Arkham Woods Manga Review

One thing I claim to like a lot is horror...or rather, some parts of horror. Some of it makes me glee with excitement (Such as the Dead films to be exact) while others just make me go WTF and EW (The trailer for Cannibal Holocaust from Broad of the Dead's list makes me frightened. D:) While I have not found many examples (Partially because I don't know where I can find some), there are soem manga I've discovered that are frightening in their own way. One of them is from my favorite company (Seven Seas Entertainment, PLUG). The story is a Lovecraftian tale of suspense, horror, and drama known as Arkham Woods, written by Christopher Rowley (Author of Starhammer) and art by Jhomar Soriano

Now, I am no way familiar with Cthulhu or any of Lovecraft's works. I just took the book as it was, so I will say that first off.

STORY

The story is about Kirsti Rivers who has moved from Los Angeles to a New England town known as Arkham Woods. One day, she invites her boyfriend Tommy Townsend and explore the house they had purchased, only to discover family artifacts and later, human bones and strange skulls. Upon further investigations with their friends, they soon open a "Pandora's Box" that begin the tragic and horrific events that they must face.

Reading through the story and seeing the first two chapters build up with their discovery of the evil is really cool, as we do get a good introduction to the characters. Later chapters show us just how incredibly messed up things become with violence, death, monsters, and what eventually happens at the end of the book. The story drips you with gritty depression and hopelessness as the characters struggle to stop the main threat of the story. And I loved it. There was one partthat felt kinda silly, but otherwise, darkness, death, and hopeless with an ending that is very bittersweet. This is what makes an excellent story for me. It's dark, mature, and showcases dramatic situations with both a realistic and slight fantasy touch.

ART

This is where the book suffers as a whole, however. The artist did a lot of his shading and effects with a LOT of hatching. A TON of hatching. The first two-three chapters were done with a combination of both hatching and toning, and it's VERY effective. However, in the later chapters, there is less tone as the lines become less solid, wilder, and the hatching increases tremendously. I can KINDA see where the artist was going with this. As the story begins to grow chaotic with the events that occur, the artist may have been trying to convey that chaos with a rougher/harsher style of art that reflects the story. However, in comparison to the pages, it just looks rushed and messy. Also, because of this, the line weight increases. Later chapters go back to a combination of the hatching and the more refined art of the first chapters. Even then, it still feels rushed.

If anything, I would have preferred the artist to stick with how he rendered the first two chapters and use that for the rest of the book, which is a shame because I really like the first two chapters with his style and his precision.

On a final note, on certain scenes, the artist chooses to render the panel/page in pencil to show an important event or moment. One example is when we see one of the monsters, and he is rendered in pencil. I think he may have been also attempting to replicate what he did in pencil in ink, and the possible transition did not go well. The pencil pages, though, are really nice.

FINAL THOUGHTS

From what little I've researched on Cthulhu, this feels more like an abridged Cthulhu story, I THINK. I need to read the other stories, but this makes a nice introduction to the mythos as the story is simple to understand, and also really dark. The theme/message at the end of the book is easy to understand with the events of the book, and I really liked the characters. The only low point is with the art near the middle and end of the book since I feel the artist can do better. However, that is no reason to turn down the book. Stories like Battle Vixen and Abenobashi (Where it has somewhat solid art, but horrible story and pointless fanservice) are rated worse in my opinion while stories like this (Not so solid art, but excellent story) are rated much higher. Call me picky with my manga choices, but this is my opinion.

Anyway, enough of my rant. XD I give this manga a score of 8 for excellent story and good, but not great art.