This is an illustrated collection of stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. The drawings were all in black and white, which made the stories that much creepier, in my opinion. I thought the collection was well done but it was also felt a little mismatched due to their being a different art style for each story/poem. Because each story/poem was drawn by a different person, I am going to review each one separately.

The Tell-Tale Heart
This story is about a man who kills an elderly gentleman and buries his corpse beneath his floorboards. The story was quite creepy, what with the killer trying to explain how he wasn’t really crazy because he went about the killing in a calm and rational manner, and a crazy person wouldn’t have been able to do that. You could definitely tell that the man was crazy, though, what with him going on about how he didn’t mind the elderly gentleman; what made him want to kill him was “his evil eye.” Oh yeah, and the fact that he killed the elderly man.
As for the drawing, the backgrounds in the story were scratchy and not filled in completely. I felt that this style of artwork helped set the stage for the killer’s descent into madness. It made me think of tortured minds and encroaching insanity. If the artist had filled in the pages completely, with rounded edges and shading rather than using hatching, I think the story would have had a completely different tone/feel to it.

The Cask of Amontillado
The Cask of Amontillado is about a man who takes revenge on his former friend by walling him up in the crypt under his house. In this story, we get the last name of the main character, unlike in The Tell-Tale Heart, which never gave a name to anyone in the story. This helps the reader connect more with the main character, although we never connect enough to understand Mr. Montresor’s motives as to why he wants revenge on his friend Fortunato. The closest we get is the following quote: “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” (Pg. 55) I feel like this just adds to the creepiness factor of this story, though.
The art style in The Cask of Amontillado has a lot of checkered patterns in it. Maybe this is a way of showing the checkered past between the main character and his friend? This story also has a lot more grays in it than there were in the Tell-Tale Heart. I think the previous story had no reason to use grays as much because it was clear that the main character was insane. In this story, however, it is unclear whether Mr. Montresor is crazy or if he does what he does in a twisted sense of justice for the wrongs Fortunato wrought against him.

The Raven
The Raven is a poem, one of Poe’s most famous works. It is a bit of a tricky poem to understand, so here is what I think happened. In the poem, the main character hears something knocking at his window, and when he opens it, a raven flies inside. The raven can only say the word “nevermore.” Due to this, the main character believes the raven is mocking him and telling him he will never see his beloved Lenore again. From what I gathered, I believe Lenore is the main character’s wife who has recently passed away. I thought it was quite interesting to see the poem illustrated. It helped me understand what was happening in it a little better than if I had just been reading the poem itself. It helped me become more invested in the poem, as well. One thing that occurred to me while I was reading The Raven was the difficulty of illustrating a poem that wasn’t telling a story. If the poem was talking more about the writer’s feelings or something like that, it would be very hard to draw accompanying artwork for it. I think this is why The Raven was chosen for this collection, because it told a story, and was therefore easier to illustrate.
The artwork of the previous stories was more in the style of a cartoon, whereas this poem was drawn in a manga-like style. The main character has the large eyes, beautiful features, and pointed chin of a regular manga character, whereas the previous ones had more of a realistic feel to them. I thought it was interesting that all the stories weren’t drawn in a manga style, since this collection is called Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

The Masque of the Red Death
This story is about a plague called “The Red Death.” A prince decides to lock up himself and a thousand of his courtiers inside an abbey. The abbey has seven rooms in it, and each room is decorated in a different color. The courtiers and the prince have a wonderful time and don’t worry about a thing…until a guest shows up dressed as a corpse who died from the Red Death. Then people start dropping like flies. Obviously, the “person” who dressed as a corpse was the personification of the Red Death.
The artwork in this story was quite elaborate. It depicted all the lavish clothing and rich scenery that Poe described in the story in great detail. I almost wanted this story in color just to be able to see the different chambers and pretty clothing. But of course, that would have been weird to have just one story in color. The people were depicted in the manga style, rather than the cartoon style. I think this was a smart choice because when you think of courtiers and princes, you think of them as beautiful and elegant, which is what the manga style of drawing looks like to me.

The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher follows a man who goes to comfort his friend, Roderick Usher, while he is feeling ill. Once the friend arrives, he finds out that Roderick’s sister has been ill as well, and the doctors don’t know what’s wrong with her. She eventually dies and Roderick decides to put her in a coffin in the crypt. Over the next few days, however, he comes to believe that they put her in the coffin while she was still alive and that he and his friend need to get her out of the coffin.
The artwork in this story was done in the cartoon style. I feel that this was a necessary choice, since there are some scenes where the characters are shown to be less than beautiful. As I’ve said before, everyone looks beautiful in a manga, so I don’t think that style would have worked for this story. There are a lot of cool illustrations that wouldn’t have been possible has the author chose to use the manga style, as well. For example, on page 221, there is an image of Roderick Usher with a clock face superimposed on his face. I thought this was a really cool image, and it wouldn’t have been as easily done had the style been manga.

