Comic Book / Lori Lovecraft

Lori Lovecraft is a creator-owned comic book created by Mike Vosburg.

At age 19, Lori Lovecraft was a fresh-faced wannabe with dreams of Tinseltown stardom. So what if she couldn't act... Her heart-stopping looks were all she ever needed to get by.

Cut to ten years later—with the rainy day money long gone and nothing by a string of forgettable B Movies on her resume, Lori's Hollywood is fast becoming a nightmare.

Then she discovers a longlost tome of mystical spells called the Necronomicon and her life changes forever. Though the book's magic doesn't make her a better actress, it does open up Lori to a greater power that lies within herself.

It's a power Lori must learn to wield if she's going to survive the demonic legions of hell and the inscrutable forces of Hollywood that she must confront on the lonely road to self-fulfillment.

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Tropes in Lori Lovecraft:

• Accidental Suicide: In the "Voodoo Mansion" back-up story in Into the Past #1 (which takes place in the same continuity as Lori's adventures), it is revealed that one of the souls residing in the mansion is Patrick, who accidentally strangled himself while attempting autoerotic asphyxiation. To avoid shame, his family removed the pornography before reporting his death. His death was ruled a suicide and his body turned into an anatomy skeleton.
• Alliterative Name: Lori Lovecraft
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Exists in spades between Lori and her New Old Flame R.C. in The Big Comeback. It seems that R.C. was Lori's first serious relationship, and she and he have very different views of how that relationship ended. When the dam finally breaks, it results in them Making Love in All the Wrong Places.
• Belly Mouth: Trifons, a demon from the fifth realm of Shomahea in The Big Comeback, has no features on his head, but eyes and a mouth on his torso.
• The Blank: The demon Trifoms in The Big Comeback has no features on his head (just some vague protuberances), but eyes and a Belly Mouth on his torso.
• Bound and Gagged: In Repression, Thalia knocks out Rene Claude and steals his costume; leaving him bound and gagged while she sneaks on to set to murder Lori.
• Boy Meets Ghoul: The Inn Between the Worlds known as Voodoo Mansion is run (if a word like 'run' can be applied to a location like Voodoo Mansion) by lovers Zelda and Horatio, who act as hosts and caretakers. Zelda is a human parapsychologist, and her boyfriend/test subject Horatio is a particularly self-aware and independently minded zombie.
• Burn the Witch!: In The Big Comeback, an actress playing a witch in a film is tied to a pyre for a scene when a demon causes the pyre to ignite for real; burning her to death.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of Back to the Garden, Allen tells the reader to "amscray" and turns the page so he and Lori can have some privacy.
• Character Name Alias: In The Big Comeback, studio executive Benteen is embezzling cash by putting a fake employee named 'Herbert West' on the books and the then writing cheques to them.
• Cool Old Lady: While fading actress Danke Schoen is generally regarded as a White-Dwarf Starlet, she maintains enough of her Hard-Drinking Party Girl past that Lori definitely regards her as someone cool to hang with, with Danke's antics even managing to embarrass Ethical Slut Lori.
• Covered in Gunge: In Repression, Lori has to do 120 takes of a scene in which she is doused in syrup at the orders of a director who is a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Alfred Hitchcock.
• Cowardly Lion: Comedian Allen Roberts, who is one of Lori's lovers, is a self-described coward, but throws himself into harm's way every time Lori is in danger; including facing down sorcerers and demons.
• Creepy Crossdresser: In Into the Past, Moral Guardian and mayor of Los Angeles C. Aubrey White turns out to have had a previous career as a transvestite prostitute called 'Lola'. He readopts the Lola guise to murder those who know the truth and can expose the truth.
• Creepy Housekeeper: In The Dark Lady, Lori finds herself trapped in a dreamscape based on the films of a recently deceased actor. She is stalked by Ms. Cheswick, the creepy housekeeper from the film Natasha (a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Mrs Danvers from Rebecca).
