Francois Launet

French artist and graphic designer Francois Launet, aka Goomi, has continued his web comic The Unspeakable Vault of Doom. Volume 2 gives us his strips from about 2005-2007. He writes in English and his editor, Paul Maclean, cleans up the language. UVoD volume 2 (his abbreviation) is a graphic novel from Pegasus Press listing for $17.99 with about 100 pages.

Basically the themes remain the same as the first volume. Nyarly and the bunch continue to eat hapless cultists who fail (or succeed) at their summoning. With an insider's eye, Goomi gently mocks role playing cliches.

There are two reasons I rated this volume a trifle lower than the first. My copy was not very sturdy. The cover was cheaply glued on and fell off after a few days. Collectors might need two copies, one to store and one to read. Also, the material is basically all the same as the first volume, which is OK enough if read in small doses.

This is a very good humorous mythos comic, although I think Young Lovecraft has more staying power.… (más)

Goomi is the nick name of French artist and graphic designer Francois Launet. I gather he has had a lot of fun playing rpgs over the years, particularly Call of Cthulhu. Based on his affection for the source material he started drawing a webcomic, The Unspeakable Vault of Doom in 2003. This first volume compiles the strips from 2003-2004. Per the creator on his web site, because of the more direct nature of the English language for humor, he writes the strip in English to keep it compact. His editors, in particular Paul Maclean, help him with the idioms and translations. UVoD (is abbreviation) is a nice graphic novel from Pegasus Press listing for $17.99 with 104 pages.

UVoD is pretty amusing in its treatment of the Cthulhu mythos monsters and CoC role playing. While poking fun it actually shows great respect for the source material; many strips revolve around cultists unfortunately succeeding in their efforts. The art is quite appropriate; Mr. Launet is very skilled as you can see by clicking around his website. He has a large archive of more serious Lovecraftian art. One strip I particularly liked involved a chubby Night Gaunt not quite making the grade.

Similarly to Young Lovecraft from Spain, this book made me wonder about Cthulhu mythos fiction written in France. I wonder if there is any really good stuff we are missing due to the lack of a good English translation. I guesss I can dream for the days when the stars are right and we see some of it in the US.

Fans of Cthulhu mythos humor and comics will be very pleased with this book. I am enjoying volume 2 just as much.

Here is the strip's website: http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/

Here is the archive of Mr. Launet's Lovecraftian art: http://www.goominet.com/lovecraft/… (más)