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Graphic Classics #23
Graphic Classics, Volume 23: Halloween Classics
Halloween Classics presents five scary tales for the holiday, each with an EC-style introduction by famed horror author Mort Castle. Featured are Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Arthur Conan Doyle's mummy tale "Lot No. 249," Mark Twain's "A Curious Dream," and H.P. Lovecraft's "Cool Air." Plus, a comics adaptation of the great silent film "The Cabinet of Dr. Calligari," illustrated by Matt Howarth, with a terrifying cover by Simon Gane.
144 pages, Paperback
First published September 18, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 16, 2018
My first graphic novel. I just read it for #Spookathon. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I'm sure if you like the genre then you will enjoy it.
October 13, 2013
The more time I spend with "Cool Air" the more I like this underappreciated Lovecraft tale. The building dread and musings on mortality make for a good ride.
The art in Lot 249 is outstanding, and the suspense was well charted.
I wish the other three stories worked as well in graphic novel form, which is what drags my rating down to a 3.
The art in Lot 249 is outstanding, and the suspense was well charted.
I wish the other three stories worked as well in graphic novel form, which is what drags my rating down to a 3.
May 19, 2022
A small anthology of famous Halloween-y stories illustrated by different artists. Short review of individual stories as follows:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a good refresher of the famous Washington Irving story that I read in college. The illustrations were decent but the story paneling was excellent.
Reading about A Curious Dream by Mark Twain dredged something familiar from the depths of my mind because it seemed incredibly familiar but I wasn't taken with the graphic styling.
I'd never read Lot No. 249 by Arthur Conan Doyle but it had the smackings of classic horror around the late 1800s. The art was my favorite, utilizing a very limited color palette effectively.
The art for Cool Air by H. P. Lovecraft was clean and sharp, tightening the picture of the story in my mind. I always pictured the happenings in the story as a deteriorating mess but the illustration style was anything but.
I'd never heard of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, which was a screenplay by Hans Janowitz & Carl Mayer, and the premise was sound but the execution (both story and illustration) was minimalist, forcing the reader/viewer to fill in the deficits.
Overall, this was a quick spooky-themed read that had both hits and misses.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a good refresher of the famous Washington Irving story that I read in college. The illustrations were decent but the story paneling was excellent.
Reading about A Curious Dream by Mark Twain dredged something familiar from the depths of my mind because it seemed incredibly familiar but I wasn't taken with the graphic styling.
I'd never read Lot No. 249 by Arthur Conan Doyle but it had the smackings of classic horror around the late 1800s. The art was my favorite, utilizing a very limited color palette effectively.
The art for Cool Air by H. P. Lovecraft was clean and sharp, tightening the picture of the story in my mind. I always pictured the happenings in the story as a deteriorating mess but the illustration style was anything but.
I'd never heard of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, which was a screenplay by Hans Janowitz & Carl Mayer, and the premise was sound but the execution (both story and illustration) was minimalist, forcing the reader/viewer to fill in the deficits.
Overall, this was a quick spooky-themed read that had both hits and misses.
September 18, 2018
I picked this up to read "Lot No. 249", and that one was the best of the bunch! I also enjoyed "Cool Air" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". So, one star for each! "A Curious Dream" by Mark Twain wasn't good, and "Halloween" by Mort Castle was terrible. And the pages in between the stories with "Nerwin the Docent" were awful, awful, awful - cringe worthy so! Cut HIM from all future copies please!!!
November 2, 2012
Reason for Reading: This is the latest volume in the series and I'm working on reading the complete series.