• Deal with the Devil: In My Favorite Redhead, Natasha Reich and Dick Van Von make a deal with a demon: Natasha wanting fame and power, and Dick riches. Things go badly for them when they fail to deliver the second Human Sacrifice.
• Demonic Possession: In The Dark Lady, Sir Andrew Parke-Jones was possessed by a demon he unintentionally summoned. However, the shock and strain of being possessed caused him to suffer a fatal heart attack at the moment of possession. The demon remains in control of Sir Andrew's body, but is unable to leave Voodoo mansion until he succeeds in possessing a new, living host.
• Dirty Old Woman: White-Dwarf Starlet cum Cool Old Lady Danke Scoen. She makes no secret of her fondness for handsome young studs, and one of her first remarks to Lori is to ask her what her boyfriend Allen is like in bed.
• Disposable Sex Worker: In My Favorite Redhead, Dick Van Von and Natasha Reich pick up a prostitute whom they use a Human Sacrifice to summon the demon Bifrons.
• Dreadful Musician: Dickie Duncan in The Road to Kadath is a past-his-prime crooner whose singing is so bad it cause gulls to flee to someplace quieter (like Brooklyn), rats to cringe and cover their ears, and moths to suicide by plunging into candle flames. Eventually a horde of demons drag him off when he tries singing to them.
• Erotic Asphyxiation: In the "Voodoo Mansion" back-up story in Into the Past #1 (which takes place in the same continuity as Lori's adventures), it is revealed that one of the souls residing in the mansion is Patrick, who accidentally strangled himself while attempting autoerotic asphyxiation. His death was ruled a suicide and his body turned into an anatomy skeleton.
• Ethical Slut: Lori has a very active sex life, with an unending string of boyfriends, and is willing to fall into bed at the drop of a hat (or other item of clothing). However, she open about her free love philosophy with her partners, and her boyfriends are generally okay with her not being exclusive. Also she has never taken advantage of the Casting Couch to advance her acting career: preferring to win roles on her merits (such as they are) and saving sex for those she cares about.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: The demon Trifors in The Big Comeback has no facial features on his head, but eyes and a Belly Mouth on his torso.
• Friendly Zombie: Horatio, one of the hosts/caretakers at Voodoo Mansion, is a decent blue-collar guy who just happens to be dead (but still mobile). He has a healthy and loving (if a wee bit odd) relationship with his human girlfriend Zelda, and his worse habit (apart from the occasional body part falling off if he isn't paying attention) is that he is obsessed with pro sports.
• Full-Frontal Assault: In Repression, Lori is filming a nude scene inside Big Ben (It Makes Sense in Context) when Thalia attacks her and attempts to murder her. Lori is forced to defend herself while wearing not a stitch.
• Forced Transformation: In The Dark Lady, the future version of Lori transforms a demon from a Rat Folk into an actual, normal sized rat.
• Funbag Airbag: In The Big Comeback, R.C. tackles Lori out of the way of a falling studio light and winds up lying on top of her with his face buried between her breasts.
• Future Me Scares Me: In The Dark Lady, Lori finds herself unnerved by presence of her future self and flees even before she discovers her pursuer's true identity. Lori is later freaked out when she sees how old her future self is.
• Grand Theft Me: In The Dark Lady, a demon steals Sir Andrew's physical form. However, because Sir Andrew died at the moment of possession, the demon is in control of his body but trapped inside Voodoo Mansion. It lures Lori into the mansion in an attempt to steal her body.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: Horatio the zombie is absolutely obsessed with basketball. His girlfriend Zelda knows nothing about sport, but tries to feign interest to make him happy. Horatio generally finds this more annoying than if she ignored it all together:
  Horatio: Another missed free throw!
  Zelda: Is your team out of the World Series?
  Horatio: Playoffs! NBA playoffs.
