HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT had a wonderful gift for accessing that dark recess of the reader’s mind where atavistic foreboding lurks, nourishing it with scenarios of dread at the malignant and petrifying unknown, both in the physical world around us and our innermost presentiments.

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Of the quartet of stories in the graphic volume Lovecraft, adapted and illustrated by INJ Culbard, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward are regarded as among his best.

Their exploration of the altered awareness we experience in dreams is all-engrossing, resonating with that sense of perplexity when we wake and wonder about what we have just dreamt.

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The Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time, set in Antarctica and western Australia respectively, are ingeniously constructed. With feasible “evidence,” they encapsulate the anticipation of a revelation inherent in all exploration.

Yet Lovecraft subverts rationality with the intuitive and reason with doubt as he places readers at the edge of a precipice and then pushes them over when least expected. The thrill of the fall, and the anticipation of the inexplicable, mesmerises — particularly if horror fiction is your cup of tea.

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The combination of Lovecraft and Culbard is a match made in horror heaven — or hell. Culbard, who also adapted the stories, magnificently visualises these unsettling gothic nightmares and his graphic narrative’s filmic qualities grip.

Slow and calm in the carefully framed dialogues, they overflow with verve and dynamism in the action sequences.

Culbard also possesses one of the most dexterous “lines” in the business and his masterly application of colour and light breathtakingly convey each of the unfolding enigmas.

A handsome volume and a genuine page-turner.

Lovecraft is published by SelfMade Hero, price £24.99.