[Andrew999]

I know we have some big EAP fans who check into this site from time to time - and I've come to enjoy Ahoy Comics and their offerings (even though they probably chose the worst time in the last century to launch a comic book company) so I thought I'd give a heads-up on their Edgar Allan Poe's Snifter of Terror series - it's a gem (and from Paul Cornell too - I still maintain Goth Opera was the best of all Dr Who novels):

https://comicsahoy.com/comics/edgar-allan-poe

[The Australian Panther]

Andrew, somehow you miss-posted the link. That comes up 'page not found'
This is the link
https://comicsahoy.com/comics/edgar-allan-poe

[SuperScrounge]

There's something about the apostrophe that messes up posting the link. Select the whole address and pasting it into the bar works though.

Also under the Blog And Site Links part of the forum is Professor H's Wayback Machine which links to his blog with information on many, many different Poe comic book adaptations.

[profh0011]

When I started my POE prject in October 2014 (I can't believe I've been at it this long), several of the earliest installments came from THIS site.  The Charltons, basically.

Marvels, ECs, Gilbertons, all came from various sources.

I still remember the first comic I had to BUY for the project-- which was also the first comic I bought in SEVERAL YEARS (due to finances), was an issue of KING CLASSICS, which, it turned out, was a English edition of a Spanish series from Bruguera, done as a cop-publishing deal with King Features in NYC, but PRINTED in Spain (my own suspicion, it was to maintain quality control-- i so, I LIKE that idea!).

TONS of stuff have turned up since... I'm so far ahead on my buying and so far behind on my processing, it's questionable if this project will ever get "finished"-- especially as more and more and MORE people KEEP knocking out new Poe material.  Plus, for awhile, more and more OLDER items kept turning up.  And when you're trying to set up a blog in chronological sequence... well, that just causes nightmares.

However, one item already up at the blog-- which I MOST wanted to upgrade the scans-- JUST turned up on Ebay-- CHEAP-- and COVERLESS!  I JUMPED on it. Can't wait to process that "upgrade".  (It's one I got from here--- heeheehee.)

I've had to slow down my buying as I needed the money for DVDs... which at least, I can watch immediately... and repeatedly. It's mostly the recent stuff I still have to fill the holes on.

The Ahoy Comics, it looks like I may go after the collections rather than the individual issues.  I think they're cheaper that way.

[profh0011]

I've seen some lists of Poe comics adaptations online.  NONE of them are complete.

I spent a bit of time trying to "contribute" to Wikipedia.  The last time adding a list of comics versions of a Poe story, they took it down, and said "It should be a representative sampling, not a complete list."  Well WHO THE F*** is supposed to decide WHICH versions to include, or not?  I said to myself, THAT's it, I've HAD it with those A**H***s.

And you know what?  Since then, I've noticed "comics adaptations" IN GENERAL have VANISHED from several classic stories listed on that site.

The "editors" at Wikipedia have their heads up their A**** even further than the ones at the GCD do.



My chronological index currently goes on for 14 PAGES and is constantly being updated.

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2014/10/edgar-allan-poe.html

[The Australian Panther]

Yes, Wikipedia is becoming profoundly unreliable, prone to deliberate censorship and deliberate individual egotistical decisions.

If I use Wikipedia as a source, I try to cross-check with 2 or 3 other sources. And even that is becoming  harder to do. Search engines now censor the results of searches.       

[Andrew999]

Stumbled across a Poe poem I'd never heard of - Tamerlane.

Written when he was eighteen years old, his first published poem, it was a commercial flop - but just read it - quite amazing:

https://poets.org/poem/tamerlane

[Andrew999]

I've just finished reading Edgar Allan Poe and the London Monster by Aussie-based author Karen Lee Street and thoroughly enjoyed it - loads of subtle references to the oeuvre.

I believe there are two more in the series.

It's interesting to see there are so many books with Poe as a character. There's no trademark on real people, of course, so it's surprising more use isn't made of historical figures - a spy series with Ian Fleming perhaps - or supernatural shenanigans with Theda Bara or Dash Hammett as a private eye in Hollywood - you get my drift.

What others might excite you?

[crashryan]

Joe Gores wrote a mystery starring Dashiell Hammett titled simply Hammett (1975). It was quite good. There was a movie version in the 80s but I didn't see it.

[Captain Audio]

I've just finished reading Edgar Allan Poe and the London Monster by Aussie-based author Karen Lee Street and thoroughly enjoyed it - loads of subtle references to the oeuvre.