• Ground by Gears: In Repression, Thalia Dubois attempts to kill Lori inside Big Ben during a film shoot. In the struggle, she falls into Big Ben's gears and is crushed to death.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Danke Schoen was this back in the 60s, with her parties being legendary even by Hollywood. As a Cool Old Lady, she seems to have curtailed her drinking somewhat, but still likes to party hard, often veering into Dirty Old Woman territory.
• Horrible Hollywood/Mystical Hollywood: A major plot point is that Lori's career goes into freefall when she hits 30. The series contains all of standard horrible Hollywood stereotypes: sleazy producers, egomaniac directors, narcissistic actors, embittered writers, etc. Oh, and a demonic conspiracy running things behind the scenes.
• Human Sacrifice: In My Favorite Redhead, Dick Van Von and Natasha Reich sacrifice a Disposable Sex Worker to summon the demon Bifrons. Later they attempt to sacrifice Lori to summon another demon.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: In keeping with the Hollywood theme of the series, the names of all of the stories are plays on film titles from the Golden Age of Hollywood (usually Film Noir). Specifically:
  • My Favorite Redhead = My Favorite Blonde
  • The Dark Lady = The Dark Man
  • Repression = Obsession
  • The Big Comeback = The Big Combo
  • The Road to Kadath = The Road to ... series
  • Into the Past = Out of the Past
  • Back to the Garden = The Blue Gardenia
• Incredibly Obvious Bomb: In Into the Past, Lola plants a bomb consisting of a bundle of dynamite and an alarm clock in an attempt to destroy the orphanage. Lori is only able to save herself, R.C. and Allen by using magic to throw the bomb into another dimension.
• Inn Between the Worlds: Voodoo Mansion shows up wherever it needs to be, and there is no guarantee it will be in the same place you entered when you leave. In The Dark Lady, Lori enters the house in Scotland and leaves in Louisiana just outside of New Orleans. Doors inside the mansion open up into other realities.
• Instrument of Murder: In Back to the Garden, Elston Gunn uses an electric guitar that fires blasts of eldritch energy to attempt to kill Lori.
• Invented Individual: In The Big Comeback, studio executive Benteen is embezzling cash by putting a fake employee named 'Herbert West' on the books and then writing cheques to them.
• Ironic Hell: In Back to the Garden, musician Elston Gunn (a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Bob Dylan) is trapped in Hell when he chases his Lost Lenore and the Necronomicon through a closing portal. In Hell, his punishment is to play a packed concert to screaming fans. Who only want to hear his old songs. Forever.
• Life Energy: In Into the Past, Raoul Reichmann runs a Path of Inspiration ashram where he drains life energy from the attendees and funnels it to the Cabal to power their magic.
• Lingerie Scene: Ms. Fanservice that she is, Lori is often shown lounging in her lingerie at home, and often appears in lingerie in her movies.
• Losing Your Head: Horatio is a zombie who also a fanatical basketball fan. When his team wins the playoffs in Back to the Garden, the feedback of magical energy from Lori's battle with Elston Gunn is enough to knock his head off. Horatio doesn't notice and his head continues to cheer at the television while his body stumbles blindly around the workshop.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: In Into the Past, R.C. learns that his mother is 60s star actress Danke Schoen, who was forced by the studio to give up the baby for adoption to avoid a scandal.
• Magical Native American: One of Lori's boyfriends is Arthur Black Crow: a Native American shaman with the ability to transform into a crow. He tutors Lori in the use of magic.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: When the Belligerent Sexual Tension between Lori and R.C. finally explodes in The Big Comeback, the wind up having sex on the floor of the production office at the movie studio
• Moral Guardians: In Into the Past, C. Aubrey White, the mayor of L.A., launches a vitriolic anti-smut campaign, with Lori's films squarely in his sights.
• Ms. Fanservice: Lori is an actress who relies primarily on her looks to get parts. Every story involves copious Lingerie Scenes, and usually at least one full frontal nude scene.
• Mugged for Disguise: In Repression, Thalia Dubois knocks out movie star Rene Claude and steals his costume so she can sneak on to set and murder Lori.
