I'm personally not big on horror and Lovecraft has always uninterested me. I wasn't expecting much from this and reading it I found my expectations to be met. But as I got further into the story and they started exploring further off into the black mountains with Lake's crew. I found myself to be increasingly more gripped with the story. The feelings of the unknown, the mysteries and discoveries was really good. And it kept me tense, not in a stressful way but just at the edge of my seat as we learn more and more of what lays in Antarctica. Though I did not enjoy much of the chapters which detoured into explaining the lore and history of the creatures and their time in space. This part may be of more interest to people who cared more about Lovecraft's lore in his various stories that he brings up a lot. But for me, I didn't really need to know all that history, just seeing the explorers discover and wonder was what appealed to me. I felt you could take these chapters out and it would affect little. Thankfully when it went back to the present day POV, the comic returned to what had me enjoying it to begin with.

Also, Gou Tanabe's art is interesting. It is definitely not a style I enjoy and there were definitely some splash pages I felt hard to decipher. Despite that, I thought it worked really well for this book and Tanabe had an adept sense at adapting this story for the comic form. The way he paneled and structured it I felt did a lot in getting me to engage.

Overall some good stuff I would never have read of my own volition. So, glad to have been recommended this.

The art was fantastic from the outset in the first two volumes. Gou Tanabe strikes the eyes with intricate linework that dances out from pitch blackness. I wish I could draw like this man. However, I initially struggled with the fact that many of the characters, with the exception of Professor Dyer, were clean-shaven white men who looked all too similar (I'll opt to read too deeply into that and see that as a commentary on H.P. Lovecraft's racism) and stilted flashback exposition that is rained down after the story begins in-media res. The pacing felt clunky and the pages seemed to merely lurch from one beautiful panel to another absent of drama and tension (just Lake going insane and being a douche), until we get back to the point where Lake and his camp have been killed, and the cast gets pruned to the point where people are recognizable.

This momentum launched me into the last two volumes (collected into one beautiful omnibus edition, like the first two volumes). The last two volumes are just incredible, with the high point for me being Dyer's interpretation of the history of the Old Ones/Elder Things. Gou Tanabe's 2-page spreads crescendo into the mind-blowing visual definition cosmic horror. Dear lord, he was able to make the Cthulu Mythos spring to fleshy life like I've never seen. The creatures looked viscerally grotesque and alien, not humanoid whatsoever. At the same time, Tanabe's art was able to stir surprising feelings of empathy and sympathy for the Old Ones within me. Despite their writhing and non-humanoid appearance, I saw then as non-human persons, full beings with inner universes. I felt that Tanabe's portrayal of the Old Ones and their conflicts added additional depth and liveliness to Lovecraft's narrative. I started asking myself, what educational systems did the Old Ones have? What jokes did they tell?

This is the finest manga adaptation of a Western work of literature that I've read to date. It has a rocky start and the character designs could have been more distinct, but the art and narrative synthesize into a deliriously trippy experience in the final omnibus. My lack of knowledge of the Cthulu Mythos did not end up being a hindrance, and may have actually worked in my favor by making the setting that much more foreboding and mysterious.

Dark Horse gave this a beautiful paperback release with high quality paper. The colored pages are absolutely gorgeous. This is definitely worth a physical purchase, and with Dark Horse's smaller print runs, the release is probably worth getting sooner rather than later.

... Last updated on June 5th, 2020, 12:53am