I believe there are two more in the series.

It's interesting to see there are so many books with Poe as a character. There's no trademark on real people, of course, so it's surprising more use isn't made of historical figures - a spy series with Ian Fleming perhaps - or supernatural shenanigans with Theda Bara or Dash Hammett as a private eye in Hollywood - you get my drift.

What others might excite you?

A couple of years ago I read just such a novel, the premise being Dashell Hamett during his Hollywood years being caught up in a series of crimes that sprang from the original case that inspired his novel "the Maltese Falcon. Don't remember the title offhand.

[The Australian Panther]

It's interesting to see there are so many books with Poe as a character. There's no trademark on real people, of course, so it's surprising more use isn't made of historical figures - a spy series with Ian Fleming perhaps - or supernatural shenanigans with Theda Bara or Dash Hammett as a private eye in Hollywood - you get my drift.

a spy series with Ian Fleming perhaps. There is an excellent French comic mini-series starring Fleming in WWII, can't recall the name of it. Also at leat one British TV series on Fleming in WWII.

A couple of years ago I read just such a novel, the premise being Dashell Hamett during his Hollywood years being caught up in a series of crimes that sprang from the original case that inspired his novel "the Maltese Falcon. Don't remember the title offhand.

I have did that somewhere on my shelves. Half-read. Can't find that either today. But I believe he was teamed up with Earl Stanley Gardner in that book.

There would undoubtedly be more.

Cheers! 

[Andrew999]

I chose bad examples with Hammett and Fleming as they have already been used in post-modernist settings - but the wider point was the one I intended to make. My friends know I've been toying with some short stories that feature Adam Faith as a detective in 1960 London - but you can probably think of many other possibilities - history is littered with interesting people.

Here's the trailer for Wim Wenders' excellent movie Hammett from the Joe Gores novel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brcmR0whE54

Joe also wrote a prequel to the Maltese Falcon, Spade & Archer, which I've read and it was good.

[Andrew999]

The EAP universe scores two big hits this week:

- Christian Bale is to star in The Pale Blue Eye in which a young EAP assists an aging detective, Augustus Landor, in the solution of a series of murders at West Point - based on the riveting book by Louis Bayard

- A Visit to Panorama Island, an adult manga, is launched. Based on a book by Japanese mystery author Edogawa Ranpo (pronounced EAP of course) - the art looks intriguing with a strong art deco flavour:

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/a-visit-to-panorama-island-in-the-strange-tale-of-panorama-island/

Edogawa is himself a fascinating character - his later novels in particular ground-breaking:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edogawa_Ranpo

And if you've never seen the movie version of The Black Lizard, be prepared for something a bit different:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCV2_3AgPlU

[Andrew999]

EAP's best-selling work in his own lifetime was on conchology - who'd have thunk it:

https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/books/edgar-allan-poe-seashell-guidebook

You can read it here:

https://archive.org/details/conchologistsfir00poeed/mode/2up?view=theater

Can anyone think of seashell references in Poe's gothic works?

PS - Try saying this out loud three times:

The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure. For if she sells sea-shells by the sea-shore. Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells

[The Australian Panther]

There was a French Movie, 'Spirits of the Dead' 1968
3 directors, Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, Roger Vadim each did a Poe story.

Three directors each adapt a Poe short story to the screen: ?Toby Dammit? features a disheveled drugged and drunk English movie star who nods acceptance in the Italian press and his producers fawn over him. ?Metzengerstein? features a Mediveal countess who has a love-hate relationship with a black stallion ? who, it turns out is really her dead lover. ?William Wilson? tells the story of a sadistic Austrian student with an exact double whom he later kills.

Have't seen it, but I will track it down. 

[Andrew999]

Never heard of this one - well done, Panther, my friend.

Here it is:

https://vimeo.com/408331424

What an amazing cast!

[Captain Audio]

There was a French Movie, 'Spirits of the Dead' 1968
3 directors, Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, Roger Vadim each did a Poe story.

Three directors each adapt a Poe short story to the screen: ?Toby Dammit? features a disheveled drugged and drunk English movie star who nods acceptance in the Italian press and his producers fawn over him. ?Metzengerstein? features a Mediveal countess who has a love-hate relationship with a black stallion ? who, it turns out is really her dead lover. ?William Wilson? tells the story of a sadistic Austrian student with an exact double whom he later kills.

Have't seen it, but I will track it down.

