Many works of Fiction can and HAVE gotten made into either: Anime and/or Manga. And though some could easily say that those stories DON’T translated well into the NEW “Medium”, H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness” does a FANTASTIC job at showing off the haunting world of a lone Study-Expedition to the Antarctic… and the DREAD OF WHAT BECOMES OF THEM… AFTER their THIRST for Knowledge takes them, one-after-the-other, deeper and DEEPER into the Snowy Mountains’ secrets....
“Takali-Li! Takali-Li!”
H.P. Lovecraft is of the MOST renowned “Science-Fiction” Authors of the 20th Century. With his suspenseful stories and Mythos connected to (At least… AT THE TIME) weird and UNHOLY creatures, and the younger and brave people who we follow through the stories that ENCOUNTER these monsters… and how their encounters leave LASTING IMPACTS on the characters’ psyches to live with from them on…!
Mix that we the GORGOUSE art of Gou Tanabe, who usually has a talent for writing manga based on Lovecraft’s worlds and Lore and has the talent to create the most BEAUTIFUL artwork to bring to life the REALISTIC look-and-feel to the grittiness and dread of paranormal hauntings for Lovecraft’s characters to explore.
“At the Mountains of Madness” is a story about a simple College Expedition in the early 1900s having sailed and landed at the Arctic to pay honor and expand on the findings and knowledge of other previous voyages before them to learn what further lays in the more CENTRAL parts of the “Icy Island”.
We are first to believe that our main character is the ambitious and willing youngster: Gedney. As the first few chapters focus on his venture to coming-aboard and sailing the seas with the rest of his crew to the island. (As we ALSO get a Narration of what the Crew is experiencing.) And the Crew docks and journeys through the Coast of Antarctica without problems!
It even starts talking about Geological readings and how and where the more CENTRAL portions of the Continent are most-likely located, given their science and readings, but as a storm starts brewing-up and Gedney’s ambition gets the better of him… After a few days of studying and even getting a small party lead by the Scientist: Professor Lake, to venture with him from the Main-Group, the story starts to turn… GRIZZLY.... The story decides to center on the “Captain” of the expedition, himself: William Dyer. As he grows naturally more worried about his Side-Team’s lack of response to how experimentation with Gedney’s theories are going, that he decides to take his group and go fly mobile-planes to where Gedney said he wanted his team to explore. From here, is where it “All” REALLY starts...
Spoiler, click to view
As all the planes land where they find Lake’s team’s plane, they find the camp that HIS team set-up, UNFORTUNETLY… IT’S DESTRYED. All the bodies are frozen-over and mangled-dead. Even the dogs aren’t saved from this unknown fate. While Dyer finds and reads one of the only few things to survive, Gedney’ Journal, we get an explanation to the FIRST mystery that would only BEGIN to unfold lies WITHIN THE SNOWY CENTRAL ICE LAND!
Although it isn’t WITHOUT FAULT.
Just like other famous Lovecraft books, as there are creatures that appear and are described to have live longer than the Human Race, along with their community and architecture. Sometimes, as Lovecraft’s writing more so of his characters describing the “HORRORS” of the Past-Creatures’ bizarreness from human’s understanding and/or likeness. As the characters explain about seeing objects or drawings that there is “NO WAY TO MAKE HUMANLY SENSE OF…!” Unlike in a NOVEL where having illustrations is optional, in Comics/Manga, illustrations are the KEY-TRAIT. And in this book, once the Main characters explore the mountain’s cave, not only do they see (Understandably) bizarre carvings and such, but some of the showings of the creatures’ history is SO complex and massive that it actually starts to CLUTTER the space shown on page! But I guess one could say: It’s more dependent on the TIMES it was written VS when the story was read. Lovecraft was an Author in the early “1900s” when NOVELS were the BIGGEST form of ENTERTAINMENT. And no one had the technology (Or maybe even inspiration) to show-off anything more inhumanly interesting as the terrifying imaginary creatures that Lovecraft created…! FAST-FORWARD TO 2020’s, AND NOW WE NOT ONLY HAVE BOTH TELEVISION AND THEATERS TO SEVERELY ENHANCE MASS AUDIENCES INTO PHYSICALLY-VIEWABLE WORLDS WITH DIRECTLY THREATENING CREATURES TO ONE’S OWN FACE…!
Also, let’s not forget about the biggest format of any-and-all information in the world… THE INTERNET.
Thus if audiences are too USED to being shown/given a certain type of creature or being to be exposed to for too long
(ESPECIALLY if the person exposing us to said creature just wants to keep shoving it on us for an attempted “Quick-Buck”...)
I think Dominic Noble: The Dom (“Lost in Adaptation” series - Ep. Dagon: 2:46) probably said it best:
I think maybe it’s a combination of my generation being jaded by movies trying to scare us and overexposure to it.
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Also, though it MAY still be in-style, the story begins with the first disaster already having HAPPEN, but then transitions to START the story with the Mystery Beginning “Sometime Earlier...”. Plus, how when Main Characters: Dyer and Danforth are exploring the cave, as Danforth realizes the danger of what may THREATEN THEIR LIVES moving forward, ALREADY having found their missing members, it is Dyer who seems mysteriously possessed to travel onwards until it’s too late not find the danger!
Spoiler, click to view
But then once the two travelers escape, DYER seems fine after having returned home and DANFORTH is affected by whatever in there!
- Side note: Once the traveler find the remains of their missing member: Gedney, reasonably, they notice that there is a SECOND sled to try and escape the horrors from, and it’s never found out who rode it!
This was a VERY good suspense book to read and discover the weird and horror/macabre worlds of H.P. Lovecraft. And Darkhorse did a GREAT job at giving it a Special Edition thick-cover WITH connected Bookmark Tassel.
As this is the ONLY H.P. Lovecraft book I’ve read, MYSELF, I’d advise anyone of discovering his works, ESPECIALLY in Manga-form...! But I’d still also advise keeping note of what I said earlier about the "Horror Game" having evolved SO MUCH from his time, that you MAY find it a little LESS scary than when it was originally published. Or maybe since it's illustrated in this Medium via. "Black and White" it could entice more....
