H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories, adaptation and art by Gou Tanabe, translated by Zach Davisson

Dark Horse, 2017

ISBN: 9781506703121

Available: print

Gou Tanabe, known in Japan for using manga to adapt literary works, has adapted three tales of the macabre in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories. This volume includes “The Temple,” “The Hound,” and “The Nameless City.” Each of the tales includes information regarding when the story was written and published. Dark Horse hopes to publish further volumes of Tanabe’s Lovecraft adaptations in the future.

In “The Temple”, a German submarine crew is driven to madness by a mysterious influence. The captain eventually discovers an underwater temple. Will he, too, fall prey to the madness? Two decadent young men are obsessed with the practice of grave robbing in “The Hound”. Their midnight escapades lead to a deadly discovery. An explorer in the Arabian desert discovers an ancient city when he passes through a mysterious doorway into “The Nameless City.” What he sees on the other side is pure nightmare fuel.

H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories is the first manga I have read by Tanabe, and I need to pick up more of his work. This is a must for Lovecraft fans. The dialogue is minimal, leaving Tanabe’s artistic work do much of the communicating. The artwork is all in black and white which lends to the oppressive and macabre atmosphere of the source material. Recommended.

Contains: images of the macabre

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker