The Call of Cthulhu manga… you know it’s a real shame that Lovecraft was such a fucking racist, because otherwise this would be a great book to recommend to people. It perfectly captures cosmic horror, with Lovecraft’s themes about mankind’s miserable scope of existence on full display, but does so with a more personal and close scope than any other Lovecraft except perhaps the Dunwich Horror. In Cthulhu, Lovecraft has people fight back. What’s more, mankind even triumphs for a short period of time.
Our protagonist is investigating the death of his great uncle, poring over his documents and looking for clues as to what happens. Quickly, the narrator discovers something called the Cthulhu Cult. Hijinks ensue.
I love that trope, of posthumous mystery solving. Many Lovecraftian tales reuse it and I couldn’t be more of a fan. You begin on a somber note and are set up for a thrilling investigation. What could be better? As previously stated, there’s more action in this story than most of Lovecraft’s work. We witness a Baton Rouge cop hunting down the cult and bringing them to justice. We see Cthulhu itself, and a brave Norwegian sailor manages to temporarily defeat him. Most of these stories tend to just look in the general direction of the action and scream. Hell, Mountains of Madness is Lovecraft’s only novel, and most of the text is taxonomy.
Specific to this manga is Gou Tanabe’s work. He nails it. The same is true with the Innsmouth and Mountains of Madness adaptations, with the biggest advantage being that he adds more first person characterization. We see the entirety of the Alert’s attack on the Emma, and we see the pain in Johansen’s eyes as he determines that they need to turn around and ram the beast. You feel connected to the energy of what’s happening and it’s awesome.
The racism: Lovecraft was famously racist, and this is one of his more racist stories. Everything bad about the cult is ascribed to “voodoo shores” and “dark skinned depredation” and similar. Ol’ Howard seems to stop just short of saying the cult was “coming for our women.” That being said: this adaptation leaves almost all of that out! The sailors aboard the Alert are very obviously black and look like something from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon set in Africa, but most of the text has been sanitized, making this a good option for someone who wants to read the work but is uncomfortable with the social content.
Final note: I met Zack Davisson the translator at Emerald City Comic Con, twice now. Nice guy, makes it really easy to support his great work! I do recommend this story, social warts and all, because this is the seminal Lovecraft story, but go in with eyes clear that it was written by a bigot, with some bigotry. Don’t be a bigot kids.