Gorgeous, and what's more, it succeeds in what it set out to do. By that, I mean, paying homage to H.P. Lovecraft's "aesthetic" (of which I am a long-time fan, and I get very picky and irritated by a lot of stuff that is described as Lovecraftian when all they really mean is that it has a lot of tentacles...nope, you totally missed the memo). This actually delivers the goods. Another reviewer mentioned the Sandman comics and I found that to be a very interesting and apt comparison in many ways. That sense of being pulled into a dream-like alternate reality where things may not make sense but the story is moving forward and you have to just keep moving with it...good stuff, good stuff. I'll be the first to say it's probably not for everyone, but personally I loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC.

"Mr. Providence" is a mesmerizing and otherworldly tale that blurs the lines between reality and the supernatural. The story revolves around the enigmatic caretaker, Mr. Providence, who tends to a seemingly ordinary city park during the day. However, as night falls, the park transforms into a realm inhabited by mysterious entities. Providence is dedicated to protecting the park's visitors, even as his corporate-minded manager questions his actions.

Readers of The Monstrous Dreams of Mr. Providence are drawn into a fanciful, surreal world where eldritch terrors clash with aristocratic notions of entertainment and humour directed at gullible individuals who are unable to see the world as it really is. Beginning in black and white, the exquisitely detailed artwork shows Mr. Providence attempting to keep park visitors safe from lurking horror while dodging the obnoxious new boss who gallops around on horseback yelling commands about modernising the park in business speak. Teal and pink swirl across the panels as enormous koi, fog that transforms into an octopus, and a swarm of fuzzy, one-eyed animals with sharp fangs as he takes a blank-page book from the pond.

In this story, we meet Mr. Providence, who is the caretaker of a seemingly normal park. Well, it might look so to a normal person, but Mr. Providence is certainly not normal. He can see into this dream world full of weird monsters and as such, he is trying to protect the visitors from them.

I am not certain what to say to the story. It was certainly interesting, but I am not sure I understood everything. It is tied to H. P. Lovecraft. His short story is actually incorporated into this one. So maybe if I knew more about his Dream Cycle stories, I would appreciate this more, too. Still, it was a pleasant short story.

What I could appreciate was the art. We have this black and white art for the real world that is not that appealing but fitting and then we have this beautiful colorful art for the dream world. Just that art alone made it worthwhile to read.

I received an ARC for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

In the description of this book, there was no mention that this was mostly a fan-written prequel to an H.P. Lovecraft story. The book itself was short but then we account for the fact that about 10 pages were used to insert the actual Lovecraft story.

I personally was not a fan of the art style. Most of the art was in a black-and-white sketch style with vivid colours used for the creatures that only the caretaker could see. I didn't like how the humans in the story looked but the magical creatures were nice enough to look at. However, that didn't make up for the fact that I did not enjoy the story.

There was a lot going on with the characters but it gave me no enjoyment as I didn't actually know or care about the characters.

I will update the review with the link to on our blog as soon as we are able.

I'd like to thank the publisher Europe Comics and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gorgeous, but gorgeous tripe. Yacky, wordy, yawnsome nonsense as a bloke who is a park caretaker keeps getting 'ins' to a different world, of Eldritch this and unknown that, and splodge monsters. It seems set in some time past, until mentions of social media and contemporary art installations pull you back to the modern day.

Now, better reviewers than me have hated on the fact this seems to have some of Lovecraft's anti-Semitism (which I didn't even know existed, knowing little about the man or his works beyond the obvious). All I can say is I ditched this long before that became an issue. Apparently the bloke meets some bad people sent to judge him – as I say that was after my time with this was ended, as it really was nowhere near interesting enough.

So hate on this for the anti-Semitism, hate on it for being verbose and plain boring. Perhaps the biggest sin is that all the great effort in the wonderful art is just wasted as a result. One and a half stars.

2.5 stars based on the art.

The Monstrous Dreams of Mr. Providence immerses readers in a surreal, fantastical story where eldritch terrors collide with elitist ideals of recreation and humor aimed at oblivious people who fail to perceive the world as it is. The beautifully detailed artwork starts in black and white as Mr. Providence attempts to protect park visitors from lurking horror while avoiding the officious new manager who dashes around on horseback, barking orders about modernizing the park in corporate jargon. After he retrieves a blank-paged book in the pond, teal and pink swirl through the panels in the form of gigantic koi, smoke that turns into an octopus, and a horde of furry, one-eyed creatures with sharp teeth. At the heart of the mystery lies The Strange High House in the Mist of Lovecraft’s short story.

I didn’t expect to understand every plot point and reference, but I was disappointed to see reviews explaining antisemitic elements. How does someone—backed by a publisher—spend 3 years writing and illustrating a story inspired by Lovecraft without removing hateful concepts from a writer infamous for racism and antisemitism? An egregious error in 2022.

Thank you to Europe Comics and Netgalley for providing a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Love the artwork in this book and I would love to pick up a physical copy of it. It was such a privilage to be able to read this book.

I was really excited to read this one, but my e-arc expired before I was able to really get into it.

The Monstrous Dreams of Mr. Providence
by Script by Daria Schmitt & art by Daria Schmitt

This is a graphic novel inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's Strange High House in the Mist. The black and white art emphasized with very sparse coloring was intriguing but the plot was just confusing when it did not need to be. The mystery and twists were overshrouded by the author's need to be so vague in the beginning. I liked the cat. That's about it.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

A trippy adventure into the madness of human mind, I suppose? I honestly don't really know what the story is about. I really loved the art in this book - dark, and so weird, and so detailed, with splashes of dreamy colors on some pages. I even loved the story itself for the first half of the book - I was thinking this will actually be a 5 star read for me, I liked the eerie atmosphere and all the weirdness of everything that much! But then... I just completely lost the sense of what was going on and what direction the story wanted to take us and what it wanted to tell, it was so convoluted. Needless to say, that made me lose all of the interest in the story I previously had.

