Revelations

by Clive Barker, David Morrell, Joe R. Lansdale

The Barnes & Noble Review
Editor Douglas Winter has come up with a unique idea for an anthology and found the writers to give the idea vivid life.

"What better way to mark the close of the twentieth century," Winters writes in his Afterword, "than through a sequence of stories, one set in each decade of the past hundred years?" The stories (short novels, really) are, as befits the final years of a century, "latent with apocalypse."

Perhaps the most powerful story in the book is David Morrell's "If I Should Die Before I Wake," a piece set in the 1910s. An epidemic is running loose and the people find themselves unable to deal with it in any sense. Particularly devastating is the loss of the children. After I read a few pages, I remembered Graham Greene's line about "the terrible wisdom of God." Morrell was thinking similarly. One of his characters says, "Sometimes God can be cruel."

What gives the piece its depth is not only its classical theological concerns but also the pleasingly detailed way Morrell presents the second decade of this century. There's talk of such newfangled inventions as automobiles and radios. Morrell contrasts this kinder, gentler era with the ravages of the epidemic, and the counterpoint is chilling.

F. Paul Wilson's "Aryans and Absinthe" is an equally stunning achievement. I happened to be reading through a recent book about Nazi Germany, the author persuading us that the average German knew much more about the extermination of Jews than he was willing to admit. Wilson makes the same point here, and quite It was clear from the very beginning,what Hitler intended to do with those he despised, Wilson suggests, and the German people followed him willingly nonetheless.

Wilson's story concerns a young man who has convinced himself that even though "[s]ome of the most bitter people have chosen Jews as their scapegoats," he and his mother (who is Jewish) will be fine as long as they "keep a low profile."

Wilson paints a convincingly lurid picture of decadent, "Cabaret" Germany, also giving us some of Hitler's earliest and most legendary triumphs, including the beer-hall victory. And, as always with Wilson, he twists and turns the story line so that you end up in a very unexpected place.

Joe Lansdale's "The Big Blow" shows the writer's fabulist impulses to very good effect. The time is the 1900s; the place is Texas. A mysterious white boxer named McBride is hired by some locals to take care of a local black boxer named Johnson, $200 if McBride beats him, $500 if he kills him. This being Lansdale country, nobody is exactly all good or all bad, but Johnson is a believably drawn man of great decency, no easy accomplishment. Too many decent people make dull reading. Lansdale gives him good and true life. McBride, on the other hand, is a redneck bully boy you'd like to pour gasoline over and then ignite, just to watch him die, to quote an old Johnny Cash song.

Lansdale very cleverly juxtaposes the impending fight with an impending flood of Old Testament proportions. The action sequences are the story's strongest moments. Nobody writes complicated action better than Lansdale. He is able to give you the cinematic surface but also a glimpse of the horrified souls caught up in the action. An excellent piece of work.

Ramsey Campbell's story "The Word" is a tale told by the editor of a fanzine that specializes in eviscerating most of the books it reviews. The editor spends a good deal of his time trying to find a copy of a book called "The Word" by an author named Jess Kray, a writer the fanzine editor would love to trash again. But what starts out as a seemingly mundane story takes a number of deeply disturbing turns as we learn more and more about "The Word."

In addition to offering us a haunting look at a contemporary prophet, Campbell has also given us a devastating portrait of the kind of pseudo-literary loner who hopes to make everybody else just as isolate and unhappy as he is. He puts all his hatred and arrogance into his slashing book reviews. This is the only power he possesses, the only way he can strike back at the world that has dismissed him. Until, that is, he makes contact with "The Word."

Campbell is a gifted writer, and he's rarely been better than he is here (including some great shots at the sad-comic good intentions of political correctness, a production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" performed entirely by people in wheelchairs). This is a work with real echoes, one the reader is likely to recall for years afterward, a serious story about our need for God, told by a fool and knave.

There are other excellent pieces, too—nary a clinker in the entire anthology, with good work from Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite and Christa Faust, Charles Grant, Whitley Strieber, David J. Schow and Craig Spector, El...

Genres: Horror, Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

Hardcover

First published May 24, 1993

About the author

Clive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. Educated at Dovedale Primary School and Quarry Bank High School, he studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University and his picture now hangs in the entrance hallway to the Philosophy Department. It was in Liverpool in 1975 that he met his first partner, John Gregson, with whom he lived until 1986. Barker's second long-term relationship, with photographer David Armstrong, ended in 2009.

