Calla Cthulhu

by Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Erin Humiston (Illustrator)

Being a teenager isn't easy--especially after you learn you carry the bloodline of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones in your veins. Instead of a summer job and checking out colleges, Calla Tafali finds herself battling supernatural monsters, human assassins, and her uncle, The King in Yellow. She must resist his call to embrace her own chaotic heritage and join the "family business," as well as prevent the awakening of the terrible deity asleep and dreaming in the corpse city of R'lyeh--the Dread Dead One! Prepare yourself for weird action, adventure and mystery in the Mighty Mythos Manner



   • A fun, fresh take on Lovecraft's Mythos for a new generation.

   • Originally serialized on the digital platform Stela.

   • All-star creative Evan Dorkin has won a Harvey Award and 6 Eisner Awards and Sarah Dyer has won a Lulu Award

"Calla may be the first Lovecraftian coming-of-age tale." --Paste Magazine

"The panels pop with irresistible action and a story that's just visually fun to read."-- Black Nerd Problems

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Fantasy, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Comics, Cthulhu Mythos

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 2017

About the author

Evan Dorkin is an American comics artist and writer.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Lovecraft. Loved the animation style art. A very quick read even at 200+ pages. Most pages are only a panel or two. Felt very much like reading the storyboards for a cartoon.

Received an advance copy from Dark Horse and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, the minute I spotted the names "Evan Dorkin" and "Sarah Dyer" on this, no further factors needed to be considered for my buying decision. Adding Cthulhu to the mix just makes me sprint rather than saunter over to the register ...

This was heaps of eldritch fun! Calla Tafali is of the bloodline of Cthulhu (eeeeeewwww!). Her uncle is Hastur, the King in Yellow. He wants her to embrace her destiny and bring about destruction when the stars are right. She'd much rather fight evil and help people, because there's a sheep that's the color out of space in every family.

This series is just the right combination of action, horror, and tongue in cheek. It reads like a Lovecraftian riff on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. This is only volume 1, but it already shows promise. Recommended!

[Lexie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun!!

Oddly enough I have little knowledge of Lovecraft or Cthulhu, but toss Buffy on anything and I'm on it.

That being said, I really enjoyed this, even if I was confused in the beginning.

Longer review to come!

[Robert Bussie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an action packed story with an excellent cartoon art style. This book excels at letting the art tell the story. Too man times comic books are way to wordy trying to explain the story. The art is there to not only look pretty, but also to convey the plot and tone of the story. This book gets it right!

The only problem with this book is that it leaves on a cliff hanger and there does not seem to be a sequel.... Maybe some day they will continue the story.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The back description says it all, "being a teenager isn't easy - especially after you learn you carry the bloodlines of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones in your veins..."

Also the name pun is awful...ly wonderful.

[Aditi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Badass characters + amazing illustration + monsters + incredible fight scenes

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

The animated art style is great and will please fans of Doug Tennapel, but at 240 pages it's waaay too long to be what turns out to be just the first act of a larger story.

[Carla A · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into this but had a pleasing enough ending to inspire me to read on if I remember to...

[Leigh Kimmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story begins with trouble in an urban sewer. A kid is tossed out of a manhole, and then a green-haired girl pokes her head out and yells for the kid to run. And then the manhole explodes with salmon tentacles and the battle is on. She defeats the unseen monster, then goes to see that the kid is OK before heading home -- only to discover an unwelcome visitor: Hastur the Unspeakable, along with some of his goons, talking like a mob godfather. Which leads to another epic fight.

And then our green-haired protagonist wakes up, to be greeted by her little friend Glug, which leads into Chapter 2, which tells us how Calla got into this mess. Once she was a rather ordinary Italian-American young woman -- until her parents died, and and were laid to rest in a double funeral. Suddenly strange things are coming after her, and her hair turns green and twisty like tentacles.

Strange people and stranger beings keep showing up, trying to push her toward a supposed destiny. Meanwhile, two other young women, a team of monster hunters, are after her, and there are zombies that may or may not be dangerous. A flight through underground tunnels and a final confrontation that brings us full circle to that epic fight at the beginning.

The ending's rather ambiguous, and very much leaves the door open for future volumes in this story.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fine quick little read. The art is sharp, clean and bright. I don't know much about Lovecraft but it was an interesting story. The only issue I had was that characters just kinda pop-up, everyone becomes friends and then something else happens. More characters pop-up, terrible things happen and then become friends. It just seems like a lot of quick story progressions without any build up. I'm a fan of slow character build-up. I know it's difficult to move slowly in a graphic novel but man this was throwing characters at you left and right. All that being said I may pick up the next one eventually but I'm not dying to read it.

[Mark Schlatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually don't like YA coming of age works, but I've been a huge fan of Evan Dorkin's work (along with Sarah Dyer) and was intrigued by the idea of a protagonist who is an heir to Cthulhu-like goings-on, but doesn't want to be part of them. I found this okay, but not great. There's an excellent sense of humor, but not a lot of depth. The character design is nice, but I was thrown off by the transition of the work from digital to print. There is a lot of changing panel sizes with changing font sizes, and few of the pages felt organic. The whole thing probably works better on mobile than paper.

