The Call of the Friend

University student Wonjun visits his friend Jingu’s basement apartment, only to find unsettling changes that are somehow tied to a K-pop star’s suicide. Jingu behaves coldly, a strange statue looms in the corner, and reality begins to fracture. Blurring the lines between hallucination and nightmare, this graphic novel by JaeHoon Choi explores guilt and despair through a Lovecraftian lens, creating a haunting tale of emotional and cosmic horror.

The Call of the Friend is part of the Lovecraft Reanimated project, where leading Korean speculative fiction writers reimagine the works of horror master H.P. Lovecraft. While honoring his eerie, grotesque imagery and the blurred boundaries between reality and fantasy, they update his ideas for a global audience.

JAEHOON CHOI is a manhwa artist, animator, and illustrator. He was a conceptual artist for the 2024 movie EXHUMA, directed the music video for “Forever Rain” by BTS member RM, and contributed artwork for a global campaign by Mont Blanc held at NASA in the United States. His authored books include PROCESS OF MOLDING, HOW CAN, THE CALL OF THE FRIEND, and 365NERVE.

JANET HONG is a writer and translator based in Vancouver, Canada. She received the TA First Translation Prize and the LTI Korea Translation Award for her translation of Han Yujoo’s THE IMPOSSIBLE FAIRY TALE. She is a twotime winner of the Harvey Award for Best International Book for her translations of Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s GRASS and Yeong-shin Ma’s MOMS. Recent translations include Hwang Jungeun’s YEARS AND YEARS and Kwon Yeo-sun’s LEMON. She has been the Korean prose mentor for ALTA’s Emerging Translator Mentorship Program since 2020.

Source: publisher’s website