Gou Tanabe - At the Mountains of Madness

[andydecker]

Gou Tanabe - At the Montains of Madness ([狂気の山脈にて] , 2016, this edition Carlsen Comics, 2020)

Since 2007 Japanese manga artist Gou Tanabe is adapting some of the major Lovecraft stories. They have been translated in a few countries, here is a German edition of At the Mountains of Madness. The adaption is rather faithful to the original.

A few pages. It was difficult to select, as the artwork is impressive.

There is another adaption from French artist François Baranger which has a very different approach. It is the original story with large illustrations. Also very impressive.

[enoch]

That artwork is fantastic.  I should get this.

Are you familiar with Francois Baranger's illustrations for At the Mountains of Madness?

[andydecker]

Jan 5, 2024 3:29:43 GMT enoch said:

That artwork is fantastic.  I should get this.

Are you familiar with Francois Baranger's illustrations for At the Mountains of Madness?

I was kind of lucky that the Tanabe was also released digital. It can enhance the artwork and nowadays makes scanning easier.

I have seen only Baranger's Call of Cthulhu. I browsed it in a shop, also a translaton. It is an oversized hardcover, 27x36 cm. The  original story is printed over the illustrations. It has some great illustrations, but also quite a few rather mundane, which of course is due to the story. And the price was naturally a bit steep. Not that I am complaining in this case, it is a gorgeous production. I will try to get a sample of Mountains.

[enoch]

I entirely agree about Baranger's Call of Cthulhu.  I bought it after I had gotten  ATMOM and was a little disappointed.  His ATMOM is leagues better.  The books are quite pricey, yes.  I don't regret spending the money for the two volumes of ATMOM, but would probably not buy Cthulhu again if I had the choice.  I hope he does "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" next; would love to see what he can do with that.

[andydecker]

Jan 5, 2024 13:26:36 GMT enoch said:

I entirely agree about Baranger's Call of Cthulhu.  I bought it after I had gotten  ATMOM and was a little disappointed.  His ATMOM is leagues better.  The books are quite pricey, yes.  I don't regret spending the money for the two volumes of ATMOM, but would probably not buy Cthulhu again if I had the choice.  I hope he does "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" next; would love to see what he can do with that.

It is the same with Tanabe. He did quite a few other HPL stories, but some may not be that visually interesting. I can see the appeal of material like The Temple or Dagon which has great set-pieces, but The Hound?  Shadows over Innsmoth? Hm. Except the part under the sea I never thought about it.

Only managed to get scans of the covers of Baranger. But unlike American comics with great covers and disappointing interior art this is pretty much how the rest looks like.

After seeing both I truly wondered why Clark Ashton Smith hasn't been discovered yet for such adaptions. We have such sights to show you, could be the motto.

[enoch]

Very much agree about Clark Ashton Smith.  

I suppose that I would like to see what Baranger can do with "Shadows Over Innsmouth" because I've seen a couple of other art treatments for that story that really impressed me.  One was Berni Wrightson's pre-production sketches for a film treatment that (sadly) never got made.  I saw some of Wrightson's art for that and it was SUPERB.  I wish he had taken that stuff and made a graphic novel out of it, but so far as I know, nothing was done with his art.  Some of the originals were sold at auction, I know.

Another treatment I liked was, believe it or not, for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.  They put out a supplement titled "Escape from Innsmouth" that had a very atmospheric cover and wonderful black & white interior illustrations.  Art for games is often pretty bad, but this was a notable exception.