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the complete review - graphic novel
The Call of the Friend
by
Choi JaeHoon
general information | our review | links | about the author
| Title: | The Call of the Friend |
| Author: | Choi JaeHoon |
| Genre: | Graphic novel |
| Written: | 2020 (Eng. 2025) |
| Length: | 105 pages |
| Original in: | Korean |
| Availability: | The Call of the Friend - US |
| The Call of the Friend - UK | |
| The Call of the Friend - Canada | |
| directly from: Honford Star |
- Korean title: 친구의 부름
- With an Afterword by the author
- Translated by Janet Hong
- A volume in the Lovecraft Reanimated-series (러브크래프트 다시쓰기 프로젝트)
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Our Assessment:
B : effectively stark
See our review for fuller assessment.
The complete review's Review:
The Call of the Friend is a graphic novel that begins with university students wondering about the absence of fellow student Jingu, who hasn't been to class in two weeks and isn't answering his phone.
Friend Wonjun goes to his apartment to see what's up.
He finds Jingu upset about the suicide of Jaeyon, who was training to become a K-Pop star -- and was Jingu's sister.
Her death is part of a scandal at the agency representing her, with the C.E.O., with whom she was rumored to be having an affair, also killing himself.
The novel doesn't go into much of all this; the summary facts alone serve as backdrop for the story, focused on how what has happened had affected Jingu and on Wonjun's attempts to reach out.
Wonjun repeatedly checks in on Jingu, but Jingu is not receptive to any sort of help, telling him: "Come on, let's face it, we're not really friends. There's no such thing as friends".
And, indeed, perhaps Wonjun does have some sort of ulterior motive -- not that he's being paid by reporters to snoop out information, but perhaps there's something else .....
Among the other things there are is also a creepy statue in Jingu's room, with its clear Lovecraftian vibe:
The black and white line drawings, including many close-ups of eyes or mouth, as well as featureless faces, blanked completely white or black, are fitting for the dark story -- with Choi even resorting to a two-page spread that is solid black.
Jingu presses Wonjun hard -- "Tell me, why did you come here ?" -- and Wonjun is clearly rattled (with, in a nice touch in the English translation, one page of five images showing Wonjun desperately struggling to open a door, complete with his 'Rattle, rattle' efforts); something weighs on him.
A written Afterword by the author/artist explains some of what he was after (and also that he: "didn't want the theme to be too obvious in this story") -- and the influence of his perception of "H.P.Lovecraft's world of unexplained fears". The Call of the Friend is successful in, especially, conveying the oppressiveness of sin and guilt, in stark black and white; with the borrowings from Lovecraft complementing the story, particularly in heightening a sense of terror -- the personal demons that haunt us.
- M.A.Orthofer, 18 October 2025
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The Call of the Friend:
- Honford Star publicity page
- JaeHoon Choi at Bēhance
- Lee Suhyeon's Alien Gods
- Yi Seoyoung's Come Down to a Lower Place
- See Index of Korean literature
- See Index of Science Fiction and Fantasy books
- See Index of Comic Books
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Choi JaeHoon (최재훈) is a South Korean manhwa artist and illustrator.
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© 2025 the complete review
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