Dream Corridor, Volume 2

Dream Corridor #2

by Harlan Ellison, Mark Waid (Adaptation), Gerard Jones (Adaptation)

Ever wonder what it would be like to walk into someone else's mind and have a look around? Well, what if that person happened to be a brilliant storyteller whose imagination has captivated millions of readers over the past five decades? In the award-winning anthology Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, we have had both the privilege and peril of rooting around in the eponymous fellow's noggin to see what makes him tick - and what engrossing stories have been hidden away in the cracks and crevices of his gray matter. The words of world-renowned science-fiction author Harlan Ellison are once again translated onto the page by top comics creators, including Paul Chadwick, Neal Adams, Steve Rude, Gene Colan, Steve Niles, Gerard Jones, Richard Corben and the legendary Oz illustrator Eric Shanower. Most of these stories have never before seen print

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Speculative Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2007

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Scott Rhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The graphic novel adaptations of Harlan Ellison’s short stories—-ranging from his pulp stuff from the ‘40s and ‘50s to his ground-breaking science fiction of the ‘60s, ’70s, and ‘80s—in the second volume of “Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor” are kind of all over the place in terms of quality.

Stories like “Djinn, No Chaser” and “The Voice in the Garden” are, admittedly, dumb, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are hilarious.

Award-winning and legendary comic book artists like Neal Adams and Richard Corben illustrate stories that, sure, feel dated and not-so-relevant anymore, but they are stories ILLUSTRATED BY NEAL ADAMS AND RICHARD CORBEN, FOR GOD’S SAKE.

I’m not ashamed to say that I am a devout Ellison apologist. Personally, the guy can do no wrong for me. (Even, though, yes, “Gnomebody” is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever read in my life.)

Ellison clearly loved comic books and everything about them, and he shares that love in this (in my opinion, too short-lived) series from Dark Horse Comics. Plus, this series has the feel of a “bucket list” item for Ellison: gather some of his fave comic book writers and artists to adapt a selection of his short stories. Done. I’m happy for Ellison that he was able to do it before his passing in 2018.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this one. I think most of the art was sub-par, and the stories were kind of hackneyed. I'm giving it three stars because there were some good stories, but overall, I was disappointed. I may try to pick up some more Ellison short stories and see if I still like him in that format (I picked this up initially because of my nostalgia for being devoured by his stories as a teen), but overall I was pretty disappointed in this.

And also, what kind of dickhead copyrights his own name!?

[Frank McGirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ellison's intro's to his stories make you glad that you've never met him.

Also, for having written a godzillion and one stories, there seems to be a high level of repetition in the ones that were chosen to be put into comic form.

You'd think that his parent's were killed by a collapsed building--due, of course, to embezellment from a crooked contractor--the way it comes up time and again in his stories.

Not bad stuff...but not the best comics have to offer, as he'd like to think.

[Hal Brodsky · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I was a teenager, I loved reading Harlan Ellison short stories. (One collection was claled "Ellison Wonderland", still one of the best book titles ever). His stories all seemed to have ironic twists at the very end, usually resulting in some authority figure getting smashed. This was very appealing to me as a Teenage boy.

This concept of the ironic twist at the end does not seem to work very well in comics, at least not in this collection of short stories turned into comics. The twist occurs in the last panel or two and often involves a secondary character crammed into that panel having to comment on the action, explaining what is taking place.

I'm just saying Ellison's stories seem to have worked better as stories. Or perhaps they just worked better when read by a teenager.

[Neven · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather lame collection of shorts - not anyone's shining moment. C-grade Ellison, D-grade art. Skip it.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

could have been better. some stories were pretty weak. all in all it reminded me to much of tales of the crypt without the scare.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harlan Ellison: definitely one of my favorite authors when I was in my late teens and early 20s. Now, I’m not much of a graphic novel/comic book guy. When I read such books, the artwork is mostly lost on me as I jump from text block to text block, frequently forgetting to even look at the pictures. And as such, I definitely feel great pain when text blocks are lost in the bindings. I can’t read that!

So, while it was interesting to reread some stories I read long ago in a different format, I’m not reading them in my favorite way to see them. Plus, as I’m reading both Harlan Ellison and Stephen King for the first time in a long time, I find that both of them are not quite as spectacular as I believed when I read them long ago. Harlan Ellison definitely has an amazing body of work, a strong passion for many things, and really interesting thoughts. But his personality and need to brag on himself, plus put down current readership, grates on me now. Maybe it was always there and I have changed.

Anyway, I did enjoy this book well enough, but I think I need to read a non-graphic novel or short story collection to really give my once-favorite author a fair shake.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ellison pages are usually pretty entertaining, visually and in language, and it's cool to see cantankerous Harlan Ellison gush over his favorite comic creators the same way that I would (except for the his Ellison verbosity).

The adaptations are all well done, though some of the source material could've been stronger, I felt. Ellison certainly has enough stories in his past that they could've picked a few better ones - or perhaps the originals were more entertaining due to his writing, and the art stripped it down to its core concept. Still, most of the stories were good - silly, or pointed, or exciting.

Richard Corben (with Jan Strnad), Steve Rude (with Steve Niles), Martin Nodell, Neal Adams (with Ellison scripting himself), Gene Ha, Gene Colan and Curt Swan are among the contributors.

[Andy Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of sci-fi adorned by modern classicists in sequential arts. Lives up to the hype.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of graphic adaptations of a dozen of Ellison's short stories, as well as a couple of new very short stories in text format. It's a great example of what good comic books for adults could be. Some of the stories are a little dated, but they're all good examples of their form, whether humorous, horrific, suspense, etc. Some of the classic illustrators of the field are represented with some of their best work. This is a good one!

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you haven't read Harlan Ellison, you haven't read." ~ Richard Halasz

[Matt Kelland · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always with Ellison, some of these stories are marvelous, others aren't to my taste. And as always with Ellison, he's full of himself, and sometimes that's more annoying than entertaining. But what makes this collection worth a look is a reminder of how varied comic book storytelling used to be. The layouts, the page structure, the balance of words and images - before DC & Marvel pretty much defined the conventions, artists and writers were much more free to tell stories in different ways. I don't like all of them, but that's okay.