Review by C.J. Bunce
One of the 21st century’s best comic book artists is back with her singular outlandish style in The Girl Called Cthulhu, available for pre-order now at comic shops and here at Amazon. Although her third book in the Minky Woodcock series could have been called The Girl Called Bond, writer-artist Cynthia von Buhler opts for even more supernatural hijinks with her savvy and risque heroine this round. Von Buhler is known for her sensationalism, both in story concepts, artwork, and marketing, merging real-world events and time travel tours to the past via her comic book work, as seen in her striking The Illuminati Ball. We first met her heroine Minky Woodcock in Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini (reviewed here), as she recounted the 20 days leading up to the famed magician’s death. Next she rubbed elbows with Nikola Tesla in the pages of Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Electrified Tesla (reviewed here). This time she encounters H.P. Lovecraft and a certain famous spy novel writer. If you like the idea of a Girl Friday coming into her own, then Minky Woodcock is for you, but be prepared because something in this graphic novel for adult readers is guaranteed to shock your conscience.
The first thing that should strike you about von Buhler’s books is her stunning artwork. The artist’s use of color and realism incorporates vintage comic book technology that often looks like black and white colored with pastels. Inspired by vintage imagery coupled with an eye for colors that pop off the page, von Buhler blends the true and the fabricated into an intriguing story of adventure for her heroine as she maneuvers society’s celebrities of all kinds of venues. It’s full of the sex, debauchery, and spectacle of her first two stories, but this time she leans even more into the horrific, the macabre, and the occult.
This story has Houdini via flashback introducing Minky to H.P. Lovecraft, creator of the famous creature of the title. Real-life 20th century occultist Aleister Crowley soon arrives to hire Minky for her private investigator skills at Woodcock & Daughter, which brings Minky into contact with a mysterious seductive woman. Amidst the beautiful women von Buhler interposes the disturbing, the kind of violence and violent imagery that somehow conjures freak shows and carnies, while blending designs of old theaters of the Victorian era. But this is also von Buhler writing a story for Minky as James Bond, blended with the real-life events recounted in the film Operation Mincemeat. Her grotesque Crowley is a good twist on Fleming’s Auric Goldfinger.
Von Buhler writes and illustrates her heroine Minky as a mix of sultry femme fatale, the girl next door, and the damsel in distress, but as Minky gets older she takes more control of who she is. Minky Woodcock isn’t a superheroine like the famous classic comic strip character Miss Fury, but you’ll probably wish von Buhler would snap up a project to draw a reboot of that series. Misses Fury and Woodcock could certainly do some damage to WWII era bad guys.
As with her past work, Von Buhler includes a link to references that back up the factual elements of her story in a detailed afterword. The real-life characters tied in to her story may surprise readers, as she connects Houdini, Lovecraft, Aleister Crowley, and Ian Fleming.
Come for the artwork, stay for the sensational, provocative story. Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu is recommended for fans of the various Hard Case Crime comic book series and pulp novels, and fans of salacious mid-century comics. This hardcover volume includes a complete gallery of striking variant covers from the original individual issue release–without a doubt this series has the best incorporation yet of a model (Pearls Daily) cosplaying a character in comic book cover art. For mature readers only, Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu is available for pre-order now at Elite Comics, your local comic shop, or pre-order it now here at Amazon. It’s slated for release July 8, 2025.
