Summary

• The new Arkham Horror comic series expands on Lovecraftian lore, enticing horror fans with high-stakes adventures in a stylistic 1920s setting.
• Issue #1 introduces compelling characters and an eerie setting; it promises an exhilarating journey into the monstrous horror of the Cthulhu mythos.
• Fans of horror and the macabre should keep an eye out for future releases, as Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time hints at a promising, terrifying series.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time #1Horror fans who have never played the Arkham Horror tabletop game or read the H.P. Lovecraft stories that inspired it will still find plenty to love in Dark Horse Comics' new adaptation, Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time. Based on the sprawling Cthulhu mythology, Arkham Horror was originally a board game turned tabletop franchise that has players explore Arkham, Massachusetts while investigating means to destroy an elder god. Like its inspiration, the franchise is a stylized fusion of 1920s private investigator tropes and otherworldly cult horror.

Since its original release, the Arkham Horror franchise has inspired numerous books and expansions, and now it has its own comic series. Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time by Cullen Bunn and Andrea Mutti follows a young debutante and a hired PI as they investigate the disappearance of the woman’s sister following her abduction by an eldritch-worshipping cult.

While the first issue doesn’t show much of the dark magical aspects that readers know will follow in future installments, the series already promises a high-stakes adventure unafraid of delving into the monstrous horror it’s based on.

Arkham Horror Launches With a Promising Beginning

The Inaugural Installment Honors Its Inspiration

Much like the original board game, Arkham Horror’s first issue capitalizes on the fish-out-of-water trope as the grizzled small-town private investigator, Joe Diamond, reluctantly accepts a contract with well-dressed, dual-pistol-wielding debutante, Jenny Barnes. After the issue establishes the series' initial set-up, it quickly abandons Joe’s mundane environment, instead plunging the duo into the depths of an abandoned monastery where the cult performed their last ritual. Feeling like an installment from the Conjuring series, the story sees the two heroes slowly delve deeper into the catacombs. There they discover a chamber containing forsaken of the cult, nearly entirely drained of their life force.

There is hope that this series will be written with the same ion Lovecraft’s works have inspired for the last century.

The issue rapidly embraces tones of terror when Joe and Jenny are suddenly trapped in a storm of dust and demons right before the issue’s end. While only the beginning, Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time promises an exhilarating adventure while teasing a strong future of the many-tentacled multi-eyed horror that the Cthulhu mythos is known for. The inspiration’s most popular stories weren’t written by Lovecraft, but rather by the fan base his works garnered, and there is hope that this series will be written with the same ion Lovecraft’s works have inspired for the last century.

Arkham Horror is Sure to Get Scarier

Readers Should Keep an Eye Out for Future Releases

It’s hard to say now whether the series will have staying power among Dark Horse’s repertoire of macabre and horror comics, but it certainly has potential. The stylized art has the feel of ‘20s pulp magazines and the dialogue is quick and punchy. Even if the plot becomes a carbon copy of the Lovecraftian-inspired tales that have come before, the comic, at the very least, promises spectacle. For now, fans of horror and the Cthulhu mythos should definitely keep an eye out for future installments of the Arkham Horror series from Dark Horse Comics.

Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time #1 is now available from Dark Horse Comics.