H.P. Lovecraft's Manga for Call of Chutlu To End Soon

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”H.P. Lovecraft created worlds of [...]

By Evan Valentine

"In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

H.P. Lovecraft created worlds of terror, where the monsters were so horrifying that they were beyond the ability for man to understand. Such was the case with the legendary creature of Cthulhu, a giant, squid faced deity that exists within a time and place outside of humanity's comprehension. Though the original short story for Call of Cthulhu was written by Lovecraft in 1926, its age hasn't been a hindrance to the tale in the slightest with Cthulhu continuing to be used in pop culture in current day. Unfortunately, the recent Call of Cthulhu manga interpretation appears to be coming to an end.

Anime News Network shared the news that Call of Cthulhu's manga, created by manga artist Gou Tanabe, would be ending its run with the next issue of Kadokawa Monthly Comic Beam that drops on November 12th of next month:

Call of Cthulhu was not Gou Tanabe's first adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story, dipping his pen into numerous short stories from the horror creator. Other manga adaptations from the artist included the Colour of Space, The Outsider, and the Haunter of the Dark. The short story which was originally created by Lovecraft follows investigators as they attempt to discover a secret of a cult in a small town, unfortunately coming across the nearly timeless Old God of Cthulhu in the process.

Cthulhu has appeared in numerous pieces of fiction, with a recent Call of Cthulhu video game allowing players to interact with this H.P. Lovecraft inspired world. There have also been numerous attempts to bring Lovecraft properties to the screen that weren't successful, such as the much desired Guillermo Del Toro adaptation of The Mountain of Madness. The most notable adaptation that is in the near future will be the Nicholas Cage movie, Colour of Space, which examines how society comes into contact with a color they've never seen before and the horrifying after effects of witnessing it.

Lovecraft's strength in horror, much like Junji Ito's, comes from humanity's inability to understand things that are bigger than itself. Cthulhu, the Old Gods, all encompassing feelings of dread permeate his tales because as readers, we find ourselves in places of mystery and horror in trying to understand these story aspects and usually find that we can't. While the manga adaptation of Call of Cthulhu will be missed, we're sure we haven't seen the last of Lovecraft's adaptations and Cthulhu in general.

Have you been reading the manga adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu? What did you think of it? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Lovecraft!

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