 Maritime Merriment for ‘The Girl Called Cthulhu’ by Bryan Reesman, The Aquarion The talented Cynthia von Buhler loves throwing festive theme parties which vibe with her artistic world. The dynamic illustrator and painter recently held a celebration of her collected third Minky Woodcock detective series, The Girl Called Cthulhu, out now through Titan Books. Appropriately enough, the nocturnal soiree was held on a boat in NYC that served as a replication of Aleister Crowley’s aquatic vessel from the new tale....MORE. Photograph above by Kevin Vonesper. Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu (2025) by Cynthia von Buhler, Review, Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein, The Undiscovered Mythos In 2017, writer-artist Cynthia von Buhler introduced the world to Minky Woodcock, private detective, in a 4-issue series The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini, published under the Hard Case Crime imprint of Titan Comics. The series was a clever mix of hardboiled detective themes with historical characters, with the bisexual and extraordinarily intelligent and adaptable Minky Woodcock often ending up in dangerous situations and/or sans her clothes—but also finding or fighting her way out again. The series was followed up with a sequel, The Girl Who Electrified Tesla (2021), and then The Girl Called Cthulhu (2024), which was lettered by Jim Campbell.  The plot is drawn from history, dealing with Lovecraft’s relationships with Harry Houdini and Aleister Crowley, slightly fictionalized for purposes of the plot, but in general faithful to the timeline—with careful reproductions of Weird Tales covers and effort made to reproduce real people, places, and events. There are a number of fun little Easter eggs for Weird Tales fans in the pages, captured in von Buhler’s own style, who favors a heavy line and stylized coloring that echoes noir and giallo films.  At its heart, Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu is a rather traditional detective/mystery story, tied up in a historical setting and with some added titillation thrown in. The depiction of H. P. Lovecraft and his wife Sonia are synthesized from various sources, notably The Private Life of H. P. Lovecraft (1985) by Sonia H. Davis, but aren’t particularly cruel or inaccurate given the needs of the story. Buhler flaunts her artistic homages, such as Hokusai’s “Diver and Two Octopi,” and is one of the few artists not afraid to depict Howard’s penis. Whether that’s a warning or an enticement to read the book is something I leave up to the readers...MORE.  We don’t review many graphic novels on Crime Fiction Lover, but I wish we did. The artistry and imagination on display in books like Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu provides us with plenty of reasons to. So, here’s the skinny… and there’s plenty of skin, believe me. Minky is New York a private eye, running her father’s detective agency in his absence. It’s the 1920s and Minky always manages to be at the heart of things. She’s worked an infidelity case commissioned by Harry Houdini’s wife (Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini) and she’s investigated whether Nicola Tesla has developed a death ray (Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Electrified Tesla). In her third case – The Girl Called Cthulhu – Minky’s hired by the occultist Aleister Crowley to exonerate him. One of Crowley’s disciples has died and the man’s wife has accused Crowley of murder. It’s all over the press. Crowley wants Minky to gain the woman’s trust and get her to confess to making false claims against him. On the way, Minky helps a Welsh woman escape an assault. The woman has just arrived in New York, and the pair form a bond. They end up in a threesome smoking opium with the woman Minky is investigating, but their cover is blown and the woman, who’s in a tiger outfit, tries to kill them by setting the room on fire. Although she’s tied up, Minky manages to fling a burning bra onto the sprinkler system using her toe, thus putting out the fire. That’s just a taste of the daring, madcap action that’s to follow. Via her surveillance of Harry Houdini, Minky has met HP Lovecraft. Lovecraft was helping the escapologist write a book debunking occult spiritualism. Since reading stories like The Call of Cthulhu written by Lovecraft, Minky has been plagued by nightmares and she has been exchanging letters with the author. Aleister Cowley lures Minky, her Welsh friend, Lovecraft and his wife to an island on the Hudson near Poughkeepsie. They’re drugged and we see the amazing spectacle of Crowley preparing to sacrifice them to some ancient horror of the type Lovecraft envisaged in his books. The years pass and the story skips ahead, getting wilder and wilder as we go. The action shifts from New York to London to Spain and the Caribbean. By World War II, Minky accidentally involves herself in an espionage mission wherein British agents have stolen a dead body. Pulling the strings are secret agent Ian Fleming and Aleister Crowley is his unlikely accomplice. They’re using occult fortune telling to mess with the Nazis, there are submarines, explosions and daring escapes. The story – originally published across four 32-page comic books – is extremely far fetched. Or so it seems. However, a thread of facts runs through it making everything Cynthia von Buhler has concocted plausible. The author reveals her research in a Q&A section at the conclusion of the story, and it’s just as compelling as the content of her graphic novel...MORE. Comments are closed.
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