#Johannes Cabal

[thedevilscarnival]

Jonathan L Howard you have the opportunity to do one of the most incredible things possible in fiction right here and now

johannes cabal pioneering new and uncharted territory by replacing the dysphoria hoodie with the dysphoria suit and cravat

[nyrlthtp]

we're getting a new johannes cabal story after eight years 🙏🙏

[agarthanguide]

“Waste not.”

I wanted to draw his forearm, so I rolled up his sleeve, but then I couldn’t imagine him walking around without a jacket, so I left it half on. And looking at it now I’m tickled by the plot implications.

[yeoldecryptid]

what’s the most underrated piece of fiction you’ve ever seen? For me it is the Johannes Cabal books series about a Necromancer running a carnival. Honestly, I’m shocked it doesn’t have a cult following

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[wrowimages]

this is how book 5 ended, right

[see-arcane]

There is a recent youtube video (with five million views atm) called "The real Jon Snow", about how different and better Jon is in the books than the Jon in the final seasons of the Game of Thrones show. And it's 2hrs and 10mins long, so I thought who would watch a movie-length rant over one character. But actually you know what. I would listen to a 2hr10min rant video about the real Jonathan Harker vs his media portrayals. And a longer one about Mina. So I Get It, I'm sorry mr Youtuber.

You know what, I think we need to start a support group for 'Jons That Deserve Better.'

Jon Snow, Game of Thrones -> Appears in exactly one (1) adaptation of his books, gets screwed over.

Jonathan Harker, Dracula -> Appears in multiple adaptations of his book, gets screwed over in the adaptation or else gets booted out of the story entirely.

Jonathan Sims, The Magnus Archives -> Screwed over by misinterpretations outside his audio drama, gets -10 care from any ally or friend*** within it. (Also somehow Does Not have an adaptation to speak of while Archive 81 landed a questionable Netflix drama.)

Johannes Cabal, Johannes Cabal the Necromancer series -> Honorary Jon, screwed over by being seemingly doomed to obscurity because not enough people have stopped to pick up the books and realize the exact blend of occult/eldritch/adventure-horror with a dash of comedy and found family goodness they didn't know they were missing is Right There waiting to rock everyone's proverbial socks.

[beedokart]

Quick redraw of a meme (not that one, another one that’s a reference to that one), but it’s Leonie/Zarenyia/Ms. Smith.

For Fem/February as well.

[surfinthehighway]

Also as someone who has only read up to the second book, I find myself wondering how long Johannes Cabal knew his significant other for. Like Horst was trapped in the crypt for eight years, so she had to have passed away at least eight years prior to the first book. Johannes is in his late twenties, so we could say he was around eighteen to twenty years old when she passed away.

My point being, unless they met when they were children, it's very likely that Johannes has been trying to bring his significant other back from the dead for longer than he knew her.

[acerbaa]

johannes cabal “i want to deny/cure death” vs abhorsen “everything and everyone has a time to die” ough. delicious.

[wolven-maw]

two book series that slap that i never hear about

the crimson empire: really fun spin on the conventions of high fantasy that is also a really fun grimdark series

johannes cabal: goth terry pratchett basically. fucking hilarious and an absolute must if you like lovecraft but you wish he didn't have a huge stick up his ass

[thedevilscarnival]

johannes cabal textpost compilation

[theshadytree123]

Here’s a little ramble on why I think the best Johannes Cabal books are the ones where Horst is also in them. Spoiler warning for basically the whole series.

Johannes Cabal by nature is a character who works fine by himself but is really only at his best when he has a partner.

Now, that isn’t to say he isn’t a good character on his own. He’s still plenty entertaining even if he’s doing evil deeds by himself. But his evil deeds and tetchy attitude tends to become a little one-note when he’s the only major player. Personally, this is exactly why the Fear Institute was my least favorite in the series. It was still good, but after a while I got used to Johannes’ general vibes and it started becoming less interesting after a bit. Honestly, by the middle of the book I was pretty bored. It wasn’t until near the end when everything started falling into place that my attention was recaptured.