In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is presented "to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for any of those communities". While Barker is critical of organized religion, he has stated that he is a believer in both God and the afterlife, and that the Bible influences his work.

Fans have noticed of late that Barker's voice has become gravelly and coarse. He says in a December 2008 online interview that this is due to polyps in his throat which were so severe that a doctor told him he was taking in ten percent of the air he was supposed to have been getting. He has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his resultant voice is an improvement over how it was prior to the surgeries. He said he did not have cancer and has given up cigars. On August 27, 2010, Barker underwent surgery yet again to remove new polyp growths from his throat. In early February 2012 Barker fell into a coma after a dentist visit led to blood poisoning. Barker remained in a coma for eleven days but eventually came out of it. Fans were notified on his Twitter page about some of the experience and that Barker was recovering after the ordeal, but left with many strange visions.

Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories.

Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his films have received mixed receptions. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld (aka Transmutations – 1985) and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou. Displeased by how his material was handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed (Cabal), which was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which received major critical acclaim.

Barker is a prolific visual artist working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books. His paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early Nineties, as well on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996), as well as on the second printing of the original UK publications of his Books of Blood series.

A longtime comics fan, Barker achieved his dream of publishing his own superhero books when Marvel Comics launched the Razorline imprint in 1993. Based on detailed premises, titles and lead characters he created specifically for this, the four interrelated titles — set outside the Marvel universe — were Ectokid,

Reviews

[Wendy Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Illustrated by Lionel Talaro, Adapted by Steve Niles. Dark, raw, bloody, but the graphics (and it's mighty GRAPHIC) didn't do Barker's story full justice, the scenes too blurry, the story too spliced.

[Ramon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gran adaptación de la historia.
Si bien la historia atrapa por el formato que tiene, al ser llevado a imágenes, la hace más fluida en su desarrollo pero se pierde bastante del enganche que tienen las descripciones de Barker.
Muy bien adaptada pero no muy llamativa como novela gráfica.

[Shirley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very interesting and not much of a story.

[BrokenMnemonic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting original story, but this adaptation is let down by the muddy art. The at works well in a few places, like the scenes set outside, but not so well elsewhere.

[James Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½⭐

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed 'Revelations'

Not the first story you'd think as ripe for a graphic adaptation but this worked really well.

[John Esse · Rating 3 out of 5]

A poorly-made adaptation of an outstanding CB short story.

[Amy Younger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting premise, rewarding ending.

[Tom Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some nice storytelling in this. The foreshadowing of the cyclical nature of the violence is subtly but clearly done, and the semi-realistic nature of the artwork really complements the ethereal nature of what's going on. The art does veer off a little too much sometimes - there are times when poses and proportions don't look 'off-kilter-artistic', they just look a bit shoddy - but there are also times when the glint in a character's eye reflects the writing to perfection.

The air of menace is pretty palpable throughout, so Niles has done a pretty decent job of adapting Barker's style of tension ramping up to more tension. The end feels pretty satisfying too.

There's another short story in here that is fun in a sort of unbelievable romp and mildly naff ending sort of way. I definitely enjoyed it.

[Dewi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ide cerita Clive Barker terbilang cukup menarik. Sepasang suami istri yang menghantui kamar hotel setelah terjadi pembunuhan sekian puluh tahun yang lalu. Hantu-hantu dan penghuni kamar hotel digambarkan memiliki karakter yang kuat. Sayangnya adaptasi yang dibuat oleh Steve Niles dan Fred Burke dalam bentuk graphic novel menjadi kurang menarik. Adegan dan penampakan visual yang terlalu vulgar malah mengurangi daya tarik cerita secara keseluruhan.

[Jimmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like any of the characters in this short story. Each one is a sinner & can not see their own sin beyond those surrounding them. It was a bit confusing at first to figure out what was going on because everything runs together, but once things got established the action & drama would not let me put it down. I loved the ending!

[Sylvester · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my least favourite short story, almost felt like a yarn from the EC comics in the 50s. The story is about a couple checking into a motel and the wife experiencing flashback of a murder happened at the same location. The result was pretty predictable. The artwork were a bit blend this time, with unnecessary nudity throughout.