A magnificent volume; a pleasure to read from start to finish. Slightly different than other volumes, this one is a pastiche to the old "Tales of the Crypt"-type comics with a host introducing each story; here we have Nerwin the Docent who is full of creepy and interesting facts about Halloween history and customs. Also the book starts of with the customary one page poem but then includes 5 long adaptations, rather less in quantity than usual volumes but much longer stories equalling the same size of book in the end. I liked this focus on fewer stories. Each one was a pure gem. Irving's "Sleepy Hollow" is not a story I enjoy reading in it's original text but I do enjoy the tale and the adaptation here is very well done; this is perhaps one of the best representations of Ichabod Crane I've come across. Twain's "A Curious Dream" is well-done and I have no complaints except that I'm not a big fan of the author's type of humour but this story does add a slight light-hearted touch to the rest of this spooky volume. Next up is the fabulous adaptation of Doyle's "Lot No. 249"; I just love Doyle's stories of the supernatural and had not read this one before. Great retelling and illustrations. Second to last starts my favourite two stories in the book. First is Lovecraft's "Cool Air", not having read much of the author I was unfamiliar with this tale and found it incredibly spine-tingling but most of all I was incredibly impressed with the atmospheric and stunning art of Craig Wilson. The book then ends with an absolutely original idea in the graphic medium, an adaptation of a silent movie, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". I've seen the movie as a teen so am familiar with the story and am very impressed with the adaptation; it holds true to the original and is an ideal way to present these classic (almost forgotten) movies to 21st century audiences. For the first few pages I was not sure if I thought Matt Howarth's illustrations were a bit cartoony for the story, but as I read and Cesare was introduced they grew on me and I thought he and Caligari were both well drawn. This is the crowning glory of this volume and has a fitting place as the final story. I send a public query out to Mr. Pomplun to consider adding some Silent Movie Classics titles to the Graphic Classics oeuvre; there are many possibilities.
A magnificent volume; a pleasure to read from start to finish. Slightly different than other volumes, this one is a pastiche to the old "Tales of the Crypt"-type comics with a host introducing each story; here we have Nerwin the Docent who is full of creepy and interesting facts about Halloween history and customs. Also the book starts of with the customary one page poem but then includes 5 long adaptations, rather less in quantity than usual volumes but much longer stories equalling the same size of book in the end. I liked this focus on fewer stories. Each one was a pure gem. Irving's "Sleepy Hollow" is not a story I enjoy reading in it's original text but I do enjoy the tale and the adaptation here is very well done; this is perhaps one of the best representations of Ichabod Crane I've come across. Twain's "A Curious Dream" is well-done and I have no complaints except that I'm not a big fan of the author's type of humour but this story does add a slight light-hearted touch to the rest of this spooky volume. Next up is the fabulous adaptation of Doyle's "Lot No. 249"; I just love Doyle's stories of the supernatural and had not read this one before. Great retelling and illustrations. Second to last starts my favourite two stories in the book. First is Lovecraft's "Cool Air", not having read much of the author I was unfamiliar with this tale and found it incredibly spine-tingling but most of all I was incredibly impressed with the atmospheric and stunning art of Craig Wilson. The book then ends with an absolutely original idea in the graphic medium, an adaptation of a silent movie, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". I've seen the movie as a teen so am familiar with the story and am very impressed with the adaptation; it holds true to the original and is an ideal way to present these classic (almost forgotten) movies to 21st century audiences. For the first few pages I was not sure if I thought Matt Howarth's illustrations were a bit cartoony for the story, but as I read and Cesare was introduced they grew on me and I thought he and Caligari were both well drawn. This is the crowning glory of this volume and has a fitting place as the final story. I send a public query out to Mr. Pomplun to consider adding some Silent Movie Classics titles to the Graphic Classics oeuvre; there are many possibilities.
December 31, 2024
Pretty interesting collection of classic Halloween horror stories in graphic novel form. I haven't read a few of these works before, but with the drawn up comic, it makes the stories really come to life. My favorite would have to have been the Lot No. 249 mummy story because I LOVE anything having to do with ancient Egypt. All the stories were awesome and creepy, which was perfect if you're bored on Christmas break. Overall, I thought this was an interesting find, and I hope to find more of these later on.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews