The Calling: Cthulhu Chronicles

by Michael Alan Nelson, Christopher Posseni (Illustrator)

There is an Old One sleeping that will hear … THE CALLING!

After a series of horrific events, four strangers are left searching for answers to their personal tragedies. But as they struggle to make sense of these terrible occurrences, they are brought together by the discovery of a dark scheme that threatens the existence of everything they have ever known. An unspeakable evil is about to be unleashed onto the world. An evil known only as...Cthulhu.

Genres: Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Lovecraftian, Graphic Novels Comics, Cthulhu Mythos, Comic Book

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Michael Alan Nelson grew up in a small Indiana farming community before moving to Los Angeles in 2002. He is the winner of the 2004 New Times 55 Fiction contest for his short-short "The Conspirators" and was awarded the 2011 Glyph Comics Award for Best Female Character for the character Selena from his series "28 Days Later." Michael is the author of the critically acclaimed comic series "Hexed," "Dingo," and "Fall of Cthulhu." His current ongoing titles include "Day Men" and the relaunch of the fan-favorite series "Hexed." His first prose novel, "Hexed: the Sisters of Witchdown" arrives May 5th, 2015. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Simon]

This has a really strong and intriguing opening, let down quite badly by an unfoccussed middle with badly introduced characters, and an abrupt and confusing conclusion.

[Judy Hall]

Four people are brought together by a series of tragic and unexplainable events. They find themselves confronting an unspeakable horro.

This was a quick and easy read, style wise, but the story telling was concise and scary. I liked the art design, except for the cover strangely enough. It looks like someone spilled a bag of Chee-tos to me. Everything else looked great.

[Michael]

Great and modernized Cthulhu story about anti-depressants, evil child kidnapping cults, and jet setting Italian fashion people. I liked.

[Michael J.]

Entertaining

I enjoy as all things Lovecraft and this story fits right in! I highly recommend for any fan of cosmic horror.

[The Smoog]

The story itself isn’t too bad, it’s actually quite a decent take on the genre. The problem lies with the fact that the two main characters are so unlikable. The abrupt ending doesn’t help either, but at least it wraps the story up quite nicely, while leaving plenty of room for a sequel, the former being something so many stories seem reluctant to do these days.

[Javier Trost]

I enjoyed this take on the Cthulhu Mythos. What works for me was the tying in of Big Pharma and it's role in the end of the world. This was good social commentary on what we have allowed ourselves to become. It also has the noir feeling but set in a more modern era. If the story continues, I would like to see where it goes.

[Jameson]

Not perfect but the Polaroid gimmick is so creepy I’ve read this three times since it was released. I’d love to see the story retold. A lot happens in these four issues and most of it isn’t very fleshed out.

[Gareth]

Compared to Fall of Cthulhu and later Hexed (that I've read since), this one just wasn't very memorable at all - I recall it wasn't a bad read, but can't really remember much more than that, making it hard to recommend beyond something to just pass time by with.

[Jesús]

Score: 4/10

Es muy difícil ser original en adaptaciones de Lovecraft, y si bien el cómic tiene momentos, deja gusto a poco.

[J]

Woof this was no good

[Daniel Goulas]

where are the sequels?

[Grant Smith]

I really enjoyed this book. The story was classic Cthulhu mythos and the way everything was connected was really fantastic.

[Charles]

nice Cthulhu short

Good creepy short graphic novel - a Cthulhu tale that isn’t over the top nor funky. Might have been a good movie.

[Sal]

Good story, average art.

[James]

The book started very strongly with atmosphere to spare and blended more modern concepts like pharmaceutical businesses with the creeping psychosis of the tales of Lovecraft, but for all the plot and atmosphere in the beginning, the middle feels too quick in its attempt to pull our "heroes" together and this means the ending, a rather convincing one in some measures, feeling more hollow than it should. A resolution which should have had us questioning who we sided with - if a death really solved anything - instead just felt like it was resolved too easily and while there is an interest in reading the author's other Cthulhu tales, I hope they are more like the beginning of this tale and less like the end - in tales such as this, atmosphere matters above all else and the palpable weight established in the beginning was significantly lightened by rushing the end and thus the tale seemed a little lost by the end.

[Gord]

I was leaning on a weak 3 out of 5. I collected the single floppies , 4 issue set. I admit Im not a Cthulhu regular , so I was a noob to it all. This had such a strong opening , then they lost me the further in the series went. They didnt "lose" me in the story , it was more me losing interest. I didnt find the characters enthralling and the story felt rushed in the middle which is always the problem with a 4 issue series.

[April]

3.5 stars. Not bad at all, but sort of like a lot of horror ideas combined with some Lovecraft tossed in rather than a Lovecraftian take on horror.

I'm also starting to wish people wouldn't take Cthulhu's name in vain or tease me with it since once again Cthulhu never actually showed up in this graphic novel.

[Kat To]

This book was awful. The art was good, which is why I'm rating it 2 stars and not 1.

[Natalie Englund]

A fun quick read. It reminded me of the TV shows Millennium, Threshold, and/or Invasion. I love weird conspiracies!

[Sem]

Not great but not bad.

[Michael]

DNF. Difficult to follow and not very interesting.

[Marlene]

Read through it quickly, but couldn't help feeling there was great Lack in the story.