Sailor Yuggoth
Writings in the Lovecraft Tradition
Review -- Calla Cthulhu
Calla Cthulhu
Script by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer
Pencils by Erin Humiston
Inks by Erin Humiston and Mario A. Gonzalez
Colors by Bill Mudron
Lettering by Nate Piekos of Blambot
Published by Dark Horse Books
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
I discovered this graphic novel almost by accident while searching for manga and light novels at a branch of our local public library. I'm always a sucker for anything Lovecraft-themed (although that can get me into trouble, as I discovered just how unpleasant a story can be created by filtering the Lovecraft Mythos through a contemporary splatterpunk sensibility), so I decided to check it out and take a look at it.
The story is quite cinematic in its presentation. We start with an urban street scene, focusing on a manhole. In the next frame, the cover is thrown off, and in subsequent frames a child of perhaps ten or twelve is tossed out by a green-haired girl. Then the manhole erupts in salmon-colored tentacles, and the next thing we know, we're watching an epic fight scene between the green-haired girl and some kind of sewer-dwelling tentacle monster.
The mysterious young woman vanquishes the monster, and then pauses long enough to make sure the kid's OK before heading home to a huge mysterious house. There she is confronted by her "uncle," Hastur the Unspeakable (a character who also has ties to Robert W. Chambers and The King in Yellow), and his squad of robed and cowled goons, described by the protagonist as "rejects from a Shaolin monastery." Hastur talks to her in a style very reminiscent of a Mafia boss, or at least the Hollywood version thereof.
In the second chapter, we have a flashback to how it all began, to the funeral of Calla's parents and how she was accosted at the graveside service by a mysterious cadaverous man who asked her if her parents had found the Yellow Sign. She returned to the cemetery, only to have an eldritch portal open and something nasty with tentacles emerge, transforming her from a normal-enough girl to a Magical Girl with green hair like tentacles. The rest of the chapter is her fighting various monsters, all of which seem to either be chasing her or trying to deal with both her parents' death and her own transformation.
The narrative returns to the story present, where she gets a threat by special delivery. When the doorbell rings again, it turns out to be the older brother of the kid she saved, coming to thank her for saving both their lives. Having dealt with that, and the almost awkwardness of her gelatinous little friend Glug peeking around the door and almost being noticed, she sets about repairing the window that got smashed in her with with Hastur's goons. But as she carries a load of boards up to the room, she discovers the window has repaired itself.
Unable to order a pizza because every pizzeria she calls hangs up on her, she decides to go take a walk -- which takes her right past the site of the epic fight in the sewer. The hole's now barricaded off, and there's a bunch of hard-hats trying to figure out how to go about getting it fixed. And then some random guy comes by, hands her a note, and asks her if she's found the Yellow Sign.
Chapter three begins with walking through a cemetery, looking at the note. It has Hastur's symbol on it, and the words "Beware of Assassins." The next thing she knows, someone throws a kunai at her, like something straight out of Naruto -- and more undead show up to help her. One of them gets a kunai stuck in his back, and when Calla pulls it out, discovers it's marked with the Elder Sign. In gratitude, the zombies lead her into an above-ground tomb that has a secret passage which will lead to another cemetery. Even as they're giving her vague hints about her parents, they're attacked by a nasty toothy monster that looks an awful lot like a sandworm out of Dune. And the physical resemblance isn't the only similarity. It's also attracted to the vibrations of human footsteps -- which means some terrifying minutes standing there in the tunnel, waiting for it to pass her by.
She no more than emerges from the other end of the tunnel than she's set upon by a mysterious hooded figure. They fight, and Calla discovers this is one of the team of assassins that have been sent to kill her. She is in fact the product of many generations of breeding, to be the host for Hastur's physical manifestation in the material world, and they are trying to kill her before the stars are right and he will be able to do it. It's at this point that the story comes full circle -- her actions in the opening scene, leaping in to rescue the kid form the monster when she could've passed right on by, is a significant reflection on her character as a person.
The ending is satisfactory, but it still leaves the door open for a sequel. And if the creative team decides to put a sequel together, I'd definitely enjoy reading it.
Buy Calla Cthulhu from Amazon.com
Review posted January 3, 2021.
