Tale" |

16 pgs. Appeared first time in Skull Comix #5 (1972). Reprinted in Richard Corben Complete Works #3 (1987), in From the Pit #1 (1994) and in Heavy Metal #179 (1999).
Story: H.P. Lovecraft. Color: Beth Corben. Adapt./Art: Richard Corben (signed as Gore, 1972). Lettered (in original versions) by hand (unknown), (in color remakes) printed.

FRA: as "Les rats dans les murs" in Horrilor (1977) and L'Echo des savanes spécial U.S.A. [I] #19 (1981).
ITA : as "I ratti nel muro" in Image [I] #4 (1983).
GER : as "Die Ratten in den Wänden" in U-Comix Sonderband #3 (1974).
NL : as "The Rats in the Walls [NL]" in U-Comix Sonderband [NL] #3.
SPA : as "Las ratas de las paredes" in Creepy [SPA] #19 (1980) and Richard Corben obras completas #6 (1986).
SWE : as "Råttorna i väggen" in Pox Special #3 (3/85).

Style: Black line with zipatones. Also exists a full CG color version. Genre: Horror. Time Span: Gothic/Ancient time. Nudity: None.
Keywords: Castle. Ancestors. Cellar. Druid Temple. Inner cult. Rats. Family secret. (In)sanity.
Story Origin: H.P. Lovecraft short story, "The Rats in the Walls".
Synopsis: Descendant of feared Delapore family moves back to his ancestors castle only to wake up all old horrors (cf. "A Gothic Tale"). Through his dreams and investications down the cellars of castle he started to hear rats running down inside the walls, to knock the walls of sanity.
Comment: Though B&W versions includes a lot of brilliant frames and pages, I never really liked this story with overcharged explanations. B&W original and reprint are equal, but through coloring (in From the Pit) Beth Corben changes outlook of story quite much (coloring is made by computer with beautiful depths in it). There is several digital effects, mostly on last page: Delapore's face is morfoed by computer, also last two frames have computer genered psychedelic distortions. In From the Pit Corben changed a lot of dialogues; Delapore has thick southern accent, for instance.