• Mundane Utility: After her apartment is trashed by an earthquake in Into the Past, Lori uses her spare crystal ball to watch the basketball game she had been taping.
• Naughty Nurse Outfit: In Back to the Garden, Ms. Fanservice Lori finds herself travelling through Voodoo Mansion and opening doors into different realities. As she does so, her clothing changes to match the reality she finds herself in. When she opens the door into her boyfriend's hospital room, she finds herself dressed in a naughty nurse outfit. So are the two 'nurses' who are smothering Allen in kisses.
• New Old Flame: In The Big Comeback, Lori encounters ex-lover R.C. Bowman: a former private eye now working as studio security.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Repression features characters very strongly based on Alfred Hitchcock (Cedric Rockwich), Alma Reville (Thalia Dubois) and Grace Kelly (Faith Reilly).
  • In The Road to Kadath, crooner Dickie Duncan is a thinly veiled version of Bing Crosby, complete with pipe and yachtsman cap.
  • Aging rock musician Elston Gunn in Into the Past is based on Bob Dylan, with Gunn even doing a version of the 'cue card clip' from Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues".
• Office Golf: The Dark Lady ends with Horatio practicing putting while Zelda is attempting to run tests on him. When she asks why he is practicing golf, as no one in Voodoo Mansion plays golf, the recently deceased and golf-mad Sir Andrew Parke-Jones enters, telling Horatio that they have 36 holes to play.
• Only Known by Initials: Private Detective R.C. Bowman. Even his lover Lori only knows him as R.C. In Into the Past, it is revealed that his middle name is Chandler, which very strongly suggests what his first name might be.
• Out with a Bang: In Back to the Garden, two demons use Danke Schoen as portal through which to enter the mortal realm. The process creates an intense, orgasmic sensation which overwhelms the target vessel and destroys them. The demons note that most humans are killed in a few minutes. Dirty Old Woman Danke held out for two hours.
• Path of Inspiration: In Into the Past, Raoul Reichmann is running an ashram that is supposed to be allowing people to unlock their true potential. In reality, he is draining Life Energy from the attendees and feeding it to the Cabal to power their magic.
• Pet's Homage Name: Lori's cat is named Keaton in honour of Buster Keaton.
• Pistol-Whipping: In My Favorite Redhead, director and occultist Dick Van Von knocks out actor Allen Roberts by cracking him over the back of his skull with a pistol when he abducts Lori to use as Human Sacrifice.
• Posthumous Narration: The Dark Lady is narrated by Sir Andrew Parke-Jones, who died a week before the story starts. He follows the occult misadventures of Lori after she arrives in Scotland to accept his invitation only to learn he is dead.
• Private Eye Monologue: All of the stories are narrated by a character who isn't Lori. Whenever Private Detective R.C. Bowman is narrating, the narration is done is in this style, complete with some very strange analogies.
• "Psycho" Shower Murder Parody: In The Dark Lady, Lori is attacked in the shower in a scene highly reminiscent of the shower scene in Psycho, including a panel that is a closeup on the plughole.
• Punny Name: White-Dwarf Starlet Danke Schoen. (Although, given she is an actress, there is good chance this is not her real name.)
• Ransacked Room: In Into the Past, Allen arrives at Lori's apartment to find two mooks from the Cabal ransacking the place in search of the Necronomicon. They are about to start roughing Allen up when they are scared off by an approaching police car.
• Rapid Aging: This is what happens to Raoul Reichmann's victims when he drains Life Energy from them in Into the Past. If he drains enough, they age to death.
• Rat Folk: In The Dark Lady, the true form of the demon who attempts to pull a Grand Theft Me on Lori is a giant humanoid rat.
• Real Award, Fictional Character: White-Dwarf Starlet Danke Schoen won two Oscars before her career faded.
• Really Gets Around: Lori enjoys a very active sex life. The narration in Into the Past even Lampshades the number of ex-boyfriends she has.
