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Friday, September 3, 2010
Graphic Classics: Volume One – Edgar Allan Poe
The Perfect Horror Anthology
Written by Various
Illustrated by Various
Published by Eureka Productions
$11.95
Written by Rick Geary, Antonella Caputo, Tom Pomplun, Edgar Allen Poe, Stanley W. Shaw, Milton Knight, Pedro Lopez, and Matt Howarth; Illustrated by Marcel de Jong, Ramon Contini, Annie Owens, Rick Geary, Anton Emdin, Glenn Smith, Joe Ollmann, Roger Langridge, Andy Ewen, Lance Tooks, J.B. Bonivert, Steven Cerio, Skot Olsen, M.K. Brown, Michael Manning, Ryan Inzana, Mary Fleener, Evert Geradts, Toni Pawlowsky, Todd Lovering, Stanley W. Shaw, Milton Knight, Lisa K. Weber, Pedro Lopez, and Matt Howarth
As someone who’s contributed to horror anthologies, I’m well aware of how difficult it is to put together one where each story is as strong as the next. Without exception, anthologies written by multiple authors are going to have stories that vary in quality. Pretty much the only way around that would be to get one writer – and an incredibly talented writer at that – to pen every story in the book.
Of course you see where I’m going with this.
Usually when you get a single author to write every story in a collection of short stories you don’t call it an anthology anymore, but I’m going to argue for an exception in the case of Graphic Classics since each piece is illustrated by a different artist. So, picture the first volume in the Graphic Classics line as a horror anthology made perfect by the fact that it’s entirely made up of stories by arguably the greatest horror writer who ever lived: Edgar Allen Poe.
So much has been critically written about Poe and his talent that it’d be silly to try to duplicate it in a review, so I’ll stick to the subject and talk about the specific stories that editor Tom Pomplun chose for the inaugural volume of the Graphic Classics series.
As with all Graphic Classics volumes, there’s a mixture of the familiar (“The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”) and the relatively obscure (“King Pest,” “The Premature Burial,” “Eldorado,” “Spirits of the Dead,” “The Imp of the Perverse,” “Never Bet the Devil Your Head,” and “Hop Frog”).
Of the familiar stories, the adaptation of “The Raven” stands out because it’s retold strictly in prose with each couple of stanzas illustrated by different artists with wildly different styles. It’s a poem and an art gallery at the same time. The other four familiar tales are adapted into comics form and all capture the feel of Poe’s original prose. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is rather whimsically illustrated by Rick Geary in keeping with the ludicrous paranoia of its narrator. Stanley Shaw’s posh, clean line-work is similarly fitting for the decadent grandeur of “The Masque of the Red Death,” as is the stark, heavily inked work of Pedro Lopez on the buried-alive tale “The Cask of Amontillado.” Matt Howarth’s work on “The Fall of the House of Usher” is as gloomy and weird as it needs to be, and yet it’s the first time – I’m embarrassed to say – that I’ve read the story and actually understood what’s going on in it.
Of the stuff that’s new (to me), my favorite piece is “Hop Frog” about a poor, put-upon, hunchbacked jester. Not because it retains Poe’s original prose, but because it’s illustrated with the hilariously grotesque illustrations of Lisa Weber. And because the story itself is just that good. As I read it, I kept thinking about what a great movie it would make, with or without Karloff and Lugosi.
But, like I said, they’re all winners. They’re all written by Poe and they’re all perfectly matched with their illustrators. Graphic Classics Volume One is a must read for any fan of Poe or horror in general (though I suppose those labels are actually interchangeable).
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
