Visualizing Lovecraft: An Interview with Manga Creator Gou Tanabe

Japanese artist Gou Tanabe made his first appearance at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Known for his manga adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's novels, Tanabe first started with the publication of The Outsider in 2007 and has continued his work to now. His take on The Shadow Over Innsmouth was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium. After meeting fans at the Dark Horse booth, he spoke with Anime News Network on his approach to visualizing Lovecraftian horror and publishing them in the seinen manga magazine Comic Beam. Joined alongside him were his editor, Hayato Shimizu, Michael Gombos (Sr. Director of Licensed Publications at Dark Horse), and Zack Davisson (translator for The Shadow Over Innsmouth).

How did you become a manga artist? Did you always want to work in the horror genre?

Tanabe: I was a pretty average child when I was younger. I had a lot of dreams as a child but disliked competition. I had a lot of free time on my hands, given that I lived in a remote place, so I saw it as an opportunity to start drawing.

Your artwork is incredibly detailed. How long does it take to go from a first draft to the final product for a monthly publication in Comic Beam?

Tanabe: Comic Beam is a monthly comic magazine, but I often run a little bit over. Sometimes it's a month and a half. In general, the name (ネーム), which is the storyboarding, takes about three days, and then the rough drafts on the whole thing take approximately six days or a week. Then, from there, there are two days to do the lineart and the inking. After that, adding tones takes another eight days or so. Roughly a month, but it usually goes over, and it's often 45 days in between installments.

Michael Gombos: It's worth noting that Tanabe-sensei draws more than your average monthly artist. Generally about 30 pages, but he tends to do 40 pages.

Although Cthulhu and Lovecraftian literature has been imagined in many different ways (like in movies and illustrations), did you find it challenging to visualize and illustrate The Shadow Over Innsmouth?

Tanabe: When it comes to Lovecraft, one thing that's pivotal to making manga is that you draw daily life as being extremely ordinary as possible. It's a period piece set in the '20s, so I tried to use movies as examples. One of my primary examples as a go-to reference is Changeling by Clint Eastwood. It is one of my favorites. Because there are priests and cops, and it speaks to American life in 1928. But drawing the monsters is not the hard part; it's making it scary. To make it scary, you have to have people going to jobs, and you're living your boring everyday life. Those things that you forget, like the drive to work, and depicting that is what makes the scary part.

It's been over seventeen years since your first Lovecraft story, The Outsider, was published. Since then, you have published a total of eight books so far. Are you able to freely choose which Lovecraft story to work on next? How do you decide on what story to work on next?

Tanabe: I'm surprised because I didn't realize it was seventeen years since I published my first work. It's a combination of what I want to draw and what Shimizu-san suggests as my editor. Even if I want to draw, we have to figure out what would resonate with the readership and the crowds. So, we work together to establish what the next piece will be. Fundamentally, I can choose what I want to do, but it would produce better work if we could work together and draw forth what I want to draw and what might have the best reaction from readers.

How did you become an editor for Comic Beam? How long have you worked together with Tanabe-sensei?

Shimizu: I joined Comic Beam in 2018. Originally, I started working for the publisher of Comic Beam, which is Kadokawa Shoten, in 2010, but in a different department until 2018. Comic Beam was always my favorite magazine, and I began to think about how I could make things better. I went to the editor-in-chief at the time, Yoshinori Iwai, and I was able to discuss with him how to make things better. Then, I joined the Comic Beam editorial team. I worked with Tanabe-sensei from 2019 until 2023, when the latest work was released in Japan. The first one we worked on was called The Call of Cthulhu. We've also worked together on The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror.

Could you please explain your role as an editor? Can you also provide an example of what your day-to-day job is like?

Shimizu: My responsibilities run the gamut for the process of creating and delivering manga to the readers, as well as every aspect of that role. Specifically, about Tanabe-sensei, I'll select and propose which Lovecraft novels or works we should do next. We talk about which we should work on, making sure that there's a schedule for the serialization of publications set forth—which is also common with American comics—and discussing storyboard details or the name, which is what it's called in Japanese.