• Recorded Spliced Conversation: When Thalia lures Lori into a trap in the clock tower in Repression, she creates a spliced recording of her husband—film director Cedric Rockwich—and plays it so it sounds like Rockwich is giving her direction from the darkness of the tower.
• Reincarnation Romance: My Favorite Redhead, the immortal priest Amma Ton believes that Lori is the reincarnation of his ancient love. Lori is uncertain about this, but she is willing to consider the idea, and later uses Amma Ton's belief in it to her advantage.
• Sex Dressed: In The Big Comeback, Lori and R.C. are attacked by a demon immediately after having sex. Scrambling to feet, R.C. yanks on the first piece of clothing he winds, which happens to be Lori's panties.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: In The Road to Kadath, Lori kisses Dreadful Musician Dickie Duncan to stop him from singing and insulting their host.
• Skinship Grope: While helping Lori into costume in Repression, Thalia Dubois reaches around from behind and 'adjusts' her breasts in a very familiar manner.
• Sword Cane: In The Dark Lady, Lori is trapped in a dreamscape based on the films of recently deceased actor Sir Andrew Parke-Jones. The demon possessing Sir Andrew's body attempts to kill Lori with a sword cane from one his films.
• Taken for Granite: At the end of The Road to Kadath, Dickie Duncan is turned into a statue by the demons he has angered with his singing.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: In The Dark Lady, a Creepy Housekeeper serves Lori a snack of milk and cookies where the milk has been laced with potassium cyanide.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: Lori acquires all of her occult expertise and power from a copy of the Necronomicon given to her by the ancient priest Amma Ton for protection in My Favorite Redhead.
• Too Kinky to Torture: In Back to the Garden, two demons use Danke Schoen as portal through which to enter the mortal realm. The process creates an intense, orgasmic sensation which overwhelms the target vessel and destroys them. The demons note that most humans are killed in a few minutes. Dirty Old Woman Danke held out for two hours.
• Trauma Conga Line: A Funny Background Event in Into the Past involves basketballer Larry "The Legend" Raven who has come out of retirement at age 50 to captain the Clippers through the playoffs. Every time he appears, he has suffered some unlikely accident. First he breaks his arm in a bathtub accident, then gets hit the face by a lawn dart. By the time of the championship game, he is playing with a ruptured septum. Then the scoreboard falls on him breaking his leg. He has it taped up and keeps playing.
• Twin Threesome Fantasy: In Into the Past, Raoul Reichmann blows off an evening with Danke to go off with a pair of identical twins instead. Danke's response is a snarky:
  Well, it always did take two of them to compete with one of me.
• Unanthropomorphic Transformation: In The Dark Lady, the future version of Lori transforms a demon from a Rat Folk into an actual, normal sized rat.
• Unplanned Crossdressing: In The Big Comeback, Lori and R.C. are attacked by demon immediately after having sex. R.C. leaps to his feet and tanks on the first item of clothing he manages to grab; which happens to be Lori's panties.
• Voluntary Shape Shifting: Shaman Arthur Black Crow can transform into a black crow at will.
• White-Dwarf Starlet: Fading 1960s actress Danke Schoen bears many of the hallmarks of this tropes, although she seems better adjusted than most example: possibly because her career was very successful (she won two Oscars) before fading into obscurity, and possibly because she has the ace in the hole of being able to use magic.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Amma Ton is a priest from ancient times who attempted to kill the gods for taking his love from him. The gods punished him by trapping him a dimension were he does not age, but also cannot leave. He becomes an intermediary for humans looking to make deals with demons, and hates his unending existence until he encounters Lori (whom he believes to be the reincarnation of his true love) and she reminds him of the better man he used to be.
• Zero-G Spot: In Repression, Lori and Arthur Black Crow have sex while magically levitating. When Lori attempts to take control of the spell from Arthur, she loses control and the pair of them crash back on to the bed from the ceiling.

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