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posted by: lightning at 12:57 | link | comments |
comics, comic reviews

A new take on Victorian gothic classics

 

Gothic Classics: Graphic Classics Vol. 14

 

Eureka Productions

 

By: Jane Austen & Molly Kiely. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Rod Lott & Lisa K. Weber. Ann Radcliffe, Antonella Caputo & Carlo Vergara. Edgar Allan Poe, Tom Pomplun & Leong Wan Kok. Jane Austin, Trina Robbins & Anne Timmons. Myla Jo Closser, Tom Pomplun & Shary Flenniken.

 

Edited by: Tom Pomplun

 

B&W, 144 pages

 

$11.95 U.S./$14.50 Can

 

A comic book look at classic gothic literature

 

Mike Gagnon

 

This hefty volume collects several new comic book adaptations of classis gothic English literature.

 

Highly regarded works such as J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla”, Ann Radcliffe’s “Mysteries of Udolpho”, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Oval Portrait”, Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey”, Myla Jo Closser’s “At The Gate”, and even Jane Austen’s poem “I’ve a Pain in my Head” all get the comic book treatment.

 

I’ve a Pain in my Head

 

Austen’s “I’ve a Pain in my Head” is humorously illustrated by Molly Kiely in a one page narrative that presents Austen’s poem in a light that I’m not sure se intended, but the conclusion of which is quite funny.

 

That light little spot is the first and last bit of humor you’ll find in any of these stories.

 

Carmilla

 

Le Fanu’s “Carmilla” is adapted to graphic novel format by Rod Lott. The story tells of a noble family who out of the goodness of their own hearts, take care of a mysterious young girl named “Carmilla” while her mother is away on urgent business. The girl begins to haunt the dreams of the lord’s young daughter. The daughter becomes ill many of the community fall ill and die. When the master of the house runs into an old friend from a neighbouring village he discovered that his friend has a very similar story that resulted in the death of his niece. He too had been taking care of a mysterious girl known to him as “Millarca”, who revealed herself to be a vampire, sucking the life from his family and subjects. The nobles determine that they must dispatch the undead monster before any more souls are taken from the Earth.

posted by: lightning at 10:00 | link | comments |
comic reviews

Review: Jokes and the Unconscious

By Daphne Gottlieb and Diane DiMassa

Cleis Press, $17.95

reviewed by Matthue Roth

 

Jokes and the Unconscious, the first collaboration between slam poet and author Daphne Gottlieb and cartoonist Diane DiMassa, is a graphic novel, but not in the sense of the term that we’re familiar with. It’s less a story with two roles (writer and artist) than it is a series of free-form riffs—between the story being told and the storyteller’s reaction to it, flashbacks and alternate realities and entire sections of “Oh yeah, this reminds me of a joke…”

 

That’s just the text. The additional layer of the illustrations feels like another riff, another interpretation and another level removed, as hand-lettered paragraphs scroll and fade into speech-bubbled conversations, etchings, or into those sequential-art panels that we know and love.

posted by: lightning at 14:10 | link | comments |
comics, features, comic reviews

Review: Legion of Monsters: Man-Thing #1

reviewed by Daniel Peretti

 

With the relatively recent revival of Marvel Monsters, two faces of monsters have been revealed.  One face showed itself in the Monsters on the Prowl series of loosely connected one-shots a few years ago.  These were entertaining, with better art than stories most of the time.  Though these were labeled monster stories, they were more or less super-hero adventure stories with monstrous heroes and villains.  The stories were more aptly characterized as thrilling, not chilling. 

posted by: lightning at 10:33 | link | comments |
comics, features, comic reviews