Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu #1 Review

 

Writer, Artist & Colorist: Cynthia Von Buhler

Letterer: Jim Campbell

Editors: Charles Ardai & Jake Devine

Designer: Dan Bura

Cover Artists: Celina, Cynthia Von Buhler, Claudia Ianniciello & Alison Sampson

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 16, 2024

 

Minky Woodcock believes that someone murdered Harry Houdini. Howard Lovecraft wants Houdini's widow to help him finish the book he and Houdini were writing. Aleister Crowley wants Betty May to stop blaming him for the death of his former disciple. Minky's brother wants to be a successful actor. Can Minky make everyone happy and uncover the truths hiding behind a veil of superstition? Let’s grab our revolvers, leap into Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu #1, and find out!

 

Story

Minky dallies with Howard Houdini amid his famous Chinese Water Torture Cell act on October 4, 1926. Howard Lovecraft interrupts them when he arrives early at the Providence Opera House in Rhode Island for a writing session. Houdini approves Lovecraft’s outline and hopes to have the first three chapters ghostwritten before he finishes his tour in Detroit. Minky compliments Lovecraft on his latest story, The Call Of Cthulhu. After reading Houdini's copy of Lovecraft's unpublished manuscript, Minky confides that she has nightmares about the ocean.

 

Sadly, Houdini died on October 31, 1926, of peritonitis from being punched in the abdomen. In Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu #1, she receives a letter from Lovecraft six months later. He asks Minky to convince Mrs. Houdini to help him finish her husband's book, The Cancer Of Superstition. Lovecraft also suggests a moral life to quell Minky's night terrors. But that night, after reading Lovecraft's story The Temple in the copy of Weird Tales that he sent her, Minky has another nightmare. Some of this is due to a man who visited the office earlier that day. Labeled The Wickedest Man Alive by the press, Aleister Crowley wants to cut these salacious news stories off at the source. He commissions Minky to secure a confession from Betty May, who blames him for her husband's death. But Crowley also mentioned that he knew Minky's parents. So, while Lovecraft's story summons a dream of Cthulhu in the sea, it also merges with Minky's longing for her late mother and her curiosity about Crowley's occult practices.

 

Minky is determined to succeed in a man's world. She informs Lovecraft that Houdini's widow prefers superstition to truth. Minky also defends her dalliance by claiming that Bess Houdini commissioned her to prove her husband was a philanderer. Then Minky throws herself into investigating Crowley's claims. She learns what she can about him, then checks out the widow who is blackening his name.

 

Despite her tough exterior, Minky holds a candle for Houdini. She bonds with another British emigrant over the loss of a parent. And she throws herself into danger in Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu #1. But Betty May, the woman spreading rumors about Aleister Crowley, is as determined as Minky. And Betty May will not let anyone disprove her claims that Crowley is The Wickedest Man Alive.

 

 

Art

Cynthia Von Buhler’s art portrays Minky and Houdini as uninhibited, in love with life, and cruelly parted by fate. Minky has a soft side, as revealed by her white rabbit. And when Crowley enters her office, she pulls away. Then Minky retakes her seat, smiles demurely, and allows the bald man who evokes Dr Evil to treat her like a lady. He doesn’t say, “Throw me a frickin bone here," but Crowley convinces Minky to take his case.

 

The primary colors of red, blue, and yellow energize Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu #1. Buhler adds a touch of orange to enhance Minky's hair, wooden furniture, Betty May's cat and tiger costume, and Crowley's cravat. Yellow dominates as Crowley retells his history with Betty May and her husband Raoul at the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily. Green enters Minky's story when she meets Gladys. And that night, green tinges her dreams.

 

Giant letters place readers in space and time before music notes accompany song lyrics. Black uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons and yellow narrative boxes relate the perils of Minky, Gladys, and Betty in Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu #1. Lovecraft handwrites his letter with a flourish on yellow paper. Minky types her reply on the detective agency's letterhead, correcting the last word in Woodcock & Son to Daughter. Sound effects enhance gunfire, a ringing phone, and applause, while the red words "Do What Thou Will" hang above a red pentagram on a door. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a copy for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Every man and woman is a star, whether well-known like the famous magician and writer Harry Houdini, the author and occultist Aleister Crowley, and a globe-trotting actress “Tiger Woman” who has just written her autobiography, or up-and-coming like Gladys and short story writer Howard Lovecraft. Yet the star we most worry about flaming out is the stalwart and fearless private detective in Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu #1.

 

Rating 9.5/10

 

For more covers & a look inside see my preview at The Dragon's Cache. 

 

Check out the trailer for Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu #1.