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A review by magnetgrrl
Edgar Allan Poe's Spirits of the Dead by Richard Corben
1.0
I have owned this a long while, and somehow during The Great Book (and later Comic) reorg of '23, I realized I hadn't read it. Or I had read it, but it was so much like popcorn I forgot literally all of it? Also, I never marked it as read on GR or any other tracking site/spreadsheet I use, so, I re-read it just now.
It's... OK. And maybe that's being generous. I appreciate that it's taking actual Poe stories and adapting them. But, it feels like second-rate EC Horror comics. (There's even a totally added-in little crypt keeper.) I got really tired of the illustration style about one short in (so, three-to-five pages), and after three more shorts, I really wanted to see this as more of an anthology and less of a one-guy adapting Poe's stuff comic.
I think Richard Corben's style doesn't really work for this - which is weird, because if it doesn't work for this - I mean - what DOES it work for? Maybe I just don't like his art that much. It's kind of lazily illustrative, not really working in the language of "comics" - and on top of that, nothing special composition-wise or creatively in terms of color, figure, design - anything, at all. Monsters are fairly derivative. Everything is fairly derivative. He doesn't even have a good grasp on actual anatomy so everyone looks grotesque but it also seems unintentional. Everyone looks the EXACT SAME amount of uncannily ugly, no matter what expression they are making - joy, laughter, romance, fear, hunger, homicidal mania, etc. - it's all the same. It could be a dark take on humanity but that's giving him way too much credit. Like, I kinda get now why he only gets hired to draw horror, but... I don't think it's on purpose. :( I think he's just used what he's got and this is as far as it can get him. The anatomy and expressive issues wouldn't matter if there were larger things going on (see above re: "language of comics") or if he were also the writer, but... neither is the case. He's literally just illustrating others' stories, in the most illustrative way, and just not very well.
My recommendation would be to either read Poe's stuff in the original, or just read the amazing EC Horror comics many of which are absolute rip-offs of these EXACT STORIES but somehow, more dynamic, more exciting, and just better. ::shrug::
PS I *love* stuff like this, so for me to give this 1 star is pretty harsh, but... should give this review all the more weight.
It's... OK. And maybe that's being generous. I appreciate that it's taking actual Poe stories and adapting them. But, it feels like second-rate EC Horror comics. (There's even a totally added-in little crypt keeper.) I got really tired of the illustration style about one short in (so, three-to-five pages), and after three more shorts, I really wanted to see this as more of an anthology and less of a one-guy adapting Poe's stuff comic.
I think Richard Corben's style doesn't really work for this - which is weird, because if it doesn't work for this - I mean - what DOES it work for? Maybe I just don't like his art that much. It's kind of lazily illustrative, not really working in the language of "comics" - and on top of that, nothing special composition-wise or creatively in terms of color, figure, design - anything, at all. Monsters are fairly derivative. Everything is fairly derivative. He doesn't even have a good grasp on actual anatomy so everyone looks grotesque but it also seems unintentional. Everyone looks the EXACT SAME amount of uncannily ugly, no matter what expression they are making - joy, laughter, romance, fear, hunger, homicidal mania, etc. - it's all the same. It could be a dark take on humanity but that's giving him way too much credit. Like, I kinda get now why he only gets hired to draw horror, but... I don't think it's on purpose. :( I think he's just used what he's got and this is as far as it can get him. The anatomy and expressive issues wouldn't matter if there were larger things going on (see above re: "language of comics") or if he were also the writer, but... neither is the case. He's literally just illustrating others' stories, in the most illustrative way, and just not very well.
My recommendation would be to either read Poe's stuff in the original, or just read the amazing EC Horror comics many of which are absolute rip-offs of these EXACT STORIES but somehow, more dynamic, more exciting, and just better. ::shrug::
PS I *love* stuff like this, so for me to give this 1 star is pretty harsh, but... should give this review all the more weight.