These stories and poems were really brought to life by the illustrations in this book. I was a little put off at first by the different styles of art, but after thinking about it and writing this review, I understand why it was done this way. All in all, I enjoyed this collection and would recommend it to anyone who likes graphic novels and/or manga, as well as anyone interested in Poe’s works.

First off, I want to give a huge thank you to NetGalley and Udon Entertainment for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: This book is based off the classic stories by Edgar Allan Poe. The book is a manga modernized version of the stories. The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe includes; The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher. This graphic novel is targeted for young adult and teenage readers. It has different artwork by different artist for each story.

Review: I absolutely loved this manga! I know I usually post fiction reviews but I have to admit I like my manga too. My inner nerd was screaming out to me when it saw manga and Poe in one book. I felt like this book was the perfect modernized creation of Poe possible. The artwork was beautiful and the stories had me on the edge of my seat turning pages. Who knew Poe could be so much fun? I think this book is great for students, so they can learn the work of Poe without all that out of date language. Students and other young people will be able to get the same great feel and thrill that Poe gives us, it would just be delivered in an more modernized and artistic fashion.

I was interested in purchasing the book for my teenage son as this is his favorite author. I was disappointed though the illustrations are all in black and white. The book would be improved greatly with color illustrations.

Deliciously creepy, both the drawings (I am speechless) and the story (but we knew that already). I hope more stories by E. A. Poe are to come in this format, because as far as I'm concerned, this volume is a huge success.

The artwork was eerie and unsettling at times, a perfect pairing for the stories. The mask of the red death may very well have been my favorite but they were all really well done.

This graphic novel of classic works by Edgar Alan Poe gets a 3.5 because there are some greta hits but some deep misses.
Manga Classic has turned a variety of classics into a new format to reach a new generation. As long as these adaptations are true to the original works, I greatly support this. This particular ___ does well staying with the original works. In fact, the text and language comes from Poe's work. While this seems a little weird with the modern art work, it allows the text to stay true to the source material.
There is some great interpretations. The Raven is beautifully drawn and creatively brings out the ideas a of angels and demons. The symbolism is superb.
But other stories suffer. The Red Masque of Death is damaged by the black and white style. Colors are important to the tale and not having those visuals dulls the tale.
This manga is a good way to get people started in Poe but should not be the end of their study in these classic tales of horror.

If your not used to the manga tradition of reading back to front this can be slightly confusing to start with but once you are used to it becomes easier. The book is well designed and beautifully illustrated though out and brings new life to classic works of Edgar Allan Poe.

I haven't read many graphic novels, and the concept for this book intrigued me. The artwork is well done, but unfortunately, it didn't all come together for me in the end. Perhaps I just prefer my classics in book form rather than in graphic novel form.

I love Edgar Allan Poe, but I've never read him in graphic novel/manga form before. It took a bit of getting used to, but once I did, wowie. This is such a great way to get people that might not like reading or be the best readers to pick up a classic and read it. Poe is one of those authors that you think about his work long after you finish it, and this will allow other people to experience that. I would recommend this. 5 out of 5 stars.

This Works Surprisingly Well

I turned to this volume as a bit of a lark, being curious as to how Poe could be translated to modern style manga. I was surprised and pleased with the presentation, and especially impressed by how much of the eldritch feeling of these particular tales was enhanced by the artwork.

The selection of tales, (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, The Tell Tale Heart), is classic, and for a new reader they would serve as a fine introduction to Poe. For those who have read Poe regularly over the years this selection of tales still holds up as a comfortable and satisfying reminder of his power.

This being in manga format, the tales have had to be abridged and reworked a good bit in order to fit the style and the panels, but the adaptations are remarkably faithful and complete, and capture the feel, mood, and flow of the stories very well. "The Raven" appears in its entirety, as it must, but of course its form fits nicely with the layout anyway.

Sometimes manga artwork can become so busy and fussy, or so blank, spare and cryptic, that storytelling suffers. Here, I was pleasantly surprised by how effectively the drawings were melded with the narrative, and how each enhanced the other. Even if you aren't a huge fan of manga the drawing here really did work well with the stories, and brought the proper level of darkness, atmosphere, and brooding madness to the tales. I was also taken by the various artists' occasional indulgences, (especially in "The House of Usher", but actually in all of the tales), by which they would abandon a more realistic drawing style in favor of impressionistic and fantastic panels. Given the nature of the stories these flights of fancy, which were not overdone, worked well and highlighted the extravagantly terrible nature of the tales.

The upshot for me was that this ended up being a satisfying, entertaining, and enjoyable treatment of these Poe favorites, and a commendable approach to interpreting Poe. An interesting find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)