The Living And The Dead [Paperback]

Todd Livingston (Author), Robert Tinnell (Author), Micah Farritor (Author), David J. Skal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2005

You are a simple, country doctor in a small village. You have a beautiful wife and a wonderful son - the perfect life. Only they don't know that in your past, you did a very bad thing! People died because of it, and you were forced to flee and live incognito. Now, in an opportunity to redeem yourself, you unwittingly unleash a brutal and perverse murderer, a deviant sociopath hell bent on using innocent people in a Grand Guignol of flesh and blood - a veritable nineteenth-century snuff theater. You alone can end his reign of sick terror - but at the risk of revealing your secret past and losing everything you love. Only you don't know what's worse - what you've created - or what you have to do to stop him!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...old-world horror of the finest calibre... a gripping Gothic adventure...mystery and monstrosity lurk around every shadowy corner..." -- RUE MORGUE magazine, Issue 51, November 2005

"...thrillingly uncomfortable story...Farritor does a brilliant job...I completely and perfectly love this book..." -- ComicWorldNews.com October 2006

"Moody, evocative and compelling, The Living and The Dead is one seriously powerful post-Frankenstein gothic tale." -- Scoop's Top Ten Trade Paperbacks of 2005, December 15, 2005

"The way that Livingston and Tinnell weave the story is spellbinding...Farritor does an excellent job..." -- TheFourthRail.com, December 5, 2005

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Speakeasy Comics (November 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0973838809
• ISBN-13: 978-0973838800
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,139,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An overlooked, underrated gem of a book, July 9, 2006

By 

Mark D. Clark "Movie critic and comic book geek" (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Living And The Dead (Paperback)

Todd Livingston and Bob Tinnell garnered a fistful of well-deserved awards for their previous horror graphic novels, THE BLACK FOREST and THE WICKED WEST. But their latest effort, THE LIVING AND THE DEAD has flown mostly under the radar. That's too bad, since TL&TD, a fascinating extension of the Frankenstein mythos, stands as the best -- and scariest -- of the team's efforts so far. The book's relative obscurity stems from its publication by little-known Speakeasy Comics, as opposed to marketing-savvy Dark Horse Comics (which published BLACK FOREST and THE WICKED WEST). It's certainly NOT a reflection of either the razor-sharp writing or the eerie, expressionist artwork (by gifted newcomer Micah Farritor) of this superb graphic novel.

Without question, TL&TD is the most adult-themed and hardest-hitting work so far from Livingston & Tinnell, a gleefully warped yarn that touches on torture, incest, necrophilia and Satanism in addition to your garden variety murder and resurrection of the living dead. Weighing it at a hefty 122 pages of story (not counting bonus materials), this is also their lengthiest project to date, and the extra space allows them to better develop the characters, especially Baron Franken -- well, actually, the writers meticulously avoid stating the name outright, but do the math. And of course, it enables the story to encompass the previously noted coffin-load of ghoulish goings on.

The plot finds The Baron trying to live down his notorious past, working as a humble village doctor in the company of his wife and children. But fate -- and meddling relatives -- put an end to this bucholic existence and compel him to resume his nefarious experiments. It would be criminal to reveal more, except that the whole business builds to a bone-chilling twist-ending that should inspire the envy of M. Night Shyamalan (and perhaps the ghost of Rod Serling, as well).

The book also includes a rewarding afterward by horror scholar David J. Skal (author of HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC and SCREAMS OF REASON), who places the tale in context within the larger mythology of Frankenstein.

In short, THE LIVING AND THE DEAD is well worth seeking out. It's a must-read for anyone who enjoyed the previous Livingston-Tinnell books, and strongly recommended to anyone interested in the Frankenstein mythos, or who simply enjoy a blood-curdling horror story.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid Extension of Frankenstein, February 15, 2006

By 

Milo Molesworth (Grand Library of Helium, Barsoom) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Living And The Dead (Paperback)

Livingston and Tinnell's The Living And The Dead is the best thing they have produced to date. Their graphic novel extension of Frankenstein works quite nicely. (Far better than say Steve Niles' graphic novel "modernization" of Frankenstein, Wake the Dead.) The artwork by Farritor very much complements the story woven by Livingston and Tinnell. The commentary by Skal on the story and the persistence of Frankenstein in popular culture at the end was good, though it would have been nice had it been a bit more in-depth.

Note, The Living And The Dead is contains some material that is for a more mature reader and thus unlike their graphic novel The Black Forest should not be handed to too young of a reader.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As a graphic novel neophite..., October 24, 2006

By 

A. Grove (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Living And The Dead (Paperback)

...I loved the Living and the Dead. The hook into the Frankenstein myth pulled me into the story, which was wonderfully dark without being over-the-top. Farritor's artwork is gorgeous, matching the tone set by Livingston and Tinnell. In addition, Farritor did a great job picking his shots, occasionally chosing to leave things out of the frame so that our imaginations run wild with the imagery that he and Livingston and Tinnell had already laid down.