H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, Volume 2

H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness #3-4

by Gou Tanabe (Illustrator), 田辺 剛, H.P. Lovecraft (Original Text)

FROM THE ARTIST OF THE EISNER-NOMINATED H.P. LOVECRAFT'S THE HOUND AND OTHER STORIES!

Dyer and Danforth from the Miskatonic University research team take their small plane through the unknown Antarctic mountain range--and land to explore the vast, cyclopean alien city that lies beyond it. Here at last they will discover the hideous secret of all life on Earth . . . but can they escape these uttermost vaults at the bottom of the world, and keep sanity enough to warn mankind...? The conclusion of At the Mountains of Madness!

Genres: Manga, Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Gou Tanabe is a Japanese creator of Manga.

Also known as 田辺 剛.

(Some prefer the spelling Gō Tanabe, but Gou Tanabe is used on his published books so far.)

Reviews

[Orrin Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the two-page spreads in this are among the best I have ever seen.

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

(1) So Lovecraft had actually quoted Poe's works (I mean 'The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket ')!!!! *excited*

(2) When we get to the point when a certain creature shows up, I really don't have anything to say except 'Fuck'.

(3) All these landscapes, it just looks like a freaking ancient, massive cathedral from some madman's nightmares!

(4) I like the history of the Great Old Ones, this thing is not the most creative story in the history of Sci-Fi but it will do.

(5) Last but not least, Cthulhu and his minors show up for a few pages. LOL

(6) Gou Tanabe is the Savior of all Lovecraft fans, I mean it.

PS: I totally don't think too highly of Guillermo del Toro's upcoming (?) At the Mountains of Madness adaptation, I don't believe he understands the spirit of Lovecraft's stories well. LOL

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, Volume 2, adapted by Gou Tanabe, is the second and final volume of this manga adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. It continues the high quality presentation that the previous volume set. In this volume, the expedition continues to search for clues as the ancient structures they have found in the deep snow and ice of Antarctica, and determine the fate of their missing and murdered fellow survey members. In the depths of ancient towers, they discover the horrifying tale of pre-human madness, and something much more terrifying...

This was an excellent conclusion to this series, and really captures the pulpy wonder of Lovecraft's stories, with high quality graphics and illustrations substituting corny and pulpy descriptive narrative offered by Lovecraft in his writings. No shade, I do enjoy a Lovecraftian tale, but this is an excellent way to present the medium to a modern audience, and in my opinion, I even prefer it slightly. All aside, this is a great way to reexperience (or try for the first time) this classic piece of pulp science fiction in a modern medium.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely done! Lovecraft is a difficult writer to adapt for visual media because so much of his appeal depends on mood and language. He’s best known, in fact, for avoiding descriptions, letting the reader’s imagination fill in the blanks.

And yet Gou Tanabe has done a fine job of adapting the unadaptable. He manages to convey an atmosphere of mounting dread, and has the visual chops to make the key scenes pay off without disappointing. I don't want to spoil anything, although, really, this is one story with which anyone purporting to be a student of horror fiction should be familiar. It's a classic tale by an iconic author, for crying out loud!

Ahem. Anyway, this is an excellent adaptation, well worth reading. Obviously, you should start with volume one. This is worth reading in physical media, as I have difficulty imagining that an ebook will do justice to the silver ink on the front cover and first page among other details. Highly recommended!

[Drew Canole · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite adapations of a novel ever. I had just read At the Mountains of Madness, so it was fresh in my head. In a lot of ways this was better than the book, which is made more impressive by the fact that a lot of people maintain that H.P. Lovecraft can't be done well in a visual medium. He relies so much on the creatures being indescribable. Perhaps this book just works better than his others. The novel was very description heavy, so this reads a bit more smoothly.

This second volume doesn't disappoint. The artwork continues to impress and the story ends in a satisfactory manner.

I'd recommend this as a companion piece to the novel, but it can also stand on its own.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't at the moment think of better graphic novel adaptation of Lovecraft's work than this one. These two volumes are the complete tale probably as close as a graphic novel can get to the original material. The art gets a little complicated at times but that's because Tanabe was going for a truly epic scale.