I know it's heavily inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Strange High House in the Mist", maybe it's even a retelling or spin-off or something, can't say for sure because I am not familiar with Lovecraft and his works all that much. It bothers me that that wasn't properly explained at the beginning in foreword or something, because near the end of the book there's just an entire Lovecraft's story included! That felt really jarring. Maybe I'd appreciate this graphic novel more if I were a big fan of Lovecraft beforehand and knew more about him and his stories, but again, can't say for sure.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book for the story, but if you want to look at some really good illustrations then go for it.

I unfortunately couldn’t read it before the archive date, which is too bad, but life got in the way. I’m pretty bummed as this sounded amazing.

The art work is imaginative and gorgeous - it conjures up an entire universe. Unfortunately the plot is too convoluted and meandering to make for a captivating read.

Every once in a while I come across a book that completely subverts expectation in just about every way possible, and that's exactly what happened today when reading The Monstrous Dreams of Mr. Providence by Daria Schmitt, a new graphic novel published by Europe Comics. At first I thought this was just a gothic fantasy story, somewhat akin to Sandman or Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but I had a HUGE realization later on that this was in fact a back-door biographical story based on a VERY prominent author. My interest in the book grew exponentially as I started to try to make sense of the symbolism and mystery involved in the story.

The artwork in this graphic novel is absolutely stunning. Some pages are in color, while the majority is in black and white, and rendered in a complex pen and ink art style. The art is highly detailed and hardly any space on any given page is left untouched. These are broad comparisons, but I was somewhat reminded of the manga artist Junji Ito, who wields a similar style in terms of backgrounds and splash pages mixed with the sensibilities of Neil Gaiman's writing and character designs, notably with something like The Sandman. Add a huge bucket of H.P Lovecraft (which I will soon elaborate on), and that's generally the tone of this book. I have no real idea as to whom Daria Schmitt is actually inspired by, but those names kept coming to me.

Speaking of H.P. Lovecraft, people familiar with his works will get a far better appreciation for this story than others, and honestly without knowing a bit about him, the finer points of this may fly right over their heads. One of the main storyline points in this book revolves around Mr. Providence trying to protect a mysterious book with blank pages hiding a great evil from the "Mental Health Services". Considering that Providence looks exactly like H.P. Lovecraft, and Providence, Rhode Island is where Lovecraft lived, one can easily see that this was not a story about a fantasy character named Mr. Providence, but H.P. Lovecraft himself. At one point we even see the mysterious book he has been guarding is an actual Lovecraft story called The Strange High House in The Mist, printed in full within the pages of this graphic novel. One can surmise that the actual plot if this book was something akin to a magical world Lovecraft escapes to in his own mind.

In regards to his battles with psychologists, I'm sure the book was making a point with this in regards to mental health treatment being adverse to creativity or something, but this portion was kind of weird. I know Lovecraft largely died because he HATED doctors and basically withered away from cancer, so perhaps this is what they were going for? It would take a far more knowledgeable person to see any symbolism I may have missed.

One's enjoyment of this book is directly proportional to how much somebody likes or knows about H.P. Lovecraft. While I personally am not the biggest fan of Lovecraftian literature, I know about him and appreciate what the author was doing here as these sorts of meta storylines based on a famous person's life can be somewhat weird at times. The artwork in this is absolutely amazing, and easily stands out as some of the best comic artwork I've seen all year so far. If you enjoy off-the-wall fantasy stories or are a huge Lovecraft fan I'd recommend this in a heartbeat as you really can't go wrong with some a well-done book that takes chances like this.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful, eye-catching artwork that dramatically increases the already interesting storyline. This was fun to read and I can't wait to recommend it to others.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Europe Comics and the author, for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Mr. Providence is the caretaker of a park that house monstrous creatures at night. When the new manager of the park does not believe in any of the monsters and want to make the park more 'people friendly'inspite of all of his warnings, Mr. Providence sets out to make sure all the mostrocities within the park stays exactly where they are.

The art style of this book was hauntingly beautiful. The way the almost all of the comic was in black and white and then slowly turquoise seeps into the art was just brilliant and beautiful. It took me some time to actually get the hang of the story and its definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

Mr. Providence is the caretaker of a city park. The park is home to mysterious entities that awaken when night falls. Mr. Providence has vowed that he will protect all visitors. The new manager has a different outlook on how the park’s staff should operate than the way they do. Mr. Providence finds a blank book which seems to be quite difficult to keep. Why? In the middle of this graphic book, a story appears which is “The Strange High House in the Mist” by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The story s print with a few colored illustrations. It then returns to the graphic novel style.

The illustrations in this book are fantastic and colorful and the “cells” that started out in color turn black and white. The graphic story made me think of Lovecraft so I was pleasantly surprised to find a “short story” by Lovecraft included in this book. I enjoyed the novel as I am a Lovecraft fan. I was new to the short story as I had not come across it before. The graphic novel is also tied into Lovecraft’s story. I believe that if you know Lovecraft’ fiction that you will enjoy it as I did, you will enjoy this new “style” of story telling.

I enjoyed this story and the beautiful artwork enhanced my enjoyment of the narrative. The characters were interesting and I found the ambiguity intriguing.

While the incorporation of color with the black and white art was visually stunning, overall I found this storyline was very confusing and hard to engage with. Maybe if I had an appreciation of H.P. Lovecraft, I might like it more? It also felt weird that the “bad” guys were from mental health services… unsure what the commentary here was.

I regretted asking to review this book, but thanks to Netgalley and Europe Comics for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.