He needs a foil, someone who is genuinely a friendly and nice person so that they can work off of each other. Having a good, moral person as a contrast makes both of their personalities shine.

Now in the series he has multiple different foils, but I will likely always like Horst the best. And it isn’t just because he’s my favorite character.

Leonie Barrow works fine as a contrast. She got the job done in The Detective, and she was pretty good at it. But she’s not the best. She just doesn’t have enough personal drama with Johannes. Sure, she’s has a past with Johannes (*cough* cough* circus *cough* *cough*), but it just never felt personal enough to me. She is someone who Johannes wronged, very badly in fact, but there’s frankly thousands who have been wronged just as badly or even worse than her.

Horst on the other hand is super personal. He’s practically the only family member who still talks to Johannes, and he was literally locked in a crypt by him for eight years, with nothing to do but sit with his own thoughts and be bored. This mix of bitterness because of what Johannes did to him, protectiveness because at the end of the day he’s still his little brother, righteous rage as Johannes continuously does horrible acts without a lick of remorse, and hope that maybe, just maybe, he can redeem himself and get better, is just so overwhelmingly entertaining and creates such a tense but at the same time loving dynamic.

My favorite example of this might be in the Brothers Cabal, which fun fact is my favorite book specifically for this scene. Throughout this book, Horst is very obviously conflicted about his relationship with Johannes. He is constantly in struggle between his righteous fury and… I wouldn’t call it regret per se, but it was certainly sadness over the general situation. He thinks he did the right thing, but at the same time, Johannes is his brother and he just doomed him to an eternity of suffering. Then there’s the added wrench of being told that Johannes has saved the world multiple times since Horst died, and now there’s this tiny flicker of hope that maybe Johannes can be redeemed.

And then, at the end of chapter ten, after Horst gets a bunch of dreams of what Johannes is up to in the Fear Institute, we get honestly what I consider to be the best lines in the entire series, “At 14:35, with the sun up and storming down rays of purifying light that pitter-pattered hopelessly upon the darkness, the vampire Horst Cabal awoke. He awoke in fear and mourning for a death too close, and with tears filling his eyes. He awoke with the name of his brother, Johannes, on his lips.” (Howard 121).

And this line is honestly what truly gave Horst the Best Character Award in my eyes. Because even after Johannes shoved him into a crypt for 8 years, and even after Horst tried to doom Johannes to eternal suffering, and even after all these two have done to hurt each other, at the end of the day, Johannes is still his little brother whom he loves very, very dearly, and if he’s in trouble and needs Horst’s help, Horst is going to try and save him.

[agarthanguide]

Doodling something Johannes Cabal flavored and goddamit it is fucking midnight.

[jkl-fff]

Best quote of Johannes Cabal: The Brothers Cabal so far:

When most people look at a stream tumbling down from the mountain heights--fed by melt water and bubbling springs, jogging merrily down past rock and tuffet, glistening and giggling, finally arriving with a hastily acquired, sobering air of maturity, to disembark into the river in the valley below on the inner side of a meander--they pause a moment. And sigh with appreciation at a beautiful and natural spectacle.

Some people, however, think, "Oh, happy day! What an ideal location for a military construction! And that delightful stream and serve both to provide water and to carry away corpses! And shit! Oh, happy, happy day!"

[daisdu]

I just finished Johannes Cabal the Necromancer and it was largely a very good book, I found it interesting and engaging, it had strong characters and a satisfying plot. However, I am struggling to get past the fact that the main character is a young blond-haired, blue-eyed man in the 1950s-60s with a german accent who explicitly speaks positively about eugenics and whose last name is meant to imply spookiness by relying on antisemitic depictions of Jewish mysticism...

I know he's objectively not a good guy, but most of these details don't feel related to that