Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu (Vol 3), by Cynthia von Buhler (BOOK REVIEW)

Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu (Vol 3), by Cynthia von Buhler

Spoilers for previous volumes

Sensational artist Cynthia von Buhler melds her glorious illustrations with the eldritch elements of HP Lovecraft and Aleister Crowley.

Inspired by a true WWII maritime operation, shocking satanic events, monstrous men, and one salacious sea creature, this volume tells the tale of Minky’s encounter with legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, creator of the dreaded Cthulhu.

Following the death of Harry Houdini, Minky is approached by the occultist and writer Aleister Crowley to help vindicate him from an accusation of murder. This throws Minky into an occult underworld and leads to a much bigger investigation involving a missing man and Britain’s secret service. Meanwhile, Lovecraftian horrors plague her dreams, and it’s up to Minky to discover the connections between the two writers and the mysterious death of her mother. Based on an actual WWII maritime operation inspired by a detective novel, Minky discovers how writers, including Ian Fleming, helped end WWII.

From the mind of lauded artist, author, and playwright, Cynthia von Buhler, this third instalment in the gumshoe detective series takes the thrills and twists to new heights!

Back in my youth, I adored original comic-books. The combination of art and writing was such a great medium for storytelling. My wallet never really forgave me.

Since then, I’ve not been as up-to-date with current releases as I’d like, but was very intrigued to hear about this collection. The adventures of Minky Woodcock were new to me, so I dove straight in – which is likely an approach our heroine would approve of!

From the first, we can see that this is a very traditional type of comic art in its colour and style, but which portrays events that would have seen it very determinedly banned by the 1950s Comics Code Authority! This is for Mature Readers, which allows it to blossom appropriately given the subject matter.

The narrative is a Who’s Who of Suspect Characters from the past, coming together to investigate cosmic mystery, war conspiracies and simple revenge. Bringing together notable names from history who may or may not have met in reality, Cynthia von Buhler weaves a narrative that literally involves Lovecraft and his mythology, Aleister Crowley and his reputation, a spy called Fleming and various others of varying levels of fame. I was reminded of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, albeit utilising real people rather than literary characters; but as the story progresses, it became clear that this was more akin to his Lost Girls book (complete with sex and drugs).

The thread running through the tale is Minky herself, a ‘plucky heroine’ in the manner of Golden Age ‘Flash Gordon’ and its ilk, albeit with less qualms about social expectations. She’s brave, determined and pretty shameless about getting what she wants, while also being a loyal friend, tying modern femininity with traditional Lady Detective tropes.

Crowley is a suitably wicked villain without really deviating from who he was, Lovecraft and his wife are handled very honestly, and the overall historical accuracy felt refreshing. This is one of those tales that seems exaggerated, although as shown in the prose epilogue, there’s very little that needed to be touched up for the story. These are Characters in every sense, and it’s rather thrilling to imagine ‘what if’ in this way.

I suspect that for some readers this will all seem a bit too bizarre, with limitless coincidences (unless it’s fate?), several explicit scenes and a story that speeds along full-tilt with Minky clearly at the wheel – but if you want a cracking otherworldly quasi-historic adventure tale, buckle up and enjoy.

Fantasy-Hive

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Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu (Vol 3), by Cynthia von Buhler (BOOK REVIEW)

Spoilers for previous volumes

The Girl called Cthulhu is due for release 8th July – you can pre-order your copy from Titan Comics or Bookshop.org

Cat Treadwell

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