With "The Call of Cthulhu", Gou Tanabe adapts the unsuitable Lovecraft

Hello, I'm Cthulhu, say you wanna be my friend?

-

HP Lovecraft is one of the founding fathers of fantasy and horror literature, his work written at the beginning of the 20th century has terrified readers as much as it has influenced authors and artists such as Stephen King, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mike Mignola , HR Giger, John Carpenter or Stuart Gordon.

The latter is one of the few to have “officially” adapted Lovecraft with the

,

or

films

.

On September 17th, fans of fantasy and horror will finally be able to get their hands on The Call of Cthulhu, a new book from the #Lovecraft Masterpieces collection!

In the meantime, here is the trailer, which may well make you shiver ... pic.twitter.com/cS3SGDyAji

- Ki-oon editions (@ki_oon_Editions) September 11, 2020

Lovecraft, not even afraid

His short stories are indeed deemed unsuitable, especially those from the Myth of Cthulhu, a universe populated by legends and beliefs, gigantic alien creatures and human beings overwhelmed by the unspeakable, on the verge of madness.

They are

(on which Guillermo Del Toro has been breaking his teeth for ten years),

or

.

One author, however, is not "afraid" of Lovecraft, and adapts his masterpieces one by one: the mangaka Gou Tanabe.

The most recent,

, has been available since Thursday from Ki-oon.

"Tales of nihilistic monsters"

The designer does not discover Lovecraft as a teenager, but as an adult, in his thirties: “It was 15 years ago.

I was going through a difficult time, I was melancholy, and I asked my editor if he knew of any rather nihilistic monster tales.

He introduced me to

, both in relation to my current mood but also perhaps to my style of drawing.

Like other readers before him, Gou Tanabe is fascinated, "both by the intrinsic qualities of his writing and by the impressive scope for expansion of the universe around the cult of Cthulhu.

The reader is invited to embark on free adaptations ”.

Gou Tanabe's Cthulhu is brilliant, it has both the usual image we give it and at the same time this indescribable side, we can have a global image, when we look at it we do not understand anything in the drawing, it's a great transcription of Lovecraft's description!

pic.twitter.com/5ybslPcFY8

- Lilian (@LilianGobled) September 18, 2020

"" Alien "or" The Thing "have their roots in Lovecraft

Gou Tanabe, then relatively unknown mangaka (

,

), began to adapt Lovecraft from 2014 with

(unpublished), then

,

(Fauve of the series at Angoulême 2020) ,

, all published in France by Ki-oon, pending

, being published in Japan.

So free adaptations, or faithful illustrations?

“I try to stay as faithful as possible to the writings,” he comments.

For some passages, I do not have all the necessary documentation, and points are left to the reader's imagination.

But as much as possible, it is a matter of sticking to the original atmosphere.

"

If you don't know this version of the Hallucinated Mountains by Gou Tanabe, go for it, the edition is sublime.

🐙 pic.twitter.com/bNkIktvMu3

- Not Bernard Menez (@itsBernardMenez) October 13, 2019

The designer does not hesitate to seek inspiration from others: “I carefully look at the illustrations of artists who are fans of Lovecraft on the Internet, they serve as a support.

When we know that

or

have their roots in Lovecraft's work, it gives you ideas for images.

»The result is impressive, full, dark and detailed.

Certain double pages are thus astonished with beauty, or with fear, one does not know very well any more.

An ideal gateway

Gou Tanabe's style and cutting remain nonetheless classic, as if to better embrace the literary origin of the works, and move away from certain manga codes to approach European comics.

“I started to draw manga under the influence of Katsuhiro Otomo, who himself said he was influenced by Moebius.

Indirectly, my line took on comic strip characteristics.

"

Surrounded by these friends!

@ki_oon_Editions @gou_tanabe #manga pic.twitter.com/Azxu2lv3IE

- ジ ヨ フ レ (Joffrey) (@ ​​brainiak57) September 18, 2020

With their leather-effect covers, the mangas of Gou Tanabe at Ki-oon are presented as old grimoires à la Necronomicon and are an ideal gateway to the world of Lovecraft, whose influence is more pervasive than ever, to like the French video game

, the movie

with Nicolas Cage or the recent series

.

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