Unspeakable Vault (of Doom)

Unspeakable Vault (of Doom)

FranCois Launet

KettleDrummer Books, 2012

$19.95, Softcover

978-8415153627

Genre: Humor, Horror, Graphic Novel

Age: 14+

Description: A collection of FranCois Launet’s web comic that parodies H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, which chronicles the daily lives of the Great Old Ones.  

Opinion: This is a Spanish comic (as many of the books KettleDrummer publishes are) translated into English. It features a comedic take on the Cthulhu Mythos and the everyday lives of the Ancient Ones. It features cute versions of the monsters with cuter names, such as Chtulhoo, Yogzotot, Shoggies, Tindaloo, Deepoines, Zathoth, and so on. A lot of the comics in the 112-page volume feature the same running gag that, unfortunately, gets old pretty quick—stupid cultists attempt to raise Chtulhoo who then proceeds to eat them (in fact, “Yum,” is his catchphrase). Yogzatot is portrayed as soap bubbles which is cute (because his really character is like bubbles) who gets angry at anyone who calls him soap, implying he isn’t scary. The highlight of the collection though is the Shoogies who are gelatinous blobs of pink skin with tons of eyes. They provide a ton of comic relief (such as following Cthulhoo around asking why he created them, why did he give them tons of eyes, why, why, why, until Cthulhoo tries to stomp on them which creates more Shoogies instead of killing them). The book is very hit and miss with each strip but overall entertaining especially for Cthulhu fans. Unfortunately, the Spanish to English publisher, KettleDrummer Boooks, is somewhat notoriously bad for its translations. This book (along with R.I.P. by Aitor I. Erana, another Spanish web comic) are full of misspellings, words that are clearly missing from sentences, and so on, which sometimes halts the narrative as the reader stops and asks, “What?” and tries to find the missing meaning.