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m sorry to have to write this review because I love Evan Dorkin’s work. However, first, this book is a terrible digital-to-print conversion. Many panels are reproduced way too large, and, as other reviewers have noted, the size of the lettering changes radically from panel to panel. The original webcomic must have been designed to be read one panel at a time, and the book preserves that format, so most pages are just one or two panels. As a result, the book is an even quicker read than an average manga. This means, furthermore, that even though there are technically 200 pages, the writers have insufficient time to develop their setting or characters.

[Ruz El · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice twist to the usual Lovecraft style stuff, this one finds a young woman inheriting a legacy she's ill-prepared for, encountering weird creatures and perhaps existing to for an apocalyptic destiny. It's a fun story, the art is fun too with cartoon-y, exaggerated style that I thought worked. I believe this was first a webcomic, but the translation to book worked really well. Really, my only complaint is that by the end it feels like it's settling into a groove and as far as I know there's no current plans for more. I want more! MORE! Everyone buy this so they make more!

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

** I received an e-advance reader copy of this book through Edelweiss+ **

Fun, fast-paced and intriguing re-interpretation of the Cthulhu mythos! I loved the illustrations and loved the characters. There wasn't much character build-up or background yet but I suspect that will come later, as in many graphic novels. This would be a great introduction to Lovecraftian horror for younger or more visual readers. Can't wait for the next issue!

[Chris Zable · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled on this in our local comic store yesterday and fell in love. Have read the thing twice through since then despite being busy with other things. Spunky teenage girl fights monsters, but rather than being the one who is destined to fight monsters like Buffy, she is the one who is destined to become a monster but is fighting back hard. Really cute art, lots of action. I want more and it's driving me nuts that I need to wait until I'm not sure when for there to be more.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Cthulhu mythos that I read this week that I considered "a lot of fun".

It's written on a level where adults can enjoy, but so can YA and middle grade readers. My 11-year-old enjoyed it and read it in one sitting. He said "it went into a lot of detail in some parts" - he felt the same way I did - we both want more. And he asked "what's happening with the ghouls?" I don't know! Good question.

Take a look!

[Tina Dalton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cthulhu myth is continued in the Calla who doesn't exactly know who she is or why she has these weird powers or why monsters are chasing her, and the issue isn't made all that clear to readers until last few pages. Maybe if I was more familiar with the Cthulhu mythos I would have understood things a bit more. I did love the art and the action sequences.

[Dragoonfliy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun Cthulhu Mythos-based coming of age story about a girl with an otherworldly bloodline just trying to be a good person.

I really enjoyed this! This art is nice and colorful, the Mythos lore was nicely done and very entertaining (calling The King in Yellow a "raggy Halloween costume" is probably one of the funniest things I've seen to date, Mythos-wise). Actually I just like Hastur as some creepy, kind of overbearing uncle in general, and his design is lovely. I hope a lot of the characters that were briefly introduced and then disappeared return as well!

It's thick, but a lot of the pages have very few panels, which worked with the nice bright art for me.

Finger very much crossed for a second volume!

[Geppis Baltimore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun young-adult graphic novel with a spooky twist! Calla Tafali is the teenage descendant of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones. She finds herself having to fight monsters, as if being a teenager wasn't hard enough! This fast-paced read is perfect not only for Halloween, but for lovers of monsters and the paranormal. ~Elisa

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book encountered first as it passed through the library. It's fairly fun, a very quick and light sort of read. Like pretty much anything else that borrows from the Lovecraft Mythos, it distorts things into a good and evil morality, but that is expected at this point. Enjoyable enough book, though relatively little substance.

[Ben Zimmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had a rocky start, but by the end I was into it. This is a fun introduction to Cthulhu for readers who don't have patience for purple prose and creeping horror. Perfect for middle school or high school age readers who like horror and the supernatural. I don't get the impression the rest of this story is going to get a physical release, which is kind of a bummer.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer? Instant buy!
What if Buffy the Vampire Slayer had the bloodline of the Great Old Ones? What, you've never asked yourself that? Well, this comic provides the answer so you won't have to!
Fast paced, breezy fun. I'll definitely read the next volume.

[Markku Kesti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paljon petattiin kaikenlaista, mutta vähän perus, jossa päähenkilö on ihan herkkusienenä eikä tiedä mistään ja kaikki ympärillä ovat tietäväisen näköisiä ja mutisevat kohtaloista ja muusta sellaisesta.

[Trace Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calla is so well drawn, reading Calla Cthulu was like watching a movie. I NEED PART 2!!!!!! Kick ass female characters and that green hair...I didn't know I wanted green hair. Of course, it would never look as cool as Callas.

[Paul W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea is better than the execution. I enjoyed this, but I felt it took a long time to get to the heart of the story. I wish it had opened with the meat of the story instead of in media res. It felt longer than it should have and the denouement was a little disappointing.

[Kiersten Buckner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good graphic novel! Great artwork and interesting characters. Knowledge of HP Lovecraft Mythos is definitely a plus when reading this. I'm interested to see if there is more to come for this series.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cthulu graphic novel for the teen crowd....plus girl power

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

There need to be more of these. Lots more.

[Nicole Westen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this and I can't wait for the next volume. It really reminded me of the Courtney Crumrin series.