If you're a Lovecraft fan you really should read this.

[Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect adaptation. Tanabe's depictions of Lovecraft's creatures are some of the best I've ever seen, somehow managing to be just detailed enough to strike fear, and just vague enough to spark the imagination. Beautifully done.

[Pablo Mallorquí · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mantiene las virtudes del primer volumen y lo mejora. Este cómic se une a Uzumaki en ser los únicos mangas que me han causado verdadera inquietud. Lo que hace Gou Tanabe para trasladar la atmósfera opresiva del relato de Lovecraft pero mejorando el ritmo y rellenando las elipsis no tiene nombre. Las montañas de la locura es una obra sobresaliente, que se une a un dibujo que está en otra liga. Es difícil representar visualmente el imaginario de Lovecraft pero aquí el resultado es brillante.

No puedo decir más, cualquier aficionado al cómic y a la literatura de género lo tendría que leer. Durante todo el tomo el autor te deja sin aliento. Una joya.

[Bogdan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The drawings are great, but this is more of a story of how to create a strange and creepy atmosphere than one having real conflicts in it.

So, I would lie if I`ll say that I wasn`t a little bit bored.

But it`s one of those works that made Lovecraft so big today and influenced along the way a lot of other writers, so it deserves some praises and a lot of appreciations from our part.

[Paul Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the praise heaped upon Gou Tanabe's HP Lovecraft adaptations is fully justified. His two volume adaptation of At The Mountains of Madness is a stupendous achievement. It is very faithful to the source material and Tanabe's art is so imaginative and detailed that it is breathtaking. There are so many pages where I stopped and just took in all the intricacies of the art. This is a must buy for any Lovecraft fans and anyone interested in Japanese horror comics.

[Václav · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3,8 of 5 for a brief history of Old ones on the Earth)
Well, all my criticism/disliking about the first volume holds here too, but I liked the second volume (the third and fourth book) better. And that's because one thing - the major part of it is a retelling of the Old one's history, their struggles on the Earth. And I like that. It's enlightening, interesting and simple enough not to get too complicated. And it's a perfect window to the "Lovecraftian mythos". Still, there is a problem with the rest where the execution of the idea is not that good, at least for me.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastically detailed adaptation of Lovecraft’s novel, the illustrations do justice to the indescribable horror of Lovecraft’s (arguable) masterpiece.

[Etienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! A manga that really capture the essence of Lovecraft. The art could have been clearer, some scenes become a big confuse or just too dark at time, but most of the art is good and I would really recommend it for those of you who want to explore the surrounding of the Lovecraft universe.

[Sacha Declomesnil · Rating 5 out of 5]

C’est tellement parfait pour un amoureux des mangas bercé à la science fiction de Lovecraft comme moi. Le meilleur des deux mondes. Pour les dessins, pour le suspense, et pour la nostalgie de retomber dans des univers découverts il y a 20 ans et jamais totalement oubliés. Si tu as déjà croisé dans tes lectures au moins une fois le mot Nécronomicon, tu vas adorer ce manga, garanti!

[Ευθυμία Δεσποτάκη · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μια από τις πιο ταιριαστές μάνγκα διασκευές του γνωστού αφηγήματος του Λάβκραφτ. Είναι τόοοοσο ταιριαστή που χρειάζεται δύο τόμους των 300 παρά κάτι σελίδων για να μας αφηγηθεί ένα βιβλίο των 150 σελίδων που κανονικά έπρεπε να γραφεί ως διήγημα δέκα σελίδων. Τι άλλο να πει κανείς; :P

Τα τοπία, όμως... ω, αυτά τα τοπία. Ω αυτά τα τοπία. Και μόνο γι' αυτά χαλάλι οι 600 σελίδες.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly... this is better than Lovecraft.

