The first installment of the three part "Eldritch Art: Cthulhu in Comics" (name subject to change with my mood) kicks off with an anthology one shot from Boom Studios entitled, Cthulhu Tales. It features a number of short stories based around or involving that most famous of Lovecrafts creations, you guessed it, Cthulhu.
The creators are mostly Boom Studios regulars, such as Keith Giffen, Andy Kuhn, Johanna Stokes and more, and for the most part it's my first time encountering any of their work. Sadly it's probably not the best way to be introduced to them since the collection is largely hit or miss. In fairnes s to the creators this is probably due to the fact that each had about 6 - 10 pages to tell a complete and interesting story and well.. frankly, short story telling abilities in modern day comics is becoming something of a lost art.
Here There Be Spoilers
Anywho! The book opens with "The Beach", written by Michael Alan Nelson with art by Andrew Ritchie. It tells the story of a man whose dreams have been touched by Cthulhu and the ensuing madness that grips him and his family. Most of the encroaching madness is shown to us through flashbacks as the main character walks along an empty New England beach, relating the events that led up to this moment through an internal dialogue which is actually pretty good. His narration feels fairly Lovecraftian, which is nice since visually it relies quite heavily on gore for the chills, but lines like..
"Though my febrile mind can not grasp the scope of his divine words, their meaning is clear to me"
Feels reminiscent of some of Lovecrafts less purple prose. The art does have a nice gritty texture to it, which does help with the gore. All in all it's not a horrible way to kick off the anthology.
From there we move along to yet another tale of madness in "Lover's Craft". Written by Johanna Stokes with art by Philip Sablik and Ellia Heroux, it tells the story of a faithful wife who's plagued by doubts of her husbands fidelity. Gone often due to his job (we're never told what it is though it apparently brought him into posession of an icon similiar to those in Lovecrafts "Call of Cthulhu) she is often left along for long periods and time. Soon her mind is touched by something dark and primal and her dreams begin to spill over into the waking world. Visions of tentacled things and a certain cyclopean city buried beneath the waves serve only to drive her mad.
This one just falls flat on it's face. While there are a few nice artistic moments, a short of R'lyeh and the very last panel of her in an asylum, it really feels far to similiar to the opener and doesn't distinguish itself or deliver the creeps or scares for that matter.
"Witch Hunter", written by Andrew Cosby with art by Lee Carter is the leasts Lovecraftian story in the collection. It's the tale of a man whose lost a loved one to the madness of the supernatural world, and who now is out to find a way to bring her back from her.. altered state. It's too superhero-y and feels like a teaser to a larger story. Ancient holy artifacts, references to prior encounters and more dot this short story that isn't particularly creepy or Lovecraftian for that matter. It might not be a bad concept as an ongoing or regular series, but as a short story in a book focuses on Lovecraftian creations, and Cthulhu in particular, it just fails in all regards.
"Quality Time", written by John Rogers with art by Andy Kuhn, is the surprising star of the anthology. Andy Kuhn's art seems completely and utterly ill fitting for a horror story of any kind, very colorful and cartoony, but it works perfectly for this creepy tale of a family that's on the verge of collapsing in on itself. The father cheats, the mother drinks, fights are constant and all little Sammy wants is to hold the group together, and what do you know.. his prayers are about to be answered. Family unity comes in the form of a school play in which Sammy lands the lead role. The mother attends a few rehersals and comes back different, dirtier, corrupted in a way. This leads to one of the most hilarious exchanges I've ever come across.
Husband: "You'll... talk dirty?"
Wife: "...mmmmm... Ia.. Ia... Cthulhu Fhatgn..."
Husband: "...Yeah... Like that..."
From there things seem to be going excellently with the family, they spend more time together until they head out to little Sammy's play... "The King in Yellow."
The art, the dialogue, everything comes together with this story which, at first glance really looks like it'll suck. Cartoony, colorfull, cute little kid? No way can this work, but it does and it's easily the best story in the book.
Oddly enough that lovely little tale is followed up by a Lovecraftian comedy entitled, "Cthulhu Calls". Written by Casey Grey with art from Mark Badger it tells the story of a 20 something guy who got drunk one night and.. well, we all make mistakes when we're drunk, his just happened to involve an incantation to invoke Cthulhu, who now simply won't leave him alone. If you think having a one night stand calling you or hanging around outside you place is embarrassing, imagine having having Cthulhu turning up outside you window at night with a stereo playing power love ballads. Absolutely hilarious stuff, not scary in the least mind you, but it's a nice funny tale that many people should be able to relate too. And really, Cthulhu's never looked so cute and adorable before.
"The Oddly Amorous Phineas Flynn and the Troublesome Trouble He Got Himself In" rounds out the anthology. Written by Keith Giffen (the only creator in the athology I've heard of before) with art by Ben Roman, it's an odd tale of love gone bad told in some form of.. poetry. Iambic pentameter maybe.. I'm not sure, it's a poem though about a misguided obsession gone to far and why being overlooked might not always be a bad thing. It's.. ok. The rhyming scheme doesn't really click for me, and the art, while not horrible, isn't really to my tastes at all. The twist at the end is rather nice, but still, this story failed to light my fire in anyway. It's kind of cute, mainly due to the obscenely long title, but meh..
So all in all this anthology was a bit of a crap shoot. Half the stories are unimpressive and just sit there, while the few that work, work very, very well. While I'm glad I did eventually manage to get my hands on it, I'm also glad that I picked it up for half off instead of paying $7 for it. If it had cost me that much I'd have been a lot less forgiving about the flip flopping quality of it.
