Writer: Bruce Brown
Artists: Thomas Boatwright and Marco Della Verde
Independent, 15 September 2025
The Cats of Ulthar is a graphic novel adaptation, or more accurately, a reimagining of the same-titled short story by American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Written by Bruce Brown with art by Thomas Boatwright and Marco Della Verde, this comic book version respects Mr Lovecraft’s original work while expanding it with enhanced themes and imagery.
The original short story from Mr Lovecraft is a grim parable centered around a cruel old couple with a habit of capturing and killing stray cats in their small town. When a caravan of wanderers passes through, one of them, a young orphan boy, loses his beloved kitten to the murderous pair. In his grief and fury, the boy prays to an ancient deity for vengeance, and soon after, the entire population of cats in Ulthar rises up to devour the couple. The event is so horrifying that the town later passes a law forbidding anyone from killing a cat ever again.
This graphic novel adaptation retains the core of Mr Lovecraft’s original short story but introduces new elements that shift its tone and expand its mythology. The most striking change comes near the end. Rather than the collective cats enacting revenge, a single stray transforms into a lion and tears the couple apart. This lion then convinces the town’s other cats-each now also transformed into large, feral beasts, to turn on their own masters. Brown uses this change to explore moral complexity within the feline ranks. Some cats remain loyal to their owners, others hesitate out of affection, but all are ultimately swayed when confronted with the gruesome evidence of the old couple’s cruelty: mutilated feline corpses and bones on display. What follows is a full-blwon uprising, brutal yet oddly poetic in its justice.
Another large addition that makes Mr Brown’s version its own thing is the framing device: the entire tale is presented as a bedtime story told by an adult lion to his cubs, recounting events supposedly experienced by the adult lion’s own father. This clever narrative twist transforms the adaptation from a simple retelling into a layered story about storytelling itself. By adding an unreliable narrator, Brown throws the veracity of the story into question: did these events truly happen, or are they just an embellished legend meant to inspire young cubs with lessons of strength and vengeance? Perhaps the cats-turned-lions are symbolic, or perhaps the “stray cats” of Ulthar were always large predators misunderstood by humankind.
This ambiguity gives The Cats of Ulthar a new dimension beyond the confines of Lovecraft’s brief original. It maintains the eerie morality tale at its heart but deepens it with mythic resonance and emotional nuance. Boatwright’s artwork complements this perfectly, with his stylized, slightly macabre visuals striking a balance between fable and nightmare, enhancing both the horror and the poignancy of Brown’s reimagined tale.
At the end of the day, The Cats of Ulthar stands as more than a faithful adaptation. In our view, it is a respectful evolution. By introducing a mythic framework and expanding the emotional range of its feline characters, Messrs Brown, Boatwright, and Della Verde have crafted a story that both honors and enriches Mr Lovecraft’s dark little fable, making it as unsettling as it is thought-provoking.
This title is available on Amazon: Cats Of Ulthar: A Tale Reimagined : Brown, Bruce, Boatwright, Thomas, Della Verde, Marco: Amazon.com.au: Books