“In “The Cask of Amontillado,” a man exacts revenge on a disloyal friend at carnival, luring him into catacombs below the city. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” a prince shielding himself from plague hosts a doomed party inside his abbey stronghold. A prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, faced with a swinging blade and swarming rats, can’t see his tormentors in “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” a milky eye and a deafening heartbeat reveal the effects of conscience and creeping madness. Alongside these tales are visual interpretations of three poems — “The Raven,” “The Bells,” and Poe’s poignant elegy to lost love, “Annabel Lee.” The seven concise graphic narratives, keyed to thematic icons, amplify and honor the timeless legacy of a master of gothic horror.” (Description from Amazon).
When starting this graphic novel, which is a collection of Poe’s works, I did not expect the amount of allegories that we can see in the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Our first story is one that isn’t as well known as some of the others in this collection, but that is, ‘The Mask of the Red Death’. I could not help but see comparisons to Covid and ‘eat the rich’. Obviously, Poe was likely not a psychic and this is just seeing our own times and comparing them to Poe’s times in the past. Poe was likely inspired by tuberculosis or even the Black Death. In this story, we see how the people on top will party and not abide by the same rules that lower classes have. The laws don’t apply to the rich and they honestly do not care about people who are worse off than them. It’s funny, this came out over 150 years ago, but we can still see that today. This year, I’ve been coming to learn what makes a classic? It is a work that is timeless. That people in any time period can relate to and with the work of Poe I think that is true.
When I read this adaption of ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, I could see the influence that Poe has had on our culture. The story gave me very Batman vibes when other stories or poems in the collection, such as ‘The Pit and The Pendulum’, reminded me of the book ‘Piranesi’. Poe had such an impact on so many different genres. He was a very influential creative person.
As this is a graphic novel, I do have to talk about the art style. In poems like ‘Annabel Lee’, I kept finding and seeing new things in the pictures. I will admit some of these pages are very dark in the sense of color and I would have to have the book turned or the lighting perfect to be able to fully see what was on each page. If you remember Game of Thrones season eight there were a lot of complaints about episodes being too dark. As in, the brightness wasn’t turned up. The same could be said for this graphic novel. I love to see classics being adapted into different formats as it is a way to introduce a newer audience to these timeless pieces of literature. This was a good collection and if you are wanting to get into the works of Edgar Allan Poe, I think this would be a great place to start.
3 out of 5 stars.
Izzy Reads 