Harry D'Amour is a fictional occult detective created by author, filmmaker, and artist Clive Barker. He originally appeared in the short story The Last Illusion in Books of Blood Volume 6, an anthology written by Barker and published in 1985.
D'Amour is a native of Hell's Kitchen in New York City.
Though he has a heightened awareness of supernatural forces and knowledge of the occult, Harry D'Amour does not generally practice magic or witchcraft and is usually depicted as having no direct magical abilities (except for some stories where he is granted supernatural power by others). During his investigations, D'Amour regularly carries a .38 revolver. Sigils and markers tattooed on D'Amour's body offer early warning of evil forces and some protection against magic.
Character conception and development
In an interview with Fangoria, Clive Barker described Harry D'Amour as "this everyman who is drawn into the heart of darkness over and over again because of some karmic thing which he has no power over". In an interview with the Wired podcast The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy episode 151 (May 23, 2015), Barker said: "Harry is a film noir character in a way. He's a Philip Marlowe via Clive Barker. He's a down-at-the-heel, pissed-off, rather exhausted PI who's based in New York".
In the liner notes included with the director's cut of Lord of Illusions, Barker said: "I've travelled a long way with Harry D'Amour. He first appeared in a story I wrote almost a decade ago now, The Last Illusion. Since then, I've recounted his life and troubled times in two novels and some short fiction. I've not made the road very easy for him. His destiny, it seems, is to be in constant struggle with what might be loosely called 'the forces of darkness', though he claims he'd be quite content investigating insurance fraud. His reluctance is, I trust, part of his charm. He's not a Van Helsing, defiantly facing off against some implacable evil with faith and holy water. His antecedents are the troubled, weary and often lovelorn heroes of film noir - private detectives with an eye for a beautiful widow and an aversion to razors".
In an interview with Bloody Best of Fangoria in 1993, Clive Barker spoke of his story "The Last Illusion" and its movie adaptation Lord of Illusions: "I've always loved illusionists. There's always a dark side, and illusionists present them to you. It's very much life-and-death illusion - you sawed the woman in half, but she's still alive. They're presented as breezy, funny, entertaining pieces - but, subtextually, they're stories of death and resurrection".
While filming the adaptation Lord of Illusions, Barker considered actor Scott Bakula the perfect casting choice for Harry D'Amour. On the documentary "The Making of Lord of Illusions" included with the director's cut of the film, Barker said: "He's the Harry I've had in my head for 8 years - no word of a lie. When he stepped on set in costume for the first time, which happened to be into his apartment - the set for his apartment - I thought, 'This is wonderful - this is the man I've been writing about for 8 years'. And that's a real thrill to see an actor so beautifully embody somebody that you've been writing about for such a long time. It's a real thrill. I have to say, they used to say that thing on posters: 'So-and-so is so-and-so'. Well, Scott Bakula is Harry D'Amour, and it really sends a shiver down an author's back". Later in IDW Publishing's comic book adaptation of The Great and Secret Show, artist Gabriel Rodriguez designed D'Amour to look like Bakula. In the collected edition's afterword "The Great and Annotated Show", comic book scriptwriter Chris Ryall wrote "... there was only one way to portray D'Amour in the comics - namely, the same way he looked in the Lord of Illusions movie. This page garnered me more comments from fans than anything that occurred in any other issue. Everyone seemed very happy that D'Amour looked like he did".
Fictional biography
Prose continuity
A native of New York City, Harry D'Amour is a police officer for some years before leaving the NYPD to become a private investigator. In the 1985 story The Last Illusion, Harry claims it took him "twenty years" to understand that murder can happen with any arbitrary motive and later says he hasn't prayed "in twenty years", but it is unclear if these two remarks are meant to be literal or are exaggerations.
The Last Illusion indicates D'Amour has little knowledge of the supernatural before he is hired by Lomax, a man who wishes evidence of his wife Mimi Lomax's adultery. The case leads D'Amour and a priest named Father Hesse to the Lomax house on Wyckoff Street in Brooklyn, NY. D'Amour and Father Hesse confront Mimi's lover, who reveals himself to be a demon. A battle ensues, resulting in multiple deaths and Mimi being lost to the "Gulfs" (a term some of Clive Barker's demons use to refer to Hell). Harry is traumatized by the case, developing a fear of stairs and no longer sure how he can remain safe if supernatural forces are real.
Books of the Art
Harry D'Amour appears in Barker's Books of the Art trilogy of novels. In the first book, the 1989 novel The Great and Secret Show, he plays a small role. He returns as a major character in the second installment, the 1994 novel Everville. The third book has yet to be published.
In The Great and Secret Show, D'Amour offers his advice and knowledge to the protagonists regarding invaders from across the "dream-sea" known as Quiddity where all humans are said to travel metaphysically three times in their lives: when they are born, when they fall in love for the first time, and when they die. At this point, D'Amour is now regarded as an expert on matters of magic; when questioned on his knowledge, he alludes to his contacts who are "plugged in" regarding the supernatural, including Norma Paine. The first to contact the detective is Jim Hotchkiss, father of Carolyn, a victim of rape at the hands of spiritually transformed rivals Richard Fletcher and Randolph Jaffe who make war with each other over control of Quiddity's power.
The second to contact him is screenwriter Tesla Bombeck, gifted near death with shamanic abilities after being touched by the same supernatural substance that transformed Jaffe and Fletcher, known as Nuncio. At the end of the story, he visits lovers Jo-Beth McGuire and Howard Katz, the last two surviving children of the Nunciate rivals. He advises them, as all those affected by the lengthy destructive battle between Fletcher and Jaffe, to prepare for the coming invasion of the Cosm (Earth) from the Metacosm (the ethereal far side of Quiddity) by the enigmatic maddening darkness bent on enslaving humankind known as Iad Uroboros; his encounters with the demons of the Gulf have taught him much of similar unseen threats to the world and their agents on Earth.
The Great and Secret Show was adapted by IDW Publishing as a 12-part comic book series published between March 2006 and May 2007. The story was adapted by writer Chris Ryall and artist Gabriel Rodriguez. In the collected edition, writer Chris Ryall confirmed the comic's design for Harry D'Amour was meant to resemble actor Scott Bakula. directed and written by Clive Barker and loosely based on his short story "The Last Illusion". In the film, Harry is a divorced private investigator. He is already known as an occult investigator and has protective tattoos on his body. After a case in Brooklyn involving a child's exorcism makes the news, he leaves New York City and accepts a job in Los Angeles. His client Dorothea Swann explains her husband, illusionist Philip Swann, has become disturbed by a tarot reading and asks Harry to investigate the truth behind this fear and whether or not there is a real threat.
D'Amour attends Philip Swann's next performance and witnesses the magician die on stage during his performance. Investigating further, he learns that Swann and other allies were once part of a cult led by the demonically empowered man called Nix. Swann and his former allies turned against Nix, but now years later they are being killed by Nix's loyal follower, a man named Butterfield. D'Amour then joins forces with Dorothea to thwart the plans set into motion by Nix and Butterfield. D'Amour and Dorothea become romantically involved during the film's events.