Dark Horse Comics
I really hope Gou Tanabe continues to adapt more of H.P. Lovecraft‘s stories into a visual medium. After the release of Call of Cthulhu, I’m really craving more. And with what’s presented in a tankōbon format, I can’t wait to see what the inevitable deluxe edition will look like. That’s because to marvel at the details put into showing off the city of R’lyeh can mean I can put away those magnifying glasses. Even though my digital copy allowed me to zoom in to marvel at the fine lines and strange hieroglyphs, that did not mean I found Easter eggs.
What makes this release work is that most readers know the basics of this story. Francis Wayland Thurston needs closure following the death of his grand-uncle. He left behind some curious artefacts, including a strange statue of some hybrid octopus and humanoid creature, to his next of kin. But when curiosity gets the better of the young man, I swear he should have died at least five times over! When he goes globetrotting to discover more of these statues exist, there’s a conspiracy that he must get answers to. However, that doesn’t get far when a sailing expedition to locate a tribe gets interrupted and he finds an uncharted isle, and unwittingly unleashes some giant sized amorphous inhabitant!
Just how this individual survives is a mystery. It’s easy to surmise another sailing ship found him struggling to stay afloat, he clearly has no memory of it, and I don’t blame him for forgetting the last few hours. But the fact he’s not out of the woods at all means he’ll have to go underground, lest his dreams murder him instead.
When reading this story again, finding passages of Lovecraft’s original prose along with the art made reading this story easier than ever. The prose Howard set down almost a century ago doesn’t age well. All of his wordy anarchisms are just that, and the difference between various published interpretations lies in how well the dialogue flows. When translated over to a new medium, a lot of that can disappear, and Zack Davisson, who handled translating the dialogue from the Japanese edition to English did a great job at modernising everything so a Millennial reader can enjoy the story.
Although bits of the tale are not the same as Lovecraft intended, the flow is much better, and the art is why anyone wants to buy this edition. Not only are those mind-bending moments concerning tesseract architecture rendered to great effect, but Cthulhu isn’t just some slobbering orthopod oozing out of his cage and into the sea. I always thought giving this Great Old One a humanoid shape was too mundane. Rendering the bipedal form decrepit and having it move about resembling that of a spider stalking its prey would make it more terrifying.
However, what Tanabe does better is in showing how each massive tendril operates like an individual whip, ready to strike, if not sting, its prey. As bodies crumple it conveys a sense of merciless death, as it is crushed under the massive weight.
Ultimately, what this work does best is deliver the shock and awe that a visual adaptation of Call of Cthulhu must do. If someone else had drawn it, I’m not sure it would’ve been successful. But in what Tanabe delivers, is everything I ever dreamt of, and much more at where it counts. After this treatment, I doubt I can look at other artistic treatments again. As for other interpetations, I offer the following take, as rendered by Dark Adventure Radio.
5 Stars out of 5
Call of Cthulhu Teaser Trailer
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