The creators are mostly Boom Studios regulars, such as Keith Giffen, Andy Kuhn, Johanna Stokes and more, and for the most part it's my first time encountering any of their work. Sadly it's probably not the best way to be introduced to them since the collection is largely hit or miss. In fairnes s to the creators this is probably due to the fact that each had about 6 - 10 pages to tell a complete and interesting story and well.. frankly, short story telling abilities in modern day comics is becoming something of a lost art.
Here There Be Spoilers
Anywho! The book opens with "The Beach", written by Michael Alan Nelson with art by Andrew Ritchie. It tells the story of a man whose dreams have been touched by Cthulhu and the ensuing madness that grips him and his family. Most of the encroaching madness is shown to us through flashbacks as the main character walks along an empty New England beach, relating the events that led up to this moment through an internal dialogue which is actually pretty good. His narration feels fairly Lovecraftian, which is nice since visually it relies quite heavily on gore for the chills, but lines like..
"Though my febrile mind can not grasp the scope of his divine words, their meaning is clear to me"
Feels reminiscent of some of Lovecrafts less purple prose. The art does have a nice gritty texture to it, which does help with the gore. All in all it's not a horrible way to kick off the anthology.
From there we move along to yet another tale of madness in "Lover's Craft". Written by Johanna Stokes with art by Philip Sablik and Ellia Heroux, it tells the story of a faithful wife who's plagued by doubts of her husbands fidelity. Gone often due to his job (we're never told what it is though it apparently brought him into posession of an icon similiar to those in Lovecrafts "Call of Cthulhu) she is often left along for long periods and time. Soon her mind is touched by something dark and primal and her dreams begin to spill over into the waking world. Visions of tentacled things and a certain cyclopean city buried beneath the waves serve only to drive her mad.
This one just falls flat on it's face. While there are a few nice artistic moments, a short of R'lyeh and the very last panel of her in an asylum, it really feels far to similiar to the opener and doesn't distinguish itself or deliver the creeps or scares for that matter.
"Witch Hunter", written by Andrew Cosby with art by Lee Carter is the leasts Lovecraftian story in the collection. It's the tale of a man whose lost a loved one to the madness of the supernatural world, and who now is out to find a way to bring her back from her.. altered state. It's too superhero-y and feels like a teaser to a larger story. Ancient holy artifacts, references to prior encounters and more dot this short story that isn't particularly creepy or Lovecraftian for that matter. It might not be a bad concept as an ongoing or regular series, but as a short story in a book focuses on Lovecraftian creations, and Cthulhu in particular, it just fails in all regards.
"Quality Time", written by John Rogers with art by Andy Kuhn, is the surprising star of the anthology. Andy Kuhn's art seems completely and utterly ill fitting for a horror story of any kind, very colorful and cartoony, but it works perfectly for this creepy tale of a family that's on the verge of collapsing in on itself. The father cheats, the mother drinks, fights are constant and all little Sammy wants is to hold the group together, and what do you know.. his prayers are about to be answered. Family unity comes in the form of a school play in which Sammy lands the lead role. The mother attends a few rehersals and comes back different, dirtier, corrupted in a way. This leads to one of the most hilarious exchanges I've ever come across.
Husband: "You'll... talk dirty?"
Wife: "...mmmmm... Ia.. Ia... Cthulhu Fhatgn..."
Husband: "...Yeah... Like that..."
From there things seem to be going excellently with the family, they spend more time together until they head out to little Sammy's play... "The King in Yellow."
The art, the dialogue, everything comes together with this story which, at first glance really looks like it'll suck. Cartoony, colorfull, cute little kid? No way can this work, but it does and it's easily the best story in the book.
Oddly enough that lovely little tale is followed up by a Lovecraftian comedy entitled, "Cthulhu Calls". Written by Casey Grey with art from Mark Badger it tells the story of a 20 something guy who got drunk one night and.. well, we all make mistakes when we're drunk, his just happened to involve an incantation to invoke Cthulhu, who now simply won't leave him alone. If you think having a one night stand calling you or hanging around outside you place is embarrassing, imagine having having Cthulhu turning up outside you window at night with a stereo playing power love ballads. Absolutely hilarious stuff, not scary in the least mind you, but it's a nice funny tale that many people should be able to relate too. And really, Cthulhu's never looked so cute and adorable before.
"The Oddly Amorous Phineas Flynn and the Troublesome Trouble He Got Himself In" rounds out the anthology. Written by Keith Giffen (the only creator in the athology I've heard of before) with art by Ben Roman, it's an odd tale of love gone bad told in some form of.. poetry. Iambic pentameter maybe.. I'm not sure, it's a poem though about a misguided obsession gone to far and why being overlooked might not always be a bad thing. It's.. ok. The rhyming scheme doesn't really click for me, and the art, while not horrible, isn't really to my tastes at all. The twist at the end is rather nice, but still, this story failed to light my fire in anyway. It's kind of cute, mainly due to the obscenely long title, but meh..
So all in all this anthology was a bit of a crap shoot. Half the stories are unimpressive and just sit there, while the few that work, work very, very well. While I'm glad I did eventually manage to get my hands on it, I'm also glad that I picked it up for half off instead of paying $7 for it. If it had cost me that much I'd have been a lot less forgiving about the flip flopping quality of it.
