Hypnotic Tales

by Richard Sala

Enter the world of Richard Sala. It's eerie, sometimes bizarre, and always hypnotic! Meet masked detetives, tormented narrators, deranged doctors, prowling gorillas, villains and victims. Sala's comic strips are gemlike short stories, surreal and absurd where you'll find yourself tangled up with elements of old B-movies, detective thrillers, and dark laughter.

Genres: Comics, Mystery, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Graphic Novels

Paperback

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

Richard Sala grew up with a fascination for musty old museums, dusty old libraries, cluttered antique shops, narrow alleyways, hidden truths, double meanings, sinister secrets and spooky old houses. He has written and drawn a number of unusual graphic novels which often combine elements of classic mystery and horror stories and which have been known to cause readers to emit chuckles as well as gasps. Although most of his books are written with teens and older readers in mind, his book, CAT BURGLAR BLACK, can be enjoyed by younger readers as well.

To view current art and activity, please visit: http://richardsala.tumblr.com

Note: I am new to GoodReads ~ and I am happy to have a place dedicated to sharing my love of books with other book lovers. Please be patient with me if I seem rather slow and clumsy! Thanks to all my readers over the years!

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best pieces here are charming and clever. But Sala was happy to rework the same noir/horror tropes with his trademark quirky humorous touch; the range is rather narrow, and the quality a little uneven.

[Reread after decades.]

[Granit Hysiqi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The same type of storytelling as in every Sala book, it's either hit or miss but with time it starts to get monotonous.

[Kathryn Grace Loves Horror · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Richard Sala, and this collection is a great entry point, with a good variety of brief, mysterious (and often slightly silly) tales.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

These dreamlike mystery shorts are fun and bizarre. Sala's slightly creepy and wrinkly style of ink drawing meshes perfectly with his strange sort of meta-mystery, almost existentialist little tales. All of Richard Sala's comics remind me of Paul Auster's NY Trilogy, and especially the first book of the trilogy, City of Glass. They play with and poke fun at common mystery and detective story tropes. Sala has more of a horror element as well, though, and certainly more whimsy. Fans of Edward Gorey would like Richard Sala.

Like all of Sala's work, the stories in Hypnotic Tales have a lot of murder and mayhem and maniacal laughter, and though they don't all have endings it doesn't really matter. Sala's world is too weird for you to notice if something doesn't resolve because you'll be constantly distracted by the next black masked figure or shrunken headed murderer. I think this beautiful, slim hardcover is a great introduction to this quirky comic artist.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming collection of eerie short stories by a master of the form, many of which were previously published in great comic anthologies like Blab!, RAW, Taboo, Prime Cuts, etc.. Richard Sala's Hypnotic Tales is a series of short few page long comic strips that follow masked vigilantes/detectives, mad scientists and doctors, villainous gorillas, etc. in a bunch of humorous, absurd and often surreal tales. Sala's work is pretty unique and I really enjoy how easily recognizable his signature style is from the distinctive linework down to even the hand-lettering of each story. A very fun collection of comics overall.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of 17 Richard Sala short pieces filled with all the tropes of classic monsters, shady customers, dark mysteries, mad scientists, and all sorts of things that go bump in the night. They do get kind of same-y after awhile. Richard Sala's work is about atmosphere rather than deep plotting, but I thoroughly enjoyed them, so don't look for anything but escapist fun in them. Black and white.

[Ricky Lima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sala is quickly becoming one of my all time favourite comic creators. I'm sad I won't be seeing anything new from him. His work is whimsical but grounded. His style is hilarious when it needs to be and spooky when it's appropriate. What I love most about Salas work is how he's not afraid to end a story without explanation. Often stories in this anthology will end leaving the reader with so many more questions. It's great!

[chrstphre campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

17 ‘Stories’

It’s difficult to know for sure or Not whether any given entry is a legitimate story or Not, but there is in The vicinity of 17 of them. Most of them are entertaining at something resembling what most readers might consider a story, so The chances of feeling ‘ripped off’ is minimized ( ? )
Enjoyability ( B+ )

[Ulysse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just love this guys work. Dreamy and strange.

[Petr Nakasharal Fabián · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vlažnej rozjezd vygradoval do nejlíp napsanejch snovejch věcí po Davidu Lynchovi. Naprostej klenot.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Richard Sala was recently recommended by The Groovy Age of Horror, so I added some of his books to my "to-read" list. This was the first one to show up from the library.

I'm not a big fan of the art style in Hypnotic Tales and, probably in no small part thanks to that, the book as a whole kind of turned me off. However, I was sufficiently intrigued by the subject matter and the constant references to silent and poverty row pictures that I'm still interested in giving some of his other stuff a try. Besides, his artwork on later stuff looks more appealing to my sensibilities.