Customer Reviews

Horror Classics: Graphic Classics Volume Ten (Graphic Classics (Eureka))

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Horror has done well for the modern incarnation of the Graphic Classics, whose series has seen such luminaries as Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft brought to life by some extremely talented cartoonists. Whether it is the short-story nature, or the ready-made visually splendid imagery, there is something in the classic horror tales thats makes them well suited to the Graphic Classics treatment. Here, in the 10th volume, they have wisely continued this tradition, and assembled an anthology of classic horror stories to chill and delight.

"Horror Classics" brings together 12 authors, some of which, like HP Lovecraft , Jack London and Ambrose Bierce, have been previously honored with their own Graphic Classics collections. Others, like Clark Ashton Smith and Honre de Balzac, appear for the first time. All of the stories are well-chosen, and the artists's styles are well-matched.

This collection contains:

"The Mummy" - Ambrose Bierce - A short and witty poem, with a sharp illustration to match it.

"The Thing at the Doorstep" - HP Lovecraft - A brilliant take on one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. The artist manages to capture the "Innsmouth look" perfectly, and uses the author's original text combined with illustrations to great effect. "glub..glub...glub-glub..." You know what I mean.

"Some Words with a Mummy" - Edgar Allan Poe - A clever and light adaptation of a resurrected mummy bantering with a few scientists over which has the superior society.

"In a Far Off World" - Oliver Schreiner - An excellent, melancholy tale. One I have never read before, but am glad to be introduced to.

"The Thing at Ghent" - Honre de Balzac - Entirely dialog free, I am at a bit of a loss as to the actual story. Unfortunately, it is not such a familiar tale as to be able to divine the story from illustrations alone. The only disappointment in the lot.

"The Monkey's Paw" - WW Jacobs - Any fan of "The Simpsons" will recognize this one, although they may have never seen the original. The artist JW Pierard maintains the full weight of the original cautionary tale. Be careful what you wish for, and don't mess with unfamiliar magiks.

"The Open Window" - Saki - Another familiar tale, one that I have heard told but never knew the origin of. A clever almost-ghost story, well adapted in a simple Victorian style.

"A Day Dream" - Fitz-James O-Brien - Cartoonish musings on murder, and the high class going slumming in the Five Points.

"Keesh Son of Keesh" - Jack London - A dark and powerful tale of barbarian culture and blood-rights amongst the Native American tribes. Ryan Inzana's heavy woodblock illustrations perfectly compliment this heavy story.

"Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant" - Howard R. Garis - "Feed me, Seymour!" Another comedic adaptation, featuring a foolish professor and his frightening child.

"The Beast of Averoigne" - Clark Ashton Smith - A contemporary of Lovecraft, this tale of a wild comet, a haunted abbey, and the Ring of Eibon, is adapted with appropriate style.

"Selina Sedilia" - Bret Harte - A humorous look at love ever-after between two base villains. And of course, there is only one way to achieve love "ever-after."

This fun little graphic novel is a collection of some twelve short stories and poems that were all written by the greats of modern horror literature - H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Saki (pen name of Hector Hugh Munro), Jack London, and others. Just as heterogeneous as the authors are the illustrators. Each of the stories was illustrated by a different artist, who drew the story as he or she saw fit, each different from the others and each excellent.

Overall, I thought that this was an excellent book, with great stories and wonderful illustration work. I think that my favorites were Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep, W.W. Jacobs' Monkey's Paw, and Clark Ashton Smith's The Beast of Averoigne, with Bret Harte's Selina Sedilia being too funny to miss. Yep, this is a great book, one that my fourteen-year-old daughter and I both enjoyed and both highly recommend!

Horror Classics is a graphic novel anthology that brings to vivid life those great tales of terror by Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and others. Each individual story is skillfully rendered into comic book format by a different artist, who uses black-and-white imagery to perfectly capture moments of terror. An engrossing introduction to the classics of horror for those new to the literary experience, and an exciting fresh take on great stories for those who have read them a hundred times before.

I disliked this text. The best adaptation was H.P. Lovecraft's misogenistic tale "The Thing on the Doorstep." The illustrations perfectly captured the mood of the story. They were truly informative and supplemented the content. When the text states that "She eyed him with an almost predatory air..." you can actuallly see that in the illustration above these words. Illustrations must capture the mood of the story as well as the author's tone.
The rest of the collection does not follow the success of Lovecraft's story's adaptation.
Nevertheless, it is not the lack of proper adaptation that draws my major criticism. It is simply the lack of perspective. There is no major overriding theme in this collection. It is a survey, a strange collection of funny stories, parodies, and scary ones accompanied by illustrations that fail to grasp the mood. It seems to me that a good collection of "horror" stories should say something about the genre, something informative, just like a literary anthology does about its collections. Collections often are controlled by some overriding theme, and to say that they are all about horror is not enough. I was quite disappointed with this lack of thematic thread. The scary "Thing on the Doorstep" was followed by one of Poe's parodies, to be followed by a series of tales strangely juxtaposed. Ambrose Bierce's tale doesn't show the best of that author.
From reading this graphic text I have found out that a good graphic text must make the text clearer to its audience; its illustrations should reflect the mood and authorial tone of the text; and finally, if a publishing house attempts to make a collection, this should have a perspective or an agenda. For example, the collection should have included other authors who write similar to Lovecraft. Poe's "Tell Tale Heart" or "Black Cat" would have been excellent companions. Other authors who write in a similar mood and about similar topics have a greater effect on the reader, than loose collections like this one.

Well, I read Eureka Productions' Graphic Classics: Edgar Allan Poe (Graphic Classics (Graphic Novels)), and I have to admit it - I was consequently a little disappointed in this sequel volume. While the stories in this volume were uniformly interesting (more or less), I didn't feel the artwork was up to same level as the Poe volume. (A notable exception: Michael Manning's excellent adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Thing On The Doorstep". I'll definitely keep an eye out for his (Manning's) work in the future.) Probably worth a look if you're a fan of any of the original writers, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read this one unless you're a complete horror comics nut.

not a very good comic. All in black and white and not much diolog. might as well read the book.