Not only is Gou Tanabe's art work utterly gorgeous (the spreads in these two volumes offer a master class in black and white drawing), but he's also able to transpose and adapt Lovecraft's insular, repetitively overwrought prose into a propulsive visual style.

This does a fantastic job of balancing action with atmospherics, and it feels almost cinematic at times.
And Unlike virtually all the film adaptations of Lovecraft this comic gets the sheer weight of his doomy ambiance. It's Antarctica, it's BIG and it's DESOLATE. And that's before things get weird.

At the Mountains of Madness also contains some of Lovecraft's most mind-bending ideas and descriptions. Tanabe does a phenomenal job articulating in ink drawings ideas that Lovecraft conveyed poorly in ink letters. What more can I say? This is a totally masterful adaptation that feels like an improvement on the original.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 2 of this amazing adaptation by Gou Tanabe of Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" was as spectacular as the first volume as the second Antarctica expedition tries to uncover what became of the first lost party.
Tanabe's stippling, fine line, and incredible brushed ink work in splendid black and white compliment the horrific look and feel to Lovecraft's story.
The reader is right there along with the investigation of the wondrous hidden city built by the Shoggoths.
Highly entertaining and well worth the time!

[fonz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente adaptación de la novela de Lovecraft en la que Gou Tanabe afina su estilo ya exhibido en "El color que cayó del espacio", "Haunter of the dark" o el primerizo "El sabueso". En este caso Tanabe logra una adaptación fiel (incluso aparece la mención a la organización política "socialista" de los Antiguos, algo que siempre me hizo mucha gracia) pero más orgánica y fluida que en obras anteriores, prescindiendo del corta/pega en los textos de apoyo y manteniendo los puntos fuertes de su narrativa cinematográfica; el manejo de la ritmo y la tensión, la contundente presencia física de los mostros lovecraftianos y la recreación de un ambiente amenazador gracias a su detallada representación del entorno empleando su gran capacidad para la imaginación visual y una pericia al dibujo de lo grandioso y lo terrorífico sólo superada por Kentaro Miura y su equipo en los momentos más desmelenados de "Berserkr". Lástima que esta edición de Dark Horse en dos tomos de pequeño tamaño perjudiquen gravemente este aspecto del grafismo de Tanabe, convirtiendo alguna de las potentes viñetas y splash pages en abigarradas y confusas tormentas de manchas en bitono gris.

[Ignacio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todo lo que escribí sobre el primer tomo se puede aplicar para este, el segundo y último, acentuado por esa atmósfera opresiva y amenazante de cuando se entra en la ciudad, se conoce su historia y se araña una mínima parte de lo que ocurre en su interior.

[Executionereniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dude, you canNOT be human and be able to draw this at the same time.

[Sylvia Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the Mountains of Madness is one of my favorite works from Lovecraft, solely just for how eerie the concept of the novella is. Antarctica is a spooky place by itself. Giant ice continent on the bottom of the world? Uh, no thank you (in that creeped out, investigative kinda way). Add a city older than the Earth and strange beings that defy human understanding? Ohhh man. Some of the writing in the novella was a little tedious (I think he calls them “the Mountains of Madness” like six or seven times in the story...), but that’s where this adaptation excels. A lot of the writing is fleshed out into visuals, with an overhead narration guiding us along. These excerpts are finely curated from the story to really enhance the intrigue, mystery, horror, or disgust we’re about to feel as we turn the page.

Gou Tanabe takes the best parts of Lovecraft’s narration and combines them with breathtaking visuals that breathe chilling, eldritch life into the pages. Seriously, some of these splash pages are the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen. Some of these pages I wanna rip out of the book and hang on the wall!

Cosmic horror is a genre that relies on non-specific visuals to scare readers with the unfathomable unknown. Somehow, Tanabe’s artwork honors that tradition, while simultaneously giving us what we want: a good look at the beasts!

The city itself is just breathtakingly horrific. As an artist, I’m baffled at how much time Tanabe must’ve put into these pages. The amount of detail is so immense that it honestly can be a little confusing to look at in some places (I think this only adds to the terror).


All in all, this is an incredibly faithful adaptation and it deserves your time. I own the first volume and found this at the library. It’s so good however, that I would love to own it and will have it on my own shelf before the end of the year. If you’re itching for some terror out of the aeons, don’t miss this one.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first reading a book like this, and it was a good one, both story and art. The art was intricate and must have been time consuming. The color plates were marvelous. I soon got used to reading back to front.

New to this method of "reading", I attempted to let it do what I thought it was supposed to, and that is convey mood and feeling through visual. Because I knew the story and style of the author (HP Lovecraft), this turned out to be something a little different. Almost always in the process of conveying mystery and the ultimate horror but never naming it or providing an absolute descriptive, it was WONDERFUL to see the artist's conception, his vision. It was always imagination, or maybe the what are the primal fears that Lovecraft drew upon.

I will look this artist/author up again for sure.

[Catarina Prata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a great and thrilling ending! This second part had way more double page spreads, so much landscape and ruin art and wow. It was amazing! Dark and creepy, and I love how the mythos of lovecraftian tales were just so perfectly woven together.

[John of Canada · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently finished the print version OF At the Mountains of Madness. After reading the manga versions(parts 1&2) I have decided I want to read mangas of every book I read from now on. The artwork was spectacular, and every question I had about the original book was answerered. Bravo Gou Tanabe!

[Canavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

✭✭✭

[Myles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another incredible adaptation from Tanabe. His artwork fits so perfectly with Lovecraft, especially AtMoM. With volume 1, again my only complaint is the small pages that Dark Horse went with make it harder to see the intricate details of the art.

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

That's how you adapt Lovecraft.

Over two volumes, Tanabe has delivered a powerful telling of HPL's epic Antarctican tale - with energy, tension and without losing the depth of the story, this works magnificently.

Much talk has been made of a cinematic adaptation, with Del Toro at the forefront...but his adaptation of Pickman's Model was poor in my opinion, and should the project ever go ahead then this should be the template...in fact get Tanabe involved...he clearly gets it.

Excellent.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tanabe’s artwork is incredible, and his mise-en-scene is like a master filmmaker. I’ll treasure both of these volumes.

[Seb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I thought Lovecraft wrote horror, not scifi 🤔 Either way, the story never took off and it felt flat to me.

Nice drawings, though. If it wasn't for them, I'd probably have DNF 🥱

[Callum Woodward · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge improvement in terms of engagement from the first volume, largely because it expands on the source material and decidedly puts effort and love into the visuals, despite it still being incredibly dark and suffering from it.

This was an enjoyable read. The way Tanabe expands on the original Lovecraft story and offers his own unique spin on the execution of it all makes this worth while in the Lovecraft canon of adaptions. This inclusion and explanation of how the Shoggoth and various other alien entities came into existence on Earth and the challenges they faced was highly unexpected but greatly appreciated, offering an insight that Lovecraft only alluded to in a sentence stating "of [their] life... volumes could be written" that results in a better story.

Regrettably, Tanabe's art suffers from the amount of black used throughout. Giving that most of this volume takes place inside caves, great care and detail was given to the background, making certain that rocks and slopes were able to be identified upon each frame. The issue is that while you *can* see the love and care gone into the background, it takes too much away from the foreground, especially in detailed shots where monsters take up most of the frame, blending in with the background as an unfortunate result. Tanabe is an incredible artist, doing some of the most stunning full page shots I've seen but without the white contrast that many other artists do, the gorgeous art gets lost and muddy. Too much time, love and effort was put into this for it to be so painfully unclear at times.

This story is one of the best adaptions that I've come across for At the Mountains of Madness. It expands on the original but still retains the scientific realism that so many enjoy about it. While I recommend you check this out if you're a fan of the original as well as manga, it's such an unbelievable shame how distracting and unclear the art is at times largely because it's obvious how much this story and much of Lovecraft's bibliography means to Tanabe with the amount of control he's had while creating this worthy inclusion to many Lovecraft fan's bookshelf.