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Graphic Classics #21
Graphic Classics, Volume 21: Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery
Poe's Tales of Mystery features a new full-color comics adaptation of Poe's seminal detective story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Also "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," "The Man of the Crowd," "MS Found in a Bottle" and nine more stories and poems by the creator of the mystery genre. Artists include Michael Manning, Reno Maniquis, Brad Teare, Nelson Evergreen and Lisa K. Weber.
144 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2011
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
10.6k books29.6k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 20, 2023
Extreme Book Nerd Your Way Challenge 2023
This graphic novel has several of Poe's stories and poems. I love that his work, which I love, has been put to pictures. There were quite a few that I had never seen before, like: "Hop Frog", "The Man of the Crowd", "Burnice", and "The Oval Portrait". The graphics were well done and I loved the interpretations.
This graphic novel has several of Poe's stories and poems. I love that his work, which I love, has been put to pictures. There were quite a few that I had never seen before, like: "Hop Frog", "The Man of the Crowd", "Burnice", and "The Oval Portrait". The graphics were well done and I loved the interpretations.
November 7, 2024
Some of these adapted stories were hit and miss, but there were enough hits that I feel confident with a four star rating for this book.
October 2, 2011
Reason for Reading: I read every new volume that comes out.
A graphic anthology of short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. This is the second volume in the series to feature Poe as Volume 1 did as well. The crowning glory of this volume is the adaptation of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Antonella Caputo and Reno Maniquis. Very much in keeping with the original story, they have brought the classic story to a new medium and shown this first detective story in all its gruesome delight. I also enjoyed "The Facts in the Case of of M. Valdemar" which is a creepy story to begin with and Michael Manning's illustrations really bring a new essence to the story that words alone cannot convey. I'm happy to see Hop-Frog back in its original form by Lisa K. Weber only with added colour, this time. Not one of my favourite Poe stories but a wicked little tale of revenge nicely done in the graphic format. "The Masque of Red Death" is back also in colour and I'm not sure whether I appreciate this one as much in colour as I did in black and white. There are a few lesser known tales represented here and they are not ones that really do much for me though I enjoyed the artwork completely, throughout the book this time. "Berenice" was particularly a favourite of a story I hadn't remember so well. There is only one story I did not like and that was a new rendering of "The Tell-Tale Heart", which had been turned into a modern story with the antagonist portrayed as a female punk rock neo-nazi type. Didn't work for me at all.
There are quite a few poems in this volume, short poems. It felt like more than usual but I'm not holding another book to actually compare, perhaps it's because I'm not exactly a poem person and had been hoping that "The Bells" would be represented. Overall, a good read. Poe is good material to work with graphically, but I'll honestly have to say I preferred the b/w volume to this new colour volume.
A graphic anthology of short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. This is the second volume in the series to feature Poe as Volume 1 did as well. The crowning glory of this volume is the adaptation of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Antonella Caputo and Reno Maniquis. Very much in keeping with the original story, they have brought the classic story to a new medium and shown this first detective story in all its gruesome delight. I also enjoyed "The Facts in the Case of of M. Valdemar" which is a creepy story to begin with and Michael Manning's illustrations really bring a new essence to the story that words alone cannot convey. I'm happy to see Hop-Frog back in its original form by Lisa K. Weber only with added colour, this time. Not one of my favourite Poe stories but a wicked little tale of revenge nicely done in the graphic format. "The Masque of Red Death" is back also in colour and I'm not sure whether I appreciate this one as much in colour as I did in black and white. There are a few lesser known tales represented here and they are not ones that really do much for me though I enjoyed the artwork completely, throughout the book this time. "Berenice" was particularly a favourite of a story I hadn't remember so well. There is only one story I did not like and that was a new rendering of "The Tell-Tale Heart", which had been turned into a modern story with the antagonist portrayed as a female punk rock neo-nazi type. Didn't work for me at all.
There are quite a few poems in this volume, short poems. It felt like more than usual but I'm not holding another book to actually compare, perhaps it's because I'm not exactly a poem person and had been hoping that "The Bells" would be represented. Overall, a good read. Poe is good material to work with graphically, but I'll honestly have to say I preferred the b/w volume to this new colour volume.
November 20, 2013
Some of these are reprints of previously published Graphic Classic tales, but this time colorized. Still, there are plenty of new adaptations that make this a truly fresh volume. In fact, I'm not sure, but that I enjoyed this collection more than the regular Poe volume in its multiple editions.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews