Alan Moore's Hypothetical Lizard

Written by Alan Moore
Adapted by Antony Johnston
Art by Lorenzo Lorente and Sebastian Fiumara
I first read Moore's prose story years ago, when it was published in the "Words Without Pictures" anthology, and it is the only story from that book that I remember today, although before reading this comic adaption from Avatar Press, I couldn't have told you what happened in it.

The story is set in The House Without Clocks, a specialized whore house in a fantasy city called Liavek. It's main character is Som-Som, a beautiful woman who has had her corpus callosum magically severed, and one hemisphere of her brain trapped away behind a porcelain haf-mask, to better prepare her for the job of ministering to the sexual needs of wizards (which thankfully, we don't learn too much about).

Som-Som's friend is Rawra Chin, a young tranvestite, who is in love with Foral Yatt, an actor who also lives in the House. Rawra Chin leaves Her lover to pursue a career in the theatre, and then returns to reignite the relationship. What follows is a study in jealousy, anger, and control. Both the comic adaption and the original prose story (included in this volume) are barocque pieces of work, dripping with eroticism and hurt.

Johnston has done a great job of condensing the story into comics form, and the two artists (for whatever reason, Lorente only completed the first chapter, Fiumara the rest) make good use of shadow and grey tones to both convey and hide emotion.