H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness (rank 2.5)

Publisher: Dark Horse
Volumes: 2/2 Omnibuses (Complete)
Seinen
Genre: Historical Fiction, Horror, Surreal Horror, Scifi

Summary: Following the footsteps of the famous early Antarctic explorers, a group of explorers and scientists from the Miskatonic University set out an expedition to explore and discover more of the unknown Antarctic continent. The story starts with the second half of the group catching up to the advance team that had reported some extraordinary findings, and then went silent. Fearing the worst, they set out to regroup with the other team, only to find them murdered in a grisly fashion. Then the story goes into flashback and recounts what had happened up to that point.

Afterwards, they go looking for the sole possible survivor only to find a horror beyond imagination. 

Review: So for those who aren’t familiar with this story, this is H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous story that establishes the Old Ones, Cthulhu, and the Shoggoths. This is done in a western art style, although it still reads right to left. The art style works well with the story IMO, although I know some won’t care for it.

Honestly, I had mixed feelings about it as adapted into a comic. The first half of the story felt somewhat bogged down with text heavy exposition and reads like very dry historical fiction. Although halfway through volume 1, it did start to get slightly more interesting as they discovered the first remains of the ancient life forms. Then in volume 2, it quickly turns into a story recounting the ancient epic of a great civilization well before the existence of humans. This IMO, is where the artwork really shines as the mangaka envisions some gorgeously surreal and aquatically inspired out-of-this-world alien life forms, and was easily the best part of the story.

On one hand this story just isn’t as accessible as the Hound and Other Stories and this type of horror- called “cosmic horror” is quite different from a lot of more typical horror stories. On the other hand, if anyone is interested in reading H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous story, I think this adaptation is more accessible and easier to read than the original text, as the adaptation added some more emotions for the scientists instead of just being a straight up retelling of what they found, plus there are the gorgeous illustrations.

Recommended: TLDR; Definitely recommended for H.P. Lovecraft fans, as the impressive illustrations are gorgeously detailed and creative additions to the Lovecraft lore. This graphic novel also works well as an introduction to the most famous H.P. Lovecraft story. But those looking for something more casually accessible and easy to read would probably be better off checking out the Hound and Other Stories.

Age Rating: Older Teen: for some graphic gore and very detailed monsters

Dementia 21 (rank 3)

Publisher: Book Loud (eBooks), Fantagraphics (Books, eBooks)
Volumes: 7/7 (Complete eBooks), 2/2 (Complete Omnibuses), In Print
Seinen
Genre: Surreal Comedy, Dark Comedy, Horror, Scifi

Summary: This is a bizarre collection of one chapter each short stories that are centered around Yukie Sakai, a young woman who works as a carer for the elderly. Except each story quickly warps into a surreal, dark comedy as poor Yukie gets stuck in ridiculous and impossible situations. These stories include things such as: a grandma who’s wrinkled, folded skin hides another dimension, apartment death bingo, Santa with dementia, infectious wrinkles, Killer Dentures, a cursed Diaper plague, elderly people battle royale, and many more!

Review: This series really surprised me how funny it was. This mangaka, Shintaro Kago, is most famous for his ero-guro works in Japan, and I tried to read Super-Dimensional Love Gun but got too grossed out and couldn’t finish it. But I might try again after reading this.

These are all short stories with the theme of elderly people and often with dementia. But it’s just the bizarre theme behind a crazy comedy. The short stories are subversively funny and they find humor in a dark concept. If I had to pick a favorite, I thought the story with the psychic grandma who explodes anything she has forgotten to be darkly hilarious. But there were many, many others that were also pretty entertaining too.

The majority of the short stories in this series are surreal/dark comedy, and then a few Horror and Scifi stories are in there as well. Overall the quality of the stories is very consistently original and creative, although it did kind of feel like he started running out of ideas towards the end in volume 7. But overall, very good.

Recommended: If you want to read an absurdist, bizarre dark comedy, this is really better than you'd expect. But if you find the premise distasteful, then you probably won't enjoy it.

Rating: Older Teen: this is more comedy than horror, and is not that graphic at all. But it is twisted. Also, between the 2 releases, the Book Cloud eBooks use Comic Sans and it’s kind of ugly. The Fantagraphics releases OTOH are gorgeous.

Other Works by this mangaka in English: Super-Dimensional Love Gun, (but this is nothing like Dementia 21), Secret Comics Japan (1 story in an Anthology), The Princess of the Never-Ending Castle

GoGo Monster (rank 2)

Publisher: Viz
Volumes: 1/1 Omnibus (Complete), OOP but still available in eBook
Shounen/Seinen (reads like)
Genre: Experimental Work, Surreal, Supernatural

Summary: 3rd grader Yuki Tachibana is known as a weirdo, and the other kids leave him alone. One day a new transfer student, Makoto Suzuki, is placed at the desk next to his, and curious, talks to him. Yuki tells him about the strange creatures, the others, who he claims have no bodies but he can sense them. They live on the unused fourth floor of the school. He says their leader, the powerful Super Star, has been missing and new others are the ones causing the mysterious problems the school has been having. But do these spirits really exist, or are they all the product of an overactive imagination?

Review: This is a hard manga to review, because there’s actually not a lot of dialogue or narration. Most of the story is conveyed in an unusual art style that shows the school and the events happening there in an almost dreamlike sequence, like how Yuki Tachibana sees the world. It’s hazy, distanced from reality and almost kind of floating through the school days as a sort of disconnected observer. 

Strange things happen, and seem ordinary at first, but then the strange happenings accumulate until the story reaches a surreal, bizarre, Alice in Wonderland like peak that’s easily one of the most unique manga I’ve read.

Ending Mild Spoilers:
In the end even though nothing is definitively explained, there are many tantalizing clues to support both sides, hallucination, or real.

Recommended: This is not at all a conventional manga, it’s an experimental work that has a sort of mix of the haze from a dream but also a vague sense of danger that lurks around the corner. It’s super unique but admittedly not for everyone. 

Age Rating: PG: more on the slightly disturbing side than anything graphic

Other Works by this mangaka in English (from most to least popular): Ping Pong, Tekkon Kinkreet, Blue Spring, Sunny, Number 5, Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators (1 Story in an Anthology), Cats of the Louvre, The Tipping Point (1 Story in an Anthology)