“There is a great one sleeping that will hear”¦ The Calling”

Yesterday, BOOM! Studios released a teaser image for a series coming out July 2010 that simply contained the words “IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN!”

Today at the C2E2, the comic book publisher revealed the name of the upcoming series — The Calling: Cthulhu Chronicles — along with some details.

The on-going HP Lovecraft-inspired comic, which will be written by Michael Alan Nelson (Fall Of Cthulhu, 28 Days Later) and Johanna Stokes (Death Valley, Savage Brothers), is a supernatural horror series with a modern spin on the Cthulhu mythos. Sean Phillips (Marvel Zombies) and Federico Piatti will provide the covers, while Christopher Possenti is doing the interior art. Ҭ

The Calling: Cthulhu Chronicles will join BOOM!’s previous Lovecraftian titles Cthulhu Tales and Fall Of Cthulhu.

See below for the official synopsis, as well as the covers for The Calling: Cthulhu Chronicles #1.

Waiting in my inbox this morning was an email from BOOM! Studios titled “IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN!”

Hmm…

I opened it to find what appears to be a teaser image for a new BOOM! comic book. Check it out here at right (click for larger full view).

As you can see from the red and black teaser image here, it merely states “IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN!” and that whatever this title is, it’s coming to BOOM! Studios in July 2010.

Cthulhu is a reference to the entity in the H.P. Lovecraft universe, one of the Great Old Ones in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythology. I’m not sure of the exact translation of the phrase, but “fhtagn” is one of the words in a chant in the short story The Call of Cthulhu. The chant from the story means “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

Cthulhu Tales #11
Written by Chris Sequeira, Christine Boylan, Michael Alan Nelson, Shane Oakley
Art by Milton Sobreiro, Roger Langridge
BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99; Release date: February 4, 2009

BOOM! Studios brings us another four wonderful tentacle-filled tales from the universe of H.P. Lovecraft, exploring everything from corporate climbers to brain surgery patients to trays full of tasty, terror-filled bite-sized morsels.

Incorporation follows Glenda, an up-and-coming accountant in a multinational firm Wilcox-Gamme. We get an inkling of what’s to come right on the first page as Glenda finds the now ubiquitous Cthulhu statue in her new desk, and that’s precisely the weakness in the story of Incorporation. The story and dialogue are formulaic, the characters two-dimensional. Glenda is your typical ball-busting corporate climber, while her co-workers are portrayed as weak-willed sycophants who could never keep up with her. She begins to have visions of evil in her spreadsheets and while I won’t intentionally ruin the surprise ending for you, I think it’s obvious that there’s little surprise in here at all. Even the art of W. Chewie Chan is stilted and uninspiring. The concept of the multi-national corporation as evil cult is simply played out, and doesn’t bring anything new to the Cthulhu table.