The Colour Out of Space

[cornerofmadness]

H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space by Gou Tanabe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am really enjoying Gou Tanabe's adaptation of the Lovecraftian verse and that's a hard sentence to type because I have strong feelings about Lovecraft himself. It's that thing where you can't deny his writings are some of the most influential in SF/Horror but on the hand, the man was awful. Of course supporting this problematic creator feels less heinous because he's been gone so long.

Anyhow, soap box moment aside, seriously Gou's art is outstanding. It's different from most of what you see in manga. It's incredibly realistic and the line art is beyond detailed. Every panel has so much time invested in it and you can see the passion the artist has for this work. (I'd love to see them take on different horror classics)

As for the story itself, it's one of Lovecraft's good ones. A surveyor is out in the deep woods talking to someone most people consider insane. As a younger man he witnessed something fall from the sky and hit his neighbor's farm. The meteor shrank with time confusing the scientists from Misktaonic University. It also because a technicolor plague on the land. Everything flourished but was poisoned at its core, first the veggies then the animals and finally the family itself.

It's a very good bit of cosmic horror with a touch of SF horror and body horror mixed in. I'm glad I read it. It's been decades since I've read Lovecraft and it's been interesting to revisit him as an adult via Gou Tanabe's adaptations.



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