Shimizu: Then—where it might be necessary—either the size of word balloons or adjusting dialogue size and text. And then consulting on proposing illustrations, whether it be the cover or the sashie (挿絵), which is the illustration that comes when you open a book. Outside of the editorial approach, there's the sales and promotion angle that encumbered the editors in Japan. They'll develop a catch copy—a sort of promotion or advertising slogan to get people's eyes on something—planning sales strategies and considering promotional activities and campaigns. One of the more fun responsibilities is being a chaperone for Tanabe-sensei, and I make sure he doesn't do anything weird.

What is your favorite Lovecraft story?

Tanabe: The most basic answer is whatever I'm currently working on is what I like the most, and I can impress myself. I like the ability to contrast, not like a photo negative sense. Take something like The Shadow Over Innsmouth, where it's comparatively about introspection and looking at the horrors within. And then take something like At The Mountains Of Madness, which emphasizes the universe and things greater than us. I like them both for different reasons, but they lie in complete contrast to one another.

Shimizu: I have two that I like for different reasons. The Shadow Over Innsmouth is good because there's a lot of insularity within a closed-off town, and everybody's an enemy or a potential enemy. Like you're being watched by everybody. But there's a certain heroism to The Dunwich Horror because the seemingly insignificant humans, or people who would seem otherwise powerless, actually confront a powerful supernatural enemy. I like them for the same reason as Tanabe-sensei, where the two contrast.

Have you experienced any challenges when working on Lovecraft's stories? For example, the pace of the comic, how to retell the story or even any requests from Comic Beam?

Tanabe: There are two levels that have high levels of expectations. It's the recreation of a Lovecraftian work done respectfully and the level of quality expected from Comic Beam.

Shimizu: It has to do with Comic Beam, where you're not just recreating things. You're watching people go through a story and go through horrible things. The hardest part is making the reader be able to project themselves into the shoes of the main character and allowing them to have their own experience rather than merely recreating the novels of Lovecraftian works. For example, Dragon Quest. Rather than reading a book, you play a video game and move around as the main character. Or even a main character from a shounen manga is always these cool characters that look amazing, but you know you're reading a story. To be in the shoes of a character, there's this sort of averageness that allows us to step into the character and become them.

Zack Davisson: Tanabe-sensei's protagonists look relatively similar no matter who they are, which allows readers to project them into the story. This is good because it allows readers to imprint themselves into the story. It's very Lovecraftian in that sense because we don't know the name of the main character, and this allows you to feel that you're reading from that perspective because of their averageness.

If a reader starts reading your series of H.P. Lovecraft comics with The Shadow Over Innsmouth, which book do you recommend they read next?

Tanabe: I'd recommend reading them in order. In my notes, I wrote that readers can probably start with At The Mountains Of Madness. But if you read them in order of release, you'll see that each one improves the other.

Shimizu: I would recommend The Dunwich Horror because it has this inevitable fate and this nihilistic insularity that you would expect out of it. In general, there's an improvement upon each one going in chronological order. Fundamentally, wherever you want to enter this story that sounds interesting to you as the reader would be a good start.

Zack Davisson: Speaking as a translator, one of the things I noticed is within Tanabe-sensei's early stories, he was just sticking exactly to Lovecraft's work. But as he did more of them and his confidence grew, he could interpret them rather than just write them down. Like this scene would need a little more time, or the pacing is different in contrast to the original story. That's why I also recommend the order that he wrote them in because not only can you enter the story, but you can see his growth as you move with them. Other than that, it doesn't matter. You can pick up any book and start anywhere. Don't feel obligated to read them in order, especially since they aren't all published in English yet.

Michael Gombos: There will be more coming, so you'll see more of Tanabe-sensei's work and more of Zack too.