At the Mountains of Madness is one of Lovecraft’s best stories. Part of that is because I think this might be… the only one without overt and uncomfortable racism? Like at all? I can’t think of any racism present at least, which is a relief because that is a huge asterisk around all of Lovecraft and I totally understand why that ruins him for many people. He was a product of his time, but also he went out of his way to be disgusting, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant. I shudder to think what he’d be doing politically in 2024.
In the story, explorers from Miskatonic University in Arkham head to the Antarctic to search for fossils. Almost immediately, they find tracks that can’t be attributed to a known animal, and the biologist in the group leads a faction to follow them deeper than they are meant to go. The faction finds the corpses of strange, five-lobed life resembling a hybrid of plant and animal life. They begin dissection and find that these creatures completely upset our understanding of evolution. What’s more, some of the researchers who have pored over Miskatonic’s moldy copy of the Necronomicon and recognize these creatures as the Elder Things frequently referenced in that tome.
Then, contact with the faction is lost, and the primary group must find them. Shit ensues.
At the time of the writing, Antarctica and the South Pole were largely unexplored and there was all sorts of wild speculation about what might be down there. That is exactly the sort of environment in which Lovecraft thrives, and he uses that jumping off point to create one of his most compelling narratives, spinning a story that is pretty digestible even in the original, impenetrable text. This is often speculated to be good movie material, and I really hope that happens. Until it does, visual representations like this manga, which spins an excellent narrative and expands the creatures and the horrors at the Lake Camp in horrifying detail, are excellent ways to experience the story. I really can’t give a better review than Junji Ito, who said he wanted to do a Lovecraft manga, but gave up on the idea because he couldn’t do a better job than Gou Tanabe.
A rare Lovecraft recommendation with no asterisks. 10/10.