I saw it long ago , perhaps when it first came out, then later on some cable channel.
I really didn't much care for this film, too Yurpy. Vadim seems to have wanted to showcase his trophy wife's talents, though in this case lack of talent is more like it. This and thee other vignettes were of inferior production value to practically every TV Anthology series of the day.

[Captain Audio]

Never heard of this one - well done, Panther, my friend.

Here it is:

https://vimeo.com/408331424

What an amazing cast!

A List actors phoning in performances for pocket money. None of them showed their potential. I'd be surprised if they even saw the scripts till the day of shooting.

[The Australian Panther]

Fellin and Malle are noteworthy directors, Vadim, tho, is a horse of a different colour. Vanity project and Vadim in my opinion, go well in the same sentence.
I won't comment on the film until I have seen it.   

[profh0011]

In 1968, Brazil's Osvaldo Talo adapted "WILLIAM WILSON"... but not from Poe's story, as much as from the 1968 FILM version of it.  Of course, for the comic-book, he cut out most of the sex and violence...



http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2016/03/poe-1968-pt-1.html

[The Australian Panther]

and me doing the English translation OF the comic!

And an excellent translation it is.

And, the main character here has a moustache, and doesn't really resemble actor Alain Delon at all

Either the artist wasn't capable of accurately drawing the face or there may have been copyright reasons.
Overall, the Artist's contribution to the story is not wonderful.

Cheers!

[profh0011]

It's funny, but Osvaldo Talo became one of my favorites from Brazil.  He's often dismissed for having little style, but I enjoy the sheer simplicity... which really lends itself to my coloring.   

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2016/03/poe-1967-pt-7.html



There's an Italian artist like that, Gino Dauro, who mostly did westerns.  He did 4 POE stories, including a full-length version of "Rue Morgue".  For me, just looking at the Italian digest, it's not thrilling.  But b the time I got done coloring them and translating them into English (in some cases, cramming in as much authentic Poe text as possible), I got to love it.  His "Rue Morgue" became my favorite of the many different versions I've seen, and his "Usher" is fun as well.  Dauro reminds of Italy's "answer" to Dick Ayers.   

https://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2021/01/poe-1969-pt-12_8.html

Since I'm mostly using "flat" color (and "pastels") my goal is always to augment what's there, not SMOTHER and bury it.

One of the biggest compliments someone gave me on the project involved Italian artist Dino Battaglia, who mostly did "classic" adaptations.  Someone said they NEVER liked his style... UNTIL  they saw it with MY color.  Wow! When I first started on his stuff, it had so much detail, I wondered... "Should I even touch this?"  Then I dug in... by the time I was thru, that story became one of my favorites in the whole project.  I've done 3 of his so far (out of 10), and hope to get to the rest eventually.

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2017/09/poe-1968-pt-27.html

[crashryan]

I'm reluctant to critique these Brazilian comics because I don't want to seem like I'm criticizing your work to translate and produce English versions. I find Talo's art unsatisfying. It's not the fact that he isn't the best draughtsman. I can accept weak drawing if the artist's heart seems to be in it. My complaint is that Talo never puts more than the bare minimum of effort into his drawings. Less of a Dick Ayers than a Bill Molno. I presume from what you say the stories originally appeared in black and white. Color fills in all the empty spaces. I'm sure your colorized stories look much better than the originals.

On the other hand, I prefer Dino Battaglia left as he was. Again this is simply a difference of opinion. Battaglia's b&w work is designed specifically for black and white. His color work (mostly colored by his wife Laura) is drawn more open so the color doesn't cover up the art. Laura's colors are beautifully suited to Dino's drawings, delicate and muted with the same mistiness Dino achieves in his ink work.

In conclusion let me repeat that I think your project is admirable and that I salute your efforts whether I like the art or not. It's a mighty task you've taken on and its historical value is beyond dispute.

[The Australian Panther]

I'm only just now becoming familiar with Italian artists.
Thank you for introducing me to Dino Battaglia. This is a style I don't usually warm to, but wow - I am attracted to an artist who can put energy on the page - not many can - he has it in spades.
There is energy there and also individuality in the human characters. 
So thank you again.   

[profh0011]

The very 1st POE I colored was Tom Sutton's "RED DEATH".  My God, there's SO MUCH line detail in there!!  I love his early Wally Wood-inspired art, it's so CLEAN. But with this, I knew, the last thing I wanted to do was get in the way of all those lines. That's how I hit on mostly "flat" color, and "pastels".  NO MORE than 50% black, because the LINES are 100% black, and you must SEE every line.

I still love this one.

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2014/12/poe-1967-pt-2.html