Graphic Novel Review: EDGAR ALLAN POE'S SNIFTER OF TERROR, SEASON TWO

EDGAR ALLAN POE’S SNIFTER OF TERROR, SEASON TWO by various creators (AHOY Comics, October 2020) Paperback, 184 pages. ISBN # 9780998044293 

Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . .

AHOY Comics' snarky anthology-slash-desecration of Edgar Allan Poe returns for a second volume, featuring more of the popular "Monster Serials" by Mark Russell (SECOND COMING) and Peter Snejbjerg (The Books of Magic), as well as Dean Motter and Alex Ogle's ultimate Poe mashup, "The Tell-Tale Black Cask of Usher." Plus more than a dozen additional comics stories, a generous selection of short "Poe and the Black Cat" strips by Hunt Emerson, and horrific bonus prose stories and poetry, too.

"A must-buy book for fans of Edgar Allan Poe or a good laugh." - SciFi Pulse

"The first series of this title had some pretty amazing stories. They were funny and incredibly inventive...this [volume] picks up quality wise right where the last one left off!" - Forces of Geek

"Genuine love for the literary giant." -Villain Media

"To anybody who ever said horror needed to be serious, we can simply point to EDGAR ALLAN POE'S SNIFTER OF TERROR... [It] shows that there is no limit to what horrifying stories can be made absolutely ridiculous." -Screen Rant

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

    An anthology of comic stories based on the themes of Edgar Allan Poe, featuring humorous adaptations and alterations of classic Poe tales with an occasional departure into all-original material and a spin on a classic Robert Lewis Stevenson novel. Often, Poe himself is inserted into the story, or serves as introductory narrator similar to the Crypt-Keeper in Tales From The Crypt.

I found most of the stories very clever and amusing. I read this in the monthly single issue comics, and list my favorites here:

Issue #1: "The Tell-Tale Black Cask of Usher" by Dean Motter and Alex Ogle is a shrewd pastiche of several Poe classics, and not just the ones inserted into the title. Nevermore, indeed. 

Issue #2: "The Leprechaun King" by Mark Russell and Peter Snejbjerg.

Issue #3: "The Pit And The Pendulum" by Paul Constant and Alan Robinson, which maintains the torture device of the title only in an original tale about ar reluctant U.S. special intelligence agent duped into hazardous assignments until the day he rebels against his handler.

Issue #4: This also takes the themes of "The Black Cat" and creates something entirely different (although a black cat plays a fateful role). A D.C. lobbyist who wines and dines and bribes lawmakers has a D.U.I. accident and is assigned a smart car: self-driving, solar powered, containing an artificial intelligence who befriends the lobbyist but constantly gets him in trouble.

Issue #5: "The Man That Was Used Up" by Rick Geary and Andy Troy featuring Poe as the main character/narrator infatuated and jealous of a brigadier general who is not all that he seems.

Issue #6 The final issue in this volume contains my two favorite stories of the entire anthology. In "The Purloined Letter" by Carol Lay a woman of loyalty is insulted by a "fat" reference and takes things too far in order to get revenge on the gentleman who made the comments. Things go awry in an ending that is both absurd, disturbing, and darkly comedic. 

     "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (by Robert Lewis Stevenson) is adapted and altered almost beyond recognition by Paul Cornell and Steve Yeowell. In this version, Dr. Henry Jekyll takes his experimental formula in order to "indulge my . . .secret vices . . . in complete anonymity. Instead of a monstrous alteration, he sports a mustache and proceeds to outrage the English royalty by his ill table and social manners, violating the rules of cricket, and plagiarizing from Oscar Wylde. Shocking! And very funny.