INNSMOUTH FREE PRESS INTERVIEW
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Today we are talking with Swiss artist Michael Zigerlig, whose graphic novel adaptation of Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” comes out next month from Transfuzion. This marks Michael’s debut as an illustrator and writer, and we asked him to tell us a bit about it.

 

IFP Why did you choose to adapt “The Call of Cthulhu” over other stories?

MZ “Call of Cthulhu” is one of my very favourites. I’ve read it over and over again and listened to the audio book many times.  It was quite a challenge to adapt it, for it is very well-known and everyone who knows it has expectations regarding a visual conversion. But it was also a lot of fun drawing Cthulhu, R’lyeh and giving it a face. Another interesting point is describing surrealistic views and the setting, which changes from the swamps in Louisiana to the West Greenland coast.

IFP The graphic novel utilizes Lovecraft’s own text to tell the story. How did that hamper or help your work?

MZ The main reason to use his own prose was to mediate his unique writing style. I think language is the key to Lovecraft’s horror. But I had to make the text shorter for an illustrated adaption.

IFP What are the challenges that come when illustrating a Lovecraft story? Are there any cliches one should avoid?

MZ I tried to use my own inner pictures of the story. So, I created a new Elder Signs Alphabet (I’m writing my diary with that alphabet) and tried to keep the pictures in a strong black/white contrast. And I created the “Mirror-Pictures”, which should show the non-euclidean atmosphere mentioned in the story. But one of the most difficult parts was to decide which parts of the text I would drop and which I would keep. I guess a Lovecraft adaption requires a deep research of Lovecraft and all his stories.

IFP This graphic novel is your first published project. What did you learn by working on it?

MZ Actually, I didn’t draw for a long time and mainly focused on Chinese martial arts for the last 10 years. At the beginning, it was more an experiment to find a way to visually adapt Lovecraft’s writing. The result fascinated me and I couldn’t stop; I worked all day on it until it was finished. “Call of Cthulhu” is absolutely the spark that made me draw again and it hasn’t stopped yet. I guess the most important thing I learned is the conceptual thinking you need if you want to handle the story, artwork and layout of a graphic novel all by yourself.

IFP Had you done any Lovecraftian illustrations before tackling “The Call of Cthulhu” or was this your first time drawing Lovecraftian creatures?

MZ I did some sketches before, but they were never published.

IFP H.R. Giger wrote the introduction to your graphic novel. How did he come to participate in this project?

MZ His books Necronomicon 1 & 2 were my first steps to Lovecraft’s world and I feel a great gratitude for his support of the book. He and his wife Carmen gave me a lot of motivation to keep on drawing the book. I’d sent him some artwork for “The Call of Cthulhu” and he liked it very much, so I asked him for the introduction during a visit to his museum in Gruyère, Switzerland.
Another person who was influential to me is Brian Yuzna (director and producer of Re-Animator, Dagon and many more). His quote for the graphic novel will be on the back of the book and maybe he will take some parts of the design for his new movie project, an adaptation of “The Temple” by H.P. Lovecraft. I will meet him and H.R. Giger this February to discuss it. I’m very excited about that.

IFP Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Background? Interests?

MZ I visited the school of art in Berne, Switzerland, but quit my apprenticeship as a graphic designer and began teaching wushu (Chinese martial arts), which I’ve been practising since I was 11. I recovered my interests for art and graphic novels two years ago. Now, I’m 27.
I’m a big fan of horror stories, especially H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe or Clive Barker. My favourite character is definitely Mr. Sherlock Holmes, followed by Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and Batman. My favourite artists are H.R. Giger, Mike Mignola and Kelly Jones.
What is your dream project?

MZ Well, I can’t say Holmes because I’m already working on it. Hellboy and Batman are left…

IFP What are you working on right now? Stuff on the horizon?

MZ The Holmes story on which I’m working now is set in the Moulin Rouge. It’s very nice to work with Gary Reed (writer and also founder of Transfuzion Publishing, formerly Caliber Comics); he is very sympathetic and a great writer. I’m a huge Holmes fan since childhood and, with this project, a dream came true.

The other project is also related to Lovecraft, but written by myself. My graphic novel of “Call of Cthulhu” is almost like a documentary, so I wanted to make speech bubbles and a lot of action sequences for the next book. The working title is Five Swords from Outer Hell and the story is set in China, India and the desert of Arabia during the time of Lovecraft’s Abdul Alhazred (the 8th century) and is full of ideas I had developed over many years. The main character is a Taoist student named Oax who is searching for Irem, the City of Pillars.