Alan Moore's Providence: NYC print culture bonanza

Like many of you (?) I'm trying to get a bit ahead in our reading for the institute, which has meant that I'm getting a crash course in NYC newspaper history (not my strong suit). The stars are aligning, however, in a rather eldritch way, as I've just picked up the first issue of Alan Moore's new comic series Providence (Avatar Press). Moore, you may know, is one of the most respected comic writers in the medium; he is the author of Watchmen, Promethea, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc., and his work is deeply researched and often bewilderingly intertextual (many of his works have generated their own websites and volumes of annotations).Providence is inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, the pulp writer who briefly lived at 169 Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights (just a few blocks from the Brooklyn Historical Society). And while the series is titled after Lovecraft's Rhode Island hometown, it (the first issue, at least) is firmly set in 1919 New York. Its protagonist is a reporter for the New York Herald, and the background artwork is filled with print culture highlights - the Herald building, signs for the Tribune(which would acquire the Herald five years later), Bryant Park, newsboys near City Hall Park, and - of course - a Herald editor looking for a reasonably sensational human interest story (the Jersey Devil - a brief newspaper sensation in 1909 - is floated as an idea). Reportedly, Moore is going to use the series to wrestle with Lovecraft's notorious xenophobia and racism, which is fully on display in stories he wrote about New York (especially "The Horror at Red Hook" and "He"). In addition, like much of Lovecraft's work, Providence is already wrestling with antiquarian print culture in the form of decadent libraries and forbidden tomes (Robert Chalmers's "The King in Yellow" - the inspiration for the first season of HBO's True Detective - has already made an appearance).Here's a link to some information on Lovecraft in Brooklyn. And here's the Avatar press site for the first issue of Providence. On Lovecraft and antiquarian print culture, see Leif Sorensen's article here. Finally, here's a view from the offices of the Herald, where the editor takes a swipe at William Randolph Hearst and mentions dime novels, yet another periodical print culture reference (and one that surely dates the editor):